Chapter 4 The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist 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 charac - ter, in which he played a prominent part. Many startling suc - cesses and a few unavoidable fai lures were the outcome of this long period of continuous work. As I have preserved very full