Read Online The Lost Casebooks of Sherlock Holmes by Donald Thomas - Free Book Online Page A

come to an end and she had been succeeded by the Prince of Wales as Edward VII. There was greater affluence and freer style at court. All the same, it was a world where political assassination and terrorist outrage had assumed menacing proportions.
    Holmes had by now a reputation that stretched back over some decades. He was known to the mightiest in the land and was on close personal terms with men of influence. Among them, as young men, were two future Lord Chancellors, Halsbury and Birkenhead, as well as the great defender, Sir Edward Marshall Hall, KC. Once or twice in the earlier years of our friendship, when Holmes had rendered some private service or other, he would be absent afterwards to keep an engagement for lunch or tea ‘in the neighbourhood of Windsor’. After his success in the matter of the Bruce-Partington plans in 1895, he returned from such a visit with a remarkably fine emerald tie-pin as a token of royal appreciation.
    In a few more years, it was in the shadow world of such organisations as the ‘Special Branch’ of Scotland Yard or the new department of Military Intelligence at Queen Anne’s Gate that Holmes was most often consulted. The ‘Special Branch’ of the CID had been created in 1884, in response to Fenian outrages by gun and bomb. Among the targets attacked by the dynamiters were the Houses of Parliament, the offices of The Times , the London railway stations, and Scotland Yard itself. From the first, Chief Inspector Littlechild, Assistant Commissioner Monro, and successive commanders of the Branch consulted Holmes in many of their most important cases.
    From my notes, I see that it was in February 1907 when I accompanied my friend on a visit to Scotland Yard. At that time, our friend Lestrade had served more than thirty years in the Metropolitan Police. He had risen to the rank of Superintendent and there was no better commander within the higher echelons of the Special Branch.
    He received us with that bluff courtesy which is his hallmark. We sat in leather chairs either side of the fireplace in his room, the curtains closed against a fusillade of rain on the windows that winter evening. Our host was plainly bursting with news of some kind and we did not keep him from it long.
    â€˜An announcement of importance will be made in the next few days, gentlemen. His Majesty the King is to pay an official visit to Ireland this summer. This is the year of the Irish National Exhibition in Dublin and it will not do to keep the King away. The world would think that he cannot safely set foot in that part of his dominions. It would never do, Mr Holmes. King Edward himself is determined on the arrangement and his officials are inclined to let him have his way. All the same, it poses a considerable risk.’
    The impatient smile-like muscular spasm plucked at Holmes’s mouth.
    â€˜Well, Lestrade, if the King will have it so, there is little you or I can do to stop him. In any case, His Majesty is quite right. If it seems that he dare not set foot in part of his dominions, there is an end of royal authority. You had better let the thing go ahead, my dear fellow.’
    Lestrade looked uncomfortable at this and stroked his moustache.
    â€˜The King—or, rather, His Majesty’s advisers—hoped that you might consent to play a part in the plans, Mr Holmes.’
    This suggestion, made with some timidity, broke the tension in the room. Holmes threw back his head and uttered his dry sardonic laugh.
    â€˜My dear Lestrade! I have so many enemies in the world that I should merely draw fire upon the King. With me at his side, His Majesty would be twice as likely to be shot!’
    â€˜Not at his side,’ Lestrade said quickly. ‘You would have no objection to a visit beforehand to view the arrangements for his safety? Or to being there as an observer for the two days of the visit?’
    Holmes sighed and stretched out his long thin legs towards the fire.