by Sam Hearn
people were coming up with all
kinds of crazy ideas about
the Alpine Star, and for some
reason James was in a worse
mood than usual all day long.
Ms DeRossi looked distracted,
like she had other things on
her mind. I’m sure that’s the only reason we
didn’t all end up in detention!
I’m going round Martha’s later with Sherlock so
maybe we can pick his brains a bit more about
where the Alpine Star might be. One thing’s for
sure, all this is giving me some great ideas for
stories…
86
8
Dear reader – here is mystery! Spines will tingle
and bones will be chilled! Dear reader, here is
adventure! It is with you at every turn! Be sure
that no one is following you, and watch where
you are stepping! And, dear reader, here is
excitement! Yes, indeed. Heart-pounding, brain-
busting, mind-meddling excitement.
But what does it all mean? What is mystery
without a set of clues? What is adventure,
without the adventurer? And what is a
problem without a solution? The answer can
only be found by the most amazing, the most
astounding, the most extraordinary companion
a person could have. Why, it’s none other than
our four-legged friend. Wait for it now, dear
reader…
Yes, here he comes…
It’s Baskerville
the wonder dog!
88
Catching crime firmly in his jaws. Grrr!
Sniffing out suspicion!
Woof!
Doggedly detecting
the dastardly villain,
who can only be
named as…
Oh really, John. Don’t you
think you’re getting a bit too
theatrical? I know you just can’t
stop yourself, but it might help if
you stuck to the facts!
Hey! I’m just having
bit of fun, Sherlock.
Anyway, I can’t help
it. It’s all so exciting!
And weird!
I just wanted to
get some of the
craziness out of
my head.
Besides, wouldn’t it be
cool if Baskerville really
was a super detective
dog?
Maybe he could help us
find out what’s happened
to the Alpine Star!
Ha ha! Fat chance! I reckon
Baskerville’s more interested in
sniffing out dirty socks
and sausages.
We were at Martha’s, hanging out after school.
For ages, Sherlock had just been been sitting
in a chair, staring off into space and eating
those disgusting sweets of his. But now he was
striding around the room, waving his arms (and
my iPad) around excitedly.
“Facts, John, we must stick to the facts!
And we need more of them. Although …” he
looked thoughtfully at my story again, “in some
ways you’re not too far off here, even if you
don’t realize it.” Martha looked over at me and
I rolled my eyes. Sherlock never just tells you
what he’s thinking... It can get pretty annoying
sometimes, but who knows what’s going on in
that head?
One thing was certain; I wasn’t
getting my iPad back any time
soon.
“Yes. There’s something to be
said for the merits of a good
dog in clue-hunting and problem-
solving,” said Sherlock. “Like the
time somebody locked Mr Phelps in
the computer cupboard, then piled
all the tables up outside the door,
just for good measure.”
90
“Ha ha! Yeah, I remember that,” Martha
interrupted. “It was so funny!”
“Mr Phelps went totally bonkers, banging on the
door for a good half an
hour, but no one could
hear him. All the teachers
knew he was missing but
no one could find him.”
“So … what’s
Baskerville got to do
with that then?” I said.
“It turned out that
Moriarty and his chums had locked him in there.
“I had Baskerville get the scent of custard
creams from the tin in the staffroom – knowing
that Mr Phelps was a big fan – and he sniffed
his way to the cupboard in no time!
“But never mind that, John – the point is that
just thinking about Baskerville has given me a
brilliant idea! You don’t need to go home yet, do
you? No? Good. Because we’re going back to
school. It’s nearly time for walkies!”
I had no clue what this brilliant idea of his was,
and I didn’t know how it could have anything
91
to do with Baskerville or the Alpine Star. But
I don’t think I need to tell you that nothing is
ever obvious with Sherlock.
Luckily, Sherlock’s plans for later that evening
didn’t involve locking teachers in cupboards. But
unluckily for me, they weren’t much better. And
apparently we did need some custard creams...
92
OK, readers! Any time there’s a stinker of a
problem, you need help from the best nose in
town. (Or school, in this case.) So today we’re
going to see if we can get some help from our
favourite furry chum, Baskerville.
