Really 3.5 rather than 3. A very workmanlike adventure story, well-plotted and nicely styled. Very much of its time, but with little of the wit and brilliance that characterises Doyle's Holmes works. Interesting that I put almost the same words into the mouth of one of my Holmes characters as ACD uses in this story, and that we both came up with a similar plot device at one point. If you're into early 20th-century pulp fiction, this is well worth downloading as a Gutenberg story. It might even pay rereading occasionally.