🍃 His Last Bow (2 August 1914)
On the eve of the war, an Irish-American agent delivers a final package to a German spymaster and reveals himself as Holmes, two years undercover. "There's an east wind coming, Watson." The canon's farewell, in the saga's own chronology.
“There's an east wind coming, Watson... such a wind as never blew on England yet.”
One last service on the eve of war
On the night before Britain enters the Great War, a German master-spy named Von Bork packs years of stolen secrets and awaits a final delivery from his prize agent, an embittered Irish-American called Altamont. The agent arrives with a parcel — and is revealed as Sherlock Holmes, drawn out of retirement to spend two years feeding the enemy worthless intelligence and rolling up his entire network.
The canon's farewell
Told, unusually, from the spy's own side and set in the saga's latest chronology, His Last Bow is less a puzzle than a benediction. Two old friends stand in the dark looking out over the coming storm, and Holmes speaks the canon's valediction: an east wind is coming, cold and bitter, but a cleaner, stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared.