The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part II (48 page)

For the next few minutes, the atmosphere in the room was stifling. I finished my brandy and found that I was still shaking. Several of the other members were easing their collars and mopping their brows waiting, as we all were, for the knock on the door that announced the arrival of the messenger boy with the envelope of results.

Suddenly, there was the knock and the Major moved to open the door, but his progress was blocked by Sir Terence, saying, “I think, Major, given the high stakes, an independent person should open the envelope.”

Major Cooke's face was puce, but he kept control and managed to stammer, “Yes, yes... of course, Sir Terence.”

The Major stood back and Sir Terence opened the door. Framed in the doorway was a uniformed messenger boy holding out an envelope. This Sir Terence took and, sliding his finger beneath the sealed flap, he opened it. There was a collective intake of breath as he withdrew the single sheet of paper from within it. Clearing his throat, he announced, “York, three thirty, First... number five, second... number eight, third... number twelve.”

Major Cooke lunged forwards, tearing the telegram from Sir Terence's grasp and reading it again to himself. “This is not possible! It is a trick!” Turning towards me, he screamed, “You are a ch-”

Sir Terence placed his hand firmly on Major Cooke's chest before he could say more. “Have a care what you say, Cooke! The libel laws in England are punitive, and I would happily represent any one of these gentlemen, for no fee, should you venture to tarnish his reputation. Be sure to leave a cheque for the full thirty thousand guineas in my office before you leave. Your membership of Bairstow's has been revoked.”

Major Cooke glared malevolently at me and then at Sir Terence before storming from the room. The other members were still sitting open mouthed, unable to comprehend what had occurred. In truth, I would not have been able to enlighten them.

A few moments later, a familiar voice called out to me from the open doorway, “Ah, Watson! I understand that you are now a very wealthy man!”

Holmes laughed heartily and clapped me on the back. From across the room a figure approached with his hand outstretched. It was Anthony Stewart. Shaking Holmes's hand, a very grateful Stewart said, “Thank you, Mr. Holmes. I am forever in your debt and I swear never to gamble again.”

Holmes's face was without emotion as he replied, “I will take you at your word, Mr. Stewart.”

Holmes nodded towards Mycroft and Sir Terence, and I reached for my cheque book to pay the twenty guineas I had wagered. The gentleman who had been sitting to my right picked up the slip I had signed and, with a wink, he tore it up.

VII - A Pair of White Gloves

Taking Anthony Stewart by the arm, Holmes led the way out of Bairstow's, hailed a cab, and together we returned to Baker Street. I must admit I wanted to know everything, but Holmes would say nothing until we all were sitting with a steaming cup of tea.

Sitting back, I ran through my mind all that had happened. “Tell me, Holmes, how was this achieved?”

Holmes sipped his tea and began thus, “I became suspicious of the Major when I detected, in his jacket pocket, what appeared to be a small telescope. Now, why would one carry such a thing to a gentleman's club? Whilst Bairstow's is located on the banks of the Thames, it does not face it... except for one side... and why would a seemingly healthy man suddenly, and so predictably, have to make use of the club's facilities?”

I thought back to our first visit to the club, and how Holmes had questioned the washroom attendant. “Whilst in the washroom, you left Sir Terence and me whilst you investigated further. What did you discover, Holmes?”

Holmes smiled, “Tell me, Watson. Where in a gentleman's club might you be sure not to be disturbed and have perfect privacy... especially if you feigned to have an intestinal problem?”

It took me but a moment to realise. “Of course! In the lavatory!”

Holmes nodded, saying, “Quite so, Watson. I discovered that the rear wall of the toilet cubicles face the Thames, and have small, frosted, sash windows. I opened one briefly and had a most excellent view of the Thames and the bridges crossing it. Do you recall our cab ride to Westminster Bridge, Watson?”

I nodded and waited for Holmes to continue. “As I stood at the centre of the bridge with my field glasses, I was able to see clearly the frosted glass of the lavatory windows of Bairstow's. Therefore, a person in Bairstow's would have a similarly clear view of the centre of Westminster Bridge.”

