by Otto Penzler
“A lightning-change artist!” I cried.
Holmes, gripping my arm, said, “Not quite, Watson. That is the brother. They are very alike, from this distance.”
We waited in silence, for what seemed an interminable length of time. But no light reappeared. Finally Holmes turned to me. “Watson,” he said, “we have drawn another blank. I should have sworn that the murderer would have struck tonight. I dislike to turn back…”
“My orders, sir, are to remain here until sunrise,” put in the constable. “If you wish to return to the town, rest assured that I shall keep my eyes open.”
“I am sure of it,” said Holmes. “Come, Watson. The game is too wary. We have no more to do here.”
He led me back across the sagging floor, through the door into the mews, and finally brought me out into the street again. But once there, instead of heading up the slope toward where our hansom was waiting, he suddenly drew me into the shadows of an alleyway. I would have spoken, but I felt his bony fingers across my lips. “Shh, Watson. Wait here—and never take your eyes off that doorway.”
We waited, for what seemed an eternity. I stared with all my might at the doorway of the Pendarvis house. But I saw nothing, not even when Holmes gripped my arm.
“Now! Watson,” he whispered, and started out in that direction, I tardily at his heels.
As we came closer I saw that a man was standing with his finger pressed against the Pendarvis doorbell. Holmes and I flung ourselves upon him, but he was a wiry customer, and we for all our superior strength and numbers were flung back and forth like hounds attacking a bear. And then the door was opened suddenly from within, and we all tumbled into a hallway lighted only by a candle held aloft in the hand of the surprised householder.
Our captive suddenly ceased his struggles, and Holmes and I drew back to see that we had succeeded in overcoming none other than Constable Tredennis himself. He held in his right hand an extremely businesslike revolver, which fell to the carpet with a dull thump.
“Mr. Pendarvis,” said Holmes, “Mr. Donal Pendarvis, permit me to introduce you to your intended murderer.”
No one spoke. But the apple-cheeked constable now had a face the color of the under side of a flounder. All thought of resistance was gone. “You are uncanny, Mr. Holmes,” the young man muttered. “How could you know?”
“How could I fail to know?” said Holmes, arranging his disheveled clothing. “It was fairly evident that since there was no citizen in Penzance who possessed both an ability as a marksman, a knowledge of the tides, and an attractive young wife, our man must be a member of the profession where marksmanship is encouraged.” He turned toward the man who still held the candle, though with trembling fingers. “It was also evident that your brother, who still sleeps soundly upstairs, was never intended as a victim at all. Else the murderer would hardly have bothered with warning messages. It was you, Mr. Donal Pendarvis, who was the bull’s-eye of the target.”
“I—I do not understand,” said the man with the candle, backing away. I kept a close grip upon the unresisting form of the prisoner, and watched Holmes as he quietly produced his cherrywood pipe and lighted it.
“There was an excellent motive for Constable Tredennis to murder you, sir,” said Holmes to our unwilling host. “No man cares to have his garden plucked by a stranger. Your death would have begun an inquiry which would have led straight to the husband of the lady you see on Friday nights…”
“That is a black lie!” shouted Tredennis, and then subsided.
“Unless,” Holmes continued quietly, “it was obvious to all the world that Donal Pendarvis was killed by accident, that he met his death at the hands of a madman with an unexplained grudge against his brother Allen. That is why the warning notes so unnecessarily stressed the name of Allen Pendarvis. That is why the murderer-to-be carefully missed his supposed victim and shot out the candle. I did my best, Mr. Pendarvis, to assure your safety by having you taken into custody. That subterfuge failed, and so I was forced to this extreme means.”
Tredennis twisted out of my grasp. “Very well, make an end of it!” he cried. “I admit it all, Mr. Holmes, and shall gladly leave it to a jury of my peers—”
“You had best leave it to me, at the moment,” advised Holmes. “Mr. Pendarvis, you do not know me, but I have saved your life. May I ask a favor in return?”
Donal Pendarvis hesitated. “I am listening,” he said. “You understand, I admit nothing…”
“Of course. I venture to suggest that, instead of remaining here in the household of your brother and amusing yourself with dangerous dalliance, you betake yourself to fields which offer a greater opportunity for the use of your time and energy. The wheat fields of Canada, perhaps, or the veldt of South Africa…”
“And if I refuse?”
“The alternative,” said Holmes, “is an exceedingly unpleasant scandal, involving a lady’s name. Your lawsuit for false arrest will present the yellow press with unusual opportunities, will it not, when they learn that it all arose from an honest attempt upon my part to save your neck from a just punishment?”
