| The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge | |
| Author: | Arthur Conan Doyle |
| Series: | His Last Bow |
| Pub Date: | 1908 |
"The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge" is one of the fifty-six Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. One of eight stories in the volume His Last Bow, it is a lengthy, two-part story consisting of "The Singular Experience of Mr. John Scott Eccles" and "The Tiger of San Pedro", which on original publication in The Strand bore the collective title of "A Reminiscence of Mr. Sherlock Holmes".
Sherlock Holmes is visited by a John Scott Eccles, who wishes to discuss something "grotesque". No sooner has he arrived at 221B Baker Street than Inspector Gregson also shows up, along with Inspector Baynes of the Surrey Constabulary. They wish a statement from Eccles about the murder of Aloysius Garcia near Esher the previous night.Eccles explains that he spent the night at Wisteria Lodge, Garcia's rented house, but when he woke up in the morning, he found that Garcia and his servants had all disappeared, leaving him alone in the house. Eccles mentions that a note, delivered during dinner the previous evening, had caused great consternation to Garcia and may have had some connection with the household's disappearance.Holmes' investigation leads him to the Henderson household, whose master has spent time in the tropics, and whose secretary is a dark-skinned foreigner. Holmes believes that the cryptic note came from this household and the writer could only be the house's governess, Miss Burnet, who has not been seen since the night of the murder.
That night, the Hendersons flee by train. Miss Burnet escapes with the help of a former gardener. It is revealed that "Henderson" is in fact Don Juan Murillo, an overthrown dictator from Central America who left a bloody trail behind as he escaped to England. Miss Burnet's real name is Mrs. Victor Durando. Her late husband was San Pedro's ambassador to Britain and a potential political rival to Murillo. Murillo had him recalled and shot so that he would not pose a threat to Murillo's position. Fortunately, Mrs. Durando stayed behind in England and avoided harm herself. She went on to change her name and secure the position as governess to Henderson's children in order to get closer to and spy on him.
Murillo and his secretary give the police the slip in London, and resurface in Madrid under new aliases. However, they are both murdered, and their killers are never caught.
"The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge" was first published in the US in Collier's on 15 August 1908, and in the UK in The Strand Magazine in September–October 1908. In the Strand, the story was published in two parts: "The Singular Experience of Mr. John Scott Eccles" and "The Tiger of San Pedro".[1] The story was published with six illustrations by Frederic Dorr Steele in Collier's, and with ten illustrations by Arthur Twidle in the Strand.[2] It was included in the short story collection His Last Bow,[2] which was published in the UK and the US in October 1917.[3]