Crossover of the Week

Autumn 1888

THE ADVENTURE OF THE SIX MALEDICTIONS

Professor Moriarty and Colonel Moran are hired by Major Humphrey “Mad” Carew to protect him from the mi-go, which seek to retrieve the gem known as the Green Eye of the Little Yellow God from him. Moriarty’s plan involves hiring a group of master thieves to steal similar cursed items. Appearing or mentioned are: Ted Baldwin; the Vermissa Valley Scowrers; Birdy Edwards, aka John McMurdo and John Douglas; Birlstone Manor; the Assassination Bureau, Ltd.; “that Limehouse Chinese with the marmoset”; the Moonstone; the Eye of Klesh; the All-Seeing Eye of the Goddess of Light; the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak; the Pink Diamond of Lugash; Lukundoo; a Zuni fetish; “a naked Porroh man”; the Barlow rubies; the Rosenthall diamonds; the Mirror of Portugal; the Agra treasure; Azathoth; Tabanga; St. Custard’s; Amaryllis Framington; Giles Conover; the Ingestre Necklace; Mrs. Lovett’s Fleet Street pie shop; the Herncastle Heirloom; the Black Pearl of the Borgias; the Hoxton Creeper; “the cricketing ponce”; the Falcon of the Knights of St. John; the Jewels of the Madonna of Naples; the Jewel of Seven Stars; the Eye of Balor; Simon Carne; Fat Kaspar; the Grand Vampire; Les Vampires; Abel Trelawny; Margaret Trelawny; Gennaro; King Brian of the Leprechauns; Bianca Castafiore; Alf Bassick; Don Rafaele Corbucci; Irene Adler; “Dynamite” Desmond Mountmain and his son Tyrone; Malvoisin’s Mirror; the Monkey’s Paw; Cap’n Flint’s treasure; Sir Michael Sinclair’s Door; Marshall Alaric Molina de Marnac; Vokins; Malilella; Henry Wilcox; Queen Tera; Mrs. Sarah “The Black Widow of Lauder” Stewart; and Hagar “Thieving Pikey” Stanley.

