What secret lies behind the Resident Patient?
Percy Trevelyan, a doctor, is approached by a man called Blessington who offers to fund a new practice for Trevelyan on the condition that he acts as his own private doctor and takes 75 per cent of the doctor’s earnings. This suits both sides well until after a number of years Blessington becomes unnerved by a series of burglaries in the West End.
Just then Trevelyan receives a new patient, a Russian aristocrat who suffers from epileptic fits. During the consultation, the aristocrat suffers from a fit and when Trevelyan returns with medicine to treat him, the aristocrat has disappeared from the treatment room. He returns the next day but afterwards Blessington discovers a number of footprints in his room which could only belong to the Russian’s son who waited outside during the consultations. At that point, Sherlock Holmes is called in to offer his own form of consultation…
This was an entertaining case with plenty of twists and turns. It did not perhaps have a very satisfying conclusion, but seeing Holmes deduct the outcome of what seemed like a clear-cut suicide was a particular highlight.
Tomorrow it is The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter…