"Brain can work better when our stomach is empty. Watson, the most interesting part of my body is my brain, the other part are only a complements" - Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson
"The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone" 1921 is one of 12 Sherlock Holmes short stories (56 total) by Arthur Conan Doyle in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes first published Strand Magazine October 1921 - April 1927.
"The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone" 1921 is one of 12 Sherlock Holmes short stories (56 total) by Arthur Conan Doyle in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes first published Strand Magazine October 1921 - April 1927.
Watson
arrives at 221B Baker Street to find Holmes in bed at
seven in the evening while Billy the page explains that Holmes has been hot on
the trail of a missing jewel, a Crown diamond
no less, worth about £100,000. He has been disguised as a job less work man, and
even as an old woman while pursuing the thief across London. He has
also not been eating, believing that hunger sharpens his wits. The Prime
Minister and the Home
Secretary have been to see Holmes, along with Lord Cantlemere, who
is apparently not a great fan of Sherlock Holmes and no believer in his deductive
powers. He is opposed to engaging Holmes to recover the precious gem.
Also in the
room is a wax dummy, a remarkable effigy of Sherlock Holmes, seated in a chair
near the window. Holmes soon emerges from his bedroom and explains that the
dummy is a decoy designed to fool a would-be gunman, much as was done in "The Adventure of the Empty House",
to which Watson alludes. Holmes, it would seem, is fully expecting an attempt
on his life that very evening, and he even has Watson write down the murderer's
name and address, just in case the attempt is successful: the murderer — and
also the jewel thief — is Count Negretto Sylvius of 136 Moorside Gardens, NW.
Moments
later, Billy comes in with none other than Count Negretto Sylvius's card. He
has arrived. Holmes has hardly expected this. The count has also brought his
dimwitted henchman with him, Sam Merton, a boxer, who can
be seen out the window.
Holmes gives
Watson a written message, tells him to give it to Youghal of the CID, and ushers him out
the back way over his objections at Holmes's exposing himself to such danger.
Holmes tells Watson to come back with the police. Meanwhile he will try to find
out from the count the one piece of information that has thus far eluded him:
the stone's whereabouts.
Holmes is
not in the room when Sylvius enter. The count sees the effigy and, mistaking
it for Holmes, is about to stave its head in with his cane just as Holmes,
having entered the room, speaks. The count's intentions are clear enough, and
they're just as Holmes suspected.
Sylvius
demands to know why Holmes's agents have been following him. Holmes explains first
that it was he himself, in disguise, who had been his shadow; and like his
crime fighting activities to the Count's lion-hunting
in Algeria
— the danger is exhilarating, and it rids the country of a pest.
Holmes then
proceeds to make his own purpose plain and tells the count that he wants to
know where the Mazarin Stone is. Holmes even boasts that the count will tell
him. At first, the count denies that he even knows, but Holmes tricks him into
revealing that he does. He also outlines the evidence which he has amassed
against the count for this theft, and other crimes.
Both men are
armed. The count is sitting on his revolver,
and Holmes fingers one is in his dressing-gown pocket.
Holmes
skillfully gets Sylvius to agree to call Sam Merton up to the room. Until now
Merton has been keeping watch outside. Holmes tells the two thugs to consider
their positions: they can go to prison for 20 years if Holmes does not find the
Mazarin Stone, or else they can reveal its hiding place and go free. Meanwhile,
Holmes withdraws once more to his bedroom with his violin and soon
the strains of the Barcarolle from the Tales of
Hoffmann emanate from Holmes's room.
Left to
themselves, the thieves discuss Holmes's offer, and are disturbed only by a
soft noise apparently coming from somewhere out in the street. During the
course of their discussion as to what their next move ought to be, Sylvius
reveals to his confederate that he is carrying the Mazarin Stone in a secret
pocket. He takes it out to show him. Bringing it over near the window, where
the dummy is, to get a better look at it, Sylvius and Merton are astonished when
the waxen figure turns round, snatches the diamond, and points a revolver at
them. It is Holmes. He has reached the alcove in the bow window through a
second door which leads behind the curtain. Merton can't understand why he can
still hear the violin playing. Holmes explains that it's a Gramophone.
It's also clear now that the soft noise was made when Holmes removed the
dummy.
0 comments:
Post a Comment