The Lost Radio Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (30 page)

“You didn’t tell
me about that case, Holmes?” I said.

“No I didn’t. It
was deliberate, old chap. With your taste for writing sensational stories about
me, I was afraid you might publish the affair.”

“Would it have
mattered if I had?” I asked, somewhat disappointed by his lack of trust in me.

“Oh yes, it
would have mattered. You’d have given away . . . what shall I
say . . .
professional
secrets? You would have provided the public, and in particular the criminal
public, with a complete education on fingerprints. And when that happens, my
dear Watson, we shall have no tricks left. That will be a sad day for
detectives!”

“Wonderful, Dr.
Watson. Just the story we need to round out the book. May I suggest you go home
and write it up. You may post it to me as soon as you are finished and I will
inform you as to when the publication date has been set.”

I agreed and we
shook hands on it. As I rode my way across town in a Hansom, I was thrilled
that my as yet unpublished stories would first become a book. Far better for
me, I thought, than to publish each story, one at a time, in the
Strand
magazine, even though Mr. Doyle, as well
as myself, constantly received letters from the magazine asking me to submit
more stories.

When I reached
home, I found Holmes still up, although it was well after midnight. He was at
my desk, pipe in mouth, pouring through various books and copious notes he had
taken while I was away. As I entered, he looked up, put his work aside for the
moment and spoke.

“Well, Watson, I’d
just about given you up for lost. Welcome back to, if I might say so, a most
comfortable home only you could have established.”

“Holmes, I’m
most delighted by the proceedings of this entire day,” I said in excitement. “Let
me tell you about what happened.”

I sat down and
told him the entire story of my encounter with my agent, Arthur Conan Doyle. He
listened attentively, his face expressing various moods as I jumped from detail
to detail. When I had finished, it was as if I had relived the entire day once
again, and I found myself no longer tired.

“Watson, you
delight me and depress me all in one stroke,” he said.

“How so, Holmes?”

“I am, of
course, delighted that your writings have found a marketplace and that you will
profit from all this. I am depressed became I have always felt you have done
far too much elaborating on the cases I have undertaken.”

“Oh, Holmes,” I
said, quite annoyed, “do be reasonable.”

“You are right,
Watson, I am being unreasonable. This is your night, or rather, your day, as it
is almost three in the morning. Congratulations!”

“Here. Just a
moment, Holmes, I’ll get out that bottle of sherry I keep for such occasions
and we can drink to a most successful enterprise; my new book.”

I quickly poured
two drinks and handed one to Holmes. He was smiling profusely and, in a delightful
gesture, raised his glass high. I followed suit and we drank in silence,
enjoying not only the wine, but our friendship which has lasted all these long
years. It was then I noticed, more closely, the books and papers on which
Holmes had been working. The books were so ancient the pages were coming out of
the spine, and were all handwritten on parchment. Next to them were Holmes’ own
notes, with cryptic coding and strange symbols along with his quite
recognizable handwriting.

“What the devil
are you working on?” I asked.

“These books, my
dear Watson, are ancient alchemist diaries that are quite rare. I have been
spending the better part of this evening deciphering the very odd and strange
code methods used in those bygone days. I have finally cracked some of the most
difficult ciphers I have ever encountered.”

“What do they
tell you?”

“This one,” he
said, holding up one page of writing that was absolutely foreign to me, with
odd looking characters and pictures, “is a formula for an elixir of life. As I
suspected in my preliminary work to uncover these diaries, there is a direct
link between various alchemy formulas and a precious substance produced by the
common bee, royal jelly.”

“A fountain of
youth?” I said, laughing.

“Quite right,
Watson, an elixir that will sustain life for hundreds of years and prolong a
human being’s physical structure from the moment he drinks it.”

“In other words,
a formula that will stop your aging, leaving you in the exact state you are in
now, correct?”

“Exactly.”

“Are you going
to make up this elixir, Holmes?”

He smiled at me,
but said nothing.

“Are you?” I
asked again.

“Well . . .,” he
returned, leaning back in his chair and touching his fingertips together, a wry
smile on his face. I sat down quickly, and stared at Holmes, this incredible
man who never ceased to work, never ceased asking questions to seek out
answers. I began to chuckle, then laugh.

“I see nothing
funny about what I said, Watson.”

“It’s not that,
Holmes, it is simply that you will never die. Especially now that I have
published so many stories about your various cases. As long as people continue
to read even one story I have written about you, you shall live forever. So you
see, Holmes, your elixir of life is already working.”

Holmes threw his
head back and laughed uproariously.

“Watson, my
dear, dear Watson. Whatever shall I do without you?”

“And I with you,
Holmes. Without you, there would have been no cases for me to write about, and
we would not be sitting here, sherry in hand, to celebrate our friendship.”

The room grew
silent now, as my words finished. There was no more need of talk. Holmes and I
sat a long time in silence, he at his work and I with my dispatch box beside me
and, pen in hand, jotting down more notes on other adventures we had
experienced. There was no need for sleep that night and, although this was not
221 B Baker Street, we were at home as before, in the latter years of our life.

Good friends forever.

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DENIS GREEN

Born in England, Denis Green began his
career as an actor on the British stage, appearing in various productions and
working closely as actor and production manager to his friend Leslie Howard. He
came to America with Howard to perform on Broadway and decided to stay. His
acting and his occasional writing brought him to the West Coast where he
appeared in various feature films. He was soon hired as head writer
of The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
radio
series and worked closely with Leslie Charteris on the Holmes radio scripts.
When Charteris decided to leave the show, Green hired Anthony Boucher to take
his place. The talents of both men brought the radio series to a new height.
They went on to write other mystery series for radio. With the advent of television,
Denis continued to write, but returned to acting and appeared on such shows
as Rawhide, Wagon Train
and others, up until his
death in the 1960’s.

ANTHONY BOUCHER

Anthony Boucher excelled in the writing of
science-fiction, fantasy and mystery stories. For years he was the
New York Times
Mystery Book Critic. He was hired
by Denis Green to work on the Sherlock Holmes radio series where Denis set the
tone of Victorian England and wrote most of the dialogue, while Anthony wrote
the plots and the twist endings. Boucher also wrote the novel
The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars
, in
honor of Sherlock Holmes, and established one of the first Sherlock Holmes
scions in San Francisco. He went on to write
The Adventures of Ellery
Queen
radio series. A prolific writer, he
continued to write fiction and later became editor of
The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy.
After his death, the Mystery Writers of America named their annual convention
after him, an honor that has continued for over twenty years.

KEN GREENWALD

Born and raised in Los Angeles, California,
Ken was influenced first by dramatic radio in the 1940’s, and later by films.
Multi-faceted, he became an actor and comedian and appeared in two television
series in the 1960’s before going on to write and direct a number of short film
comedies, one of which was nominated for an Academy Award. His love of radio
drew him to the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters radio archives where he became a
member. He continues to work in film and television
and,
as author of this book,
is part of The Baker Street Associates.

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