Free Sherlock Holmes & The Master Engraver (Sherlock Holmes Revival) by Ross Husband

expert locksmith and self-proclaimed ‘consultant on security’, once thought to be the finest crib-cracker in London... by strange coincidence, also now retired! However, I am quite satisfied that he is again on the straight and narrow path.”
    “The second finest until I retired...” interjected von Huntziger good-naturedly. I smiled at this criminal, yet highly professional rivalry between two men so clearly from utterly different backgrounds and education, yet each according the other his due rank in the pecking order of their own villainous but ordered hierarchy.
    A small, ferret-like, shabbily-dressed character with crooked, badly stained teeth turned from the workbench and awkwardly knuckled his forehead to me. “Pleased to meet yer I’m sure Doctor, an’ I truly was only ever an innocent suspeck, God’s truth.” He giggled “Heugh heugh heugh.”
    And so with I little the wiser, he returned to his task, and with a soft roar of gas, ignited a whole cluster of hissing Bunsens directed at the base of some sort of blackened, smoking ceramic vessel. The sharp tang of hot metallic fumes, smoking white and acrid, soon started to taint the air. Holmes opened the window to clear the room.
    While Pollitt continued with his work, Holmes, I and the elegant fop-doodle, von Huntziger, gathered around the fire; I observed that Holmes was keeping an unusually keen eye on every move the little man made at the workbench, having so arranged it that all was plainly visible.
    “Perhaps, von Huntziger, you would be good enough to commence by summarising our earlier discussion, for the benefit of Doctor Watson?”
    “Gladly Mr Holmes, but I would still give a handsome sum to know the location and contents of this safe that so urgently occupies your attention!”
    At this unabashed impudence, Holmes shot him an icy stare. Von Huntziger raised his hands in mock apology. “No, of course I speak in jest! From the items Mr Holmes showed me, Doctor, we are talking of a very superior Chubb safe, diagonal-bolt model, although I am sure I merely confirmed what I suspect Mr Holmes knew already.
    “As to the matter of illicitly purloining the contents, there are really only four feasible methods, one being markedly more practical than the others, a view with which Mr Pollitt agrees. Least practical in my opinion would be the use of explosives; not only would they occasion a significant report, and therefore would almost certainly raise an alarm; there would also be considerable risk of damaging the contents of the safe – it is extremely difficult to judge the size and placement of explosive charges precisely such that the locks are released or destroyed, without jamming the mechanism or damaging that which is stored within.
    “A second possibility is the removal of the entire safe that it may be taken to a remote place to be dismantled and opened at leisure. However, the removal of a safe like this would involve large excavation works to free it from its secure fixings. This would also entail considerable noise and would necessitate the use of extremely large and bulky mechanical equipment to lift and transport it. Again, a swift hue and cry would be the almost inevitable consequence.”
    Although von Huntziger’s lecture was absorbing, I nonetheless found it a bizarre experience to be observing Europe’s most renowned consulting detective seated companionably with one of Europe’s most proficient and prolific thieves, and I a respectable medical man, calmly discussing matters of high criminality in his consulting room while a locksmith and master safe-cracker worked industriously alongside, for all the world as if we were merely debating the preferred approach to repairing a broken cartwheel or freeing a stuck sash-window. Von Huntziger blithely continued:
    “A third method which may appear to be attractive to the foolish, would be to attempt to pick the lock – a procedure with which I am sure you are probably quite familiar Mr