Read Online The Adventure of the Tired Captain A Sherlock Holmes Case by K. Michael Gaschnitz - Free Book Online Page A

expect the caller to be shown up to the room while an American would think there was nothing amiss at being summoned downstairs. When the Negro returned from his fruitless errand he discovered his hat gone and a five pound note on his pillow.”
    “How do you know this?”
    “Why he told me so, Watson.”
    “You spoke with him then.”
    “Yes when I requested of him the use of this rather unremarkable item of haberdashery as long as I return it to him when I am finished, no questions asked.”
    “I also came across another porter who saw this very same gentleman enter your wife’s room last evening.”
    “So whom do you suspect, Holmes?” I asked now knowing the game was up.
    “Come now Watson , I thought you might attempt to pull off the bluff for a while longer. Surely you have accompanied me on enough cases to know that you could not hope to fool me by these elementary attempts at deception,” he let out a low sigh and rubbed his temple with his fingers. “I quite hoped that you would have more faith in me.”
    “It is not any lack of faith in you Holmes. I just think that it is my duty to protect my wife, it is not the job of a paid professional.”
    Holmes was taken aback at this last remark. “I did this as a friend Watson, not as a professional.”
    “I am sorry Holmes perhaps that was uncalled for. It is just that I feel much safer knowing where Mary is.”
    “So be it, but will you at least tell me what you have done with her?”
    “I will keep that my secret for now Holmes, although I fancy that if I could find where you had hidden her, you could do the same, however I must ask that you respect my judgment and privacy.”
    “Very well Watson, you are both adults and have made your own beds and now you must lie in them. I sincerely hope though that there is no one hiding under that bed.” He got up to leave. “By the way Watson how did you find her?”
    My friend listened with rapt attention and, I am happy to say, undisguised admiration as I related the sequence of events. I told him of how I had doctored his shoes and had Toby follow the scent to the hotel. He chuckled as I told him of my taking the hat and cigarette ends from the Americans’ room after luring him downstairs.
    “You have done well Watson. I am happy to see that our partnership has been as beneficial to you as it has been to me.”
    I flushed with pleasure at this.
    “Never the less Watson, I think I should at least hear of your security arrangements. I give you my word as a gentleman and as a friend I shall take no action without your permission .”
    “Very well; I think I would like that Holmes. You may remember that I have a neighbour, Anstruther by name, who will gladly do me a favor now and then. He and his wife were only too happy to extend to us an invitation to make use of their extra bedroom. Mrs. Anstruther is ill with the grippe and Mary who, herself has the beginnings of a summer cold, is going to visit the old lady while he is tending to his patients. In the evening when my own work is finished she will return home and spend the night there.”
    “I don’t follow you Watson. Your plan seems most transparent, something a four year old child might devise.”
    “You are right of course; however I have taken some additional precautions, Holmes. Every night Mary Jane will go next door carrying soup for poor Mrs. Anstruther. Once there Mary will don Mary Jane’s cloak and bonnet and return here. In the morning the process will be reversed and Mary Jane will return here carrying the tray of things which she took over the previous night.
    “With my neighbour, his wife, various domestics and the constant presence of patients in the waiting room Mary shall never be alone.”
    “It seems you have given it some thought after all,” he admitted grudgingly. “I pray your strategy shall be successful and that it shall not put your maid nor your neighbour’s household at risk. I must now bid you good day, Doctor as I