There sat Sherlock Holmes in his favourite chair, calmly filling his cherrywood pipe from the Persian slipper. He lifted his lean face to smile at me.
“Thank God you are safe,” I muttered, half falling into my own chair across from him.
He was on his feet in an instant and at the sideboard. He poured a stiff drink of brandy into a glass. I took it and drank, slowly and gratefully.
“You have been here all the time?” I managed to ask as he sat down again.
“Not quite all the time,” he said, as easily as though we were idly chatting. “On last Sunday night, at the first news of disaster heading up from Surrey into London, I escorted Mrs Hudson to the railroad station. At first I had had some thought of sending her to Norfolk alone, but the crowds were big and unruly, and so I went with her to Donnithorpe, her old home. She has relatives at the inn, and they were glad to welcome her. News came to me there. On Monday, the flight from London moved eastward to the seashore, well below Donnithorpe, with Martians in pursuit of the crowd of fugitives. Then came comparative quiet with no apparent move into Norfolk. On Wednesday I returned here, cautiously, on foot for a good part of the way, to look out for you.”
“I was with poor Murray up at Highgate,” I said. “He has died. Perhaps it is as well to die, in the face of all this horror.”
“Not according to my estimate of the situation,” he said. “But to resume. I have hoped for your return ever since I reached here on Thursday evening. I have hoped, too, for word from my friend, Professor Challenger. But you must be hungry, Watson.”
I remembered that I was. On the table was a plate of cracknels and a plate of sardines, with a bottle of claret. Eagerly I ate and drank as I told of my adventures.
“You have mentioned Professor Challenger to me, I think,” I said between mouthfuls. “Just who is he?”
“One of England’s most brilliant zoologists, and vividly aware of his own attainments. He would say, the most brilliant by far.”
“You speak as though he is of a tremendous egotism.”
“And that is true, though in his case it is pardonable. But do you remember a magazine article some time back, an account of an egg-shaped crystal that reflected strange scenes and creatures?”
“Yes, because you and I looked at it together. I do not care for its author, H. G. Wells, but I read it because young Jacoby Wace, the assistant demonstrator at St Catherine’s, was concerned. He said that the crystal had vanished.”
“So it had,” nodded Holmes, his manner strangely self-satisfied.
“Wace told Wells that before he could secure that crystal from the curiosity shop where it had been taken, a tall, dark man in grey had bought it and vanished beyond reach.”
“And what does that tall, dark man in grey suggest to you?” inquired Holmes casually.
“To me? Why, nothing in particular.”
“Really, Watson, and you always admired my grey suit I got at Shingleton’s.”
I almost choked on a bit of cracknel. “Do you mean that you got possession of that crystal?”
“I did indeed. Challenger and I have studied it, and I left it at his home for his further observations. So, you see, we are not wholly unprepared for this voyage across space from Mars to Earth. When the first cylinder struck at Woking, a week ago last Friday, I hurried at once to Challenger’s home in West Kensington. His wife said that he had joined the scientists at Woking, but I could not find him when I went there myself. I fear he may have been killed by the heat-ray, along with Ogilvy of the observatory there, and Stent, the Astronomer Royal.”
“May I come in?” boomed a great voice from the passage outside.
THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
THE ECTOPLASMIC MAN
Daniel Stashower
When Harry Houdini is framed and jailed for espionage, Sherlock Holmes vows to clear his name, with the two joining forces to take on blackmailers who have targeted the Prince of Wales.
ISBN: 9781848564923
AVAILABLE NOW!
THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
THE VEILED DETECTIVE
David Stuart Davies
A young Sherlock Holmes arrives in London to begin his career as a private detective, catching the eye of the master criminal, Professor James Moriarty. Enter Dr. Watson, newly returned from Afghanistan, soon to make history as Holmes’ companion...
ISBN: 9781848564909
AVAILABLE NOW!
THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
THE WAR OF THE WORLDS
Manley Wade Wellman & Wade Wellman
Sherlock Holmes, Professor Challenger and Dr. Watson meet their match when the streets of London are left decimated by a prolonged alien attack. Who could be responsible for such destruction? Sherlock Holmes is about to find out...
ISBN: 9781848564916
AVAILABLE NOW!
THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
THE MAN FROM HELL
Barrie Roberts
In 1886, wealthy philathropist Lord Backwater is found beaten to death on the grounds of his estate. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson must unravel the mystery by pitting their wits against a ruthless new enemy, taking them across the globe in search of the killer.
ISBN: 9781848565081
AVAILABLE NOW!
THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
THE STALWART COMPANIONS
H. Paul Jeffers
Written by future President Theordore Roosevelt long before The Great Detective’s first encounter with Dr. Watson, Holmes visits America to solve a most violent and despicable crime. A crime that was to prove his most taxing of his brilliant career...
ISBN: 9781848565098
AVAILABLE NOW!
The Scroll of the Dead Page 18
