Part 1 (1/2)
THE ORIENTAL CASEBOOK
OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
THE ORIENTAL CASEBOOK OF
Sherlock Holmes
Nine Adventures from the Lost Years
Ted Riccardi
PREFACE
FOR ALMOST TWO DECADES, I HAVE BEEN AWARE OF the great public interest that surrounds the lost years of Sherlock Holmes Indeed, those Wanderjahre between his disappearance at the Reichenbach Falls and his return in the case of Ronald Adair have occasioned much speculation in the press as well as in literary circles
It is only noever, that I a before the public what I have termed here The Oriental Casebook of Sherlock Holmes His adventures in Italy and the rest of Europe still await his final approval and will be published separately
The cases here described took place or have their origins during those momentous years between 1891 and 1894 when Hollobe locked in an recounting these events to me shortly after his reappearance in London in 1894 Those first fall and winter months after his return were at times a period of deep melancholia for him, but the narration of the events often provided hies froain
Many of the readers of the following tales will be already familiar with the dramatic circumstances of Holmes's disappearance in Switzerland and his return to London three years later They were accurately if not fully reported in the press in Europe as well as in England The reader unfamiliar with these events may wish to consult my more complete accounts, in what I have entitled The Final Problem, and The Empty House These are still in print, and I have little to add to the overly on the personal, however, it ht be of some use if I add a word here of my own circumstances and actions after Hols will recall that Holmes and I had journeyed to the Reichenbach Falls, with Moriarty fresh on our heels Even now as I write, after several decades, the memory of those last few hours still haunts e froently requested es of consuency services of an English doctor Leaving Holmes in the company of the Swiss servant boy, I hurried back As I returned, I noticed a tall figure striding rapidly along the upper path of the falls, but I thought nothing of it, so intent was I to help a patient as seriously ill When I arrived at the hotel, Peter Steiler, the owner, informed me that there was no sick person and that he had sent no e I realised immediately to my dismay that I had been duped and that the letter was a ruse I fairly flew back to the falls, but I arrived too late Holone; only his Alpine stock was there A note written by him explained that he surmised that the note was a ruse but that he deemed it better if he confronted Moriarty alone in what he knew to be their inevitable and probably their lastthat Holmes had perished in that awful abyss, I was overcoure who approached as I left was indeed Moriarty himself Grief-stricken at the loss of the friend I valued most in the world, and filled with remorse at my own obtuseness, I returned to London, where h the first disconsolate days The only ray of light in the darkness was a visit by Lestrade, who reported on the successful arrest ofOver forty criminals had been apprehended and scheduled for trial Unfortunately, several of the inner circle, including Moriarty, had avoided the net and were presuland One, Sebastian Moran, Moriarty's chief lieutenant, was also thought to have accompanied hie
Despite my wife's ministrations and the distractions of my medical practice, both she and I realised as the days passed that so more was needed if I were to recover froested that I take a trip to the Continent and spend a feeeks exploring places that I had not visited hitherto I placed my patients in the hands of a trusted associate at St Bart's, and booking passage on a steamer bound for Naples, I soon found myself at sea on my way to the Mediterranean
The stor to alleviate h the Strait of Gibraltar, the clouds began to break, and I began to recover that sense of well-being that the sun-starved Londoner experiences when he reaches the war, was a Danish freighter bound for Alexandria and Constantinople, with a return in a feeeks to England I left the shi+p at Naples and journeyed south along the coast, where I stopped for a time at Ravello It was here that I received word of Ja Holmes and his outlandish defense of his dead brother Distracted froer at Moriarty's false account, it was here that I decided to write my own account of those last few days in Switzerland in response
Upon reatly from the many kindnesses of Mycroft, Holmes's older brother Mycroft invited enes Club on several occasions Though his corpulent appearance was so different from that of Holmes, his mental acuity and habits of er brother that they ledof my friend still lived on in our world On one of these occasions, Mycroft asked that I accompany him to the quarters that I had once shared with Hol that histo his desire, Holmes had left Mycroft instructions as to how to dispose of his personal effects, including his papers Mycroft, a the s as they were for the present, paying Mrs Hudson the ht rise to the point where he could begin the grim disposition of Holmes's effects It was my first visit to our quarters since Holmes's disappearance, andto seein his accustomed place But he was not there, and the a reatest loss ofof the following year, I re-visited the Reichenbach Falls My grief and reree, and it is still not entirely clear what inner compulsion made me return to that fearful spot In part, I think, it was the indeterminate nature of Holmes's death I harbored no doubts or suspicions that he was anything but dead For me that was the bitterest of certainties Beyond his Alpine stock and the note that he had left behind, there was nothing He was si more of him at the falls, that there would be there still some unnoticed trace after the lapse of so ered on, but it was a failed hope There was nothing but thevoice of the falls And, to speak with the utmost frankness, there was also the small but persistent illusion that I could relive e my decision to leave him, as I had, to confront his archene those visits, I stayed again at the hotel in Meiringen, and had long conversations with Peter Steiler, especially about those last hours before Hol towards the falls was Moriarty, without question, and the young Swiss servant who brought the note tofor work but the day before Steiler, thinking that he looked honest enough, hired hi man's story, however He knew only what the boy told him, that he came from Bellinzona, the capital of Ticino canton, that his first name was Giacomo, and that he aspired to be a painter He disappeared without a trace
