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“I was deceived, Watson, until we pulled Vittoria’s body from the tiger cage and I noticed her tiny feet. The woman who called on us in London had feet as big as yours, as you must have noticed. Foot sizes don’t change overnight, so I knew it was a different woman. When Philip and Charles and others assured us the body was Vittoria’s, that meant it was an impostor who’d visited us. I asked myself who it could have been, and the answer was obvious. The impostor had to be Vittoria’s killer, or a close accomplice. We learned that the extra key to the tiger cage was kept in Philip’s tent, where Milly Hogan also stayed. And we learned that Philip and Milly were playing with the new tiger yesterday morning. Milly had been an actress, performing at the Lyceum Theatre in London. And Milly had reason to be jealous of Vittoria. Such a motive made it unlikely that you were involved, Philip. If the two of you were close enough to plot a murder, she would have had no reason for jealousy in the first place. I also felt certain that if you had wanted to kill Vittoria you would have done it away from the circus grounds so as not to harm business. And surely you would not have insisted Diaz’s death was accidental if you were party to a plot to link the two deaths as a double murder.”

It was later, on the train back to London, after Milly Hogan had confessed, that I remarked to Holmes, “We never did meet Vittoria, the Circus Belle.”

“No,” he agreed. “But we met Milly Hogan twice, and in my profession I find a murderess more fascinating than a Circus Belle.”

The Darlington Substitution Scandal

David Stuart Davies

By late 1886 Holmes’s caseload was increasing substantially, allowing him to be more selective in the work he took on, and this occasionally made him rather cavalier to those clients whom he felt were wasting his time. Some of these cases Watson did not write up, either because they seemed trivial or because Holmes wished to keep his clients’ details confidential. Occasionally certain incidents were later remembered and one such case was “The Darlington Substitution Scandal” which Holmes refers to in “A Scandal in Bohemia”. This case has been highly problematic to restore and even now the story may not be complete. Holmes was reminded of the case by his use of a fire alarm to unearth items of value, but it transpires it wasn’t fire but a similar cause for alarm that helped Holmes resolve the matter.

Sherlock Holmes and I returned late one evening to our Baker Street rooms after spending some time in the realms of Wagner. My friend was still singing Siegfried’s horn call even as we let ourselves in through the door of 221b. His recital was interrupted somewhat abruptly by the appearance of Mrs Hudson at the foot of the stairs. She was wearing a long grey dressing gown and appeared to be quite perturbed.

“You have a visitor, Mr Holmes,” she whispered with a kind of desperate urgency. “He refuses to leave until he sees you. He is most insistent.”

“Is he?” said Holmes, “Then we had better oblige the gentleman. Off to bed with you. Friend Watson and I will deal with the matter.”

She gave an understanding nod, threw a brief smile in my direction and disappeared behind her door.

The visitor was a short, burly figure of some sixty years. He possessed a high, bald forehead, a shiny face and fierce blue eyes. He almost ran towards us as we entered our sitting room. “At last,” he cried.

Holmes gave a gentle bow of the head in greeting as he flung off his coat and scarf. “Had his Lordship taken the courtesy to arrange an appointment he would not have had to wait over two hours to see me – the cigar butts in my ashtray indicate the length of time.”

“You know me?”

“It is my business to know people. Even in this dim light it is not difficult to recognize the Queen’s minister for foreign affairs, Lord Hector Darlington. Now, pray take a seat and tell me about the theft.”

Lord Darlington dropped open-mouthed into the wicker chair. “Who has told you?”

Holmes gave a brief