Sherlock Holmes in Pursuit by Matthew J Elliott

Author:Matthew J Elliott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sherlock Holmes, mystery, crime, british crime, sherlock holmes novels
ISBN: 9781780924113
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2013
Published: 2013-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

The Adventure Of The Hanging Tyrant

1. A Letter From A Client

I believe I can say with all honesty that, following a period of several years during which he was believed dead by all but two people, nowhere was the surprise and disbelief resulting from the return of Mr Sherlock Holmes to public life felt more powerfully than in my own household. After the death of my beloved wife, I had dedicated my life and, save for a few hours a week spent at my club, all of my time to my medical practice. To the extent that any man who has lost that which made his life meaningful can be said to be happy, I believe I can claim that I was happy. Or, at the very least, I was not unhappy, which doubtless amounts to the same thing.

But in the spring of the year 1894, I was astonished to discover that my friend Sherlock Holmes was not dead, but alive and well and standing before me in the study of my Kensington home, having evaded the clutches of his arch-nemesis, the late Professor Moriarty. Now, some months later, I stood alone in that same study contemplating the wallpaper for which I had never truly cared but had voiced no objection to when my dear wife Mary had selected it. ‘The bright colours will cheer your patients, James,’ she had said. In truth, there was nothing else left in the room to contemplate, all of my possessions being stored currently in the furniture van waiting at my front door. I am no longer certain exactly how I reached my decision, but I had chosen to throw in my lot with Holmes once more and return to the Baker Street address which had been my home for many years during my bachelor days. Was I mad to hope that I would again be swept up in the hectic adventures that had been such an essential part of my existence for the best part of a decade? To my knowledge, Holmes had already turned down one potential and influential client just a few weeks earlier. I was by no means completely comfortable with this change of direction in my life, but I made it simply for the sake of doing something. I might just as easily have boarded a vessel bound for Australia or attempted to rejoin my old regiment. Holmes’ reappearance in my life had filled me not with a sense of relief but one of total confusion. My wife was dead and my best friend, whom I had believed dead, was alive. The situation was the cause of many contradictory emotions, none of which I would have dreamed of burdening Holmes with and none of which, I am pleased to say, I can recall accurately today.

A fist rapped politely on the open door behind me.

‘I shan’t be much longer,’ said I, over my shoulder. ‘I am almost ready to go.’

‘I am delighted to hear you say so,’ a well-known voice replied.

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