Short story by Colonel Sebastian Moran, edited by Kim Newman in Gaslight Arcanum: Uncanny Tales of Sherlock Holmes, J. R. Campbell and Charles Prepolec, eds., EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, 2011; reprinted and revised in Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the d’Urbervilles, Titan Books, 2011. Professor Moriarty, Colonel Moran, and Irene Adler are from the Sherlock Holmes stories. Ted Baldwin, the Vermissa Valley Scowrers, Birdy Edwards, and Birlstone Manor are from the Holmes novel The Valley of Fear. The Agra treasure is from the Holmes novel The Sign of Four. The Black Pearl of the Borgias is from the Holmes story “The Adventure of the Six Napoleons.” In “The Adventure of the Empty House,” Holmes states “the death of Mrs. Stewart, of Lauder, in 1887” was likely perpetrated by Moran. Mad Carew, the Green Eye of the Little Yellow God and Amaryllis Framington are from J. Milton Hayes’ poem “The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God,” although in the poem Amaryllis is only identified as “the Colonel’s daughter.” Azathoth is one of the Great Old Ones from H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. The mi-go are also from the Mythos. The Assassination Bureau, Ltd. is a novel by Jack London, completed posthumously by Robert L. Fish. “That Limehouse Chinese with the marmoset” is Dr. Fu Manchu. The Moonstone (aka the Herncastle Heirloom) is the subject of a novel by Wilkie Collins. The Eye of Klesh is from Lord Dunsany’s one-act melodrama A Night at an Inn. The All-Seeing Eye of the Goddess of Light is from the 1940 film The Thief of Bagdad. The Crimson Gem of Cyttorak is from the exploits of Marvel Comics’ Doctor Strange. Although the gem is best known as the power source of the X-Men villain Juggernaut, it is unlikely it empowered Cain Marko in the CU. The Pink Diamond of Lugash is better known as the Pink Panther, from the film series of the same name. Lukundoo is from the short story of the same name by Edward Lucas White. The Zuni fetish is from Richard Matheson’s story “Prey,” later adapted as “Amelia,” the third segment of the made-for-television film Trilogy of Terror. The “naked Porroh man” is from H. G. Wells’ story “Pollock and the Porroh Man.” The Barlow rubies are from Patrick Hamilton’s play Gas Light. “The cricketing ponce” is E. W. Hornung’s Raffles. The Rosenthall diamonds are from the Raffles story “A Costume Piece.” Don Rafaele Corbucci is Raffles’ nemesis Count Corbucci from “The Fate of Faustina” and “The Last Laugh.” Rick Lai gives the Count the first name Salvatore in his own fiction. Perhaps his full name is Salvatore Rafaele Corbucci. The Mirror of Portugal is from Arthur Morrison’s story “The Case of ‘The Mirror of Portugal,’” found in the collection The Dorrington Deed Box. Tabanga is from the film From Hell It Came. St. Custard’s is the school attended by Nigel Molesworth in books written by Geoffrey Willans and illustrated by Ronald Searle. Giles Conover and the Hoxton Creeper are from the Sherlock Holmes film The Pearl of Death. The Creeper was played by Rondo Hatton, who also portrayed a character called the Creeper in the films House of Horrors and The Brute Man; perhaps the latter-day Creeper is a descendant of his Victorian namesake and look-alike. The Ingestre Necklace and Mrs. Lovett’s Fleet Street pie shop are from the penny dreadful story “The String of Pearls: A Romance,” which formed the basis for the stage musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The Falcon of the Knights of St. John is the titular statue from Dashiell Hammett’s novel The Maltese Falcon; Fat Kaspar is Casper Gutman. The Jewels of the Madonna of Naples, Genarro, and Malilella (usually spelled without the second “l”) are from Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari’s opera The Jewels of the Madonna. The Jewel of Seven Stars, Abel Trelawny, Margaret Trelawny, and Queen Tera are from the novel The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker. The Eye of Balor is from Celtic mythology. Simon Carne is from the collection A Prince of Swindlers by Guy Boothby. The Grand Vampire and Les Vampires are from Louis Feuillade’s serial named for the latter. King Brian of the Leprechauns is Brian Connors from the film Darby O’Gill and the Little People. Bianca Castafiore is from the Tintin comics by Hergé. Alf Bassick is from William Gillette’s play Sherlock Holmes. Desmond and Tyrone Mountmain are undoubtedly relatives of the Mountmain family which appears in Newman’s serial novel Seven Stars. Malvoisin’s Mirror is from a titular story by Chris Lowder and Brian Lewis in the British comic magazine Halls of Horror #12. The Monkey’s Paw is the subject of the short story of the same name by W. W. Jacobs. Cap’n Flint’s treasure is from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Sir Michael Sinclair’s Door is from “The Door,” a segment of the British horror anthology film From Beyond the Grave. Marshall Alaric Molina de Marnac is likely a descendant of Alaric de Marnac, the 15th century warlock played by Paul Naschy (née Jacinto Molina Álvarez) in the films Horror from the Tomb and Cries of Terror. Vokins is Charles Vokins from “The Horizontal Witness,” an episode of the television series Cribb, based on Peter Lovesey’s series of novels about a Victorian era Police Sergeant. Henry Wilcox is from E. M. Forster’s novel Howards End. Hagar Stanley is from the collection Hagar of the Pawn-Shop: The Gypsy Detective by Fergus Hume. The original version of this tale had references to the Emeralds of Suliman (from Edgar Wallace’s J. G. Reeder tale “The Green Mamba”) and Sylvia Marsh (from Ken Russell’s 1988 film version of Bram Stoker’s The Lair of the White Worm).