The Adventure of the Eternal Sleep

Late one night, London is hit by a massive thunderstorm and lightning sets a dockside warehouse ablaze. The next morning breaks clear, however, and Hotel Porter, Frankie Clifford is going to work by his usual route through the Park.

International spy Boris Crepnick approaches Clifford and instructs him to take an attache case to the Hotel suite occupied by British scientists Jules Ridgely and Jacob Ladder.

Upon entering the suite, the porter finds Ladder dead in bed, an envelope clutched in his hand. Clifford is suddenly struck from behind; and when he regains consciousness, the attache case and the envelope are gone.

Carriage driver Leopold Harkness discloses that he drove Ladder and Ridgely to the Hotel from Number 10 Downing Street last night, but the Government refuses to co-operate with Scotland Yard.

Doctor Loomis Grant examines the body of Jacob Ladder and diagnoses heart attack. But the victim's daughter, Ruby Ladder, insists that her father was in perfect health; and she asks Sherlock Holmes to investigate.

Holmes learns that the cab transporting Ridgely and Ladder stopped at the Chemist before reaching the Hotel last night; and he finds a wet umbrella in the closet of the scientists' hotel suit. There are strange scratches on the bedposts of the victim's brass bed; and Holmes is convinced that foul play has occurred.