Читать книгу A Study in Sherlock - Raymond G. Farney - Страница 7

A Study in Scarlet

 Publication & dates:Beeton’s Christmas Annual, 1887Book, 1888Illustrations: D.H. Friston (4) Beeton’sCharles Doyle (Conan’s father) (6) Ward, Lock & Co.Conan Doyle’s 1st storyHolmes’s 3rd case

 Story Introduction:Being a reprint from the remembrances of John H. Watson, MD, late of the Army Medical DepartmentIn the year 1878 I took my degree of doctor of medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the Army. Having completed my studies there, I was duly attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as assistant surgeon. The regiment was stationed in India at the time, and before I could join it, the second Afghan war had broken out. On landing at Bombay, I learned that my corps had advanced through the passes, and was already deep in the enemy’s country. I followed, however, with many other officers who were in the same situation as myself, and succeeded in reaching Candahar in safety, where I found my regiment, and at once entered upon my new duties.The campaign brought honours and promotion to many, but for me it had nothing but misfortune and disaster. I was removed from my brigade and attached to the Berkshires, with whom I served at the fatal Battle of Maiwand. There I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery. I should have fallen into the hands of the murderous Ghazis had it not been for the devotion and courage shown by Murray, my orderly, who threw me across a pack-horse, and succeeded in bringing me safely to the British lines.Worn with pain, and weak from the prolonged hardships which I had undergone, I was removed, with a great train of wounded sufferers, to the base hospital at Peshawar. Here I rallied, and had already improved so far as to be able to walk about the wards, and even to bask a little upon the veranda, when I was struck down by enteric fever, that curse of our Indian possessions. Four months my life was despaired of, and when at last I came to myself and became convalescent, I was so weak and emaciated that the medical board determined that not a day should be lost in sending me back to England. I was just dispatched, accordingly, in the troopship Orontes, and landed a month later on Portsmouth jetty, with my health irretrievably ruined, but with permission from a paternal government to spend the next nine months in attempting to improve it.I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air---or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day would permit a man to be. Under such circumstances I naturally gravitated to London, the great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained. There I stayed for some time at a private hotel in the Strand, leading a comfortless, meaningless existence, and spending such money as I had, considerably more freely than I ought. So alarming did the state of my finances become that I soon realized that I must either leave the metropolis and rusticate somewhere in the country, or that I must make a complete alteration in my style of living. Choosing the latter alternative, I began by making up my mind to leave the hotel, and take up my quarters in some less pretentious and less expensive domicile.On the very day that I had come to this conclusion, I was standing at the Criterion Bar, when someone tapped me on the shoulder, and turning round I recognized young Stamford, who had been a dresser under me at Bart’s. The sight of a friendly face in the great wilderness of London is a pleasant thing indeed to a lonely man. In old days Stamford had never been a particular crony of mine, but now I hailed him with enthusiasm, and he in his turn, appeared to be delighted to see me. In the exuberance of my joy, I asked him to lunch with me at the Holborn, and we started off together in a hansom.“Whatever have you been doing with yourself, Watson?” he asked in undisguised wonder, as we rattled through the crowd in London Street. “You are as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut.”I gave him a short sketch of my adventures, and had hardly concluded it by the time we reached our destination.“Poor devil!” he said, commiseratingly, after he had listened to my misfortunes. “What are you up to now?”“Looking for lodging,” I answered. “Trying to solve that problem as to whether it is impossible to get comfortable rooms at a reasonable price.”“That’s a strange thing,” remarked my companion; “you are the second man today that has used that expression to me.”“And who was the first?” I asked.“A fellow who works at the chemical laboratory up at the hospital. He was bemoaning himself this morning because he could not get someone to go halves with him in some nice rooms which he had found, and which were too much for his purse.”“By Jove!” I cried; “if he really wants someone to share the rooms and the expense, I am the very man for him. I should prefer having a partner to being alone.”Young Stamford looked rather strangely at me over his wineglass. “You don’t know Sherlock Holmes yet,” he said; “perhaps you would not care for him as a constant companion.”“Why, what is there against him?”“Oh, I don’t say there is anything against him. He is a little queer in his ideas----an enthusiast in some branches of science. As far as I know he is a decent fellow enough.”“A medical student, I suppose?” said I.