So, Baskerville, what do you say? You wanna
help us?
Woof!
93
OK, great! That’s one woof for yes. Well, then,
let’s get start
Oh, hang on! That’s two woofs for no … so it’s
not a yes, after all? Well, that must mea
Three woofs! Well, now that’s confusing. Is that
a yes or a no, Baskerville, old chum?
OK, OK. And he’s off!
It looks like that’s all we’ve got time for today.
That’s one dog who sure NOSE what he wants!
See you next time, readers!
Woof!
Woof!
AROOOOOOOOOO
Woof!
Woof!
Woof!
_
_
Ms.
DeRossi’s
Office
94
DeRossi’s
Office
95
96
“Err… Do you really think we should be
doing this?”
That was all I could think as we were
scrabbling through the window in the dark. I mean,
you don’t need to be a brainiac
to know that it wasn’t a good
idea to be sneaking around in
school after hours…
AT ALL.
98
And I absolutely, definitely didn’t think it
was a good idea to be sneaking around in Ms
DeRossi’s office…
To be honest though those were the sorts of
questions I should’ve asked myself earlier. Before
I joined Baker Street Academy. Those were the
sort of questions I would’ve asked myself before I
met Sherlock Holmes. A bit late for that now!
“Really, John. There’s no need for ants in
your pants,” said Sherlock, full of confidence.
“The window was already open, wasn’t it? And
the caretaker, Mr Musgrave, takes Baskerville
for his walk now so the coast is clear.”
“Well, I think it’s crazy!” At least Martha
agreed with me... “But I like it! What are we
looking for anyway? And why Ms DeRossi’s
office?” she asked as we swung our torch
beams around the room.
99
“Well, actually
there’s something I
didn’t tell you two
before…” Sherlock was
already busy rummaging
around Ms DeRossi’s
desk. “When the alarm
went off at the museum
and I slipped through
the fire exit door, someone had gone through
just ahead of me. And that person was…”
“Ms DeRossi!” gasped Martha.
““What?” I pointed my torch over to
Sherlock. “Are you saying that Ms DeRossi is
mixed up in trying to pinch the Alpine Star? Wait
a minute – are we looking for the real jewel? In
Ms DeRossi’s office?!”
“Ha! Don’t be silly, John… At least I don’t
think we are anyway.”
“But—”
“We’re looking for anything
of interest. Anything that can
help us start piecing things
together. Like this! Yes! And most
definitely this! Not exactly what I
was expecting, but definitely what
I would call suggestive!”
“What? What have you found?”
Martha was getting excited and I could feel the
hairs stand up on the back of my neck.
101
“Take a look for yourself,” said Sherlock,
shining the torch down on to the desk.
“Blimey! She really loves that exhibition,”
Martha said. “That’s, like, thirty tickets.”
“And that’s not all.”
“Moriarty’s school file?”
“Well – he is in trouble a lot,” sighed Holmes.
“But look at this…”
“A staff badge. How did she…?”
“Never mind that, John. I’ve seen what I
needed to see and we’ve got about five minutes
to get out of here before Mr Musgrave comes
back around the corner from walkies with
Baskerville! Come on, Martha.”
Sherlock’s brain works so fast. I still wasn’t
sure exactly what we’d just seen, but as we
skulked off into the shadows and out of the
school grounds, I couldn’t get one small thing
out of my mind…
“Hey! Why did I need to bring the biscuits!?”
“Ha ha! That bit was my idea, John,”
sniggered Martha. “Well, we’ve got to have a
snack!”
Sherlock didn’t turn up at school the
next day. Martha didn’t seem to know
where he was either, but she didn’t seem
too bothered about
it. Typical. I was
nervous about asking
Ms DeRossi where he
was in case my face
gave anything away
– but finally I did,
and she just said that Sherlock wouldn’t
be coming in today as he was sick. She
looked preoccupied as though she had
bigger things on her mind, and for the
second day in a row she let us watch a
video instead of working.
Sick, eh? Well, he hadn’t looked sick
to me last night…
When I didn’t hear anything from
Sherlock over the weekend either I
was really starting to get worried.