I scratched my head, as I was still unsure how this discovery could benefit the Major. “Tell me, Holmes, how does this observation relate to the intelligence from young Wiggins?”

Holmes began to fill his pipe, asking, “Do you also recall the conversation with Sir Terence when we sought information on the background of the Major? Sir Terence thought the Major had developed his liking for a wager through his family connection to horse racing. Bookmakers who take wagers at a race course have to ensure that they can communicate with each other to ensure that they are all offering similar odds. They often have to do this over a distance of a hundred yards or more. How then is this achieved, Watson?”

I thought back to a race meeting I had attended at Epsom and suddenly remembered. “Hand signals! They communicate by some strange system where they wave their hands and pat the top of their heads... and... and they wear white gloves! Ha! The opera gloves! But why, Holmes?”

Holmes drew contentedly upon his pipe and blew out a thin stream of blue smoke. Pointing his pipe stem in my direction, he asked, “Why does a Robin have a red breast? To be seen, Watson! To be seen! The white gloves show up clearly against a dark background and the hand signals can be read over a long distance. Young Wiggins observed a man leave the telegraph office on Bridge Street, just as a messenger boy was leaving. The fellow ran to the centre of Westminster Bridge, where he was seen to wave his arms wildly in the air whilst wearing white gloves. Wiggins thought the poor man to be demented!”

I had almost forgotten about our guest until he suddenly shouted out, “So that was how it was done! Somebody received the results of the race from the telegraph office and then conveyed them, using hand signals, to the Major, who was using his telescope to observe from the lavatory window at Bairstow's!”

Holmes nodded, saying, “Precisely! That ‘somebody' was a servant in the Major's employ. Wiggins followed him back to a house in Wimbledon which had the name ‘Major T. Cooke' emblazoned above the bell-pull at the front door.”

I was still puzzled. “But... but... that does not explain how you were able to deceive the Major today.”

Holmes wagged his finger, saying, “Not so, Watson. Wiggins had described this fellow to me, and I determined that we were of similar height and stature. My telegram to Lestrade ensured that when this fellow appeared at the telegraph office and collected the results, a somewhat burly constable detained him. When I questioned him, he quickly told all. I had studied the bookmaker's code and from a distance of over a hundred yards, I would be indistinguishable from the Major's man. At any event, the Major would be concentrating hard upon my hand movements, not my identity. It was a simple matter to ensure that the number of the winning horse was changed in my message to him.”

Anthony Stewart clapped his hands in delight. “Wonderful! Whilst Mr. Holmes was away from you this morning, Doctor, he tracked me down at my lodgings in Putney. He kindly offered me the chance of rebuilding my life by regaining all the losses I had made to the Major. He informed me of the part I was to play but, like you, I had not the slightest idea as to how the deception was to be accomplished.”

Holmes leant forwards slightly towards me, saying, “I am indeed sorry that I was unable to tell you all, Watson. It was imperative that the Major's suspicions were not aroused by anything that you might inadvertently let slip. It was vital that you made the wager as though you believed it to be genuine and, it appears, you played the part perfectly!”

I shook my head. “Holmes, you will never comprehend how real that wager was to me. The prospect of being indebted to your brother for the rest of my life hung over me like the sword of Damocles.”

On hearing this, Holmes slapped the arm of his chair and roared with laughter. After finishing our tea, we said goodbye to Anthony Stewart and earnestly hoped that he would honour his solemn promise to never gamble again.

Of the Major, we heard no more except for a mention in a note from Mycroft confirming that the cheque the Major had lodged on leaving Bairstow's had been honoured. Sir Terence had used the funds to make good the losses of the other members and, as a result of the Major's ‘excesses', gambling was now prohibited at Bairstow's.

It was one morning, perhaps a week or so later, as I began to record this case in my notebook, that I remarked to Holmes that saving a man's life and bringing him back to his family was something of which to be proud. I noticed that Holmes almost blushed as I said this.

He shook his head, saying, “No, Watson. I take no pride in this. I saw it as my moral duty, for I, too, have been to the edge of the abyss on occasions... and, in any case, we have been amply rewarded for our endeavours. See what came in this morning's post!”

