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-It was in the spring of the year 1894 that all London was interested, and
- the fashionable world dismayed, by the murder of the Honourable Ronald
- Adair under most unusual and inexplicable circumstances.
- The public has already learned those particulars of the crime which came
- out in the police investigation, but a good deal was suppressed upon that
- occasion, since the case for the prosecution was so overwhelmingly strong
- that it was not necessary to bring forward all the facts.
- Only now, at the end of nearly ten years, am I allowed to supply those
- missing links which make up the whole of that remarkable chain.
- The crime was of interest in itself, but that interest was as nothing to
- me compared to the inconceivable sequel, which afforded me the greatest
- shock and surprise of any event in my adventurous life.
- Even now, after this long interval, I find myself thrilling as I think
- of it, and feeling once more that sudden flood of joy, amazement, and increduli
-ty which utterly submerged my mind.
- Let me say to that public, which has shown some interest in those glimpses
- which I have occasionally given them of the thoughts and actions of a very
- remarkable man, that they are not to blame me if I have not shared my knowledge
- with them, for I should have considered it my first duty to do so, had
- I not been barred by a positive prohibition from his own lips, which was
- only withdrawn upon the third of last month.
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