The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures

tightly there in the throat of the chimney, eyes blazing in the darkness, clutching his stomach and laughing silently over the supposedly great criminologist Sherlock Holmes's foolish errors; this caused a more pronounced movement of his body; enough to dislodge a single bread crumb from his clothing, or from the hammock arrangement, which I observed fall down into the hearth. Ergo: within the chimney breast was a living, breathing creature!'

'Then it is over?' asked Professor, hardly daring to believe it so. 'My boy is safe?'

'Quite safe.' Holmes picked up The Rye Stone. 'Here is your aerolite, Professor; your very own fallen star. For countless aeons it drifted through space only to happen by chance to fall to Earth in a streak of fire. It did not will itself to engage in such a spectacular and dramatic display; it happened by pure chance, gentlemen. Such a pure chance, perhaps as a microbe in our water supply, or perhaps minuscule defect at birth brought the fiery genius of Dr Columbine crashing down into such a vile state of madness. He was no lucid criminal. He did not will his evil, any more than the stone willed itself to fall to Earth in a fiery and dramatic display of flame and thunder. It is impudent of me to suggest such a thing; however, perhaps you and your brethren, Professor, might consider creating some modest trust fund to enable your once illustrious teacher to live out his final days in a sanatorium where he can dream harmlessly of what astronomical wonders might lie in the depths of our universe. Now, Watson, if you concur, lunch at the Spaniard!'

Part III: The 1890s

After 'The Adventure of the Fallen Star', Watson seems to have assiduously recorded a number of cases that followed on quite quickly: 'The Stockbroker's Clerk', 'The Man With the Twisted Lip' – a case which was considerably more than a three-pipe problem, 'Colonel Warburton Madness'- one of the lost cases, and 'The Engineer's Thumb'. These and others during this busy period are listed in the appendix. Amongst them are the well-known cases of 'The Boscombe Valley Mystery' and 'The Red-Headed League' plus a few cases which are probably apocryphal though they have the ring of authenticity about them, including 'The Adventure of the Megatherium Thefts' and 'The Adventure of the First-Class Carriage'.

By the start of 1891, however, Holmes had placed himself firmly on the trail of James Moriarty, the most dangerous man in London, whom he planned to confront once and for all. This led to the case of 'The Final Problem' ending with the presumed death of Sherlock Holmes as he and Moriarty plunged into the Reichenbach Falls.

There follows the period known as the Great Hiatus, when Holmes travelled in disguise throughout Europe and Asia. He refers to some of these travels in 'The Empty House', but it is difficult to know which of the many curious cases recorded on the continent during this period really marked the involvement of Sherlock Holmes. It is a period worthy of a separate book, and one that I hope to produce at some future date. But here we concern ourselves primarily with Holmes's investigations with Watson. Watson, believing Holmes to be dead, had spent the time finalizing and preparing for publication several of his records of Holmes's cases, and these appeared in The Strand Magazine between 1891 and 1893. They made the name of Sherlock Holmes a household word. Unfortunately, Watson's wife died towards the end of 1893, so it was a rather sad Watson who was shocked and dazed at the sudden reappearance of Sherlock Holmes at the end of March 1894. (Subsequent investigations reveal that this event happened in February and, once again, Watson disguised the date.)

After 'The Empty House', and the entrapment of Sebastian Moran, Holmes felt sufficiently confident to resume his investigations. Watson, now alone, was delighted to resume his old role with Holmes, and from 1894 till Holmes's retirement ten years later, the two seemed inseparable. This was the high period of Holmes's career with a catalogue of remarkable cases. Immediately following 'The Empty House' came 'The Second Stain', 'Wisteria Lodge' and 'The Norwood Builder', plus the unrecorded case of the steamship Friesland, which nearly cost them both their lives. That autumn Holmes had to move out from 221b Baker Street to allow for some refurbishment and redecoration and he and Watson briefly took lodgings at Dorset Street. There they became involved in a strange little case which was unearthed by the indefatigable Michael Moorcock who found them amongst the papers of a distant relative who had evidently been an acquaintance of Dr Watson.

The Adventure of the Dorset Street Lodger – Michael Moorcock

It was one of those singularly hot Septembers, when the whole of London seemed to wilt from over-exposure to the sun, like some vast Arctic sea-beast foundering upon a tropical beach and doomed to die of unnatural exposure. Where Rome or even Paris might have shimmered and lazed, London merely gasped.

Our windows wide open to the noisy staleness of the air and our blinds drawn against the glaring light, we lay in a kind of torpor, Holmes stretched upon the sofa while I dozed in my easy chair and recalled my years in India, when such heat had been normal and our accommodation rather better equipped to cope with it. I had been looking forward to some fly fishing in the Yorkshire Dales but meanwhile, a patient of mine began to experience a difficult and potentially dangerous confinement so I could not in conscience go far from London. However, we had both planned to be elsewhere at this time and had confused the estimable Mrs Hudson, who had expected Holmes himself to be gone.

Languidly, Holmes dropped to the floor the note he had been reading. There was a hint of irritation in his voice when he spoke.

'It seems, Watson, that we are about to be evicted from our quarters. I had hoped this would not happen while you were staying.'

My friend's fondness for the dramatic statement was familiar to me, so I hardly blinked when I asked: 'Evicted, Holmes?' I understood that his rent was, as usual, paid in advance for the year.

'Temporarily only, Watson. You will recall that we had both intended to be absent from London at about this time, until circumstances dictated otherwise. On that initial understanding, Mrs Hudson commissioned Messrs Peach, Peach, Peach and Praisegod to refurbish and decorate 221b. This is our notice. They begin work next week and would be obliged if we would vacate the premises since minor structural work is involved. We are to be homeless for a fortnight, old friend. We must find new accommodations, Watson, but they must not be too far from here. You have your delicate patient and I have my work. I must have access to my flies and my microscope.'

I am not a man to take readily to change. I had already suffered several setbacks to my plans and the news, combined with the heat, shortened my temper a little. 'Every criminal in London will be trying to take advantage of the situation,' I said. 'What if a Peach or Praisegod were in the pay of some new Moriarty?'

'Faithful Watson! That Reichenback affair made a deep impression. It is the one deception for which I feel thorough remorse. Rest assured, dear friend. Moriarty is no more and there is never likely to be another criminal mind like his. I agree, however, that we should be able to keep an eye on things here. There are no hotels in the area fit for human habitation. And no friends or relatives nearby to put us up.' It was almost touching to see that master of deduction fall into deep thought and begin to cogitate our domestic problem with the same attention he would give to one of his most difficult cases. It was this power of concentration, devoted to any matter in hand, which had first impressed me with his unique talents. At last he snapped his fingers, grinning like a Barbary ape, his deep-set eyes blazing with intelligence and self-mockery… 'I have it, Watson. We shall, of course, ask Mrs Hudson if she has a neighbour who rents rooms!'

'An excellent idea, Holmes!' I was amused by my friend's almost innocent pleasure in discovering, if not a solution to our dilemma, the best person to provide a solution for us!

Recovered from my poor temper, I rose to my feet and pulled the bellrope.

Within moments our housekeeper, Mrs Hudson, was at the door and standing before us.

'I must say I am very sorry for the misunderstanding, sir,' she said to me. 'But patients is patients, I suppose, and your Scottish trout will have to wait a bit until you have a chance to catch them. But as for you, Mr Holmes, it