Holmes tossed an envelope to me and on opening its contents I read, “
Dear Mr. Holmes, I am most grateful for your recent assistance. In recognition of this, it is my privilege, as Chairman of Bairstow's, to offer both you and Doctor Watson a lifetime's membership of the club for the great service you have rendered.
” The letter was signed,
Terence Walters
.

“I trust that you will accept, Holmes?” I asked.

Holmes's eyes twinkled. He appeared to consider my question for a brief moment before replying, “Yes, I believe so... if only to spite Mycroft!”

About the Contributors

The following authors appear in this volume

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories

Part II - 1890-1895

Matthew Booth
is the author of S
herlock Holmes and the Giant's Hand
, a collection of Sherlock Holmes short stories published by Breese Books. He is a scriptwriter for the American radio network
Imagination Theatre
, syndicated by Jim French Productions, contributing particularly to their series,
The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
. Matthew has contributed two original stories to
The Game Is Afoot
, a collection of Sherlock Holmes short stories published in 2008 by Wordsworth Editions. His contributions are “The Tragedy of Saxon's Gate” and “The Dragon of Lea Lane”. He has provided an original story entitled “A Darkness Discovered”, featuring his own creation, Manchester-based private detective John Dakin, for the short story collection
Crime Scenes
, also published by Wordsworth Editions in 2008. Matthew is currently working on a supernatural novel called
The Ravenfirth Horror.

J.R. Campbell
is a Calgary-based writer who always enjoys setting problems before the Great Detective. Along with his steadfast friend Charles Prepolec, he has co-edited the Sherlock Holmes anthologies
Curious Incidents
,
Curious Incidents 2
,
Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes
,
Gaslight Grotesque: Nightmare Takes of Sherlock Holmes
, and
Gaslight Arcanum: Uncanny Tales of Sherlock Holmes
. He has also contributed stories to Imagination Theater's Radio Drama
The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
,
and the anthologies
A Study in Lavender: Queering Sherlock Holmes
and
Challenger Unbound
. At the time of writing, his next project, again with Charles Prepolec, is the anthology
Professor Challenger: New Worlds, Lost Places
.

Peter Calamai
, BSI, a resident of Ottawa, was a reporter, editor and foreign correspondent with major Canadian newspapers since 1966. For half those years he has worked five minutes' walk from the Rideau Canal and the Commissariat Building. When editor of the Ottawa Citizen's editorial pages, Calamai had the good fortune to spend an afternoon interviewing canal historian Robert Legget. He has been an active Sherlockian since the mid-1990's, concentrating on Holmes and the Victorian press. Honours include designation as a Master Bootmaker by Canada's leading Sherlockian society and investiture in the
Baker Street Irregulars
as “The Leeds Mercury”, a name taken from
The Hound of the Baskervilles
.

Bert Coules
wandered through a succession of jobs from fringe opera company manager to BBC radio drama producer-director before becoming a full-time writer at the beginning of 1989. Bert works in a wide range of genres, including science fiction, horror, comedy, romance and action-adventure but he is especially associated with crime and detective stories: he was the head writer on the BBC's unique project to dramatise the entire Sherlock Holmes canon, and went on to script four further series of original Holmes and Watson mysteries. As well as radio, he also writes for TV and the stage.

Catherine Cooke
BSI is a Librarian with Westminster Libraries who divides her time between maintaining and developing the Libraries' computer systems and the Sherlock Holmes Collection. She is a Fellow of the
Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals
, Joint Honorary Secretary of the
Sherlock Holmes Society of London
, a member of the
Baker Street Irregulars
, and of the
Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes
. She won the Baker Street Irregulars'
Morley-Montgomery Award
for 2005 and the Sherlock Holmes Society of London's
Tony Howlett Award
in 2014.

Bill Crider
is a former college English teacher, and is the author of more than fifty published novels and an equal number of short stories. He's won two
Anthony
awards and a
Derringer
Award, and he's been nominated for the
Shamus
and the
Edgar
awards. His latest novel in the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series is
Between the Living and the Dead
. Check out his homepage at
www.billcrider.com
, or take a look at his peculiar blog at
http://billcrider.blogspot.com.

