“I refer, of course, to the suggestion that de Trop bit through his own tongue rather than tell his Saracen captors where he had hidden the jewel they sought. We were told this by Forward, by Robinson, even by Lawrence Buxton, a historian. And yet, it is plainly the most arrant romance. The brave Englishman preferring pain and death to surrendering to his foreign enemies? Nonsense, I say!
“To begin with, when is he supposed to have done this dread deed? Before he was captured, perhaps? Why on earth would he do such a thing, when for all he knew he might escape? Or after he was taken by the assassins who sought him? When even the most foolish man would have realised that an ability to speak is no defence against betraying oneself, when all one need do is point towards the thing which is sought? No. I will not have it. It is as much a fiction as his ghost.”
He pushed open the doorway and skipped down the steps into the crypt itself. Everything was as it had been earlier. Holmes rested a hand on the sarcophagus and faced me, every inch the experienced orator.
“But picture this instead. De Trop, with armed savages at his heels, runs to the catacombs, hoping to escape, but in the darkness he quickly realises that he is far more likely to be killed than earn his freedom – and if he must die, better to do so fighting his savage enemies than running from them, or cowering in fear. But the gem! He examines it in the half light at the entrance to the caves, admires the way in which the ruby catches the light. He can hear the approaching Saracens, knows that he has only moments to contrive a solution.
“He has it! Mere moments before he is taken, he acts and, having acted, swings his sword before him and slays the first man to face him. But there are too many and he is quickly overwhelmed. Blows from fist and boot and steel rain on to him, but he refuses to concede, rising again and again, until his body and face are a bloody mess. He will not speak, not even when he is faced with a terrible death.”
“And so he dies, but in doing so, he has won.” Holmes’s voice had descended to a whisper but now it fell utterly silent. There was only one question to ask.
“But what did he do, Holmes?”
Holmes said nothing, as he reached into his coat and pulled out the crowbar he had presumably picked up somewhere in the house. He inserted it into a crack in a corner of the sarcophagus’s carven lid and, with a heave, swung it to one side. He gestured to me to approach and pointed down at the dusty skeleton within. There, nestling in the dust directly below the crusader’s rib cage was the jewel, still, after these hundreds of years, a thing of rare beauty.
“He swallowed it,” said Holmes. “Egg-shaped, you said, but barbed with golden hooks. It must have torn his throat to ribbons as he forced it down past his larynx, but he was a determined man, and a stubborn one, and he would, I think, have gained a good measure of satisfaction from outwitting his killers, there at the end.”
He leaned over and plucked the gem from the coffin, then handed it to me.
“A suitable subject for one of Mr Buxton’s monographs of local interest, do you think?” he said, and made his way back up the steps, into the morning sunshine where, here and there, small patches of grass were starting to appear as the snow began finally to melt.
THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
THE SCROLL OF THE DEAD
David Stuart Davies
In this fast-paced adventure, Sherlock Holmes attends a séance to unmask an impostor posing as a medium. His foe, Sebastian Melmoth, is a man hell-bent on discovering a mysterious Egyptian papyrus that may hold the key to immortality. It is up to Holmes and Watson to use their deductive skills to stop him or face disaster.
ISBN: 9781848564930
AVAILABLE NOW!
THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
THE VEILED DETECTIVE
David Stuart Davies
It is 1880, and a young Sherlock Holmes arrives in London to pursue a career as a private detective. He soon attracts the attention of criminal mastermind Professor James Moriarty, who is driven by his desire to control this fledgling genius. Enter Dr. John H. Watson, soon to make history as Holmes’ famous companion.
ISBN: 9781848564909
AVAILABLE NOW!
THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
The Titanic Tragedy
William Seil
Holmes and Watson board the Titanic in 1912, where Holmes is to carry out a secret government mission. Soon after departure, highly important submarine plans for the U.S. navy are stolen. Holmes and Watson work through a list of suspects which includes Colonel James Moriarty, brother to the late Professor Moriarty—will they find the culprit before tragedy strikes?
ISBN: 9780857687104
AVAILABLE NOW!
The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes--Sherlock Holmes and the Crusader's Curse Page 24
