The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories Read Online Free Page B

that they are few, but I am afraid, my dear Watson, that I must count you among them.”
    “What do you mean, Holmes?”
    “Well, my dear fellow, I fear your deductions have not been so happy as I should have wished.”
    “You mean that I was mistaken.”
    “Just a little that way, I fear. Let us take the points in their order: I did not shave because I have sent my razor to be sharpened. I put on mycoat because I have, worse luck, an early meeting with my dentist. His name is Barlow, and the letter was to confirm the appointment. The cricket page is beside the financial one, and I turned to it to find if Surrey was holding its own against Kent. But go on, Watson, go on! It’s a very superficial trick, and no doubt you will soon acquire it.”



The Unique “Hamlet”
    Being an Unrecorded Adventure of Mr. Sherlock Holmes
    VINCENT STARRETT
    IT SEEMS TO me that Charles Vincent Emerson Starrett (1886–1974) succeeded in being one of America’s greatest bookmen, and his young daughter offered the best tombstone inscription—“The Last Bookman”—for anyone who is a Dofob, Eugene Field’s useful word for a “damned old fool over books,” as Starrett admitted to being. Once, when a friend called at his home, Starrett’s daughter answered the door and told the visitor that her father was “upstairs, playing with his books.”
    Starrett produced innumerable essays, biographical works, critical studies, and bibliographical pieces on a wide range of authors, all while managing the “Books Alive” column for the
Chicago Tribune
for many years. His autobiography,
Born in a Bookshop
(1965), should be required reading for bibliophiles of all ages.
    He wrote numerous mystery short stories and several detective novels, including
Murder on “B” Deck
(1929),
Dead Man Inside
(1931), and
The End of Mr. Garment
(1932). His 1934 short story, “Recipe for Murder,” was expanded to the full-length novel,
The Great Hotel Murder
(1935), which was the basis for the film of the same title and released the same year; it starred Edmund Lowe and Victor McLaglen.
    Few would argue that Starrett’s most outstanding achievements were his writings about Sherlock Holmes, most notably
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
(1933) and “The Unique ‘Hamlet,’ ” described by Sherlockians for decades as the best pastiche ever written. It was privately printed in 1920 by Starrett’s friend Walter M. Hill in a hardcover limited edition of unknown quantity. It is likely that ten copies were issued for the author with his name on the title page. The number of copies published with Hill’s name on the title page has been variously reported as thirty-three, one hundred, one hundred ten, and two hundred. It was selected for
Queen’s Quorum
(1951), Ellery Queen’s selection of the one hundred six most important volumes of detective fiction ever written.

THE UNIQUE “HAMLET”
    Being an Unrecorded Adventure of Mr. Sherlock Holmes
    Vincent Starrett
1
    “ HOLMES ,” SAID I one morning, as I stood in our bay window, looking idly into the street, “surely here comes a madman. Someone has incautiously left the door open and the poor fellow has slipped out. What a pity!”
    It was a glorious morning in the spring, with a fresh breeze and inviting sunlight, but as it was early few persons were as yet astir. Birds twittered under the neighboring eaves, and from the far end of the thoroughfare came faintly the droning cry of an umbrella repairman; a lean cat slunk across the cobbles and disappeared into a courtway; but for the most part the street was deserted, save for the eccentric individual who had called forth my exclamation.
    Sherlock Holmes rose lazily from the chair in which he had been lounging and came to my side, standing with long legs spread and hands in the pockets of his dressing gown. He smiled as he saw the singular personage coming along; and a personage the man seemed to be, despite his curious actions, for he was tall and