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which fastened its teeth into her arm. On awakening the pain in the arm continued, and next day the imprint of a double set of teeth appeared upon the arm, with one tooth of the lower jaw missing. The marks were in the shape of blue-black bruises which had not broken the skin. “I do not know,” says my correspondent, “what made me think the ring had anything to do with the matter, but I took a dislike to the thing and did not wear it for some months, when, being on a visit, I took to wearing it again.” To make a long story short, the same thing happened, and the lady settled the matter for ever by dropping her ring into the hottest corner of the kitchen-range. This curious story, which I believe to be genuine, may not be as supernatural as it seems. It is well known that in some subjects a strong mental impression does produce a physical effect. Thus a very vivid nightmare-dream with the impression of a bite might conceivably produce the mark of a bite. Such cases are well attested in medical annals. The second incident would, of course, arise by unconscious suggestion from the first. None the less, it is a very interesting little problem, whether psychic or material.

Buried treasures are naturally among the problems which have come to Mr Holmes. One genuine case was accompanied by the diagram here reproduced. It refers to an Indiaman who was wrecked upon the South African coast in the year 1782. If I were a younger man I should be seriously inclined to go personally and look into that matter. The ship contained a remarkable treasure, including, I believe, the gold crown regalia of Delhi. It is surmised that they buried these near the coast and that this chart is a note of the spot. Each Indiaman in those days had its own semaphore code, and it is conjectured that the three marks upon the left are signals from a three-armed semaphore. Some record of their meaning might perhaps even now be found in the old papers of the India Office. The circle upon the right gives the compass bearings. The larger semicircle may be the curved edge of a reef or of a rock. The figures above are the indications how to reach the X which marks the treasure. Possibly they may give the bearings as 186 feet from the 4 upon the semicircle. The scene of the wreck is a lonely part of the country, but I shall be surprised if sooner or later someone does not seriously set to work to solve the mystery.

One last word before I close these jottings about my imaginary character. It is not given to every man to see the child of his brain endowed with life through the genius of a great sympathetic artist, but that was my good fortune when Mr. Gillettegk turned his mind and his great talents to putting Holmes upon the stage. I cannot end my remarks more fittingly than by my thanks to the man who changed a creature of thin air into an absolutely convincing human being.

ENDNOTES

1 (p. 201) Waterloo ... Marengo: Holmes uses battles from the career of Napoleon Bonaparte as metaphors suggesting his progress on the case. The Battle of Waterloo in 1815 marked the end of Napoleon. In the Battle of Marengo, fought in 1800, the French forces were first beaten, then rallied and eventually won.

2 (p. 233) Porlock’s: One cannot help but think of the visitor from Porlock whose knock at the door awoke Samuel Taylor Coleridge during his intense opium dream about Kubla Khan.

3 (p. 234) apocrypha of the agony column: “Agony columns” were personal advertisements in the newspapers. Amid these anguished outpourings one could occasionally find coded messages. Holmes uses this ploy himself on several occasions.

4 (p. 236) Machiavellian: Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) wrote The Prince (1513) to advise rulers of Italian city-states how to hold power. The first exponent of realpolitik, he was considered immoral if not wicked by the English. As no one is less like Machiavelli than Watson, Holmes comment is ironic, of course, as was his earlier referral to Watson’s “innate cunning.”

5 (p. 237) He had spoken in jesting vein: Holmes is indeed jesting because in the previous