The naval treaty

Poor Percy Phelps, Watson's schoolmate, is desperate. A fortnight ago, he was a man with a promising future, betrothed to a beautiful young lady. Now, after a mistake for which no one else is to blame, his career is on the verge of being ruined and his honour definitely stained. Sherlock Holmes is his last hope.

Brilliant at school, he made good studies and, thanks to his uncle Lord Holdhurst, got a good position at the Foreign Office. Recently, he was trusted enough to receive a confidential treaty with Italy. He must do a copy. He was clearly instructed to be very vigilant and never to get the document out of his office. 

Careful not to let anyone see the document, even not a colleague, Percy Phelps waited for the last clerk to leave before beginning his work. It was late in the evening and he rang the bell, a commissionaire remaining on duty all night. The man's wife came and took the order of a coffee. But, as the expected coffee wasn't coming, Mr Phelps left to get it. He found the commissionaire asleep, alone. He woke him and, to their great astonishment, they clearly heard the bell in Phelp's office ring!

Running back, he found his office empty, and the precious document gone...

The police make some enquiries about the commissionaire and his wife, but no leads can be followed, no suspect seems to be serious. The treaty simply vanished.

A bit longer than usually, this story is rather interesting, reasonably complex. I regret that all the plot relies on a somehow weak point: after the disaster, Phelps is sick for two weeks. He may have been upset, but to the point of being unable to leave his bed for such a long period? It's hard to believe. 

If you choose to believe it, though, the rest of the story is better. Characters are reasonably numerous, well introduced. We discover a part of Watson's childhood. Women characters are good ones -not stupid, not weak. And the solution is realistic and elegant: a greedy man gets a valuable document by sheer luck. French and Russian embassy would buy it at a good price, but the traitor will find an obstacle on his path: Sherlock.