This etext was prepared by David Brannan of Woodbridge, Virginia. 

The Adventure of the Cardboard Box
By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 

In choosing a few typical cases which illustrate the remarkable
mental qualities of my friend, Sherlock Holmes, I have
endeavoured, as far as possible, to select those which presented
the minimum of sensationalism, while offering a fair field for
his talents.  It is, however, unfortunately impossible entirely
to separate the sensational from the criminal, and a chronicler
is left in the dilemma that he must either sacrifice details
which are essential to his statement and so give a false
impression of the problem, or he must use matter which chance,
and not choice, has provided him with.  With this short preface I
shall turn to my notes of what proved to be a strange, though a
peculiarly terrible, chain of events.