Sherlock Holmes in Devil's Cape, part 2

In yesterday's post, I talked about the publication of the story "The Adventure of the Pirate's of Devil's Cape" and the anthology itself (I'm really looking forward to reading it, by the way). At some point, I'd like to go more into the shaping of the story. But for now, I'll take the quick way out and give a short excerpt from it. Some background first: In the summer of 1894, the