With our black silk face-coverings, which turned us into two of the most truculent figures in London, we stole up to the silent, gloomy house?
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To Catch a Thief
In Arthur Conan Doyle?s story Charles Augustus Milverton,
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, equipped with a ?first-class,
up-to-date burgling kit?, are doing a spot of house-breaking.
They are looking for documents which will incriminate the
building?s owner, the blackmailer Charles Augustus Milverton.
The pair are in disguise, wearing silken masks specially
made by Watson for the occasion.
For better or worse, masks transform people ? as the
students of Harbour School?s Key Stage 3 Group
discovered while creating their own fanciful masks and
costumes. Like those of Holmes and Watson, their
disguises are designed to entrap criminals.
Each disguise comes with a different story.
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A thousand-year-old mummy, swathed in bandages (with
stitches in his head and one red eye) is hoping to catch a
tomb robber.
A nuclear scientist, who has ?a heavy Russian accent?,
wants to stop a gang who are trafficking atomic weapons.
A glamorous Las Vegas showgirl is intent on catching a
casino embezzler,
Curly-haired dancer in a pink feather boa is trying to discover
the killer of her fellow-dancer, Lucy.
A long-haired girl with a ?cute stutter? is after yet
another murderer.
Hats and disguises in Sherlock Holmes
stories
From The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
In The Adventures of the Blue Carbuncle a very seedy
and disreputable hard felt hat, much the worse for wear
and cracked in several places? provides the vital clue to
the solving of the mystery.
In The Man with the Twisted Lip a man discovers that he
can earn a better living as a matchseller than as a
business man. His disguise is described in detail:
'His appearance, you see, is so remarkable /that no one
can pass him without observing him. A shock of orange
hair, a pale face disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by
its contraction, has turned up the outer edge of his upper
lip, a bulldog chin, and a pair of very penetrating dark
eyes, which present a contrast to the colour of his hair?'
Holmes also appears in disguise in this story as an
elderly man in an opium den.
In A Case of Identity, a man weds an older woman for her
money. If her daughter marries, he will lose some of this
money. So he disguises himself as the daughter?s suitor
to delay any prospect of marriage.
From His Last Bow
In The Dying Detective? Holmes pretends to be terminally
ill (and fools Watson) so that he can trap the villainous
Culverton Smith.
From The Return of Sherlock Holmes
In ?Charles Augustus Milverton?, Holmes disguises himself
as a plumber, and becomes engaged to a housemaid,
during his investigations
From The Hound of the Baskervilles
In Chapter 14 the hound is described as it appears
terrifyingly on the moor. The dead animal is examined
shortly afterwards, and found to be painted with
phosphorus.
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