by Hugh Ashton
“ And the other members of the committee that met that day ? ”
“ I met these two for the first time on that occasion. One is a highly regarded manufacturer of patent medicines, and the other is a peer of the realm.”
“ I would hardly regard a peerage as a guarantee of honesty,” Holmes remarked sardonically.
“ Lord Fardindale is a well-known member of Society, and in his seventy-five years of life, his honesty, insofar as I am able to ascertain, has never been called into question. It is in the case of Mr. Edward Loughton that I have my doubts. He candidly admitted to an interest in old silver at the meeting and openly admired many of the pieces on display in the room where the meeting was held.”
“ It is he whom you suspect, then ? ”
“ I fear so. I have made enquiries, as discreetly as is possible for me under the circumstances, but there has never been any suspicion that his fine collection of silver plate has been obtained by any means other than the usual legal methods — that is to say through purchases from dealers and at auctions and so on.”
“ And your wish is to discover the purloiner of this spoon, and to bring the malefactor to justice ? ”
“ No, no, Holmes. Were this to be made public, the reputation of all the members of the committee would suffer by association. This must be done as quietly and unobtrusively as possible, without bringing the Society into disrepute. I have no doubt that you are able to accomplish this, given the accounts that Dr. Watson here has provided of your methods of working.”
“ Very well, I will attempt the case. By the by, can you provide a detailed description of the missing piece of silverware ? ”
“ I can do better than that. Here is another one of the set of six spoons.” He withdrew a chamois leather roll from his breast pocket, and unwrapped it to reveal a small silver spoon.
“ May I retain this ? ” asked Holmes.
“ I had a premonition that you would make that request. If you will sign this receipt, my mind will be eased, however.” Holmes signed the paper, and our client made his farewells.
When we were alone, Holmes laughed in the mirthless way that was so characteristic of his moods. “ He has not changed, Watson. Did you notice one thing about the conversation just now ? ”
“ No mention was made of your fee ? ”
“ Precisely. He was always reluctant to spend money as a schoolboy, and it appears that nothing has changed. You remarked the soles of his boots, for example ? Or perhaps you failed to observe the collars and cuffs of his shirt ? ”
“ He would appear to be generous enough to his poor little surviving child,” I defended him.
“ Maybe that is so,” Holmes grudgingly admitted, “ but it seems plain to me that he still has long pockets and short arms, as our friends north of the Border would put it.”
“ Your first port of call will be this Mr. Edward Loughton ? ”
“ It is indeed the obvious place to start, but in cases like this, it may well pay me to distrust the obvious. I think that we shall begin our investigations with the Rural Dean mentioned here. We may well learn more from his description of Mr. Loughton than would be possible from an interview with the man himself. Come, let us to Dulwich.”
On arrival at the house of the Reverend Frederick Bastable, we were ushered into a well-fitted room, on two sides of which stood display cabinets filled with what appeared to my eyes to be a priceless display of antique silver objects, some of them seemingly from the days of Good Queen Bess, or even before that time.
“ It would seem strange for a man who is already in possession of this quantity of silver to purloin a single spoon,” I remarked.
“ Strange, but by no means unknown,” Holmes commented. “ The collecting passion is a strange one.”
As he finished speaking, our host entered — a tall thin man of strangely ascetic appearance, who greeted Holmes and myself with some warmth.
Without further ado, Holmes launched into a tale of how he, as a collector of silver objets, wished to make the acquaintance of other collectors, and that the good clergyman’s name had been provided to him by Edward Laughton.
“ Ah, Laughton,” answered the other. “ I know him well. Indeed, we serve on the same committee together in a charity dedicated to good works among the poor and destitute. A most estimable man, to be sure, if inclined to impulsive action from time to time.”
I have previously mentioned that Sherlock Holmes displayed an extraordinary depth of knowledge on an equally extraordinary range of subjects, and so it was here, where he rattled on about scroll feet, fluted rims, and other minutiae of which I was completely ignorant. At length this baffling conversation came to an end and we were let out of the house.
I could not refrain from asking Holmes from where he had acquired the stock of knowledge which he had just displayed, and he gave his answer as follows.
“ One never knows, my dear Watson, just when knowledge will turn out to have its uses. I retain in the lumber-room of my brain the details of many such branches of learning, in the expectation that they will at some time, as on the present occasion, fill a need.”