Mr. Donal Pendarvis lowered the candle, and a slow smile spread across his handsome face. “I give you my word, Mr. Holmes. I shall leave by the first packet.”
He extended his hand, and Holmes grasped it. And then we turned back into the night, our prisoner between us. We went up the cobbled street in silence, the young constable striding forward as to the gallows.
We found the hansom still waiting, and set off at once for Penzance. But it was Holmes who called on the driver to stop as we pulled into the outskirts of the town.
“Can we drop you off at your dwelling, constable?” he asked.
The young man looked up, his eyes haunted. “Do not make sport of me, Mr. Holmes. You copped me for fair and I am ready to—”
Holmes half-shoved him out of the hansom. “Be off with you, my young friend. You must leave it to me to satisfy your sub-inspector with a story which Doctor Watson and I shall contrive out of moonbeams. For your part, you must make up your own mind as to your tactics in dealing with your Maudie. After all, the immediate problem is removed, and if you wish to transfer to some other duty with less night work, here is my card. I shall be glad to say a word in your behalf to the powers at Scotland Yard.”
The hansom, at Holmes’s signal, rolled onward again, cutting short the incoherent thanks of the chastened young constable.
“I am quite aware of what is in your mind,” said Holmes to me as we approached our destination. “But you are wrong. The ends of justice will be better served by sending our young culprit back to his Maudie instead of by publicly disgracing him…”
“It is of no use, Holmes,” said I firmly. “Nothing that you can say will change my decision. Upon our return to London I shall ask Emilia to become my wife.”
Sherlock Holmes let his hand fall on my shoulder, in a comradely gesture. “So be it. Marry her and keep her. One of these days I shall return to the country and the keeping of bees. We shall see who suffers the sharpest stings.”
PERMISSIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Kingsley Amis: “The Darkwater Hall Mystery” by Kingsley Amis, copyright © 1978 by Kingsley Amis, copyright © 2014 by the Kingsley Amis Estate. Originally published in Playboy (May 1978). Reprinted by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC, on behalf of the Estate of Sir Kingsley Amis.
Poul Anderson: “The Martian Crown Jewels” by Poul Anderson, copyright © 1958 by the Trigonier Trust. Originally published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (February 1958). Reprinted by permission of Karen K. Anderson.
Bliss Austin: “The Final Problem” by Bliss Austin, copyright © 1946 by Bliss Austin. Originally published in The Queen’s Awards, edited by Ellery Queen (Little, Brown and Company, 1946). Reprinted by permission of Winifred Morton and Peter Austin.
Sam Benady: “The Abandoned Brigantine” by Sam Benady, copyright © 1990 by Sam Benady. Originally published in Sherlock Holmes in Gibraltar (Gibraltar Bo
oks, 1990). Reprinted by permission of the author.
Anthony Boucher: “The Adventure of the Bogle-Wolf” by Anthony Boucher, copyright © 1949 by Anthony Boucher. Originally published in Illustrious Client’s Second Case-Book, edited by J. N. Williamson (Indianapolis, Ind.: The Illustrious Clients, 1949). Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.
Carole Buggé: “The Strange Case of the Tongue-Tied Tenor” by Carole Buggé, copyright © 1994 by Carole Buggé. Originally published in The Game Is Afoot, edited by Marvin Kaye (St. Martin’s Press, 1994). Reprinted by permission of the author.
Anthony Burgess: “Murder to Music” by Anthony Burgess, copyright © 1989 by Anthony Burgess. Originally published in The Devil’s Mode, by Anthony Burgess (Random House, 1989). Reprinted by permission of David Higham Associates Limited, London.
Peter Cannon: “The Adventure of the Noble Husband” by Peter Cannon, copyright © 1998 by Peter Cannon. Originally published in The Confidential Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, edited by Marvin Kaye (St. Martin’s Press, 1998). Reprinted by permission of the author.
A. B. Cox: “Holmes and the Dasher” by A. B. Cox, copyright © 1925 by A. B. Cox. Originally published in Jugged Journalism (Herbert Jenkins Ltd., 1925). Reprinted by permission of The Society of Authors, London.
Bill Crider: “The Adventure of the Venomous Lizard” by Bill Crider, copyright © 1999 by Bill Crider. Originally published in The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (revised paperback edition), edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Carol-Lynn Rössel Waugh, and Jon L. Lellenberg (Carroll & Graf, 1999). Reprinted by permission of the author.
