The Adventure of the Missing Saucepans

"Sherlock Holmes in Russia."

Reprinted in Russian Essays and Stories (1908) by Maurice Baring (1874-1945; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; and the SFE HERE).

First appearance: The Daily Post, December 23, 1907.

Short story (10 pages as a PDF).

Online at Project Gutenberg (HERE), Archive.org (HERE), and Gaslight Weekly (HERE).

   "It frequently happens that problems which appeared to consist of mere trifles turn out to be matters of deep importance and difficult of solution."

THERE will always be days when you're better off just staying in bed . . .

Main characters:

~ Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, Prince B-- and his wife, Prince Alexander and Princess Barbara, the butler, the young man, Mavra, the village policeman, and the station-master.

Reference:

- "I concluded that he had introduced the game of skat, of which German students are exceedingly fond, to you":

  "Skat, historically Scat, is a three-player trick-taking card game of the ace–ten family, devised around 1810 in Altenburg in the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. It is the national game of Germany and, along with Doppelkopf, it is the most popular card game in Germany and Silesia and one of the most popular in the rest of Poland. A variant of 19th-century Skat was once popular in the U.S. John McLeod considers it one of the best and most interesting card games for three players, and Kelbet described it as 'the king of German card games.' The German Skat Association assesses that it is played by around 25 million Germans – more than play football." (Wikipedia HERE.)

Resource:

- Maurice Baring took another playful swipe at the Sage of Baker Street (HERE).

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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