“ And your view of the good Laughton ? ”
“ Let us determine, shall we, what exactly was meant by the description given to us, that of ‘impulsive’.”
Within the hour we were seated in the drawing-room of Mr. Edward Laughton, who had professed himself to be a great fan of my friend’s work, and indeed, displayed some powers of observation of his own, correctly deducing that I had sat on the right side of the hansom that had delivered us to his door, based on the mud splashes on the side of my trousers.
“ ’Pon my word, Mr. Laughton,” exclaimed Holmes, chuckling, “ if you continue in this fashion, I will have to seek other employment.”
“ Hardly that,” answered the other. “ I fear that my general build and appearance tell against me in that regard.”
Indeed, Mr. Laughton was of a corpulent build, and it was hard for me to imagine him pursuing malefactors through the streets of London in the same way as did my friend.
“ Well,” laughed Sherlock Holmes, “ perhaps I am safe for the present as regards competition in my profession. May I ask you about the charity committee meeting that you attended at the house of Mr. Bourne-Hunter some two days ago ? ”
“ I will tell you. It was not what one would term an event that was filled with excitement. Indeed, the principal interest for me was provided by the presence of some fine Queen Anne rat-tailed spoons provided for us to stir our tea. I am something of an amateur in that line, do you see, and these struck me as being particularly fine examples of their type. One thing struck me as being somewhat strange, and that was that there were only five spoons of that type provided for us, though such spoons were commonly sold in sets of half a dozen. One must have become lost at an earlier date. A pity. A complete set would be much more valuable from the collector’s point of view.”
“ A pity indeed,” agreed Holmes. “ And there was nothing that struck you as untoward about the gathering ? ”
The other hesitated, and appeared reluctant to speak. “ I hardly like to speak against a man of the cloth, especially one as highly placed and well regarded as the Reverend Bastable, but…” His voice trailed off, and we waited in silence for a little before he resumed his speech. “ It seemed to me that the reverend gentleman appeared to be a little too interested, perhaps, in the spoons I have just mentioned. But maybe it is my fancy. Were I a covetous man, Mr. Holmes, I would covet those spoons, but it is not a vice to which I consider myself to be subject.”
“ That is most interesting,” replied my friend. “ I thank you for your hospitality, and I am extremely grateful for the information. As you ar
e no doubt aware, even the smallest of clues can help unravel a puzzle. I am not at liberty to inform you of the nature of the puzzle at present, but hope to be able to do so in a short while. A very good day to you, sir.”
With that, we took our leave, but had hardly started walking down the street, when the front door of the house we had just quitted burst open, with Laughton fairly bounding out, calling Holmes’ name, and brandishing a square of paper.
We turned back to meet him, as he ran to us as fast as his constitution would permit.
“ This dropped from your pocket as you were leaving ! ” he told Holmes, handing my friend the paper, which transpired to be a Bank of England five-pound note. “ I could not let you depart without it.”
Holmes received the money with equanimity, but gravely thanked our erstwhile host, folding the money into his pocket-book and replacing it with care before bidding a second farewell.
“ And that, Watson, has taken care of that little matter,” he remarked as we hailed a cab. “ Just one more trial, and we are done.”
On arrival at Baker-street, Holmes immediately subjected the spoon to some chemical tests at his bench, which appeared to satisfy him as to the results.
“ I think I may now safely pay a visit to Mr. Bourne-Hunter,” he informed me. “ Do you wish to accompany me ? ”
“ I am astounded that you feel the need to ask me that question,” I retorted. “ Of course I will be with you.”
“ Good old Watson,” he laughed. “ This promises to be amusing.”
On arrival at our destination, Holmes explained to Bourne-Hunter that he did not believe that any of the committee members had purloined the missing item.
“ In which case, where is it ? ” asked the other, irascibly.
“ Maybe we can discover the answer by cleaning the spoon you were kind enough to lend me. It has acquired a little tarnish. Maybe your butler would be good enough to guide us to the pantry where the silver is cleaned.”
“ As it happens, with the more valuable pieces, such as these spoons, I myself take responsibility for their care. I will take you to the aluminium bowl that I use for this. A bath of salt and baking soda in the bowl removes tarnish without subjecting the pieces to excessive rubbing, which can damage the more delicate items.”
