Sherlock Holmes
And
The Alien Abduction
By
Phil Duke
Synopsis
Every crime mystery case undertaken by detective Sherlock Holmes was solved. His cases involved the Royal families of Great Britain and other countries, rare objects of irreplaceable value, great wealth, important matters of state, and mysterious deaths.
Holmes’s crime mysteries were initially quite baffling to all concerned, including Inspector Lestrade and the other police of Scotland Yard. Yet due to the investigations of Sherlock Holmes, every case was solved to the authorities’ complete satisfaction, and was considered successfully closed. Sherlock Holmes is rightfully considered to be the world’s most successful, and most famous detective.
Dr. John H. Watson, Holmes’s life long friend and chronicler, wrote up and published his cases, but not all of Holmes’s cases were published. It is a little known fact that a small number of cases, not meeting with his personal satisfaction, were never published. Dr. Watson wrote up these cases as usual, but instead of being published, they were consigned to the temporary oblivion of a locked safe box, deep in the vault of Great Britain’s most respected banking institution.
Holmes gave instructions that after his death, these unpublished cases were to be made public, “a full century later, when much that cannot be explained now will be clear as crystal.” The century has elapsed, and more. Somehow the cases became lost, and were largely forgotten. I had heard about the mysterious “lost cases of Sherlock Holmes” but thought them more myth than reality. Then one day I bought an old steamer trunk at auction, and inside found treasure. There they were, the unpublished lost cases of Sherlock Holmes, with writing still black and hardly faded, though on paper yellowed and brittle with age.
I immediately resolved that these cases of Sherlock Holmes would not remain unknown, and then possibly be lost again, perhaps forever. To this end I have undertaken the task of publishing them.
Here and now, for the first time anywhere, you can read the previously unknown lost Sherlock Holmes crime mystery, Sherlock Holmes And The Alien Abduction. It is the first of these crime mysteries to be published.
This case displays Holmes’s astonishing abilities of logical deduction and detection to the fullest degree. The mysterious death of a healthy, newly jailed man alone in his cell is fully explained, a beautiful, eminent young lady and her wealthy Society are saved from terrible scandal, the authorities are well satisfied, and the case is closed.
Yet there still remains a loose end, a loose end to the case that cannot be put to rest. This loose end has associated with it a disturbing possibility, so that with the loose end still lying about, and without absolute proof regarding the possibility, Holmes refused to make the case public.
It was of no consequence that the loose end was detected only through the genius of Sherlock Holmes. No, genius cannot have even a single loose end lying about; it cannot tolerate anything less than perfection, and when absolute proof is lacking, it prefers to say nothing.
The loose end, and the disturbing possibility associated with it, are described at the case’s end. When you learn what they are, you will know why Sherlock Holmes thought it best not to make the case public, until a century after his death.
Holmes’s astonishing abilities were never employed with greater result, and yet with less final satisfaction to him, than in the case of Sherlock Holmes And The Alien Abduction.
Sherlock Holmes And The Alien Abduction
“What do you make of this, Watson?” said Sherlock Holmes, tossing into my lap the note he had just finished eagerly reading. Delivered by Post a few minutes earlier, Holmes’s faithful housekeeper Mrs. Hudson had brought it up at once. The envelope was welcome relief to a dull, rainy spring morning in Holmes’s digs. I had been trying unsuccessfully to amuse myself with Euclid’s Elements, while Holmes, without a case to occupy his ever-active mind, clearly showed the signs of that increasing nervousness which came over him when unoccupied.
While seated at his desk I had observed him tapping ever more frequently on it, always with the same one, long finger. When standing he paced back and forth, in his mind’s eye endlessly reviewed first one case, and then another, but evidently obtaining no satisfaction from his memories. Holmes was working himself up to, as I knew all too well, a terrible blue funk.
There was only one way to relieve the blue funk’s severe depression, and that was by the 7% solution, an injection of 7% cocaine hydrochloride in water. While Holmes’s ever-active mind was occupied with a case there was no problem, but genius has its consequences, and without a case to occupy it, Holmes’s ever-active mind had nothing to work on, with the result of ever-increasing nervous strain.
Holmes detested his occasional dependence on cocaine, and had sworn never to employ it again. In view of Holmes’s increasing nervousness, along with his refusal of its solution, I feared for the worst. Then the doorbell rang, and with it came deliverance, in the form of an envelope.
Holmes had pounced on the envelope like a lover receiving word from his inamorata. Tearing it open he hastily removed and greedily read the note that was its content, at once becoming deeply reflective. Then a look of satisfaction spread over his face. This is the note:
Detective Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John Watson are invited to attend The Theosophical Society in London’s April 2nd meeting. The subject is Comets And Their Deeper Significance. Time 8:00 P.M. to 11:00 P.M. Refreshments will be served.
L.H., Secretary
R.S.V.P.
“Humph!” I said, “obviously an invitation to a meeting. The subject is of no possible interest to me. Comets indeed! Probably want you to make a contribution…”
“Yes, Watson,” Sherlock replied, “as usual you are correct, a contribution is desired. But not the kind you mean. Note the date.”
“Why,” I said with surprise, “it’s dated for today.”
“Yes,” Holmes said, “so it is. But a society of their reputation and prestige is not likely to send an invitation with R.S.V.P. the same day as the meeting. Rather bad form. And look at the writing.”
I saw nothing special, and said so.
“Watson, my good man,” said Holmes, “do you not notice the incomplete curlicues, and the misplaced dots? In combination with the abnormally broad strokes evident here and there, the author was in a hurry. And also agitated.”
“Indeed, Holmes,” I said, “and how can you tell that the person penning the note was agitated, and not just in a hurry?”
“Not one person in a thousand,” replied Holmes, “can keep from pressing too hard with the pen when agitated. With anger the strokes are markedly broadened, when agitated only some are broadened, as we see here, while in melancholia the pen is gripped and also pressed very lightly, so the strokes are narrow and light, with numerous interruptions where pen leaves paper.”
Even I, with my knowledge of Holmes’s methods, was surprised by the information he had gleaned from this brief note. But he was not yet done with it; there was more to come.
“The ink,” said Holmes. “Note its unusual color.”
The note was penned in purple ink, not so uncommon from a lady of high rank, and I said so.
“Watson, do you not know it is most irregular for any learned society, even one studying comets, to send an invitation in purple ink? Black, my dear fellow, black is the preferred color. Black, preferably from the ink sac of the octopus. It makes indelible, deep black ink that never fades; black, for emphasis, for severity, for permanence. This note was penned, not in the official Society ink, but in the personal ink of a lady who, though not born to the purple, is nevertheless of high rank, and entitled to employ it. Note the signature.”