David Stuart Davies: “The Darlington Substitution Scandal” by David Stuart Davies, copyright © 1997 by David Stuart Davies. Originally published in The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures, edited by Mike Ashley (Robinson, 1997). Reprinted by permission of the author.
Barry Day: “The Adventure of the Curious Canary” by Barry Day, copyright © 2002 by Barry Day. Originally published in Murder, My Dear Watson, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Jon Lellenberg, and Daniel Stashower (Carroll & Graf, 2002). Reprinted by permission of Peters, Fraser & Dunlop (www.petersfraserdunlop.com), on behalf of the author.
August Derleth: “The Adventure of the Remarkable Worm” by August Derleth, copyright © 1952 by August Derleth. Originally published in Three Problems for Solar Pons by August Derleth (Mycroft & Moran, 1952). Reprinted by permission of Arkham House Publishers.
Colin Dexter: “A Case of Mis-Identity” by Colin Dexter, copyright © 1989 by Colin Dexter. Originally published in Winter’s Crimes, edited by Hilary Hale (Macmillan, 1989). Reprinted by permission of the author.
Loren D. Estleman: “The Devil and Sherlock Holmes” by Loren D. Estleman, copyright © 2006 by Loren D. Estleman. Originally published in Ghosts of Baker Street, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Jon Lellenberg, and Daniel Stashower (Carroll & Graf, 2006). Reprinted by permission of the author.
Lyndsay Faye: “The Case of Colonel Warburton’s Madness” by Lyndsay Faye, copyright © 2009 by Lyndsay Faye. Originally published in Sherlock Holmes in America, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Jon L. Lellenberg, and Daniel Stashower (Skyhorse Publishing, 2009). Reprinted by permission of the author.
Robert L. Fish: “The Adventure of the Ascot Tie” by Robert L. Fish, copyright © 1960 by the Mamie K. Fish Revocable Trust. Originally published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (February 1960). Reprinted by permission of Cathy Burns, trustee of the Mamie K. Fish Revocable Trust.
Neil Gaiman: “The Case of Death and Honey” by Neil Gaiman, copyright © 2011 by Neil Gaiman. Originally published in A Study in Sherlock: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon Anthology, edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger (Bantam Books, 2011). Reprinted by permission of Writers House Inc., on behalf of the author.
Davis Grubb: “The Brown Recluse” by Davis Grubb, copyright © 1979 by Davis Grubb. Originally published in Shadows 3, edited by Charles L. Grant (Doubleday, 1980). Reprinted by permission of Susan Grubb and Trevor McNeill, proprietors of the Estate of Davis Grubb.
H. F. Heard: “The Enchanted Garden” by H. F. Heard, copyright © 1949 by the American Mercury, Inc., copyright renewed 1976 by Davis Publications, Inc. Copyright transferred to the Barrie Family Trust. Originally published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (March 1949). Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated.
Edward D. Hoch: “The Adventure of the Cipher in the Sand” by Edward D. Hoch, copyright © 1999 by Edward D. Hoch (The Mysterious Bookshop, 1999). Reprinted by permission of Patricia M. Hoch.
Dorothy B. Hughes: “Sherlock Holmes and the Muffin” by Dorothy B. Hughes, copyright © 1987 by Dorothy B. Hughes. Originally published in The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, edited by Martin Harry Greenberg and Carol-Lynn Rössel Waugh (Carroll & Graf, 1987). Permission granted by Blanche C. Gregory Inc., on behalf of the Dorothy B. Hughes Trust.
Stuart M. Kaminsky: “The Man from Capetown” by Stuart M. Kaminsky, copyright © 2001 by Double Tiger Productions, Inc. Originally published in Murder in Baker Street: New Tales of Sherlock Holmes, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Jon L. Lellenberg, and Daniel Stashower (Carroll & Graf, 2001). Reprinted by permission of Double Tiger Productions, Inc.
H. R. F. Keating: “A Trifling Affair” by H. R. F. Keating, copyright © 1980 by H. R. F. Keating. Originally published in John Creasey’s Crime Collection, edited by Herbert Harris (Gollancz, 1980). Reprinted by permission of Sheila Keating.
Laurie R. King: “Mrs. Hudson’s Case” by Laurie R. King, copyright © 1997 by Laurie R. King. Originally published in Crime Through Time, edited by Miriam Grace Monfredo and Sharan Newman (Berkley, 1997). Reprinted by permission of the author.
