Good evening. Welcome to the Just Sleep podcast. I'm Tasia, your host.

Every week, I will read you an old story to help you relax, put the stressful day behind you, and drift off to sleep.

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Tonight, I will be reading

The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist,

A Sherlock Holmes Story by Arthur Conan Doyle.

So lie down, close your eyes,

and let me read you a story.

From the years 1894 to 1901 inclusive, Mr. Sherlock Holmes was a very busy man.

It is safe to say that there was no public case of any difficulty in which he was not consulted during those eight years, and there were hundreds of private cases, some of them of the most intricate and extraordinary character, in which he played a prominent part.

Many startling successes and a few unavoidable failures were the outcome of this

long period of continuous work. As I have preserved very full notes of all these cases, and was

myself personally engaged in many of them, it may be imagined that it is no easy task to know which I should select to lay before the public.

I shall, however, preserve my former rule, I give the preference to those cases which derive their interest not so much from the brutality of the crime as from the ingenuity and dramatic quality of the solution.

For this reason, I will now lay before the reader the facts connected with Miss Violet Smith,

the solitary cyclist of Charlington, and the curious sequel of our investigation which

culminated in unexpected tragedy. It is true that the circumstance did not admit of any striking illustration of those powers

for which my friend was famous.

But there were some points about the case which made it stand out in those long records of crime

...