Excerpt from page 3 of The Riddle of the Persian Slipper (The Unusual Sherlock Holmes by Jerry B-P Riggs):
Not that Persian slippers were unusual; many gentlemen wore a pair of them while lounging before the fireplace at night. Yes: slippers came in pairs. So why was there just that single Persian slipper? And what had become of the other slipper?
Watson would have loved to have asked Holmes about these things, but Holmes was the sort of man who would tell you about himself when he was good and ready. Despite Watsons curiosity, he tried to respect his friend's privacy, and bided his time until Holmes was in a talkative mood. But Watson sometimes felt that the secret of the Persian slipper was just as much a mystery to his friend, for he often observed Holmes, after filling and lighting his pipe, blowing wreaths of thick blue smoke about his head while he stared at the slipper for hours on end; his brow knitted in deep thought. When taken hold by these fits (for it seemed to Watson to be some sort of fit), he would only move to reload and relight his pipe, and then return to sit motionless in his chair; his gaze riveted upon that slipper. Finally he would return his pipe to the mantelpiece and console himself with the music of his violin.
The other thing that often aroused Watsons curiosity was that bearskin rug that stretched over the sitting room floor. Holmes had brought it with him when theyd moved into 221B. Watson already knew that his friend was a crack shot with a revolver, but never considered him to be a big-game hunter.
He little suspected that the bearskin and the slipper had anything to do with one another (indeed, why should he?); or that the answers to his questions about them should be bound up in a bizarre adventure, in which Holmes had been instrumental in saving his life: long before they had ever met!
Excerpt from page 57 of The Marvel of the Clockwork Astroglobe (The Unusual Sherlock Holmes by Jerry B-P Riggs):
Holmes had finally unearthed the object hed been rooting after, and held it up for the others to see. It was (or had been) a horseshoe now bent almost like a pretzel.
Now, we know, said Holmes, that Magnus Stern-Master has an engine that can kill a man through a thick masonry wall, and can hang in place above the Earth. It is all the same, the means that Mr. Cooper spoke of for the conquest of space, and of the single-handed conquest of Earth. Whatever it was, it came from here.
I confess that I paid but little attention to your account of the untidiness of the grounds surrounding this place; attributing it to the slagheaps that inevitably remain from any recent construction work. But theres not one scrap of plaster or wood nothing but iron and steel; and no gang of navvies ever twisted iron like this, or drove it into the ground like that.
Holmes looked at the horseshoe in his hand from every angle. Pulling a small magnet from his coat pocket, he drew it near the twisted iron shoe. Instead of the usual attraction of the two objects, each repelled the other with such force, that they tore out of his hands, and flew out of sight.
Extraordinary! cried Watson.
Excerpt from page 64 of The Scarlet Baldrics Mystery (The Unusual Sherlock Holmes by Jerry B-P Riggs):
Polrygh moved the branches of the overgrown honeysuckle aside from the gate; revealing, in its entirety, the admonition of the Melee-Court wrought in black letters across the iron filigree.
These branches really should have been cut away, he apologized, but every Baldricman knows the whole legend by heart.
With grim amusement, Holmes read the inscription beneath those fateful words of the gateway arch:
With Sword in Hand, Prepare to Fight!
These words more fateful still wrought across the gate:
Fear not to deliver the dolorous stroke;
For, if by dint of Hand Divine
(Greater than your hand, or mine),
Right of rule falls from me to you,
The Almighty will guide your hand
Straight and true;
Or otherwise, Hell stay it.
But, come not near without armour clad,
Else, if haply you come with sword alone:
With Sword in Hand, Prepare to Die!
Well, well! chuckled Holmes. I like to flatter myself that I dont miss much; I must say that this is rather embarrassing.
Embarrassing! cried Polrygh. You might have been killed!
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