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or
astrally transposed spirit of Lord Rupert Grimsley, once Lord of
Depewatch Priory. And then he spoke circumspectly, watching me, as
if he feared to wake my old dreams again and cause me many
sleepless nights.
    I can only be sorry that the case ended
without firm conclusion, for it did, as Holmes promised me that
night on the Embankment, show me unsuspected colors in the spectrum
of human mentality and human existence. Yet this was not an unmixed
blessing. For though I know that my fever-dream was no more than
that – a fantastic hallucination brought on by illness and by
Carnaki's own curious monomania about otherworld cults and ancient
writings – sometimes in the shadowland between sleep and waking I
think of that terrible blue-litten abyss that lies beneath an old
Priory on the borders of Wales, and imagine that I hear the eerie
piping of chaos rising up out of blasphemous angles of night. And
in my dreams I see again the enigmatic Miss Delapore, standing
before the chittering congregation of nightmares, holding aloft in
her hands the skull of Lord Rupert Grimsley: The skull that now
reposes in a corner of Holmes' room, wrapped in its red cardboard
box.

 
     
     
    About the Author
     
     
    Since her first published fantasy in 1982 - The Time of the Dark - Barbara Hambly has touched most of
the bases in genre fiction. She has written mysteries, horror,
mainstream historicals, graphic novels, sword-and-sorcery fantasy,
romances, and Saturday Morning Cartoons. Born and raised in
Southern California, she attended the University of California,
Riverside, and spent one year at the University of Bordeaux,
France. She married science fiction author George Alec Effinger,
and lived part-time in New Orleans for a number of years. In her
work as a novelist, she currently concentrates on horror (the Don
Simon Ysidro vampire series) and historical whodunnits, the
well-reviewed Benjamin January novels, though she has also written
another historical whodunnit series under the name of Barbara
Hamilton.
    A lifelong fan of Arthur Conan Doyle’s
Sherlock Holmes stories, over the years Hambly has been asked to
contribute to a number of Holmes anthologies. When the character
went into public domain, she added these stories to her
collection.
    Professor Hambly also teaches History
part-time, paints, dances, and trains in martial arts. Follow her
on Facebook, and on her blog at livejournal.com.
    Now a widow, she shares a house in Los
Angeles with several small carnivores.
    She very much hopes you will enjoy these
stories.
     
    ***
     
     
    Other Sherlock Holmes stories by Barbara
Hambly, available on Smashwords:
     
    The Dollmaker of Marigold Walk (narrated by
Mrs. Watson)
    The Adventure of the Sinister Chinaman
(narrated by Dr. Watson)
    The Adventure of the Lost Boy (Sherlock
Holmes meets Peter Pan - narrated by Mrs. Watson)