The Collected Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in Japan by Ben Stevens Read Free Book Online Page B

as though from somewhere distant, I sensed I was being pulled away from the merging candle-flames and the hideous faces of the demons and imps and such…
    Someone was shouting in my ear, entreating me not to die, to stay focused and to –
    ‘… breathe… !’
    It was upon hearing this last word that I began partially to return to my senses. Clean air was rushing into my lungs… A strong wind was buffeting around my head and my ears and I realized that I was half-leaning in the darkness out of one of the main hall’s windows, the shutter of wood-and-paper having been slid open…         
    Strong hands were gripping my shoulders and keeping me from falling towards that rocky river, surrounded by bamboo groves, that was far below. Holmes’s head was beside mine; he too was breathing the cool air that was so different from the poisonous atmosphere inside the main hall.
    ‘Holmes…?’ I said uncertainly, my voice little more than a croak.
    ‘I’m sorry, my dear doctor – I’m so sorry,’ he returned in an almost emotional-sounding flood. ‘I would not have subjected you to this for the world; but there was no other way – absolutely no other way…’
    I was still dazed from what had just taken place. So it took me a few moments to interpret the Englishman’s words.
    ‘What is this?’ I managed to ask at last. ‘Some sort of devilry, taking place here in a Buddhist temple?’
    ‘Yes, Yoshida- sensei – exactly that,’ returned Holmes, raising his voice above the howling wind that was blowing into the hall behind us. ‘Devilry – man-made devilry.’     
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘Wait here,’ said Holmes. ‘Just keep your head out of this window. You’re strong enough to stand unaided now, yes? You won’t fall?’
    I wouldn’t and I said so. It was hard for me now even to recall those terrors I’d been experiencing just a minute before. My mental and physical strength had almost fully returned, and I was again ready for anything.
    Holmes was gone but for a few seconds. When he returned he said –
    ‘We don’t have much time. The poisonous atmosphere has all but dispersed by now, due to the window being open, so we must shut it as it was before and then adopt our positions before the altar.’
    ‘What positions?’ I inquired.
    ‘We must pretend to be dead,’ declared the detective bluntly. ‘But keep your face pressed into your arm, so that it cannot be seen. Else the usual, awful expression will not be evident and so suspicions may be aroused.’
    ‘But, Holmes- san , I don’t understand…’
    ‘That doesn’t matter for now! Just trust me!’
    This fiercely-whispered entreaty was more than enough for me. I copied Holmes in a ‘prone’ position before the altar, the wood-and-paper window now slid shut, and waited…
     
    10
     
    It wasn’t long before I heard the sliding door into the main hall – which Katamari had closed behind him – open, and someone enter. Whoever it was walked quickly over to the window and again opened it.
    The wind whipped in for a minute or so, although as before I doubted it was strong enough to extinguish any of the candles burning, and I heard the door slide shut again as our mysterious guest departed.
    Then all was silence. I hardly dared breathe, Holmes lying close beside me. Whoever had just entered had walked past our apparently dead bodies without even a murmur…
    But who… ?  
    The door slid open again ten or so long minutes later. This time there was a gasp of surprise and then the shriek –
    ‘More deaths! More deaths! Someone – help!’
    I didn’t recognize the voice. As likely as not it belonged to one of those junior monks, who’d possibly come to prepare the hall for the evening service. But where was Katamari, who’d said he’d return with everyone resident at this temple – even the Jushoku , his health allowing?
    I could hear footsteps hurriedly approaching along the wooden floor of the corridor outside. More