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This appeared more promising – and, I observed, the visitor was somewhat more serious about it. At first glance it seemed to me an undistinguished portrait of a commonplace luncheon party – although it was set in unusual surroundings, the table and guests being all but engulfed by bulky electrical equipment, wires and cylinders and coils and cones, and in the background I could make out the fittings of a workshop: a steam lathe, metal turners, acetylene welding equipment, a sheet-metal stamp and the like. I ventured, “I observe that our visitor this evening was a guest at the lunch. I do not know these others – ”

“They are the Brimicombes, of Wiltshire,” said the visitor. “My hosts that day: two brothers, Ralph and Tarquin. Ralph is an old college friend of mine. The brothers work together – or did so – on mechanical and electrical inventions.”

“It was a sunny day,” I said. “I see a splash of light here on the tablecloth, just behind the dish containing this handsome sausage.”

“Yes,” said Holmes with tolerant patience, “but what of the sausage itself?”

I looked again. The sausage sat on its own plate, the centrepiece of the meal. “It is a succulent specimen. Is it German?”

Holmes sighed. “Watson, that is no sausage, German or otherwise. It is evidently a prank, of dubious taste, served on their guests by these Brimicombes.”

The visitor laughed. “You have it, Mr Holmes. You should have seen our faces when that giant concoction crawled off its plate and across the tablecloth!”

“A man of your profession should recognize the beast, Watson. It is an aquatic annelid, of the suctorial order Hirudinea, employed for the extraction of blood – ”

“Great Heaven,” I cried, “it is a giant leech!”

“You cannot see the colour in the Kodak,” said the visitor, “but you should know it was a bright red: as red as blood itself.”

“But how can this be, Holmes? Is it some freak of nature?”

“Of nature – or Man’s science,” Holmes mused. “Consider the influences acting on that wretched leech. It is drawn towards flatness by the force of the gravity of the Earth; that much we know. And its collapse to a pancake is resisted only by its internal strength. But it is hard to believe a creature as gross as this specimen would even be able to sustain its own form. Why, then, has it evolved such a magnitude? What gives it the strength to hold itself up, to move?” He eyed his visitor sharply. “Or perhaps we should ask, what is reducing the force which drags it down?”

The visitor clapped his hands in delight. “You have it, sir!”

Holmes handed back the photograph. “Indeed. And perhaps you might care to set out the particulars of the case.”

Confused, I asked, “Are you so sure you have a case at all, Holmes?”

“Oh, yes,” he said gravely. “For did our visitor not speak of the work of these Brimicombe brothers in the past tense? Evidently something has disturbed the equilibrium of their fraternal lives; and you would not be here, sir, if that were not something serious.”

“Indeed,” was the reply, and now the visitor was solemn. “There could be nothing more serious, in fact: my visit here was motivated by the death of the elder brother, Ralph, in unusual circumstances – circumstances deriving from the more obscure corners of the physical sciences!”

I asked, “Is it murder?”

“The local coroner does not think so. I, however, am unsure. There are puzzling features – inconsistencies – and so I have come to you, Mr Holmes – I am a journalist and author, not a detective.”

I smiled. “In fact, sir, I already know your occupation.”

He seemed surprised. “Forgive me. We have not been introduced.”

“No introduction is necessary, nor was any deep deduction on my part. Your portrait has been as common enough this year.”

He looked flattered. “You know my work?”

“As it has been featured in the Pall Mall Budget, The National Observer and elsewhere. I am a great admirer of your scientific romances.” I extended my hand. “It is good to meet you, Mr Wells!”

Holmes agreed to travel with Wells to the Brimicombe