The Midwinter Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes: Three Adventures & The Grand Gift of Sherlock

THE

MIDWINTER MYSTERIES

OF

SHERLOCK HOLMES

Three Adventures &

‘The Grand Gift of Sherlock’

by Craig Janacek

Copyright © 2014 by Craig Janacek

All Rights Reserved

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Grateful acknowledgment to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)

for the use of the Sherlock Holmes characters.

Cover illustration by Sidney Paget (1860-1908)

from 1893 (in public domain)

Books by Craig Janacek

THE OXFORD DECEPTION

THE ANGER OF ACHILLES PETERSON

THE MIDWINTER MYSTERIES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

THE ADVENTURE OF THE MANUFACTURED MIRACLE

THE ADVENTURE OF THE FIRST STAR

THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPANISH SOVEREIGN

(THE GRAND GIFT OF SHERLOCK)

THE DR. WATSON TRILOGY

THE ISLE OF DEVILS

THE GATE OF GOLD*

THE RUINS OF SUMMER*

*Coming soon on Kindle

About the Type

This book is set in Baskerville Old Face, a transitional serif typeface designed in 1757 by John Baskerville (1706–1775) in Birmingham, England. Baskerville is classified as a transitional typeface, positioned between the old style typefaces of William Caslon, and the modern styles of Giambattista Bodoni and Firmin Didot. The typeface was designed to reflect Baskerville's ideals of perfection, for which he chose simplicity and quiet refinement. His background as a writing master is evident in the distinctive swash tail on the uppercase Q and in the cursive serifs in the Baskerville Italic. The refined feeling of the typeface makes it an excellent choice to convey dignity and tradition.

It is unclear whether this John Baskerville is in fact one of the two sons of Hugo, who in 1742 set down the chronicle of the Curse of the Baskervilles.

§

About the Author

CRAIG JANACEK is a frequent visitor to the streets of London and a devoted Sherlockian, who hopes to someday be invested as a Baker Street Irregular. He hails from Southern California, studied at Pembroke College (Cambridge, England), is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and did specialty training at Stanford University. His novels include
The Isle of Devils
, a tale of Watson’s first adventure without Holmes,
The Anger of Achilles Peterson,
and
The Oxford Deception
. In addition to fiction, he publishes frequently on medical topics. He is a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and lives nearby with his wife, Margaret, and two children, Owen and Danica. Craig Janacek is a pseudonym.

For augmented content, connect with him online at:
http://craigjanacek.wordpress.com
.

§

To Danica & Owen

“We cannot kindle when we will

The fire which in the heart resides;

The spirit bloweth and is still,

In mystery our soul abides.”

Matthew Arnold

‘Morality’
(1852)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE
ADVENTURE
OF THE
SPANISH
SOVEREIGN

THE
ADVENTURE
OF THE
MANUFACTURED
MIRACLE

THE
ADVENTURE
OF THE
FIRST STAR

THE
GRAND GIFT
OF
SHERLOCK

Concerning Dates & Other Matters

Close the door snugly behind you, if you will. Shut off with it the cares of the darkening outside world. Draw one of the plush armchairs closer to the crackling fire and cover your legs with a woolen rug. Do not hesitate to rest your weary feet upon the stuffed ottoman; you have earned the rest. The frost is thick on the windowpanes, and it is certainly not fit to go outside. Instead, pour yourself a dash of brandy from the spirit case (though you may want to refrain from some of the other chemical substances lurking about the room, as we know far more in this century about the dangers of self-poisoning). Choose a leather-backed volume from the bookcase and draw the candle a bit closer to ensure that you can see it well enough. Once the first page is turned, you will find yourself journeying through a magic portal to a largely vanished world. Immerse yourself in the era of Victoria, when hansom cabs plied the gas-lit streets, and the modern celebrations of Christmas and Boxing Day first began.

Although never implicitly stated in the Canon, it is widely agreed upon that Dr. John H. Watson, aimless recuperating ex-Army surgeon, originally met Sherlock Holmes, the world’s first consulting detective, at St. Bart’s Hospital on 1 January, 1881. From such information, we may safely deduce that the two men, both quite solitary in their ways, spent the preceding Christmas, that most companionable of holidays, completely alone in the midst of the largest city on the globe. But fear not, for from that setting of cheerless want, sprung a friendship that would last for decades and change the world for the better.

Should you care to spend your holiday time with the Great Detective and his humble biographer, there is no better place to begin than with the Canonical
‘The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle,’
which took place in 1889, eight years after the beginning of their partnership. To the discerning reader, that tale remains the finest holiday story in existence, bar none.

If you wish to continue your voyage with Holmes and Watson, you may also be interested in the recently discovered tale
‘The Adventure of the Spanish Sovereign,’
which occurred the following year. This would be the last Christmas that Holmes and Watson spent together before his presumed death in May 1891 at Reichenbach Falls. This would set off a bleak span for Dr. Watson, who would also lose his beloved wife during that time. It is little wonder that no cheerful tales survive from that period.

Then, to the joy of Watson and men everywhere (save only those with criminal inclinations, who surely gnashed their teeth in dismay), Holmes triumphantly returned from the Great Hiatus to London in the spring of 1894. At the height of his powers, Holmes’s first Christmas back at Baker Street with Watson was spent solving the puzzling
‘The Adventure of the Manufactured Miracle.’
This was followed the next year by the dazzling deductions of
‘The Adventure of the First Star.’

