The year 1814. The lucky star of Napoleon Bonaparte seems to set once and for all, and the entire England is waiting the news about peace. It was this time, when a stranger appears in a small town on the border of England and Scotland – unknown Frenchman possessing a large sum of money and, apparently, some secrets of his past. This is the story, which gave the name to this collection by Conan Doyle. The creator of numerous famous stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction, hardly this Scottish physician and writer needs to be introduced. This book also includes “The Crime of the Brigadier”1900 - the story of fox hunting, and “ The «Slapping Sal»”, which tells of an English 32-gun frigate trying to find and scuttle a pirate ship, known under the name of “Slapping Sal.”