teunc.org Stories
Holmes
Sherlock
 
The Discovery
 
"Mrs Hudson has risen to the occasion", said Holmes, uncovering a dish of curried chicken. "Her cuisine is a little limited, but she has as good an idea of breakfast as a Scotchwoman. What are you going to take, Mr Phelps: curried fowl, or eggs, or will you help yourself?"
  "Thank you, I can eat nothing", said Phelps.
  "Oh, come! Try the dish before you."
  "Thank you, I would really rather not."
  "Well, then", said Holmes with a mischievous twinkle. "I suppose that you have no objection to helping me?"
  Phelps raised the cover and as he did so he uttered a scream, and sat there staring with a face as white as the plate upon which he looked. Across the centre of it was lying a little cylinder of blue-grey paper. He caught it up, devoured it with his eyes, and then danced madly about the room, pressing it to his breast and shrieking out in his delight. The he fell back into an arm-chair, so limp and exhausted with his own emotions that we had to pour brandy down his throat to keep him from fainting.
  "There! there!" said Holmes, soothingly patting him upon the shoulder. "It was too bad to spring it on you like this; but Watson here will tell you that I never can resist a touch of the dramatic."
  Phelps raised his hand and kissed it. "God bless you!" he cried; "you have found The Ultimate Proof for the Non-existence of Balrog Wings."
  "I can assure you", said Holmes, "that I am just as eager as you to lay silly superstitions to rest."
  Phelps thrust away the precious document into the innermost pocket of his coat.
  "I have not the heart to interrupt your breakfast any further, and yet I am dying to know how you got it and where it was."
  Sherlock Holmes swallowed a cup of coffee and turned his attention to the ham and eggs. Then he rose, lit his pipe and settled himself down into his chair.
  "Together with Dr Watson here, I simply rode by eagle to Moria (it is fortunate that the eagles are always nearby and willing to oblige when they are needed), where we hid behind a stone near the East Gate. From where I lay I had a perfect view of the gate and the chamber behind it; and towards morning, I saw Grishnákh sneak out."
  "Grishnákh!" cried our guest. Holmes nodded with a steely glint in his austere grey eyes.
  "Yes, indeed. He fought like a fury, but Watson quietened him with the butt of his old service revolver. We searched the villain and found this document, and then we threw him into the Silverlode as a nice little surprise for Galadriel and that gormless husband of hers. I like playing practical jokes on the Elves as well. Well, that's all, really." Holms blew out a cloud of dragon-shaped smoke and smiled affably.
  "But - what did Grishnákh intend to do with the document?" asked Phelps, while his hand went once more to his pocket as if to reassure himself that the invaluable papers had not dissolved into thin air.
  "Throw them into Mount Doom to be devoured by the fire there", answered Holmes gravely. "No other fire would be able to burn such a document."
  "Evil! Truly evil!" groaned Phelps.
  "Indeed", said Holmes, shrugging his shoulders. "Grishnákh had apparently attended meetings of a Satanist cult called 'The Firm Believers in Winged Balrogs', and this is what comes of keeping such company."
 
Öjevind Lång
 
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More Holmes:
The Hanging Man ] Interpreting the Tracks ] The Cardboard Box ] The Incredible Jumping Man ] How Did He Get It Back? ] What Does the "F" Stand For? ] Why the Bodies Never Were Found ] Where Did the Stone Come From? ] The Adventure of the Disappearing Troll ] The Pointy-eared League ] The Lamedon Vampire ] A Question of Ownership ] Yellow Faces ] The Case of the Over-sized Hobbit ] [ The Discovery ] The Crock of Gold ] The Adventure of Fëanor's Old Place ] The Flame of Udûn ] The Heiress ] The Adventure of the Curious Balrog ] South Weathertop ] At the "Admiral Falastur" ] The Adventure of the Unwanted Immigrant ] The Final Problem ]