“No---—I have no idea what he intends to go in for. I believe he is well up in anatomy, and he is a first-class chemist; but, as far as I know, he has never taken out any symptomatic medical classes. His studies are very desultory and eccentric, but he has amassed a lot of out-of-the-way knowledge which would astonish his professors.”“Did you ever ask him what he was going in for?” I asked.“No; he is not a man that it is easy to draw out, though he can be communicative enough when the fancy seizes him.”“I should like to meet him,” I said. “If I am to lodge with anyone, I should prefer a man of studious and quiet habits. I am not strong enough yet to stand much noise or excitement. I had enough of both in Afghanistan to last me for the remainder of my natural existence. How could I meet this friend of yours?“He is sure to be at the laboratory,” returned my companion. “He either avoids the place for weeks, or else he works there from morning till night. If you like, we will drive round together after luncheon.”“Certainly,” I answered, and the conversation drifted away into other channels.As we made our way to the hospital after leaving the Holborn, Stamford gave me a few more particulars about the gentleman whom I proposed to take as a fellow lodger.“You mustn’ t blame me if you don’t get on with him,” he said; “I know nothing more of him than I have learned from meeting him occasionally in the laboratory. You proposed this agreement, so you must not hold me responsible.”“If we don’t get on it will be easy to part company,” I answered. “It seems to me, Stamford,” I added, looking hard at my companion, “that you have some reason for washing your hands of the matter. Is this fellow’s temper so formidable, or what is it? Don’t be mealymouthed about it.”“It is not easy to express the inexpressible,” he answered with a laugh. “Holmes is a little too scientific to my tastes—it approaches to cold-bloodedness. I could imagine his giving a friend a little pinch of the latest vegetable alkaloid, not out of malevolence, you understand, but simply out of a spirit of inquiry in order to have an accurate idea of its effects. To do him justice, I think that he would take it himself with the same readiness. He appears to have a passion for definite and exact knowledge.”“Very right to.”“Yes, but it may be pushed to excess. When it comes to beating the subjects in the dissecting-rooms with a stick, it is certainly taking rather a bizarre shape.”“Beating the subject!”“Yes, to verify how far bruises may be produced after death. I saw him at it with my own eyes.”“And yet you say he is not a medical student?”“No. Heaven knows what the object of his studies are. But here we are, and you must form your own impressions about him.”” As he spoke, we turned down a narrow lane and passed through a small side-door, which opened into a wing of the great hospital. It was familiar ground to me, and I needed no guiding as we ascended the bleak stone staircase and made our way down the long corridor with its vista and whitewashed walls and dun-colour doors. Near the farther end a low arched passage branched away from it and led to the chemical laboratory.This was a lofty chamber, lined and littered with countless bottles. Broad, low tables were scattered about, which bristled with retorts, test-tubes, and little Bunsen lamps, with their blue flickering flames. There was only one student in the room, who was bending over a distant table absorbed in his work. At the sound of our steps he glanced round and sprang to his feet with a cry of pleasure. “I’ve found it! I’ve found it,” he shouted to my companion, running towards us with the test-tube in his hand. “I have found a re-agent which is precipitated by haemoglobin, and by nothing else.” Had he discovered a gold mine, greater delight could not have shone upon his features.“Dr. Watson, Mr. Sherlock Holmes,” said Stamford, introducing us.“How are you?” he said cordially, gripping my hand with the strength for which I should have hardly had given him credit. “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”“How on earth did you know that?” I asked in astonishment.“Never mind,” said he, chuckling to himself. “The question now is about haemoglobin. No doubt you see the significance of this discovery of mine?”“It is interesting, chemically, no doubt,” I answered, “but practically—”“Why, man. It is the most practical medico-legal discovery for years. Don’t you see that it gives us an infallible test for blood stains? Come over here now!” He seized me by the coat-sleeve in his eagerness, and drew me over to the table at which he had been working. “Let us have some fresh blood,” he said, digging a long bodkin into his finger, and drawing off the resulting drop of blood in to a chemical pipette. “Now, I add this small quantity of blood to a litre of water. You perceive that the resulting mixture has the appearance of pure water. The proportion of blood cannot be more than one in a million. I have no doubt, however, that we shall be able to obtain the characteristic reaction.” As he spoke, he threw into the vessel a few white crystals, and then added some drops of a transparent fluid. In an instant the contents assumed a dull mahogany colour, and a brownish dust was precipitated to the bottom of the glass jar.“Ha! Ha!” he cried, clapping his hands, and looking as delighted as a child with a new toy. “What do you think of that?”“It seems to be a very delicate test,” I remarked.