"A Thin Flat Fell Down and Disclosed the Muzzle of a Pistol"

"The Röntgen Ray-Der."
By Mr. M—.
First appearance: Phil May's Illustrated Annual, Winter 1896.
Short short short story (4 pages).
Online at Archive.org (HERE).
(Note: Text is faded but legible.)

"Shylock Bones, the celebrated professional amateur, was introduced into the den of the most famous gang of high-art cracksmen in London."

. . . and what, you may inquire, has prompted such solicitude from this clot of criminals? Cloncroskey (a.k.a. Croskey, a.k.a. Count Amadeo Klonkroskikoff), "the king of art-cracksmen," regards the Great Detective "with a genuine admiration and sympathy, a flattering esteem," which alone keeps the archcriminal from instantly perforating his archnemesis; moreover, Bones has a proposition that the master thief finds irresistible . . .

Resources:
- Our story is, of course, a Holmes pastiche, not a parody; the best source for both is the commodious Sherlock Holmes Pastiche Characters website (HERE).
- Bill Peschel seems to have cornered the market on Sherlockian pastiches and parodies; our story appears in one of his anthologies, the TOC of which is (HERE). Peschel's Amazon.com page is (HERE).

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