Death Cloud

Sherlock wakes up hours later in a plush bedroom. Disoriented, he thinks himself to be at Holmes Manor but soon learns he is being held prisoner at the estate of Baron Maupertuis. Looking out the window, he sees the odd sight of stacked wooden boxes. He observes, “The boxes were spaced apart in a regular grid. A quick multiplication in Sherlock’s mind told him that he was staring at something like five hundred boxes” (175). He realizes that these are the hives of the deadly bees that Professor Winchcombe told him about.

Two men enter his chamber. They wear black velvet livery with face masks to match and compel the boy to go with them. He is led into a darkened chamber and seated at the end of a massive table. Sherlock can’t see the person at the other end, but the man begins to interrogate him about his activities at the warehouse. When he doesn’t answer immediately, he is whipped: “Something came flashing out of the darkness, thin and black and uncurling like a striking snake. It caught his right cheek before withdrawing into the dark” (179). After repeated strikes with the whip, Sherlock confesses that he knows about the men killed by bee stings. He also reveals all the other people who know about the warehouse business. His interrogator concludes that there are too many to silence, so the operation must be speeded up. The baron then orders Sherlock to be killed.

As the boy is being led out of the room, Matty comes to his rescue, striking one of the guards with a metal club that he lifted from a suit of armor. The two boys flee, but the baron’s guards chase them from one end of the estate to the other until they manage to steal two horses. When escape through the gates is cut off, they ride into the house and exit through an unguarded back entrance.

The boys go directly to Crowe’s cottage, where he patches up Sherlock’s wounds and listens to the tale of what happened at the baron’s estate. Crowe advises against going to the police because the story is so incredible that no one would believe it. Instead, the tutor wants to get more information from the locals who live near the baron’s property. He sets out with Sherlock, Matty, and Virginia. At a tavern, they stop for food, where Crowe begins to chat with the locals, affecting a working-class British accent. While the teens wait outside for him, Virginia points out that she never sent the invitation to Sherlock, and he admits that he was lured into a trap. She also explains that her father was a tracker in the United States, hunting down criminals who escaped justice.

Once Crowe returns, he reports that Maupertuis and his retinue decamped earlier in the day. They took all the hive boxes with them. Crowe says that he will use some of his contacts in the government to track the baron and find out where he is going next. The tutor then sends Sherlock home to await the news. The next morning, Crowe arrives at Holmes Manor and announces a field trip to London. Virginia and Matty will be going along. Crowe has received word from his spies that the baron is heading to the city.

The travelers arrive at Waterloo Station and check into the Sarbonnier Hotel. Crowe buys Matty new clothes and gets his hair cut to make him look presentable. The tutor receives word from one of his contacts that the baron and his party can be found in Rotherhithe, where they intend to travel by water. He says, “It’s a few miles downriver—an unsavory location where sailors take their entertainment between voyages and goods are stored before being loaded onto ships. Not a place where you want to be after dark” (214).

Crowe wants Sherlock to get a closer look at the baron’s cargo to see if it includes the beehives from Farnham. He intends to take the boys to Rotherhithe but orders Virginia to stay at the hotel. The trio hires a boat downriver to their destination. Once near the warehouse where the baron’s cargo is stored, Crowe stations the boys on street corners near taverns. He tells them to listen to any conversations they overhear that might offer useful information. Crowe then goes alone to investigate the warehouse. Sherlock notices four men staggering out of a tavern. Their leader says, “You head off to Ripon, Snagger goes to Colchester, the lad Nicholson here gets an easy ride to Woolwich, an’ I get to go back to Aldershot” (223). Unfortunately, the boy makes eye contact with one of the men, who instantly recognizes him. Sherlock barely escapes the men, and a frantic chase ensues.