“Beautiful! Beautiful! The old guaiacum test was very clumsy and uncertain. So is the microscopic examination for blood corpuscles. The latter is valueless the stains are a few hours old. Now, this appears to act as well whether the blood is old or new. Had this test been invented, there are hundreds of men now walking the earth who would long ago have paid the penalty of their crimes.”“Indeed!” I murmured.“Criminal cases are continually hinging upon that one point. A man is suspected of a crime months perhaps after it has been committed. His linen or clothes are examined and brownish stains discovered upon them. Are they blood stains, or mud stains, or rust stains, or fruit stains, or what are they? That is a question which has puzzled many an expert, and why? Because there was no reliable test. Now we have the Sherlock Holmes’s test and there will no longer be any difficulty.”His eyes fairly glittered as he spoke, and he put his hand over his heart and bowed as if to some applauding crowd conjured up by his imagination.“You are to be congratulated,” I remarked, considerably surprised at his enthusiasm.“There was the case of Von Bischoff at Frankfort last year. He would certainly have been hung had this test been in existence. Then there was Mason of Bradford, and the notorious Muller, and Lefevre of Montpellier, and Samson of New Orleans. I could name a score of cases in which it would have been decisive.”“You seem to be a walking calendar of crime,” said Stamford with a laugh. “You might start a paper on those lines. Call it the “‘Police News of the past.’”“Very interesting reading it might be made, too,” remarked Sherlock Holmes, sticking a small piece of plaster over the prick on his finger. “I have to be careful,” he continued, turning to me with a smile, “for I dabble with poisons a good deal.” He held out his hand as he spoke, and I noticed that it was all mottled over with similar pieces of plaster, and discoloured with strong acids.“We came here on business,” said Stamford, sitting down on a high three-legged stool, and pushing another one in my direction with his foot. “My friend here wants to take diggings; and as you were complaining that you could get no one to go halves with you, I thought that I had better bring you together.”Sherlock Holmes seemed delighted at the idea of sharing his rooms with me. “I have my eye on a suite in Baker Street,” he said, “which would suit us down to the ground. You don’t mind the smell of strong tobacco, I hope?”“I always smoke ‘ships’s’ myself,” I answered.“That’s good enough, I generally have chemicals about, and occasionally do experiments. Would that annoy you?”“By no means.”“Let me see—-what are my other shortcomings? I get in the dumps at times, and don’t open my mouth for days on end. You must not think I am sulky when I do that. Just let me alone, and I’ll soon be right. What have you to confess now? It’s just as well for two fellows to know the worst of one another before they begin to live together.”I laughed at this cross-examination. “I keep a bull pup,” I said, “and I object to rows because my nerves are shaken, and I get up at all sorts of ungodly hours, and I am extremely lazy. I have another set of vices when I’m well, but those are the principal ones at present.”“Do you include violin playing in your category of rows?” he asked anxiously.“It depends on the player,” I answered. “A well-played violin is a treat for the gods—a badly played one—”“Oh, that’s all right,” he cried, with a merry laugh. “I think we may consider the thing as settled—that is, if the rooms are agreeable to you.”“When shall we see then?”“Call for me here at noon to-morrow, and we’ll go together and settle everything,” he answered.“All right—noon exactly,” said I, shaking his hand.We left him working among his chemicals, and we walked together towards my hotel.“By the way,” I asked suddenly, stopping and turning upon Stamford, “how the deuce did he know that I had come from Afghanistan?”My companion smiled an enigmatical smile. “That’s just his little peculiarity,” he said. “A good many people have wanted to know how he finds things out.”“Oh! A mystery is it?” I cried, rubbing my hands. “This is very piquant. I am much obliged to you for bringing us together. ‘The proper study of mankind is man,’ you know.”“You must study him, then,” Stamford said, as he bade me good-bye. “You find him a knotty problem, though. I’ll wager he learns more about you than you about him. Good-bye.”“Good-bye,” I answered, and strolled on to my hotel, considerably interested in my new acquaintance.12:00 Next dayWe met the next day as he had arranged and inspected the rooms at no. 221b, of which we had spoken at our meeting. They consisted of a couple of comfortable bedrooms and a single large airy sitting-room, cheerfully furnished, and illuminated by two broad windows. So desirable in every way were the apartments, and so moderate did the terms seem when divided between us, that the bargain was concluded upon the spot, and we at once entered into possession. That very evening I moved my things round from the hotel, and on the following morning Sherlock Holmes followed me with several boxes and portmanteaus. For a day or two we were busily employed in unpacking and laying out our property to the best advantage. That done, we gradually began to settle down and to accommodate ourselves to our new surroundings.“Well, I have a trade of my own. I suppose I am the only one in the world. I am a consulting detective.”Case Information