Carole Nelson Douglas
is the author of sixty New-York-published novels, and the first woman to write a Sherlock Holmes spin-off series using the first woman protagonist, Irene Adler.
Good Night, Mr. Holmes
debuted as a
New York Times
Notable Book of the Year. Holmes and Watson have been Douglas' “go-to guys” since childhood, appearing in a high school skit and her weekly newspaper column. Seeing only one pseudonymous woman in print with Holmes derivations, she based her Irene Adler on how Conan Doyle presented her: a talented, compassionate, independent, and audacious woman, in eight acclaimed novels. (“Readers will doff their deerstalkers.” -
Publishers Weekly
) Those readers pine in vain for a film version of the truly substantial and fascinating Irene Adler that Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle admired as “The Woman.” Now indie publishing, Douglas plans to make more of her Irene Adler stories available in print and eBook.
www.carolenelsondouglas.com

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(1859-1930)
Holmes Chronicler Emeritus
. If not for him, this anthology would not exist. Author, physician, patriot, sportsman, spiritualist, husband and father, and advocate for the oppressed. He is remembered and honored for the purposes of this collection by being the man who introduced Sherlock Holmes to the world. Through fifty-six Holmes short stories, four novels, and additional Apocryphal entries, Doyle revolutionized mystery stories and also greatly influenced and improved police forensic methods and techniques for the betterment of all.
Steel True Blade Straight

Steve Emecz
's main field is technology, in which he has been working for about twenty years. Following multiple senior roles at Xerox, where he grew their European eCommerce from $6m to $200m, Steve joined platform provider Venda, and moved across to Powa Technologies in 2010. Steve is a regular trade show speaker on the subject of mobile commerce, and his time at Powa has taken him to more than forty countries - so he's no stranger to planes and airports. He wrote two novels (one bestseller) in the 1990's and a screenplay in 2001. Shortly after he set up MX Publishing, specialising in NLP books. In 2008, MX published its first Sherlock Holmes book, and MX has gone on to become the largest specialist Holmes publisher in the world, with around one hundred authors and over two hundred books. Profits from MX go towards his second passion - a children's rescue project in Nairobi, Kenya, where he and his wife, Sharon, spend every Christmas at the rescue centre in Kasarani. In 2014, they wrote a short book about the project,
The Happy Life Story
.

Lyndsay Faye
, BSI, grew up in the Pacific Northwest, graduating from Notre Dame de Namur University. She worked as a professional actress throughout the Bay Area for several years before moving to New York. Her first novel was the critically acclaimed pastiche
Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H Watson.
Faye's love of her adopted city led her to research the origins of the New York City Police Department, as related in the
Edgar
-nominated Timothy Wilde trilogy. She is a frequent writer for the
Strand Magazine
and the Eisner-nominated comic
Watson and Holmes.
Lyndsay and her husband, Gabriel Lehner, live in Queens with their cats, Grendel and Prufrock. She is a very proud member of the
Baker Street Babes, Actor's Equity Association
,
Mystery Writers of America
,
The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes
, and
The Baker Street Irregulars
. Her works have currently been translated into fourteen languages.

Wendy C. Fries
is the author of
Sherlock Holmes and John Watson: The Day They Met
and also writes under the name Atlin Merrick. Wendy is fascinated with London theatre, scriptwriting, and lattes. Website:
wendycfries.com
.

Mark A. Gagen
BSI is co-founder of Wessex Press, sponsor of the popular
From Gillette to Brett
conferences, and publisher of
The Sherlock Holmes Reference Library
and many other fine Sherlockian titles. A life-long Holmes enthusiast, he is a member of
The Baker Street Irregulars
and
The Illustrious Clients of Indianapolis
. A graphic artist by profession, his work is often seen on the covers of
The Baker Street Journal
and various BSI books.

