The Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes Read Online Free PDF Page A

away from the building with all due haste.’
    Reluctantly I retired from the room once more, and went off to find the Inspector. He spared me the effort, however, by calling out to me upon his leaving the security office.
    ‘Well, Doctor,’ he began, ‘I am glad to have run into you. This really is a most puzzling affair, would you not say? I mean, garrotting, well that is a most strange way of committing a murder for a start! As for your friend and his brother, they must be two of the most inscrutable gentlemen I have ever encountered. I am certain that they are withholding important information, although what that might be I really would not care to say. Perhaps you could enlighten me, Doctor?’
    ‘I doubt that I could add very much to what they have already told you. I am as much in the dark as they surelyare. However, perhaps we could take a turn outside,’ I suggested, gesturing towards the main entrance whilst offering Lestrade a cigarette. This he duly accepted and while we strolled slowly around the building’s extensive perimeter, he clumsily attempted to extricate any clue that I might have been able to furnish him with. In this he was wholly unsuccessful. I was certain that Holmes and Mycroft would have been equally reticent in revealing the nature of Naismith’s recent work, and I could not be certain as to how much of Moriarty’s involvement in it Holmes would have divulged at this time. Therefore, I decided to lament upon my being treated by both Mr Holmes and his brother as a hapless bystander and expressed my concern at the continued threat to Mycroft’s life. This much, I was certain, had already been divulged to Lestrade, for without his cooperation the ruse of feigning Mycroft’s death would have been all but impossible.
    By the time we had returned to Mycroft’s office his transformation had been completed. Standing there before us was a somewhat enlarged, duplication of George Naismith himself, with Mycroft Holmes nowhere to be seen. Holmes had eased Mycroft’s facial ageing with some greasepaint, covered his thinning hair with a subtle grey wig, and affixed a small, neatly clipped beard to his chin. Last of all, and to Mycroft’s obvious chagrin, Holmes had thinned down somewhat his brother’s esteemed and well cultivated ‘mutton-chops’.
    ‘Good gracious, Holmes! I would almost swear to Naismith’s having been raised from the dead!’ I exclaimed, barely able to contain my excitement.
    ‘The thing is quite remarkable, Mr Holmes,’ said Lestrade, more soberly. ‘Once again you have displayed afurther reason for us at the Yard, to be grateful that you are working on the side of justice. By the way, I have followed your instructions to the letter and to avoid attracting attention to the building, all my officers have now stood down. It is not quite our way of doing things, but past experience has shown to me the benefit in trusting to your instincts. Apprehending Parker would certainly be a feather in my cap,’ Lestrade concluded wistfully.
    ‘First things first, Lestrade. Is the carriage awaiting us immediately outside?’ Holmes asked anxiously. ‘Despite our theatrics I wish to expose my brother to public gaze only for as brief a time as is necessary.’
    ‘Indeed it is, Mr Holmes, but I assure you the success of your masquerade has eliminated any risk to your brother. Any lingering observer, even Parker himself, would assume that we were apprehending Naismith, under suspicion of having murdered his superior.’
    Holmes clapped his hands in a self-congratulatory manner. ‘Excellent! Lestrade, I expect you can make your own way to Scotland Yard from Baker Street, for I do not wish to interrupt our journey.’ Thereupon Mycroft draped Naismith’s coat about his shoulders and the four of us made our way to the awaiting brougham outside.
    The journey to Baker Street was, mercifully, uneventful and within a short while Mrs Hudson was furnishing us all with a large pot of hot