Monday, February 14, 2011

Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes The "Gloria Scott" & The Musgrave Ritual (p429-458)

The "Gloria Scott",  described some times in Holmes' college times. He lives with his friend Victor Trevor at his father's estate. Over there Holmes had a clue that told him that Victor's father knew someone with the initials J.A. and that he wanted to forget. His father told him that J.A. was an old lover, but Holmes did not believe it. Holmes thought he was making the man uncomfortable so he decided to leave. As he was leaving a old man entered and Victor's father left when he saw him. Apparently they have been shipmates 30 years before. The next couple weeks, Holmes was doing chemistry experiments and one day received a telegram from Victor to come back. When they met at the station, Victor told Holmes that his father had a stroke when he looked at a letter and when they got home, he had died. Holmes later found out that Victor's father was being blackmailed and the old man that came earlier's name was Hudson and he took a job from Victor's father but quit recently. Holmes found out that Hudson was threatening to tell Victor's father's old name, James Armitage (J.A.). With that name he had robbed a bank and was transported onto a boat called The Gloria Scott and Victor's father and Hudson were part of a revolt and were one of the few to survive. So, they changed their names and lived happily until Hudson showed up again and blackmailed  Victor's father.
The Musgrave Ritual is a different type of  Doyle story because instead of Watson being the narrator, Holmes is narrating himself. In this story, Holmes tells Watson what happened after he visited his university friend, Reginald Musgrave. This man visited Holmes when two of his workers disappeared. He couldn't find them when he fired a man named Brunton for reading a family document called the Musgrave Ritual. When  Musgrave caught Brunton, he gave him a week to invent a reason for leaving so he didn't have to fire him. A few days later Brunton was gone too with out giving notice or taking his things. When Holmes investigated he found out that the Musgrave Ritual was a set of instructions for finding something. Holmes later found a cellar and in that cellar they found Brunton dead and a chest. In there was a bag with gold, gems and King Charles I's gold crown. They later found out the original owner of the house and crown had died before telling his children about the crown and crowning one of them. After that the story had ended.

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