In a room obviously dedicated to such purposes stood the aforementioned bowl, into which Bourne-Hunter placed the spoon. “ Since it is not excessively tarnished,” he informed us, “ a few minutes should suffice for its cleaning.”
At the end of that time, he plunged his hand into the mixture, and gave a cry of surprise.
“ There are two spoons in here ! ” he exclaimed.
“ I had rather fancied there would be,” remarked Holmes.
“ You mean to tell me that the missing spoon was here all the time and that I have been thinking ill of…” His voice sank to a whisper. “ Dear me. What a miserable sinner I am to think so ill of my fellow man. How can I ever come to terms with myself ? ”
“ That, my dear fellow, is none of my concern. My task was to locate the spoon. All other matters are a matter between you and your conscience.”
As we sat in our rooms in Baker-street, I asked Holmes how he had come to the correct conclusion regarding the location of the missing object.
“ Though I do not a priori reject a man of the cloth as a potential offender in such matters, I saw nothing in the manner or behaviour of the Reverend Bastable that would cause me to place him under suspicion. A man who displays his purchased collection as openly as does he would surely not hide the fruits of less legal acquisitions. And Laughton impressed me both by the power of his observation, as you saw, and his honesty in returning the banknote that I dropped on his floor as we were leaving. From this, I was reasonably sure that only five spoons had been presented for use. Since a thorough search of the house had revealed no trace of the missing spoon, I was forced to conclude that it had been mislaid in the journey from the case to the table. And where better than when it was being cleaned prior to its public appearance ? ”
“ I assume that the chemical tests that you made on your sample spoon informed you of the method used for its cleaning ? ”
“ Indeed they did. And when I discovered that no servant was employed for the purpose, but that the cleaning was performed by an enthusiastic, but incompetent, amateur, the links in the chain were complete.”
“ A triumph en petit, I would say,” I laughed.
“ Maybe, maybe,” he agreed. “ But it is well to remember that the same techniques may be used to track down either a missing spoon, or a murderer. The same principles apply to each. And now I suggest that we take our supper, where cutlery will play a different role.”
If You Enjoyed These Stories …
You may enjoy some other adventures ofSherlock Holmes by Hugh Ashton, who has been described in The District Messenger, the newsletter of the Sherlock Holmes Society ofLondon, as being “one of the best writers of new Sherlock Holmes stories, in both plotting and style”.
Volumes so far (all published by Inknbeans Press) include :
Tales from the Deed Box of John H. Watson MD
More from the Deed Box of John H. Watson MD
Secrets from the Deed Box of John H. Watson MD
The Darlington Substitution (novel)
Notes from the Dispatch-Box of John H. Watson MD
Further Notes from the Dispatch-Box of John H. Watson MD
The Reigate Poisoning Case : Concluded
The Death of Cardinal Tosca (novel)
Without my Boswell
The Trepoff Murder (ebook only)
The first three “Deed Box” volumes have been bound together with The Trepoff Murder in a hardcover volume entitled :
The Deed Box of John H. Watson MD
There are also three children’s detective stories, with beautiful illustrations by Andy Boerger :
Sherlock Ferret and the Missing Necklace
Sherlock Ferret and the Multiplying Masterpieces
Sherlock Ferret and the Poisoned Pond
Full details of all of these at :
http://221BeanBakerStreet.info
Hugh Ashton has also written At the Sharpe End (aTokyo-based thriller) and a collection of short stories, Tales of Old Japanese (both Inknbeans Press) as well as two acclaimed alternative histories : Beneath Gray Skies and Red Wheels Turning (j-views).
About Inknbeans Press
Inknbeans Press is all about the ultimate reading experience. We believe books are the greatest treasures of mankind. In them are held all the history, fantasy, hope and horror of humanity. We can experience the past, dream of the future, understand how everything works from an atomic clock to the human heart. We can explore our souls, fight epic battles, swoon in love. We can fly, we can run, we can cross mighty oceans and endless universes. We can invite ancient cultures into our living room, and walk on the moon. And if we can do it with a decent cup of coffee beside us...well, what more can we ask, right?
Visit the Web site at www.inknbeans.com
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[1] Included inSecrets from the Deed Box of John H. Watson MD, Hugh Ashton, pub. Inknbeans Press, 2012
