Chapter Text
I must beg your indulgence, dear reader, before you commence this tale. Although I believe the events I am about to transcribe to have happened, as I trust my sources unquestioningly, I cannot provide you my first person perspective. The infirmities which come with age and old wounds have made it difficult for me to travel, and so I was not a part of this most recent adventure of my friend Sherlock Holmes. Nonetheless, he has told me in great detail what he saw and experienced, and some of his companions have, either in person or via correspondence, also relayed their versions of events. From these different perspectives I have crafted a narrative for you. This will be, I suspect, the final story of Sherlock Holmes which I write and so I have endeavored to make it worthy.
Furthermore, the events and locales which I am about to describe are quite outside the normal scope of the adventures I have shared with the great detective. Those of you who have seen this publication may be happily expecting another murder mystery in the streets of London, or perhaps the English countryside. In this instance, however, Sherlock has traveled much further afield and involved himself with an altogether different type of adventure than those to which he, and indeed you, have become accustomed.
One final warning, before we embark: many of you who make up the readership of Sherlock Holmes’ adventures are skeptics and cynics of the first class, and have, in the past, expressed much dissatisfaction with tales that lean toward a more supernatural or spiritual vein. This is, I fear, one such tale. I can only reiterate what I have said in the past: when it comes to skeptics and cynics, Sherlock Holmes is second to none. And yet he is also my primary source for this material, which I will endeavor to present as empty of my personal bias as is possible. You may draw what conclusions from that as you wish.
And that, I feel, is enough prevaricating from me. Read on, dear friends, and as I feel this is the last time I will address you, let me add this: Thank you. From Holmes and myself, we hold you all eternally in our hearts. Your letters and the enthusiasm with which you have consumed these stories have been a constant source of joy for us these many decades.
Fare well, friends
John H. Watson, M.D.