CHAPTER FIVE We Procure an Ally
CHAPTER SIX A Letter to the Boss
CHAPTER SEVEN A Whitechapel Rendezvous
CHAPTER EIGHT In Pursuit of the Killer
CHAPTER NINE The Double Event
CHAPTER TEN The Destruction of the Clue
CHAPTER ELEVEN Mitre Square
CHAPTER TWELVE Dark Writings
CHAPTER THIRTEEN Miss Monk Investigates
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Lestrade Questions a Suspect
CHAPTER FIFTEEN The London Monster
CHAPTER SIXTEEN The Problem of Whitechapel
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN A Man in a Uniform
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Trophies
CHAPTER NINETEEN What Stephen Dunlevy Had to Tell
CHAPTER TWENTY The Thread
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE A Narrow Escape
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO The Disappearance of Sherlock Holmes
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE The Fleet Street Enterprise
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR The East-end Division
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Bonfire Night
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX The Lie
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN The Killer
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT A Hunting Party
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE The Case and the Heart
CHAPTER THIRTY The Gift
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE With the Respects of the Yard
Acknowledgments
Prologue
FEBRUARY 1887
“My dear Doctor, I fear that I shall require your services this evening.”
I looked up quizzically from an article on the local elections in the
“Dress warmly—the barometer is safe enough, but the wind is chill. And if you don’t mind dropping your revolver in your pocket, I should be obliged. One can never be too careful, after all, and your revolver is a particularly businesslike argument.”
“Did I not hear you say at dinner that we would return to London by the morning train?”
Sherlock Holmes smiled enigmatically through the gauzy veil of pipe smoke which had gradually enveloped his armchair. “You refer to my remarking that you and I would be far more productive in the city than here in Herefordshire. So we shall be. There are three cases of variable interest awaiting us in London.”
“But the missing diamond?”
“I have solved it.”
“My dear Holmes!” I exclaimed. “I congratulate you. But where is it, then? Have you advised Lord Ramsden of its whereabouts? And have you sent word to Inspector Gregson at the inn?”
“I said I had solved it, not resolved it, my dear fellow.” Holmes laughed, rising from the damask chair in our elegant guest sitting room to knock his pipe against the grate. “That work lies ahead of us. As for the case, it was never a very mysterious business, for all that our friend from the Yard appears to remain bewildered.”
“I find it just as inexplicable,” I admitted. “The ring stolen from a private vault, the absurd missing patch of lawn from the southern part of the grounds, the Baron’s own tragic past…”
“You have a talent of a sort, my dear Watson, though you make shockingly little use of it. You’ve just identified the most telling points in the whole affair.”
“Nevertheless, I confess myself all in the dark. Do you intend this evening to confront the criminal?”
“As it happens, no actual lawbreaking has yet been committed. However, you and I shall tonight don as much wool as we can lay our fingers on in order to witness a crime in action.”
“In action! Holmes, what crime can you mean?”
“Grave robbing, if I have not lost all my senses. Meet me upon the grounds at close upon one o’clock, if convenient—the staff will be largely abed by that time. I would not be seen exiting the house, if I were you. Needless delay could prove very unfortunate indeed.”
And with that, he disappeared into his bedroom.
At ten to one I quit the manor warmly bundled, for the night was bitter indeed, and the stars were mirrored by frozen moisture upon the grass. I spotted my friend with ease as he wandered down a stately path groomed with an almost Continental exactitude, apparently engrossed by the prospect of Nature’s constellations strewn across the sky with perfect clarity. I cleared my throat, and Holmes, with a nod, advanced in my direction.
“My dear Watson!” he said quietly. “So you too would prefer to risk a chill than to miss the Malvern Hills by night? Or so the housekeeper must assume?”
“I do not believe Mrs. Jeavons is awake to assume anything of the kind.”
“Marvelous. Let us see, then, what a brisk walk can do to combat this frigid weather.”
We followed a path which at first pointed toward the gardens but soon banked to trace the curvature of the
