Sherlock Holmes: The American Years Read Online Free Page A

however.”
    Sherlock grinned.
    I waited.
    “A small cabin will be made available for your use, but you will have to share it. In the interest of propriety you will be expected to travel as brothers.”
    I moaned.
    Sherlock laughed.
    “Why not as sisters, then?” I asked.
    Mycroft grinned. He has a most adorable, winning grin, has my elder brother. “A splendid thought, Elisabeth. Most amusing.” He paused to sip at his coffee. “Alas, it is already arranged that the Holmes Brothers, Sherlock and Ellery, are to perform with the Ziegfried orchestra.”
    Eleven days, I thought. The voyage would take eleven days. That would mean eleven days of passing for a male and eleven nights of sharing a stuffy ship’s cabin with the noisome Sherlock. I shuddered.
    And so it was settled. I persuaded my good friend Clarissa Macdougald, who lives two houses from us and with whom I attended school for many years, to take my place in the shop. Her brother would substitute for Sherlock. Father approved the arrangement. Itake pride in my skill with needle and scissors, learned from Mother. The two of us altered male clothing to fit my needs and to conceal my gender.
    Sherlock and I arose long before dawn on the twenty-fourth of May and made our way by rail from London to Southampton. Once in that southerly city it would have been impossible not to find our destination.
    To me the
Great Eastern
was a great and famous ship, but to Sherlock, of course, she provided an occasion to deliver a learned lecture.
    “The
Great Eastern
is undoubtedly the greatest nautical achievement since Noah’s ark.” Oh, that nasal voice! “Her designer, the genius Isambard Kingdom Brunel, perished at an early age, doubtless due at least in part to the stress of his enterprise. The ship’s bottom was ripped by a hitherto unknown underwater mountain on one of her early voyages, and only Mr. Brunel’s brilliant design of a double hull saved her from sinking. She was designed to carry as many as four thousand passengers but, alas, has never been a commercial success.”
    Thank you, dear brother. I restrained myself from throttling the weedish know-it-all.
    Even so, and despite my having seen many images of the nautical behemoth, my first sight of her took my breath.
    Sherlock and I were clothed in similar garments. We wore tweed suiting, elasticized knee breeches and long stockings, plain cravats, caps on our heads, and brogans on our feet. I found the male garb uncomfortable and impractical. I yearned for a proper frock and flowered spring hat, even an outfit of blouse and jumper. But if this unpleasant costume was the price of my beingaccepted as Ellery rather than Elisabeth, it was a price I was willing to pay.
    While Sherlock was in fact my junior by some five years, whiskers were already beginning to make themselves visible upon his upper lip, while my own countenance, of course, was unblemished by such excrescences. Thus, it had been decided that Sherlock Holmes would pass as the older of the musical siblings while Ellery Holmes would be the younger. A further insult to me, I felt.
    Sherlock and I each carried a gripsack containing toiletries and changes of costume, and a separate case containing our respective musical instruments. We had been warned that the ship’s orchestra were expected to appear in proper dinner costumes, and with Mother’s deft management and my own long hours of sewing, Sherlock and I had so furnished ourselves. We made, I am sure, a picturesque pair.
    We were met at the head of the
Great Eastern
’s gangplank by a ship’s officer, who directed us to our quarters. There we met Mr. Clement Ziegfried, our maestro. He was a harried-looking person. He wore his dark hair quite long, as was, I believe, not uncommon among members of the musical fraternity, and a luxuriously drooping mustache that seemed too heavy for his small face and thin neck.
    He smiled and shook Sherlock’s hand and my own. He said, “Holmes Major and Minor,