These are summaries of the fictional detective Sherlock Holme’s short stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Dr. Watson is a character who is Holmes’ friend and accompanies him on his adventures.

 The adventure of the Sussex Vampire by Sherlock Holmes  

A man comes to Holmes and tells him that he believes that his wife is a vampire.She is a South American from Peru (married to an Englishman) .The man has a son from his late first wife .This boy is a cripple, suffering from a spine deformity.This teenager  is very attached to his father but doesn’t like his step mother and infant half brother. His wife has been behaving strangely of late.She has hit her stepson but even more strange has been her behaviour towards her own newborn son. She has been caught sucking his blood. When the man saw this, he immediately took the baby away from her and she hasn’t been allowed to see her son since.The man asks Holmes to investigate. When Holmes and Watson go to the mans house, Watson first meets the wife alone in her room because Watson is a doctor and the woman is sick.On talking to the woman, Watson discovers that she desperately wants to speak to the child.

   Holmes asks to see the baby and Jack, the son of Mr. Ferguson.When they are both together  with Mr. Ferguson and Ferguson is looking lovingly at the newborn, Holmes observes through the reflection in the window that Jack is staring at the baby with jealousy.

  It turns out that the 15 year old Jack has been attacking the baby with poisoned darts. The mother in order to save her boy, sucked out the poison from his wounds which gave the appearance that she was sucking his blood. She also hit Jack hoping to stop his actions.

  Mrs Ferguson did not tell of this to her husband because she wanted the truth to come from somebody else’s lips. Watson was initially surprised when he saw Holmes was staring at the window. He believed that he was thinking of something else whereas in reality he was looking at the reflection of Mr. Ferguson, Jack and the newbor

 the adventure of the Musgraves ritual by Sherlock Holmes

Holmes tells Watson a story of one of his cases brought to him by a former college friend of his by the name of Reginald Musgrave. Reginald, an aristocrat, had come to Holmes asking for help in a matter that involved a butler of his who had disappeared. A few days before his disappearance, Reginald had caught this butler sitting in the library of the house  at two in the morning reading certain private papers. One of these papers was a poem called the Musgrave ritual. An old aristocratic family, the Musgraves had a ritual that the eldest  male of the house memorise and recite a poem about the whereabouts of something precious.  Long considered as something meaningless by the Musgraves themselves, the butler probably believed that it might reveal the location of a treasure perhaps. Angry at this, Reginald orders the butler to leave the job and the house but he asks for a weeks time so that he may leave respectfully which is given. However , a couple of days after this incident, the butler, whose name is  Brunton  suddenly disappears although his belongings are still in his room.Then ,one of his  maids named Rachel, becomes sick and two days later also disappears . Her footmarks were found to lead to a lake from which a package has been found.

   Holmes believes as Brunton did that the Mugraves ritual is not meaningless and tries to find the location hinted at in the poem with the help of Reginald.They find an underground place,(a storage room ).Under this, there  is a secret location where they find Bruntons body. An empty wooden box is also found next to it along with some old coins. 

  Holmes deduces that removing  a huge stone to get inside this place would have required two people and Brunton had probably brought Rachel (who was his former lover whom he had betrayed) along with him to try and search for this precious object. Brunton would have descended into the hole with Rachel staying above. Brunton might have handed Rachel the packet. After that Rachel had either killed Brunton for revenge by closing the hole  due to his past disloyalty or Brunton had died due to an accident and Rachel fled due to fear.

 Upon cleaning the contents of the packet, it is found that these are gold and precious stones which were stored there in the 17th century by an ancestor of the Musgraves. But he couldn’t pass on the information about the true contents of the package to his family .So his descendants have considered the poem as just a meaningless ritual .The gold and gems were part of the crown of the English king of the 17th century. However, during an invasion of the country , when the king was concerned about his own safety and also of his crown, he gave it to the Musgraves ancestor to keep it safe. In the end the Musgraves are allowed by the authorities to keep the precious contents.

 Adventure of the Naval Treaty (by Sherlock Holmes) 

Dr. Watson receives a letter from an old school acquaintance of his asking if he can get Holmes to help him. This friend whose name is Percy, has been fortunate to have connections in the government due to which he had managed to secure a top level government job. Recently a naval treaty was  finalised between the governments of Great Britain and Italy.The original copy of this treaty was given to Percy with the instructions that he was to make a copy of it in secret and keep the original back safely. On the night that Percy stayed back in the office to do this work, he had left the treaty in his cabin to go and order tea. When he returned at the sound of an alarm, he found the original treaty gone. Despite an investigation, there was no headway in the case. This incident threatened to ruin Percys career and he had fallen sick due to the shock. It was only after recovering for nine weeks after this event that he had sent the aforementioned letter to Watson asking for his and Holmes’ help. Holmes starts an investigation meeting Percy’s uncle and the officer in charge of the case. He finds out that until then, there had been no attempt by the thief to contact the French or the Russians to sell the treaty.