 Date:4th of March

 Duration:3 Days“I was able to lay my hands on the criminal within three days.”

 Crime:Murder. Poisoned & Stabbed

 Client:Tobias Gregson, Scotland Yard Inspector

 Victims:Enoch J. Drebber, Poisoned, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A. Wealthy son of one of the four Principal Elders of the Mormon Church. “There has been no robbery, nor is there any evidence as to how the man met his death. There were marks of blood in the room, but there is no wound upon his person.”-----” “A single, grim, motionless figure which lay stretched upon the boards, with vacant, sightless eyes staring up at the discoloured ceiling. It was that of a man about forty-three or forty-four years of age, middle-sized, broad-shouldered, with crisp curling black hair, and a short, stubby beard. He was dressed in a heavy broadcloth frock coat and waistcoat, with light-coloured trousers, and immaculate collar and cuffs. A top hat, well brushed and trim, was placed upon the floor beside him. His hands were clenched and his arms thrown abroad, while his lower limbs were interlocked, as though his death struggle had been a grievous one. On his rigid face there stood an expression of horror, and, as it seemed to me, of hatred, such as I have never seen upon human features. This malignant and terrible contortion, combined with the low forehead, blunt nose, and prognathous jaw, gave the dead man a singularly simious and ape-like appearance, which was increased by the writhing, unnatural posture. I have seen death in many forms, but never has it appeared to me in a more fearsome aspect than in that dark, grimy apartment which looked out upon one of the main arteries of suburban London.”“I closed my eyes. I saw before me the distorted, baboon-like countenance of the murdered man. So sinister was the impression which that face had produced upon me that I found it difficult to feel anything but gratitude for him who had removed its owner from the world. If ever human features bespoke vice of the most malignant type, they were certainly those of Enoch J. Drebber.”“He was coarse in his habits and brutish in his ways.”— “He became very much the worse for drink, and, indeed after twelve o’clock in the day he could hardly ever be said to be sober. His manners towards the maid-servants were disgustingly free and familiar. Worst of all, he speedily assumed the same attitude towards my daughter, Alice, and spoke to her more than once in a way which fortunately, she is too innocent to understand.”Joseph Stangerson, Stabbed in the heart, Enoch Drebber’s private secretary. Son of one of the four Principal Elders of the Mormon Church, and had lost his fortune. “Was a quiet, reserved man.”“All huddled up, lay the body of a man in his nightdress. He was quite dead, and had been for some time, for his limbs were rigid and cold.”— “The cause of death was stab in the left side, which must have penetrated the heart.”

 Crime Scene:3 Lauriston Gardens, off Brixton Rd. where Drebber was murdered. “In the front room, which is bare of furniture, discovered the body of a gentleman, well-dressed, and having cards in his pocket bearing the name of Enoch J. Drebber, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.”Dining Room, “A short passage, bare-planked and dusty, led to the kitchen and offices. Two doors opened out of it to the left and to the right. One of these had obviously been closed for many weeks. The other belonged to the dining room which was the apartment in which the mysterious affair had occurred.---- It was a large square room, looking all the larger from the absence of all furniture. A vulgar flaring paper adorned the walls, but it was blotched in places with mildew, and here and there great strips had become detached and hung down, exposing the yellow plaster beneath. Opposite the door was a showy fireplace, surmounted by a mantelpiece of imitation white marble. On one corner of this was stuck the stump of a red wax candle. The solitary window was so dirty that the light was hazy and uncertain, giving a dull gray tinge to everything, which was intensified by the thick layer of dust which coated the whole apartment.”— “I have seen death in many forms, but never has it appeared to me in a more fearsome aspect than in that dark, grimy apartment which looked out upon one of the main arteries of suburban London.”Halliday’s Private Hotel, in Little George Street, where Stangerson was murdered. “From under the door there curled a little red ribbon of blood, which had meandered across the passage and formed a little pool along the skirting at the other side.”“The door was locked on the inside, but we put our shoulders to it, and knocked it in. The window of the room was open, and beside the window, all huddled up, lay the body of a man in his nightdress. — Above the murdered man. The word RACHE, written in letters of blood.”

