The Adventure of the Giant Rat of Sumatra

The city is aghast over the strange and hideous death met by Christopher Mandeville, a trustee of the London Zoological Society, who was found Friday evening torn literally limb from limb in an unused cage in the zoo grounds.

An investigation by Scotland Yard revealed only that the spine-chilling cries from the mangled victim were probably never heard above the turbulent roaring from the lions that night. Indeed, the zoo guard, Elwin Marley, an unreliable fellow who was found in his cups at the Boar's Head, claimed "the awful din from them beasts was driving me barmy".

Earlier Friday morning, Mandeville accompanied by fellow trustee Nathanial Stockport, greeted at the Docks Sumatran potentate, Prince Djamal, a friend from Mandeville's days as a white hunter in the Far East. Travelling with the prince were Djamal's sister, Princess Hartika, an ill-tempered, dusky beauty; and, their brooding servant, Saleem, who like his father before him, faithfully served Djamal's family.

The prince had been induced by Mandeville to present the Zoological Society with a startling and wonderous array of Sumatran species; brightly plumed peacocks, Pygmy deer, pythons, water buffalo, and most singular of all, a giant rat.

At the Docks the party was accosted by Otto van der Royen, a white hunter who was convinced that Mandeville, whom he called an incompetent fool, had influenced Prince Djamal against using his services.

The Sumatrans graciously disengaged themselves from the dispute and quartered at the Hotel. Late that afternoon at Mandeville's invitation, the Sumatran trio visited the zoo, fed the animals, and then departed -- the last to see Mandeville alive.

But in the aftermath of the trustee's hideous death even the exotic exhibit of Sumatran species, which was to be Mandeville's greatest contribution to the society, appeared to have been tainted. The peacocks moulted nervously; the spindly miniature deer, seasick most of the voyage, fed lightly; and the giant rat whilst corpulently plump, had died in its cage.

A baffled Inspector Gregson has come to 221B Baker Street to consult the master detective.