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).
