Sherlock Holmes and the Chinese Junk Affair and Other Stories Read Online Free

perhaps forty, tons had vanished.
    ‘It would have taken a week at least, I imagine, to have reduced it to scrap, to enable it to have been taken piece by piece, up those steps and out through the doorway. Yet it had vanished, nothing of it remained.
    ‘I felt Rodger’s hand upon my shoulder. In a voice we reserve for speaking to someone in a state of shock, as I was, he said, “Come on, old chap, let’s have a drink. I’m sorry I didn’t realise it would be such a surprise, well, shock to you.”’
    Sir Simon looked at Holmes and then to me. Holmes didn’t say anything. I think we were both anxious not to break the spell which the account had created on all three of us. Sir Simon at last continued.
    ‘It was some time before I was back to anything like normality and was able to discuss the phenomenon I had witnessed. Believe me, Mr Holmes, it was truly a phenomenon. The gist of the conversation afterwards was this.
    ‘Rodger described it as “transposing” matter through space by means of converting solids, by electricity, into waves, which could then be converted back again into the original solid state. This was how he put it in simple terms, to me, a non-scientific person.
    ‘He then went on to explain that for the past fifteen years he had been working with two Chinese scientists on the project. They had suddenly had a breakthrough five years ago, and had been able to transpose solids by the use of electricity, into a form which enabled them to be transferred for a distance of over twenty miles, then re-form as solids again.
    ‘The Chinese scientists, Rodger said, did not seem interested in the potential of it, only in its discovery. They were now researching into the means of extending the process over greater distances.
    “I left them to their research, I must confess, with much regret,” he said. “I had a huge respect for them as friends and for their ability. They were wonderful companions and fifteen years is a long time. In Europe, they would have been prize winners, but thousands of miles away in the heart of China, they worked on their research unsung, and their achievements unknown. China is, in distance and attitudes, miles apart from us in the West.”
    ‘He went on to say how he realised the value, and the huge possibilities the discovery held, and so decided to leave China and take the discovery to Europe.
    ‘Which country should he approach, because he realised that should a war develop, the transposing discovery could be used to great advantage. Heavy guns, supplies of all kinds could be “transposed” at a few hours’ notice and placed at the front where the enemy was weakest.
    ‘Although the British government had treated his family badly over the development of a past invention, and had evaded the patent rights which had led to the family’s financial downfall, he still held a certain loyalty to the old country.
    ‘In a nutshell, Mr Holmes, he offered the discovery to the British government for the sum of one million pounds; yes, one million pounds. I had been selected, chosen if you like to put it, to witness the discovery because I was a member of the Cabinet and he considered me a one hundred per cent, cast-iron person to be believed. After all, who would have listened to him, had he tried to sell his discovery without proof? But by setting up the elaborate demonstration in the ballroom, the validity of the discovery was proven beyond a shadow of doubt.’
    Sir Simon leaned backwards as though the effort of going through the account had left him drained. He looked at his desk for some time as though forgetting we were present.
    Holmes coughed, and said, ‘So, Sir Simon, about the transposition.’
    Sir Simon appeared to shake himself literally, and took up the story again.
    ‘Next morning we had breakfast and the stable boy brought the dogcart to the door and Rodger and I set off at a brisk pace. I remember that wonderful sunny March morning; it was difficult for me to