The case of the vanishing silver disks

It was one of our most vexing cases, more baffling by far than the case of the Blue Carbuncle or the mystery of the Beryl Coronet, or any number of locked room murders or dogs that didn't bark in the night. We had been summoned to the north on a private engagement on a matter of some import. Holmes didn't show me the telegram that had arrived with the morning post - he merely commented that this job might relieve the ennui that had fallen over 221B Baker Street in recent times and then used the paper to light his pipe.

"I think that we'll take the train, my dear Watson. Come, the game is afoot!"

We arrived by cab at a respected house in the suburbs, and made our enquiries. Well, I say our enquiries, but as is ever more the case, Holmes left the task of interviewing the relevant parties to me whilst he took off to investigate rumours of an Opium den or somesuch in the vicinity. Some time passed before he returned and invited me to present my findings.

"I'm afraid that I still don't quite follow, Holmes. The whole thing is a complete mystery to me. It seems that the master of the house purchased a number of items recently, including a wax cylinder recording of certain avant garde music and a phantasmagorical adventure story intended as a gift for his eldest daughter. On returning to the house he placed the items for safe keeping on a side table, and yet when he came to look for them at a later date they had vanished utterly!"

"At first he suspected foul play or theft. The side table was next to a waste paper receptacle and there was a possibility that the items had been disposed of, either by accident or by some nefarious purpose. Next, he recalled that the daughter had been examining the cover of the phantasmagorical adventure in a state of some excitement, but that it had been removed from her lest it distract from her academic studies. Finally, it seems that the mistress of the house is renowned for being a tidy minded and practical lady, and while she recalled having seen the wax recording and had remarked that it was an unlikely purchase, she could not find it in any of the usual places that she might expect to put something for safe keeping."

"I have eliminated all possibilities as you always tell me to do, but I'm afraid that there is nothing left, not even an impossibility!"

"Really? Watson, you are an absolute dullard sometimes. One of the items was removed from the daughter in the drawing room, so where would be the logical place for it to be placed?"

"The desk drawer Holmes, but I have already looked in there, and in any case the drawer was nearly full with other items!"

"Watson, the items were placed in the drawer, but the next time the drawer was opened they were forced to the back by the weight of the bric a brac therein and thence fell down behind the lower drawer and were trapped, out of sight and in your case, quite patently, out of mind"

"By Jove Holmes, you are correct! How do you do it?"

"Elementary, my Dear Watson. Now, if you would so kind as to prepare a seven percent solution for me, we will be on our way"