Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine #20. Arthur Conan Doyle

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СКАЧАТЬ that I must decline to act.” And yet, he does act—even though Sir James never gives up the name. But at the end of the case, Watson glimpses the armorial bearings of their ultimate client on the brougham that picks up Sir James. He tries to blurt out the name to Holmes, but the latter stops him. “It is a loyal friend and a chivalrous gentleman,” says Holmes. “Let that now and forever be enough for us.” We can be sure, though, that Miss De Merville’s friend was royal as well as loyal.

      “The Adventure of the Illustrious Client” is a favorite story of many Sherlockians. “The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone,” by contrast, ranks dead last on most lists. Its plot is onion-skin thin and much of the dialogue wooden. However, it is within the topic at hand because the case again involves royal jewelry. For a change, someone other than Holmes has committed a burglary—the hundred-thousand-pound burglary of the Crown Diamond, also called the Mazarin Stone. The Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary, and a reluctant Lord Cantlemere hire Holmes to get it back by any means necessary.

      Billy the page can get along with the Prime Minister and has nothing against the Foreign Secretary, but he can’t stand Lord Cantlemere. “Neither can Mr. Holmes, sir,” Billy tells Watson. “You see, he don’t believe in Mr. Holmes and was against employing him.” Holmes gets his revenge in the end by slipping the recovered Mazarin Stone into the politician’s own overcoat and pretending to find it there. Like a certain monarch, Cantlemere is not amused. In fact, he lives up to Billy’s description of him as “a stiff ’un.” But ultimately he is forced to acknowledge the nation’s debt to Holmes and to withdraw his skepticism about the sleuth’s professional powers. Holmes, not entirely mollified, twists the knife a bit as he dismissively refuses to explain how he got the diamond back:

      “This case is but half-finished; the details can wait. No doubt, Lord Cantlemere, your pleasure in telling of this successful result in the exalted circle to which you return will be some small atonement for my practical joke. Billy, you will show his Lordship out, and tell Mrs. Hudson that I should be glad if she would send up dinner for two as soon as possible.”

      Why did Holmes even take the Mazarin Stone case in the face of Cantlemere’s skepticism and their clear mutual dislike? Possibly an ego-driven desire to prove the skeptic wrong was a factor. But, surely, so was patriotism. For Sherlock Holmes was not a man to let “the folly of a monarch or the blundering of a minister” (“The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor”) keep him from answering the call of duty. For no matter the personalities involved, he always stood ready to be of service… to crown and country.

      * * * *

      Dan Andriacco, a long-time Sherlockian, is the author of Baker Street Beat: An Eclectic Collection of Sherlockian Scribblings and nine Holmes-themed mystery novels and collections. His amateur sleuth, Sebastian McCabe, and brother-in-law Jeff Cody appear most recently in Bookmarked for Murder. A frequent contributor to SHMM, Dan blogs at www.DanAndriacco.com.

1 This is the author’s opinion. I have a copy of her play and mean to anthologize it; I find it rather charming. By the way, not only was Nigel Bruce too ill to play Watson but he died on the show’s opening night. —Marvin Kaye

      |SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY MAGAZINE

      for crown and country |

      |SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY MAGAZINE

      for crown and country |

      |SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY MAGAZINE

      for crown and country |

      |SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY MAGAZINE

      for crown and country |

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