Stephen King: “The Doctor’s Case” by Stephen King, copyright © 1987 by Stephen King. Originally published in The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, edited by Martin Harry Greenberg and Carol-Lynn Rössel Waugh (Carroll & Graf, 1987) and collected in Nightmares & Dreamscapes, by Stephen King (Pocket Books, 2009). Print and electronic rights outside of North America are administered by Hodder and Stoughton Limited. Reprinted by permission of Darhansoff & Verrill Literary Agents and Hodder and Stoughton Limited. All rights reserved.
Hugh Kingsmill: “The Ruby of Khitmandu” by Arth_r C_n_n D_yle and E. W. H_rn_ng, copyright © 1932 by Hugh Kingsmill. Originally published in The Bookman (April 1932). Reprinted by permission of the Executor of the Estate of Hugh Kingsmill.
Leslie S. Klinger: “The Adventure of the Wooden Box” by Leslie S. Klinger, copyright © 1999 by Leslie S. Klinger (The Mysterious Bookshop, 1999). Reprinted by permission of the author.
Jon Koons: “The Adventure of the Missing Countess” by Jon Koons, copyright © 1994 by Jon Koons. Originally published in The Game Is Afoot, edited by Marvin Kaye (St. Martin’s Press, 1994). Reprinted by permission of the author.
Tanith Lee: “The Human Mystery” by Tanith Lee, copyright © 1999 by Tanith Lee. Originally printed in More Holmes for the Holidays, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Jon L. Lellenberg, and Carol-Lynn Waugh (Berkley, 1999). Reprinted by permission of the author.
John T. Lescroart: “The Adventure of the Giant Rat of Sumatra” by John T. Lescroart, copyright © 1997 by Lescroart Corporation. Originally published in Mary Higgins Clark Mystery Magazine (Summer/Fall 1997). Reprinted by permission of the author.
John Lutz: “The Infernal Machine” by John Lutz, copyright © 1987 by John Lutz. Originally published in The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, edited by Martin Harry Greenberg and Carol-Lynn Rössel Waugh (Carroll & Graf, 1987). Reprinted by permission of the author.
J. C. Masterman: “The Case of the Gifted Amateur” by J. C. Masterman, copyright © 1952 by J. C. Masterman. Originally published in MacKill’s Mystery Magazine (December 1952). Reprinted by permission of Peters, Fraser & Dunlop (www.petersfraserdunlop.com), on behalf of the Estate of J. C. Masterman.
Kenneth Millar: “The South Sea Soup Co.” by Kenneth Millar, copyright © 1931 by Kenneth Millar.
Originally published in The Grumbler (1931). Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates, on behalf of Margaret Millar Charitable Remainder Trust.
Michael Moorcock: “The Adventure of the Dorset Street Lodger” by Michael Moorcock, copyright © 1993 by Michael and Linda Moorcock. Originally published in The Adventure of the Dorset Street Lodger, by Michael Moorcock, privately printed for David Shapiro and Joe Piggott, 1993. Reprinted with permission of the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency, Inc.
Christopher Morley: “Codeine (7 Per Cent)” by Christopher Morley, copyright © 1945 by Christopher Morley, copyright renewed 1973 by John Christopher Woodruff. Originally published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (November 1945). Reprinted by permission of John Christopher Woodruff, Executor of the Estate of Christopher Morley.
Stuart Palmer: “The Adventure of the Marked Man” by Stuart Palmer, copyright © 1944 by The American Mercury, Inc. for Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, copyright renewed. Originally published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (July 1944). Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Stuart Palmer and JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.
Anne Perry: “Hostage to Fortune” by Anne Perry, copyright © 1999 by Anne Perry. Originally published in The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (revised paperback edition), edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Jon L. Lellenberg, and Carol-Lynn Rössel Waugh (Carroll & Graf, 1999). Reprinted by permission of Donald Maass Literary Agency, on behalf of the author.
Thomas Perry: “The Startling Events in the Electrified City” by Thomas Perry, copyright © 2011 by Thomas Perry. Originally published in A Study in Sherlock, edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger (Bantam Books, 2011). Reprinted by permission of the author.
Daniel Stashower: “The Adventure of the Agitated Actress” by Daniel Stashower, copyright © 2002 by Daniel Stashower. Originally published in Murder, My Dear Watson, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Jon L. Lellenberg, and Daniel Stashower (Carroll & Graf, 2002). Reprinted by permission of the author.
