Scarlet Blush Conclusion

Part 1 is here.

"A 'newfangled apple' after all, Watson," Holmes said, looking up from the bowl of fruit before him. "With the outlandish name of Zest Star."

"But how did you know to contact Mr. Athay?" I asked, for it was from the grower himself that we learned the name of the cultivar that had borne my mysterious apples.

"That was elementary, Watson," Holmes told me. "Apples are a popular English food, but just two farms at the market grow the early apples.

"Douglas's only grows Williams' Prides, for which these could scarcely be mistaken, so I sent a message care of Athay's London agent."

He sniffed. "I did not expect Mr. Athay to come in person."

Richard Athay had indeed only just left, after offering apologies and a basket of Zest Stars—which he called "Zestars."

"Well, o' course I know what I grow, Mr. Holmes!" the farmer had told us over a dish of tea. "The boy should attend to 'is work and know 'is apples. I'll learn him summat."

He refused payment for the apples or his trouble, telling me as he left, "Tea with Mr. Sherlock Holmes repays all. Not every day do I speak to the greatest bee-man in Christendom."

"Bees, Holmes?" I asked later, as Mrs. Hudson came in with the post. It was my first inkling of the great detective's apiarian accomplishments.

My friend made an indistinct noise as he reached for a letter opener. "I have written several monographs on the subject," he said.

"Still, the man seemed not to know that he was drinking tea with—"

"Watson," Holmes interjected in a low tone, an opened letter clutched in his left hand. "Have you your revolver with you? Is it loaded?"

"Why yes, Holmes, but what—"

"Come then, Watson," he said, rising and reaching for his cape. "There is not a moment to be lost."

Public-domain illustration by Sidney Paget originally published in the Strand Magazine (1893).