Halloween Countdown, Day 2

[eldritchhobbit]

Every year, my parents send their granddog, the fabulous Virginia, a Halloween costume for her to wear (as well as treats to bribe her to model for pictures). This year, my brilliant mother outdid herself, sewing a most remarkable costume indeed. I invite you to behold Virginia as the Great Detective, Sherlock Holmes.

Her creed is this: Once you have eliminated the inedible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be a treat.






To see Virginia in Dr. Watson attire, check out this Sherlockian post.


Here are some of Virginia's previous costumes from recent Halloweens.




















As always, you can see many more pictures of Virginia here.

In honor of Virginia's costume, I offer a Halloween-appropriate excerpt from one of my favorite Holmesian stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot" (1910):

I had hardly settled in my chair before I was conscious of a thick, musky odour, subtle and nauseous. At the very first whiff of it my brain and my imagination were beyond all control. A thick, black cloud swirled before my eyes, and my mind told me that in this cloud, unseen as yet, but about to spring out upon my appalled senses, lurked all that was vaguely horrible, all that was monstrous and inconceivably wicked in the universe. Vague shapes swirled and swam amid the dark cloud-bank, each a menace and a warning of something coming, the advent of some unspeakable dweller upon the threshold, whose very shadow would blast my soul. A freezing horror took possession of me. I felt that my hair was rising, that my eyes were protruding, that my mouth was opened, and my tongue like leather. The turmoil within my brain was such that something must surely snap. I tried to scream and was vaguely aware of some hoarse croak which was my own voice, but distant and detached from myself. At the same moment, in some effort of escape, I broke through that cloud of despair and had a glimpse of Holmes’s face, white, rigid, and drawn with horror—the very look which I had seen upon the features of the dead.

* Read the complete story of "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot" here.
* Listen to an unabridged audio reading of the story here.

Comments

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

I thank you, and Virginia thanks you, too! :)