 Criminal:Jefferson Hope, of St. Louis, Christian and Lucy’s fiancé in Utah. London cabby who murdered Drebber & Stangerson.“There has been murder done, and the murderer was a man. He was more than six foot high, was in the prime of his life, had small feet for his height, wore coarse, square-toed boots and smoked a Trichinopoly cigar. He came here with his victim in a four-wheeler cab, which was drawn by a horse with three old shoes and one new one on his off fore-leg. In all probability the murderer had a florid face, and the finger-nails of his right hand were remarkably long.”Drunk man Constable Rance encountered at the gate of Lauriston Gardens. “He was a long chap, with a red face, the lower part muffled round.”—“A brown coat.”— “I am afraid, Rance, that you will never rise in the force. That head of yours should be used as well as an ornament. You might have gained your sergeant’s stripes last night. The man whom you held in your hands is the man who holds the clue of this mystery, and whom we are seeking.”“I had seldom seen a more powerfully built man; and his dark, sunburned face bore an expression of determination and energy which was as formidable as his personal strength.”“He took no particular notice of him, beyond thinking in his own mind that it was early for a man to be at work. He has an impression that the man was tall, had a reddish face, and was dressed in a long, brownish coat.(in Utah) “He was a tall, savage-looking young fellow mounted on a powerful roan horse, and clad in the rough dress of a hunter, with a long rifle slung over his shoulders.”“In the U.S.A. he had been a scout, and a trapper, a silver explorer, and ranchman.”“It was as well that his prairie training had given Jefferson Hope the ears of lynx.”“They may be darned sharp, but they’re not quite sharp enough to catch a Washoe hunter.”

 Punishment:None“A higher Judge had taken the matter in hand, and Jefferson Hope had been summoned before a tribunal where strict justice would be meted out to him. On the very night of his capture the aneurism burst, and he was found in the morning stretched upon the floor of the cell, with a placid smile upon his face, as though he had been able in his dying moments to look back upon a useful life, and on work well done.”

 Official Police:Tobias Gregson, Scotland Yard Inspector. “Gregson is the smartest of the Scotland Yarders—he and Lestrade are the pick of a bad lot. They are both quick and energetic, but conventional—shockingly so. They have their knives into one another, too. They are as jealous as a pair of professional beauties. There will be some fun over this case if they are both put upon the scent.”“He knows that I am his superior, and acknowledges it to me; but he would cut his tongue out before he would own it to any third person.”“A tall, white-faced, flexen-haired man.”“‘Arthur Charpentier, sub-lieutenant in Her Majesty’s navy,’ cried Gregson, pompously rubbing his fat hands and inflating his chest.”“‘Well done!’ said Holmes in an encouraging voice. ‘Really, Gregson, you are getting along. We shall make something of you yet.’”Mr. Lestrade, Scotland Yard Inspector. “There was one little sallow, rat-faced, dark-eyed fellow, who was introduced to me as Mr. Lestrade, and who came three or four times in a single week.”“Lestrade is a well-known detective. He got himself into a fog recently over a forgery case and that was what brought him here.”“Lestrade, lean and ferret-like as ever, was standing by the doorway.”“Little man’s eyes sparkled as he spoke, and he was evidently in a state of suppressed exultation at having scored a point against his colleague.”“It was indeed Lestrade, who had ascended the stairs while we were talking, and who now entered the room. The assurance and jauntiness which generally marked his demeanour and dress were, however, wanting. His face was disturbed and troubled, while his clothes were disarranged and untidy. He had evidently come with the intention of consulting with Sherlock Holmes, for on perceiving his colleague he appeared to be embarrassed and put out. He stood in the centre of the room, fumbling nervously with his hat and uncertain what to do. ‘This is a most extraordinary case,’ he said at last, ‘a most incomprehensible affair.’”— “The secretary, Mr. Joseph Stangerson, was murdered at Halliday’s Private Hotel about six o’clock this morning.”“My twenty years’ experience.”5“Gregson is the smartest of the Scotland Yarders—he and Lestrade are the pick of a bad lot. They are both quick and energetic, but conventional—shockingly so. They have their knives into one another, too. They are as jealous as a pair of professional beauties. There will be some fun over this case if they are both put upon the scent.”“Holmes glanced at me and raised his eyebrows sardonically. ‘With two such men as yourself and Lestrade upon the ground, there will not be much for a third party to find out,’ he said.”News quote: “We are glad to learn that Mr. Lestrade and Mr. Gregson, of Scotland Yard, are both engaged upon the case, and it is confidently anticipated that these well-known officers will speedily throw light upon the matter.”“I told you that, whatever happened, Lestrade and Gregson would be sure to score.”— “If the man is caught, it will be on account of their exertions; if he escapes, it will be in the spirit of their exertions. It’s heads I win and tails you lose. Whatever they do, they will have followers. Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l’admire.”“It is an open secret that the credit of this smart capture belongs entirely to the well-known Scotland Yard officials, Messrs. Lestrade and Gregson. The man was apprehended, it appears, in the rooms of a certain Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who has himself, as an amateur, shown some talent in the detective line and who, with such instructors, may hope in time to attain to some degree of their skills. It is expected that a testimonial of some sort will be presented to the two officers as a fitting recognition of their services.”John Rance, the Constable who found the body of Drebber.“I am afraid, Rance, that you will never rise in the force. That head of yours should be used as well as an ornament. You might have gained your sergeant’s stripes last night. The man whom you held in your hands is the man who holds the clue of this mystery, and whom we are seeking.”— “The blundering fool! — Just to think of his having such an incomparable bit of good luck, and not taking advantage of it.”Harry Murcher, Constable with the Holland Grove beat that Rance talked with the night of Drebber’s murder.Scotland Yard Inspector, “We were ushered into a small chamber, where a police inspector noted down our prisoner’s name and the names of the men with whose murder he had been charged. The official was a white-faced, unemotional man, who went through his duties in a dull, mechanical way.”

 Characters:John Stamford, He introduced Watson to Holmes, and had been Watson’s dresser under him at Bart’s. “In old days Stamford had never been a particular crony of mine.”Commissionaire, “A sergeant, Royal Marine Light Infantry, delivered letter to Baker St. from Tobias Gregson asking Holmes to meet him at Lauriston Gardens.”Baker Street irregulars, “It’s the Baker Street division of the detective police force, a half a dozen of the dirtiest and most ragged street Arabs that ever I clapped my eyes on.” — “Tention!” cried Holmes, in a sharp tone, and the six dirty scoundrels stood in a line like so many disreputable statuettes. “In the future you shall send up Wiggins alone to report, and the rest of you must wait in the street.”— “Here are your wages.” He handed each of them a shilling.— “There’s more work to be gotten out of one of those little beggars than out of a dozen of the force,” Holmes remarked. “The mere sight of an official-looking person seals men’s lips. These youngsters, however, go everywhere and hear everything. They are as sharp as needles, too; all they want is organization.”“I therefore organized my street Arab detective corps, and sent them systematically to every cab proprietor in London until they ferreted out the man that I wanted.”Mrs. Sawyer (male friend of Jefferson Hope in disguise) “My friend volunteered to go and see. I think you’ll own he did it smartly.” Came to Baker St to claim the ring from Holmes’ news ad. “A very old and wrinkled woman hobbled into the apartment. She appeared to be dazzled by the sudden blaze of light, and after dropping a curtsey, she stood blinking at us with her bleared eyes and fumbling in her pocket with nervous, shaky fingers.”—“The old woman faced round and looked keenly at him from her little red-rimmed eyes.”

