My Sherlockian interpretation of "The Terror of Blue John Gap"

The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (http://acdsociety.com) has a wonderful initiative underway led by Margie Deck and Nancy Holder, transcribing the original manuscript of the ACD short story 'The Terror of Blue John Gap'. The story can be read at the ACD encyclopedia (https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Terror_of_Blue_John_Gap), and the 'Doings of Doyle' podcast has also discussed the story (https://www.doingsofdoyle.com/2021/05/14-terror-of-blue-john-gap-1910.html).

The project run by Margie and Nancy works with the manuscript, releasing a new page from the manuscript held by Dartmouth College every few months. Each release is accompanied by a transcript for that page, and a set of essays. The project can be found here: http://acdsociety.com/bjg/a/bjga.html . The website layout itself is a little unusual, but an introduction to the series can be read on the left, and essays on the right.

Following the Baker Street Irregulars weekend in New York in January 2023, I was amazed to receive an email from Nancy and Margie with the following proposition:"

"When discussing Hardcastle’s decisions towards solving the mystery, our talk invariably led to the question of “How would Sherlock Holmes approach this case?” We are wondering if you would like to write a short commentary for us as to Holmes’s likely methods when presented with this kind of situation."

I spent a little time re-acquainting myself with this gripping story before responding in the affirmative. My essay can now be found associated with page 4 of the project (http://acdsociety.com/bjg/4/bjg4.html) with a breakout here: http://acdsociety.com/bjg/4/4-hall-continued.html

As I read and re-read the story, I came to the Sherlockian realization that Holmes HAD in fact investigated the circs surrounding the Terror of Blue John Gap. Holmes was retired, probably bored (was he really every capable of retirement?) and I have no doubt his indexed volumes contained similar tales. So I evolved my task from wondering HOW Sherlock would approach the case, to identifying evidence that Sherlock HAD investigated the case.

Have a read of my essay and let me know what you think! And thanks so much to Margie and Nancy for including me in their wonderful project.