    Another incident takes place this time at Percys home. After having recovered from his illness, Percy had tried to sleep alone for the first time in weeks. That night, he sees a man covered with a shawl with a knife in hand trying to enter his room. When Percy gives the alarm, the man runs away. Holmes reaches the place and checks the room and the garden outside.He gives strict instructions to Percys fiancee, Annie not to leave Percys room (which is the sick room of the house) the entire day and when she retires to her room at night, to lock this one.  At the same time, he asks Percy to come to London with him and Watson. However at the station, he asks Percy and Watson to go on while Holmes himself had some business to attend there so he would remain in Briarbrae 

   Watson tries to cheer Percy up in the train and back in Baker street in London but to no avail.They pass a restless night . Holmes arrives in the morning looking dejected. At the breakfast table however, Percy finds the lost treaty served to him in his plate ! He rejoices at this. Holmes explains that the previous night, he waited outside Percys house knowing that the thief would try to break into Percy’s room again .Holmes knew that the treaty had been in Percys room all this time, hidden under the floor ! The thief, who was none other than Percy’s to be brother in law Joseph Harrison, tried to recover the treaty but was confronted by Holmes who won it after a boxing bout.

  Joseph was to visit Percys office the night the treaty was stolen. Finding the treaty on the table and nobody around, Joseph stole it to sell it. Joseph and his sister Annie had been staying at Percys house and the sick room was being used by Joseph as his bedroom so he had hid it there. When Percy fell ill, the room had been converted back to a sick room and Joseph had had to vacate it. For weeks, Joseph did not get any chance to recover the treaty. Holmes ,knowing this, had asked Annie to sit in the room so that Joseph wouldn’t be able to recover it in the daytime when Holmes had pretended to go away. When Percy asks if Joseph would have murdered him with the knife that night, Holmes replies that such a man cannot be expected to show mercy.

 The disappearance of the lady Frances Carfax (short story by Sherlock Holmes )

Holmes tells Watson about the disappearance of a woman named Lady Frances Carfax. She is a lone, unwed, forty year old woman. Her inheritance is old Spanish jewellery to which she is so attached that she doesn’t leave it with bankers but carries it with her wherever she goes.Lady Frances is in the habit of writing letters regularly to her former governess. However the governess hasn’t received a word from the lady for the past five weeks so she consulted Holmes .

   It is known that the lady Frances stayed at the Hotel National at Lausanne for several weeks.She had written two cheques recently. The first one was a large one which paid her bill in the hotel and the next one was made for fifty pounds to a hotel maid. Holmes asks Watson to investigate the matter alone as he himself is busy with other work. Watson finds out from the maid and her fiance that the Lady Frances was being bothered at the hotel by a man who was trying to woo her. It was likely because of this man that she left the hotel and also tried to throw this man off her track. Watson also discovers that after leaving the National hotel, she had gone to Baden. There she made the acquaintance of Dr. Shlessinger  and his wife, who were missionaries from South America. The lady and the couple had become friends and when the doctor and his wife left for London, Lady Frances accompanied them. Before going she had given her maid 50 pounds and had dismissed her.

  After Watson has finished his talk with the maid and is leaving her place, he finds a rough looking man who is the pursuer of Lady Frances seems to be entering the maids house. When Watson confronts this man, he attacks Watson physically. Watson is about to lose consciousness when he is helped by a stranger who fights off this rough man. This stranger turns out to be none other than Holmes, who then criticises  the way Watson has investigated the matter.

   Holmes then introduces Watson to the rough looking man who just beat up Watson. He is Mr. Green, who loves the Lady Frances and is an honest man. The lady though doesn’t like him because of his rough manners . Holmes asks Green to have patience until they find out more about the missing woman.

  After Green has left, Holmes tells Watson that he suspects Dr. Shlessinger for harming Lady Frances. Shlessinger is actually a rascal Holy Peters. The woman who poses as his wife is also just a hired woman. They have ensnared  lady Frances for her jewellery and have possibly murdered her.

   When it becomes known that a Spanish pendant has been pawned in London, Holmes asks Green to keep an eye on the same pawnbroker. A second pendant is pawned at the same place this time by a lady.Green follows the woman  who later visits an undertakers shop. She enquired about a coffin whose delivery hadn’t been done at the committed time.The person at the counter replies, “It took longer, being out of the ordinary”. Green continues to follow this woman and discovers the place where she is staying.

  When Green tells all this to Holmes, Holmes asks Green to get a warrant from the authorities while he and Watson go to confront Holy Peters . Once in his house, they ask to see the coffin which had arrived. However , when Holmes opens it, the body of a ninety year old woman is found. Peter meanwhile has called in an inspector because Holmes has searched his house without a warrant and Holmes is asked to leave. Green had had difficulty in obtaining the warrant .

  Holmes spends a sleepless night thinking over the problem. Early next morning, he finally has a clue and they rush to Peters’ place because the coffin is to be taken for burial at 8 am. When they open it, they find Lady Frances who is unconscious but alive. Peters and his accomplice had tried to bury her alive by keeping her senseless with the use of chloroform. She is brought to consciousness by Dr. Watson .

   Holmes then gives his explanation. Peters ,reluctant to commit murder had tried to bury Lady Frances alive with the body of the ninety year old woman (whom they had taken under their care from an old age home for this very purpose). They had ordered a very large coffin to be made  to fit two bodies in it. When the woman at the undertakers had said that the coffin was out of the ordinary, it was a hint.