From Holmes's Casebook
SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 202 Report by J. P. W. Monaco
In the opening paragraphs of several of the Sherlock Holmes stories reference is made to imaginary cases which the public never actually had a chance to read, e.g., the whole story concerning the politician, the lighthouse and the trained cormorant. Competitors were invited to submit the title and opening paragraph of an imaginary Sherlock Holmes story which was to include references to one or more further imaginary stories.
The title I chose as an example was fantastic ; so I cannot complain if com- petitors offer me the affair of the One-eyed Greek and the Disappearing Island, the adventure of the Trapeze in the Abandoned Hansom, the case of the Haberdasher and the Hairless Baboon or the Vicious Conduct of the Blind Televisionist.
But I prefer the simplicity of the case of
the Surrey Centaur, of the Moneylender's Flute or of Dobwell, the Somerset Killer— whose tidy mind led him to bury his victims in the local cemetery.
Even where their titles were promising, I barred facetious entries, e.g., Holmes, summoned to the Athenaeum, says: "Come, Watson, better bring your revolver. We don't know whom we may meet there " ; or " Are you ready for action, Watson ? Is your revolver loaded ? If so, leave it behind. It might go off," or even the case of the Vegetarian League's Banquet, when the soup was flavoured with rabbit.
Glaring errors in the style of their,opening paragraphs also barred a number of entries, e.g., " Pausing only to affix the Back-inca- week notice to my surgery door " or allowing Watson to answer a question with the hockey-girl's " Ra-ther I "
The two entries which I have chosen to share the prize both have similar opening sentences and there is little to choose between the titles they invent or the genuineness of their style. I place Dr. Noel Hopkins, Provost of Wakefield, first (£3) because I feel that he has been getting inside informa- tion from his relative, the Inspector. £2 to John Manning. brought Holmes to his own death ; while the activities of the California blackmailers, which took Holmes twice across the Atlantic, and brought to him the life-long friendship of the American President, cannot yet be given to the world. In the end, for sheer criminal audacity, and as an example of Holmes's own versatile powers which actually led him to assume in public the part of the very criminal he wag pursuing, I have chosen the narrative of "The Urbane Auctioneer."
(JOHN MANNING)
The Adventure of the Crying Mummy
Glancing over my records for the year 1887, I find selection difficult. There was the case, presenting certain bizarre features, of Miss Rose Madder-Browne, who vanished under grotesque and apparently inexplicable circumstances from a corridor coach in the Paddington express. And I cannot disclose, since one of the very important personages involved is still alive, the full story of Holmes's visit to the East, when he investigated the scandal in the Singapore Yacht Club and the subsequent exposure of Major Forbes-Mancrieffe with his Praying Mantis. In this period also I find my notes covering the tragic voyage of the Clanwilliam Star with its appalling cargo. I am now free, however, to make public the weird and terrible events leading up to the death of the Curator of the Lyme Regis Museum, since this case was, perhaps, most typical of my friend's wide and remarkable powers.
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