chance sending in a team of experts in thermodynamics and higher math who could comprehend them. We cannot let him know we have entered his house and took notes, therefore I need someone skilled enough to make an undetectable visit and intelligent enough to make summarized notes. My staff of field agents who are skilled enough to break into his home undetected, are not technically intelligent enough to know what to copy if they did find extensive background notes. So I have a Hobson’s choice.” Hobson's choice is a selection that appears to be a free choice, which is really no choice at all. This originated from Thomas Hobson (1544–1630), a livery stable owner at Cambridge. He wished to rotate the use of his horses, so he offered customers the choice of either taking the horse in the stall nearest the door, or none at all. “That is why I want you to burglarize his current residence and find any documents or plans he has created. You are the only person I know that could possibly be called upon to sneak into the house and to bring back pertinent information. Yes, Sherlock, you are the person I must rely on.”
Pistol Shrimp Pop Up The house was one of the new Victorian styles, large, owned by a business owner who had decided to take a world tour for a year. It was white with dark red roof shingles. It was situated in an upper scale neighborhood where the houses occupied sufficiently large tracts of land to isolate them a bit from inquisitive neighbors. It had enormous trees all about and a gravel driveway around back for deliveries. The Professor attended the lectures during the afternoon. He never left his house during the evening or at night. I made inquiries at the local employment agencies to find out if any butlers or cooks had recently been hired to work in the neighborhood, discretely avoiding mention of the particular address of my real concern. My spiel was I was looking for someone that would be available soon for a temporary position, but I didn’t need them immediately. I found out that indeed a cook had been recently hired for a short position at the residence I had not specified. I had spied upon the residence from several houses down and determined that, although Moriarty had a man that drove him to the lectures, the chauffer did not return to the house but waited upon the Professor. He kept close to the carriage by visiting a pub nearby. I disguised myself as a local market deliveryman who mistakenly tried to deliver some meats to the house during the owner’s absence. This allowed me to strike up a conversation with the cook and with a not too forward, but persistent inquiry into her day off for an early dinner. I found out that Tuesday would be her next off day, and I invited to meet her at a pub across town “as soon as I got off work”. She would have to leave while the Professor was away to make the rendezvous, which would leave me the afternoon to make my unauthorized search of the house. I only had one chance, as we hadn’t found out about the lectures until they had already begun, and Friday they would conclude. Tuesday I returned to the house in my disguise. If anyone in the neighbor hood saw me they would think it was a return business call. I am sure the neighboring servants had not been able to get close to the cook, as Moriarty would be uncompromising at keeping his help isolated for the short time he employed them, and would not know the house was in fact vacant. I parked the wagon in back where a deliveryman would naturally park. I chanced that my exit later would not be seen by anyone who had seen me enter, and therefore not know how long I was actually inside. The back door lock was easy to pick, the Professor had not taken any additional measures to secure the house maybe because he was planning a short stay. This of course meant that if he had any important papers he wished to secure he must have brought or bought a safe. After I had gone to the employment agencies I had also visited the local real estate agents ‘looking for a house to rent’. I had found the agency that had rented this house. I let them believe I was interested in several local houses, and inquired about several, not just this one. A requirement I specified was the availability of a safe to protect some important business contracts I would be negotiating during my extended stay. Only one of the houses had a safe, and it was not this house. I made