Feats of Sherlock Holmes

Nick Cardillo

Description

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson return in six further adventures which display the great detective's brilliance once more. In these adventures set across the span of the duo's lives at 221b Baker Street, Holmes and Watson travel from the highest realms of society to the lowest dens of criminality across London in pursuit of the solution to a host of baffling mysteries. What secret does a simple wedding ring hold? What has become of a young woman fleeing the country? Can Holmes uncover the truth of a haunted house which has baffled all of London? These are but a few of the questions which shall be answered as the pages of Dr. Watson's notebooks are opened once more to reveal The Feats of Sherlock Holmes.

Informations

• Publié par: Andrews UK
• Date de parution: 21 novembre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781787053885
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Feats of Sherlock Holmes
Six Lost Adventures of the World’s Greatest Detective
By Nick Cardillo




2018 digital version converted and published by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
First edition published in 2018
Copyright © 2018 Nick Cardillo
The right of Nick Cardillo to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without express prior written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted except with express prior written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damage.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
MX Publishing
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Cover design by Brian Belanger



Foreword
University libraries yield the most unexpected things.
Today, living in an age where we are so likely to use the Internet and the Internet alone to conduct research, the library - still the place for quiet contemplation amongst the stacks - has become overlooked. I suppose this makes the library’s secrets all the more potent when it decides to divulge them. This manuscript is among those most unusual of discoveries.
I entered higher education with the intent of pursuing history. As a result, I found myself in need of primary documents more than most students on a small college campus. The library, therefore, became my home away from home. And, certainly, there could be worse places to spend your time. Unlike a small dormitory, the library was spacious. It was quiet (in a library some boy from down the hall is not playing music at two o’clock in the morning). And, above all, it was interesting .
Being a history major, I cultivated a group of friends with the same interest. Some of them even found on-campus jobs working in the library’s archives which, despite my best intentions, I never found myself in. That was until I received a text message which changed my life forever.
One spring morning, I was walking out of class, encountering the brisk, cool air of central Pennsylvania once again, and checking my phone, I discovered that I had received a message while I had had my phone on silent. It was from a close friend of mine - one who worked in the library’s archives - and she had posed to me a single question: What was the name of Sherlock Holmes’s friend?
Of course, I knew the answer better than I knew the back of my own hand. I had made it abundantly clear from day one to just about anyone that I encountered that I was a Sherlock Holmes fanatic and had been since the days of my childhood. I had fallen under the detective’s spell at once when I read the Great Illustrated Classics edition of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes . From the day that I first started that book I wanted to know what the secret of the Red-Headed League was; I yearned to know what those mysterious, haunting last words “the speckled band” could possibly mean; and I trembled with the same anxiety that Violet Hunter did when she discovered a length of auburn hair in her drawer in “The Copper Beeches.” In short order, a family friend introduced me to the (rightfully) much-beloved Granada television series starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes, and from there I took the deep dive into the Canon itself. I became known throughout much of my life as a walking, talking encyclopedia of Sherlockian knowledge, and therefore and I felt a bit of pride that morning when I received that message in hopes that I could help answer someone’s Holmes-related quandary.
I texted back at once: Dr. John H. Watson.
I sent another message immediately afterward - mainly because I simply could not help myself: The H stands for Hamish. Or, so we think.
I received a reply faster than I would have anticipated: You’ve got to come to the archives.
Then another: NOW.
I had some free time before my next class and, being close enough to the library, I figured that there was little that I could lose. I made for the library right away and, descending into the basement, met my friend outside of the archive room. At first, I must admit, I was a little disappointed to find that the room was not the kind of dusty, claustrophobic room that archives are made out to be on TV; the sort where the answer to some arcane problem is discovered stuffed in the bottom of some cardboard box perched high on a wrought-iron shelf. Instead, I was greeted with an average-sized room with a few computers, a table and chairs, a few boxes, and a large file sitting on the conspicuously empty tabletop.
In dark lettering embossed on the top of the old, weathered stack of pages, I divined a few words which had not been lost to the sands of time:
John H. Watson M.D. (retd)
Formerly of Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers
“Oh my god,” I said, my voice catching in my throat.
I had barely uttered another syllable before my friend was pushing a pair of latex gloves into my hands.
“We’ve examined it pretty closely,” she said, “and it appears to be genuine. I figured that you should be one of the first people to see this.”
I didn’t know how else to react other than to throw myself into her arms and giving her a very warm hug - my chosen reaction eliciting a great laugh.
Over the course of the next few weeks, I made many trips to that archive room. First, I was there simply to read over the manuscript. I took it at first to be a series of first-drafts for many of the published Sherlock Holmes adventures, but I discovered very quickly that this was something very different. These stories had never seen the light of day. As soon as I realized what I had in front of me, I ran out to my local office supplies store and invested in more legal pads than I knew what to do with.
And that is how that manuscript has made its way into your hands.
I should take a moment to apologize in advance. The pages were quite old and, though in fairly decent shape for their age, they were by no means perfect. The writing was hard to decipher in places and in others, the sheets of foolscap were so worn that lines or paragraphs were nearly incomprehensible. There has, therefore, been some dramatic license taken in the putting-back-together of these six stories as I tried to put myself in Watson’s shoes and determine how he might have told this story.
When I came to the end of this long road, I was left with one question above all the others: how did these stories end up in the basement archive of a small university in Pennsylvania. Try as I might to apply Holmes’s logic and deductive reasoning to that question, I could not come to a conclusion which I deemed satisfactory nor one which I thought fit all of the facts. Perhaps, after a bit more digging, I can conclusively answer that problem which perturbs me still.
But, isn’t life just a little richer with those unexplained happenings, I ask myself. Maybe this is a case where not having an answer just makes the whole thing just a little more intriguing.
And, if nothing else, this manuscript proves once and for all that you never know what you’re liable to find inside your library.
Nick Cardillo
2018



Introduction by John H. Watson M.D.
During my long and intimate friendship with Mr. Sherlock Holmes, there were a number of occasions when we handled cases of a sensitive or potentially scandalous nature. These problems I knew could never be presented to the public, even if I did change names and dates to protect those involved as I so often did. Come the conclusion of one of these exploits, and Holmes and I would find ourselves ensconced in the comforts of 221b Baker Street once more; he in his chair before the fire wreathed in a thick fog of pipe smoke, while I sat at my desk ready to put pen to paper and transcribe the case while its particulars were still fresh in my mind.
“No, Watson,” Holmes would tell me without even having to turn in my direction, “perhaps it is best that this story not see publication.”
“But, Holmes,” I would insist, “the world has a right to know of your amazing intellect. Surely, Scotland Yard would have yet again been lost without you.”
“Be that as it may,” my friend would counter, “I fear that for all of your changes to history, the public would see right through it. They are more perceptive than you often give them credit for, my dear fellow. And I rather think that we have enough to contend with. This agency need not face charges of libel on top of the thieves, murderers, and swindlers we deal with on a day-to-day basis.”
He was, of course, right and I would put aside my pen in surrender.
“You need not give up though,” Holmes would continue. “Make a record for posterity if you so desire. But, like so many of your other manuscripts, you must consign it to some obscure corner of the Cox and Company Bank vault. Perhaps, one day Watson, you can make a full account of it, but not today.”
And that is precisely what I have done. It was not without some resistance that I take these stories and prevent them from ever seeing the light of day. They - like so much of my other work - showcase Holmes’s incredible gifts. Yet he remains adamant, and as my communication with him has lessened in the days since he has found solace amongst his bees on the Sussex Downs, I feel that it is unlikely that I should hear otherwise from him.
Perhaps, though, as Holmes said, they can