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.
I found this an excellent idea. I was happy to think that my dear friend would become famous.
I explained the plan to Holmes. He listened in silence, his pipe in his hand. Then he said, 'Can he write, this friend of yours? Can he tell a true story? Does he understand the difference between facts and lies?'
'I think so,' I said. 'He has just begun to write, but already he is becoming fashionable.'
'Fashionable!' Holmes said coldly. 'How can it interest me that he is fashionable? Can a fashionable writer have a serious interest in the facts of one of my cases?'
I could not reply. Holmes sat silently, looking into the fire. At last he said, 'Well, he may try. Let him do what he can. You may send him your notes on the Hope case, Watson.'
I wrote to ACD the next day, and he began work on the story.