Bob Gibson
, graphic designer, is the Director at Staunch Design, located in Oxford, England. In addition to designing the covers for MX Book publications, Staunch also provides identity design and brand development for small and medium sized companies through print and web for a wide range of clients, including independent schools, retail, financial services and the health sector.
www.staunch.com

Dick Gillman
is a Yorkshire-man in his mid-sixties. He retired from teaching Science in 2005 and moved to Brittany, France in 2008 with his wife Alex, Truffle the Black Labrador, and two cats. He still has strong family links with the UK, where he visits his two grown up children and his grandchildren. Dick is a prolific writer, and during his retirement he has written fourteen Sherlock Holmes short stories and a Sci-Fi novella. His latest short story, “Sherlock Holmes and The Man on Westminster Bridge” was completed in July 2015, and is published for the first time in this anthology.

John Atkinson Grimshaw
(1836-1893) was born in Leeds, England. His amazing paintings, usually featuring twilight or night scenes illuminated by gas-lamps or moonlight, are easily recognizable, and are often used on the covers of books about the Great Detective to set the mood, as shadowy figures move in the distance through misty mysterious settings and over rain-slicked streets.

Jack Grochot
is a retired investigative newspaper journalist and a former federal law enforcement agent specializing in mail fraud cases. He lives on a small farm in southwestern Pennsylvania, USA, where he writes and cares for five boarded horses. His fiction work includes stories in
Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine
,
The Sherlock Holmes Megapack
(an e-book), as well as the book
Come, Watson! Quickly!
, a collection of five Sherlock Holmes pastiches. The author, an active member of
Mystery Writers of America
, can be contacted by e-mail at
[email protected]
.

Carl L. Heifetz
Over thirty years of inquiry as a research microbiologist have prepared Carl Heifetz to explore new horizons in science. As an author, he has published numerous articles and short stories for fan magazines and other publications. In 2013 he published a book entitled
Voyage of the Blue Carbuncle
that is based on the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Gene Roddenberry.
Voyage of the Blue Carbuncle
is a fun and exciting spoof, sure to please science fiction fans as well as those who love the stories of Sherlock Holmes and
Star Trek
. Carl and his wife have two grown children and live in Trinity, Florida.

Jeremy Holstein
first discovered Sherlock Holmes at age five when he became convinced that the Hound of the Baskervilles lived in his bedroom closet. A life long enthusiast of radio dramas, Jeremy is currently the lead dramatist and director for the Post Meridian Radio Players adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, where he has adapted
The Hound of the Baskervilles
,
The Sign of Four
, and “Jack the Harlot Killer” (retitled “The Whitechapel Murders”) from William S. Baring-Gould's
Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street
for the company. He is currently in production with an adaptation of “Charles Augustus Milverton”. Jeremy has also written Sherlock Holmes scripts for Jim French's
Imagination Theatre
. He lives with his wife and daughter in the Boston, MA area.

Mike Hogan
writes mostly historical novels and short stories, many set in Victorian London and featuring Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. He read the Conan Doyle stories at school with great enjoyment, but hadn't thought much about Sherlock Holmes until, having missed the Granada/Jeremy Brett TV series when it was originally shown in the eighties, he came across a box set of videos in a street market and was hooked on Holmes again. He started writing Sherlock Holmes pastiches about four years ago, having great fun re-imagining situations for the Conan Doyle characters to act in. The relationship between Holmes and Watson fascinates him as one of the great literary friendships. (He's also a huge admirer of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels). Like Captain Aubrey and Doctor Maturin, Holmes and Watson are an odd couple, differing in almost every facet of their characters, but sharing a common sense of decency and a common humanity. Living with Sherlock Holmes can't have been easy, and Mike enjoys adding a stronger vein of “pawky humour” into the Conan Doyle mix, even letting Watson have the second-to-last word on occasions. Mike is British, and he lives in Italy. His books include
Sherlock Holmes and
the Scottish Question
;
The Gory Season - Sherlock Holmes, Jack the Ripper and the Thames Torso Murders
and the Sherlock Holmes & Young Winston 1887 Trilogy (
The Deadwood Stage
;
The Jubilee Plot
; and
The Giant Moles
), He has also written the following short story collections:
Sherlock Holmes: Murder at the Savoy and Other Stories
,
Sherlock Holmes: The Skull of Kohada Koheiji and Other Stories
, and
Sherlock Holmes: Murder on the Brighton Line and Other Stories. www.mikehoganbooks.com