How well my friend Arthur Conan Doyle would tell this story! How exciting and interesting he would make it. I cannot do that. I am no writer. I have been a doctor and a soldier. All I can do is make my report. But who will read my words? What will the world be like in 1976? Perhaps by then nobody will know the names of Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper. Perhaps all Conan Doyle's wonderful stories will be forgotten. There is so much to explain. I must ask my reader to be patient! I had known and worked with Sherlock Holmes for
almost four years when I first met Arthur Conan Doyle
- ACD I always called him. Like me, he was a doctor,
and we quickly became old friends. He told me
amusing stories of hospital life, and I raid him about
my life as an army doctor in Afghanistan.
I often talked to him about Sherlock Holmes. At that
time most people had never heard of him. Only the
police and some criminals knew what a great
detective he was. ACD seemed to enjoy my stories
very much. He was never too tired to hear 3.bout
another of Holmes's cases.
We met many times and enjoyed many good
dinners together before I realized that ACD had a
special interest in Holmes. He wanted to be a writer,
and had already enjoyed a little success. Now he
wanted to write about Holmes, using -Le facts of a
real case, but adding his own ideas to the story.