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В предисловии к «Секретным делам Холмса» я рассказал, как мятая жестяная шкатулка, на крышке которой было выведено краской «Джон Г. Ватсон, доктор медицины, Индийский экспедиционный корпус», со всем содержимым оказалась у моего покойного дяди, тоже доктора Джона Ватсона. Однако второй инициал в его имени был «Ф», а не «Г», и он был доктором философии, а не медицины.Она была продана ему в июле 1939 года некоей мисс Аделиной Мак-Уэртер, которая утверждала, что это именно та самая шкатулка, которую доктор Джон Г. Ватсон, соратник и биограф Шерлока Холмса, поместил в свой банк «Кокс и компания» на Чаринг-кросс и которая содержала записи, сделанные рукой доктора Джона Г. Ватсона, о разнообразных ...

Рукописи с изложением неизвестных читателям приключений Шерлока Холмса и доктора Джона Г. Ватсона достались мне в наследство от моего дядюшки, тоже доктора, Джона Ватсона. Правда, его второй инициал был не «Г», а «Ф», и был он доктором философии, а не медицины. Пораженный сходством его имени с именем знаменитого биографа Шерлока Холмса, дядюшка основательно изучил все, что было написано и издано о Шерлоке Холмсе, и стал подлинным знатоком его деятельности.Именно по этой причине к нему в июле 1939 года обратилась мисс Аделина Мак-Уэртер, по ее словам, родственница доктора Джона Г. Ватсона по материнской линии. Находясь в стесненных обстоятельствах, мисс Мак-Уэртер предложила моему дядюшке при...

Founded around the time King Henry VIII was selling off "his" monasteries, St. Michaels College of the University of Cambridge spreads in haphazard fashion by the River Cam, a model of functional medieval architecture wedded to Tudor bombast and, later, Victorian excess.The University itself, of which the college is a part, was formed by a group of tearaway scholars escaping the wrath of the townspeople of Oxford, where clashes had ended with two students being hanged for murder, which incident should have given everyone in Cambridge pause. But by this time-the early 1200s-the inhabitants of Cambridge had survived the Romans, the Saxons, the Vikings, and the Normans, and, perhaps numbed into...

"What do you think? Poisoned Pink, or Pink Menace?". The young blonde woman of whom this question was asked adopted a pose of deep concentration, weighing the matter with all the deliberation of King Solomon presented with two feuding mothers. That the colors under discussion were nearly identical to the naked eye seemed to escape the notice of both women. The manicurist held the two small bottles aloft in the late winter sunlight streaming through the window of the trendy Knightsbridge beauty salon."The Poisoned Pink, I think, Suzie," the blonde said at last. "The other is so, like, totally last year. Positively no one in New York would be caught dead wearing it any more. Besides, Poisoned ...

Merino and Rose Marie. NO GANGS of yellow men carrying earth and rubble in baskets, no human chains of men and women, and even children, carrying stones in their lacerated arms, built these Walls of China. No Emperor Ch’in Shih Huang Ti directed over a million men to raise this extraordinary barrier lying athwart the bushlands in the south-west corner of the state of New South Wales. The colour of the country is reddish-brown, and upon this reddish-brown land the soft fingers of the wind built a wall of snow-white sand some twelve miles long, three-quarters of a mile wide, and several hundred feet high. No one knows when the wind laboured so mightily to build the barrier, and no one knows wh...

A Beginning for Linda. THEDAYwas the 7th of February, and it was just another day to Linda Bell. Of course, the sun was blazing hot at six in the morning, another morning when the wind sprang up long before six and was a half gale when the sun rose. It sang when crossing the sandy ground, and roared farewell as it sped through the line of pine trees guarding the Mount Eden homestead from the sprawling giant called Lake Eyre.For Linda this day began like all other days. First she slipped from bed and gazed at the large calendar on the wall above the dressing-table. Later she would be asked to name the day, and already she knew that to remember it would be conducive to happiness.Linda was most...

Nullarbor ‘Friends’. SENIORCONSTABLEEASTERwas roused by the alarm clock at three-forty-five a.m. He told his wife to sleep on, and passed to the kitchen where he fired the wood stove and filled the tin kettle, intending to boil water quickly.He left the kitchen for the side veranda when the chill of the false dawn was dimming the stars, and there gazed eastward, seeking the first sign of the four-twenty express from Port Pirie. Beyond the house the world was without shape or substance.Easter moved silently to the front veranda facing the railway buildings, the water tower, the oil containers for the new diesels, and the few cottages occupied by the permanent way men and staff. Other than all...