Martha said he was probably off doing
something with his brother, but that
didn’t make it any better. Instead she
forced me to work on our Victorian
project, which we had to present to the
class on Monday afternoon.
9
By Monday morning my head was about
to explode, so imagine my astonishment when
Martha and I arrived at the library to do some
last-minute work on our project ... only to find
Sherlock sitting there waiting at a desk without
a care in the world, as if we’d only just
seen him five minutes ago.
Ah, Watson.
Martha.
How are you both today? Let me tell you - there
is nothing quite like a good bit of exercise before
breakfast!
Sherlock! We’ve nearly
worried ourselves to death.
Is everything all right?
Everything is splendid! In fact, I’d say it couldn’t be
better. I’ve been doing some digging. Our Alpine Star
has quite a history to it. It would seem that there
have been arguments over who rightfully owns it since
the very day of its discovery. It really does make for
interesting reading…
104
My head felt like it was going to burst. How
many more times would Sherlock astonish me? I
guess I should’ve been getting used to it!
But I didn’t have long to think about it – it
was time for us to present our Victorian project
to the class.
Ours went down a treat. Me and Martha and
Sherlock had decided to dress up like Victorians
using some of the clothes that we found at
Martha’s house and we acted out a
little scene that Sherlock
had found in one of
the dusty old journals
in the attic, about the
detective Sherinford.
I was pretty sure no
one else was going to
do anything as cool as
that. It was like being
Victorian superheroes
or something!
Show
-&-
Tell
Sherlock and Martha played Victorian
detectives and I played the writer of the story,
telling their spine-chilling adventures. The best
bit was that Martha had borrowed Baskerville
for the afternoon too, so he really did get to
be a detective super dog, even if it was just for
five minutes!
It was fun to see how much effort everyone
else had put into their projects. Martin and
Henry had built an amazing model of the
Victorian Crystal Palace, like the one we’d seen
at the museum, out of
hundreds of wooden
coffee-stirrers. It
was hardly surprising
it was so good. If
it wasn’t enough
they had a police
inspector dad, their
mum is a genius
architect!
…And when we visit museums, we should think about who
actually owns the amazing objects that we’re looking at.
Many of them have been stolen or traded over the course
of their history. War and greed, lies and deceit have often
played a part. History never questions the winners, of
course, and it’s very difficult for the owners to get their
property back.
Take the ancient Marb
les, or the roman pillars
for example.
Or even simple family
heirlooms like the
Gelder Napoleons…
107
But the biggest surprise of all was James’s
presentation. It was about why museums get to
keep objects belonging to other countries. For
once he seemed really serious and not at all
snarky.
…There are still people who question the ownership
of some of our most treasured items like the Alpine
Star and want to see these precious artefacts
returned to their … rightful owners. It’s amazing
what lengths some people will go to in order to
make sure they get artefacts back. The trouble is
that museums are filled with people who will insist
on interfering in other people’s business. Don’t you
think so, Sherlock?
“This is actually pretty good,” I whispered to
Sherlock. “Hey, isn’t that the same statue of
Napoleon that I drew that day at the museum,
before the Alpine Star went missing?”
“Yes, it is, John. Yes, it is.” Sherlock said
thoughtfully.
I have to admit that it was really
interesting! Ms DeRossi was impressed too,
I could tell – she was staring at James
open-mouthed. It was a shame that James
just couldn’t resist a dig at Sherlock though.
Something bad’s going to happen with them
soon, I just know it. Not that Sherlock looked
too bothered. In fact he had one of those
looks on his face and I knew that his megabrain
was clicking into gear…
108
BREAKING NEWS!
BREAKING NEWS!
We were all milling about in the corridor after
class when Sherlock’s pocket started buzzing.
“How very interesting!” he said quietly,
showing me his phone. “Don’t you think so,
John?”
It was a text message – I assume from his
brother, Mycroft.
“Interesting?! I’d
say so. Pietro Vencini
is the—”
“Precisely, John.
The thief.”
Sherlock was
tapping away furiously.