Sadly, as far as holidays are concerned, Watson’s pen fell silent after 1895. This is despite the fact that Holmes did not officially retire to the South Downs until 1903, and we can thus infer that at least fourteen other December adventures must have taken place, for the London criminal rarely paused his nefarious activities from a surfeit of holiday cheer. Perhaps there is another ‘travel-worn and battered tin dispatch-box’ lurking in a bank vault somewhere which contains the lost records of those years? Until its rediscovery, however, we must be content with the happy unearthing of Holmes’ final letter to Watson dating from shortly after the end of the Great War in 1918. In this moving testament to the power of friendship, published here with the fanciful title of
‘The Grand Gift of Sherlock,’
we find the only record of Holmes’ proclivity to celebrating one of the enduring traditions of Christmas.

§

The literary world is replete with “newly discovered” manuscripts purportedly written by Dr. John H. Watson, biographer of the world’s first consulting detective, Mr. Sherlock Holmes. Therefore, the provenance of all such manuscripts must be carefully scrutinized for any possibility of a modern forgery. It was with such a consideration in mind that I approached the remarkable story which I found tucked within a stack of my grandfather’s war records.

It was Christmastime, 2013. We were visiting my mother, who had suddenly decided that a family reunion could serve as the appropriate occasion in which to perform a long-overdue assault upon the more neglected corners of the house. Knowing my especial interest in history, she brought forth from the attic a dusty box filled with a stack of disorganized papers topped by some shoulder rank patches and dog tags, all of which had belonged to her father Hal, who had most unfortunately passed on long before I was even born.

Very interested in this man whom I never knew, but whose blood flowed in my veins, I pounced on the box with great curiosity. Most of the box’s contents consisted of an admixture of official documents, such as Naval Training Course certificates, Naval Department Tobacco Rationing Cards, and Basic and Supplemental Mileage Rations & Gasoline Purchase Permits. These were interspersed with personal mementos, such as black and white photographs of him and his friends, ‘FLY FOR NAVY’ campaign stickers, Western Union telegrams, newspaper clippings, and notes about social gatherings. I spent many hours studying this fascinating slice of my family history. However, at the very bottom was something completely anomalous, in a handwriting that I recognized with a palpable tremble of excitement.

In no place do my grandfather’s records indicate exactly how he came to be in possession of the remarkable manuscript which follows. However, collectively, certain anomalies in his record make one wonder if perhaps Hal “Red” Smith was not something more than he superficially appeared?

§

Officially, Harold A. “Red” Smith (1912–1964) was honorably discharged from the United States Navy on September 14, 1945 with the rank of Chief Specialist. He had served in the Office of Naval Officer Procurement in Chicago, and no written record of any overseas service has ever been located.

However, a closer inspection of his war records demonstrates the following unusual facts:

1. His promotion packet contains a letter of recommendation signed by Lt. R.W. Bartlett, Lt. E.T. Meredith, and Lt. G.B. McIntosh, in which they collectively state among other things that: “He has demonstrated foresight, ingenuity, and decided ability to cope with any unusual or difficult problem presented to him. He is neat, quick-witted and alert and has demonstrated leadership, initiative, and intelligence in a high degree.”

2. He had a “Speaking Knowledge of German.”

3. One of his promotion references was Captain Charles W. Allen, “Counter-Intelligence School,” whose letter has been lost (or redacted).

Furthermore, his notes, written in a crabbed handwriting in a small blue hardback book entitled ‘
My Stretch in the Service
,’ were generally quite thorough and filled with such pithy items as “July 25, 1943 – Mussolini is out!” and “April 12, 1945 – The President is Dead!” However, the notes were unusually silent during a period starting on October 15, 1943, which he recorded as simply “Transferred.” This period lasted until June 15, 1945, five weeks after V-E Day. A careful analysis of his records suggests that this transfer was likely to the Office of War Information.

On June 13, 1942, this particular office had been split off on orders of President Roosevelt from the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). William Donovan, the head of the OSS was known for recruiting untraditional agents, and he is widely believed to have utilized the Office of War Information as a cover agency for those men assigned to the OSS. Donovan created the X-2 Counter Espionage Branch in 1943 to liaison with the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), and assist in its mission (assigned by Winston Churchill) to “set Europe ablaze.” Exploiting the intelligence gleaned from the Ultra program, by the end of World War II the X-2 had discovered approximately 3,000 undercover Axis agents. The headquarters of the SOE during the War was at 64 Baker Street, where the lads not surprisingly became known as the ‘Baker Street Irregulars.’

The only possible explanation for the presence of this particular manuscript within my grandfather’s papers was that he had somehow been gifted it during a period of time when he was stationed in England, presumably while attached to the X-2. Almost no direct proof of such a detail exists, due to either an overabundance of natural caution on his part or perhaps the efforts of an overzealous censor. Only a personal letter from his cousin John Stanford of Friday Street, Horsham, Sussex, provided the slightest clue that the two of them had met in person on the Isle of Albion (to mourn the loss of their aunt Elizabeth in a V-2 bombing) during this critical period of world history.

What “Red” Smith must have accomplished during those grim days in order to be entrusted with such a manuscript has unfortunately been lost to history, as he always refused to speak of that time with either my grandmother or uncles. However, an earlier document suggests a possible clue as to his future wartime acumen. It can be found on page 11 of the 1929 Lane Tech Prep (Chicago, Illinois) yearbook. Under the picture of “HAROLD A. SMITH” was this simple caption: “Red was a second Sherlock in snooping up news for the
Daily
.”

§