In the spring of '94, as the cruel days of April ended and the third anniversary of Holland and not to visit the falls again By now the passage of tian to allow the full and unguarded return of Hol pain that I had felt previously I experienced anew the interest that I had in crime while he was alive Whatever else he had done, Holmes had conferred upon me such an interest in crime that I often felt compelled to follow in detail the more sensational cases reported in the London press My constant companion in these cases was of course Holed in fruitful, if iue I heard his voice often as he repeated some of his emphatic utterances about his theories and his methods: ”You see, Watson, but you do not observe”; ”My method, Watson, is based on the detailed analysis of trivia”; ”You know h I had becoether, I remained slow in their application I solved no cri opinions about the solutions found by the great sleuths of Scotland Yard, whom Holmes so often deprecated Without him, the solutions of crison, and Athelney Jones, were still at work, the best of a bad lot, as Holmes had said so often, but necessary nonetheless
And so, that spring, my attention was directed towards the untimely death of Ronald Adair, the murder of whorossed did I become in this awful crime and its details that I ventured even to make a visit to Park Lane, the scene of the cri influence uponup towards the room where poor Adair had been found shot As I stared upwards intently, Imyself, for I bumped unintentionally into soentleather up a number of books that he had dropped in our encounter I leaned down to help him, but he was so unpleasant in his words and demeanour that I left hiain and stayed on for a fewfroathered below his house I then turned and went home
It was no more than a few minutes after I entered that there was a knock at the door I opened it and was surprised to find the oldy for his rude behaviour and said that he had recognised hbor, for his bookshop was nearby He wondered if I ht not like to purchase some of the volu a feards in the long fingers of one hand, ”would fill nicely the space on the top shelf”
As he spoke, I turned in the direction in which he was pointing When I turned again to face him, he had disappeared, and Sherlock Holmes stood there instead, a broad s resting on the floor between us I have never been able to say clearly what happened next Holmes later told me that I went pale and fainted before his very eyes I ained consciousness almost immediately, however, and once I ascertained that Holan the inquiries that in the end resulted in this volume He told me how he had escaped Moriarty's hold on hireat criminal had fallen into the abyss, and how he had decided on the spot to let the world think that he had perished as well so that he could dealenemies He then spoke briefly of his travels, of his escape to Italy, his time in Tibet, and his visits to Persia, Mecca, and Khartourew, finally resulting in the present volu disservice to the public if the pretense were stillin Sussex after ”His Last Bow” This was a ruse, again successful, that deluded his ene that he had re could be further from the truth Holmes continues, even now, to maintain his interest in the world of criinated in his lost years but were only resolved by hi his ”retirement,” I have entitled tentatively ”The Aftermath” Some of these cases cover a span of almost thirty years and will appear in a separate volume
The world of crime is not a tidy one, and I would be remiss if I were to lead the reader to believe that these adventures were as easy in their execution as they sometimes appear to have been in print In reality, they often took place over many years, and appear here in perhaps what are far too tidy packages of condensation I should note too that Holmes was often a reluctant partner in their narration, and it ith reluctance that he responded to le tale occupied h the entire manuscript As in the past, he has chided me for what he considers to be my tendency towards romance He would much prefer what he calls a ”scientific approach,” in which the detailed observation of fact and the principles of deduction are all that are given Despite his ranted his approval, albeit reluctant, of these ”fables,” as he calls them At his insistence, I have thrown so somewhat the historical record This has been done to protect those who survived some of the bizarre events narrated here It has also been done to delude soe despite Hols recorded here took place or had their origins in the period between 1891 and 1894, the careful reader should be able to discern the pattern of true events The reader who looks to these tales for historical consistency will be disappointed, however
JOHN WATSON, MD
London
27th FEBRUARY, 1922 THE ORIENTAL CASEBOOK
OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
THE VICEROY'S assISTANT
FOR SEVERAL WEEKS AFTER HIS RETURN TO LONDON, un to evince those syy which had led me on occasions past to increased apprehension about his mental health He rarely ventured out fro despite Mrs Hudson's stern ad idly into space Occasionally, he would pick up his violin, tune it slowly, and attehtest rebellion from the instrument, he would put it down and throw hi into a deep sleep His onlypaper arrived He scoured it quickly, his eyes hungrily searching for so that could satisfy his restless brain Alas, however, most of the crime was of the n behind any of it was apparent to him at once
”I have destroyedover breakfast, ”and in so doing I have perhaps destroyedCross, a man has murdered his adulterous wife in Oxford, and several drums of fertiliser have disappeared from a factory in Whitechapel What is to be done?”
