The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part II Read Online Free Page B

in Stranraer, Scotland on 7 August, 1852. In 1878, he took his Doctor of Medicine Degree from the University of London, and later joined the army as a surgeon. Wounded at the Battle of Maiwand in Afghanistan (27 July, 1880), he returned to London late that same year. On New Year’s Day, 1881, he was introduced to Sherlock Holmes in the chemical laboratory at Barts. Agreeing to share rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, Watson became invaluable to Holmes’s consulting detective practice. Watson was married and widowed three times, and from the late 1880’s onward, in addition to his participation in Holmes’s investigations and his medical practice, he chronicled Holmes’s adventures, with the assistance of a literary agent, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in a series of popular narratives, most of which were first published in The Strand magazine. Watson’s later years were spent preparing a vast number of his notes of Holmes’s cases for future publication. Following a final important investigation with Holmes, Watson contracted pneumonia and passed away on 24 July, 1929.
    Photos of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson courtesy of Roger Johnson
    PART II: 1890-1895

    The years between 1890 and 1895 were times of upheaval for both Holmes and Watson. While Watson continued to enjoy married life with his wife, Mary, Holmes faced an ever escalating battle with the Napoleon of Crime, Professor James Moriarty. The contest between the two culminated on 4 May, 1891, atop the Reichenbach Falls. While Watson was decoyed away, Holmes and Moriarty met and fought on the slippery ledge. Moriarty fell, and Holmes did not. However, seeing the opportunity to continue his work in secret if he was thought to have died, and also as a way to protect Watson and his wife from the last remains of the Professor’s organization, Holmes allowed Watson to believe that he, too, had fallen. Watson returned home heartbroken, while Holmes journeyed all over the world, carrying out missions for the British Government and his brother, Mycroft. From May 1891 until April 1894, Holmes traveled to various locations, including Lhasa in Tibet, Mecca, Khartoum, and Montpellier, France (as recorded in “The Empty House”. ) In addition, he also visited many other locations that are not recorded in the Canon.
    While Holmes was away from England, Watson faced both the grief of losing his best friend, as well as the death of his wife Mary in 1893. When Holmes returned to London in April 1894, Watson was amazed to learn that his friend was alive after all, and he soon returned to sharing rooms at 221b Baker Street. The years that followed, particularly 1894-1895, were extremely busy, and the cases literally tumbled upon them, one after the other... .

The Bachelor of Baker Street Muses on Irene Adler
    by Carole Nelson Douglas
    Kings do not impress him, especially from Bohemia.
    Women do not obsess him, with their vapors and anemia.
    Watson is wrong. His brain thrives on opium dreams and smoke.
    Yet sometimes they unite against him, and, uninvited, invoke
    A vision of The Woman.
    He brushed off a monarch’s hand, but when it comes to her now,
    He remembers a kindly touch to an aged clergyman’s brow.
    His injured cleric now seems a shabby trick, thought nothing of,
    When she was fighting for her freedom and the cause of true love
    Always paramount to The Woman.
    Yet such cheek! Feminine features under muffler and bowler hat,
    His own name appropriated at his very doorstep, audacious that!
    His name, with the honorific “Mister” muttered in a youthful male tone.
    He should have known. Not a former Baker Street Irregular grown,
    But a woman in wolf’s clothing.
    All is fair in crime and punishment, and disguise a commonplace.
    So she mastered it herself, but she was fair in more than face,
    Accepting only her own honor from the prideful and possessive King,
    Leaving her true adversary an eternal portrait of her