This case was first mentioned in "The Adventure of the Naval Treaty". In "The Naval Treaty", Watson says that this case has "interest of such importance and implicates so many of the first families in the kingdom that for many years it will be impossible to make it public." On the other hand, Watson also refers there to "Monsieur Dubuque of the Paris police, and Fritz von Waldbaum, the well-known specialist of Dantzig, both of whom had wasted their energies upon what proved to be side-issues" who do not appear in the published version of the story. In "My Dear Holmes", a biography of Holmes by Gavin Brend, Brend hypothesises that their mention suggests there could be a second adventure featuring a "second stain".