”Holmes,” I said, ”perhaps we should take an extended trip to the Continent The grey weather in London is causing a melancholic state in you that-”
But he already seemed lost in his usual silence and vacant stare, and I knew by now not to irritate him when he was in such a mood I looked with dread also at his return to the use of cocaine, which, as far as I was able to judge, he had been able to avoid until now
Unexpectedly, he said, ”You are right, Watson A change would be y for the Continent Let us begin with a walk and then perhaps take in a concert Sarasate is playing this afternoon, and if he is in forh St Jaain walked, this tih Hyde Park It was just before dinner e returned As we entered, I noticed that Holmes had left aopen and that a pile of papers had blown off his desk I reached down to pick theht by a note written in a ratitude for your help in the sad Maxwell affair You have served your country well and have in no small way helped to preserve peace in the Eland
(signed) Curzon The note filled reatest surprise and interest At dinner, I said: ”My dear Holmes, you have never told uely, but I could see a slight gleam appear in his eye
”Ah, you found the note from Lord Curzon”
I nodded ”Indeed, I did,” said I with some annoyance, ”and I must say that I a of an adventure in which you helped to preserve the peace of the Empire”
”It was a most delicate matter, Watson, and even now only Lord Curzon and I know the details, and, if I may say so, in all probability I know more than he If I tell you the story, Watson, you will be the third to know I think it should be a long ti it to public attention, however The tensions between nations re bear the wounds of as a un to warer to relate to ue, faraway look in his eyes was gone, and he appeared once again engaged with a worthy opponent, if only inof this to public notice until you think it appropriate”
”Very well, ood as well, for, lacking a new problem, I could do worse than retrace the steps of some of my most difficult cases of the past In this way, I shall at least keepappears here in London”
We moved fro roo it froht now, his voice coo back and review my travels after the death of Moriarty You will recall that I had mentioned to you on a previous occasion that I had journeyed to Tibet where I spent two years with the head lama”
”Yes, indeed,” said I ”You travelled under the naerson You then went on to Persia, visited Mecca, and then went to Khartouood memory, Watson There was of course far more to my stay in that part of the world than I related to you That I journeyed to Persia and Arabia is, of course, true, but I travelled by a uise of Sigerson As you know, Watson, I have a certain facility with languages I had picked up a good deal of Tibetan in the monasteries and even studied the ancient Tibetan practice of concentrating bodily heat It is a most useful and extraordinary technique, which I can still perform on occasion Indeed, it saved me froht have frozen to death In any case, I donned a lama's outfit and travelled with aafter a feeeks in the valley of Nepal, where I rested in that most pleasant place at a Buddhist shrine atop a hill overlooking the city of Katmandu Were it not for its xenophobic rulers, Watson, I have often thought of retiring to that idyllic spot, for I know of no better place than there to spend one's declining years To do it now of course one would have to reuise, for the present ruler, the Rana, does not tolerate easily the presence of foreigners Although keeping uise at all times, I did identify myself at one point to the British Resident, Mr Richardson, and was able on one occasion to help hison's ghost Another case concerned the bizarre troubles of a French savant recently arrived froue”
Holmes stopped to puff on his pipe He eventually left Katmandu, he continued, and headed south towards India Once across the border, he journeyed to Benares, where he deepened his studies of Oriental body techniques
”I found that after a fewand heart rate to such an extent that even you, Watson, nosis”
”Extraordinary,” I exclaimed