 Others Mentioned:Thomas Carlyle. Watson quotes in conversation with Holmes.Mendelssohn, composer, Watson requested Holmes to play his Lieder.The case of Von Bischoff at Frankfort last year. He would certainly have been hanged had this test been in existence.Then there was Mason of Bradford, and the notorious Muller, and Lefevre of Montpellier, Samson of New Orleans.Edgar Allan Poe and his character Dupin, Watson remarked that Dupin reminds him of Holmes.“I found he had many acquaintances, and those in the most different classes of society. There was one little sallow, rat-face, dark-eyed fellow, who was introduced to me as Mr. Lestrade, and who came three or four times in a single week. One morning a young girl called, fashionably dressed, and stayed for half an hour or more. The same afternoon brought a gray-haired, seedy visitor, looking like a Jew peddler, who appeared to me to be much excited and who was closely followed by a slipshod elderly woman. On other occasions an old white-haired gentleman had an interview with my companion; in another, a railway porter in his velveteen uniform.”Gaboriau’s novelist who created the character Lecoq, Watson asked Holmes his opinion of him as a detective. “Lecoq was a miserable bungler.”Van Jansen, Holmes mentioned his murder in Utrecht, in the year ’34.Halle’s concert to hear Norman Neruda, Holmes took time out in the investigation to hear them play. “And now for lunch, and then for Norman Neruda. Her attack and her bowing are splendid. What’s that little thing of Chopin’s she plays so magnificently: Tra-la-la-lira-lira-lay.”Darwin, Holmes quoted him regarding how the power of music on humans existed before speech.Philippe de Croy printer and William Whyte (Ex libris Guliolmi Whyte) possible owner and seventh-century lawyer, of a queer old book, De Jure inter Gentes, published in Latin at Liege in the Lowlands, in 1642, Holmes had picked up at the stall the day before the case.Sally, Sawyer’s daughter and married to Tom Dennis. Supposed owner of ring in Holmes’ lost and found ad.Tom Dennis, Sally’s husband and Sawyer’s son-in-law. “A smart, clean lad, too, as long as he’s at sea, and no steward in the company more thought of; but when on shore, what with the women and what with liquor shops—”Henri Murger, Watson read his book Vie de Boheme while he waited for Holmes to return to Baker St.Keswick, a respectable paperhanger actually lived at 13 Duncan Street. Houndsditch.Arthur Charpentier, sub-lieutenant in Her Majesty’s navy, Son of Madame Charpentier, “His high character, his profession, his antecedents with all for bid it.” —“His temper is violent, and he is passionately fond of his sister.”Gregson arrested him for Drebber’s murder because he had a fight with Drebber over the way he had treated his sister Alice earlier the night of the murder.Madame Charpentier, owner of the house where Drebber and Stangerson were staying, and mother of Arthur.“I found her very pale and distressed.”Alice Charpentier, Madame Charpentier’s daughter. “An uncommonly fine girl she is too; she was looking red about the eyes and her lips trembled as I spoke to her.”— “Drebber’s manners towards the maid-servants were disgustingly free and familiar. Worst of all, he speedily assumed the same attitude towards my daughter, Alice, and spoke to her more than once in a way which fortunately, she is too innocent to understand.”“The boots” bellboy at Halliday’s Private Hotel who showed Lestrade to Stangerson’s room.PART II U.S.A.

 Characters Mentioned:John Ferrier — Lucy’s self-appointed foster father and reluctant Mormon. Murdered by being shot to death by Joseph Stangerson on August 4, 1860. “His appearance was such that he might have been the very genius or demon of the region. An observer would have found it difficult to say whether he was nearer to forty or to sixty. His face was lean and haggard, and the brown parchment-like skin was drawn tightly over the projecting bone; his long brown hair and beard were all flecked and dashed with white; his eyes were sunken in his head, and burned with tan unnatural lustre; while the hand which grasped his rifle was hardly more flashy than that of the skeleton. As he stood, he leaned upon his weapon for support, and yet his tall figure and the massive framework of his bones suggested a wiry and vigorous constitution. His gaunt face, however, and his clothes, which hung so baggily over his shrivelled limbs, proclaimed what it was that gave him senile and decrepit appearance. The man was dying—dying from hunger and from thirst.”“He watched over her slumber for some time. For three days and three nights he allowed himself neither rest nor repast.”A useful guide and an indefatigable hunter.On the farm thus acquired John Ferrier built himself a substantial log-house, which received so many additions in succeeding years that it grew into a roomy villa. He was a man of practical turn of mind, keen in his dealings and skillful with his hands. His iron constitution enabled him to work morning and evening at improving and tilling his land. Hence it came about that his farm and all that belonged to him prospered exceedingly. In three years he was better off than his neighbors, and in six he was well-to-do, and in nine he was rich, and in twelve there were not a half a dozen men in the whole of Salt Lake City who could compare with him. From the great inland sea to the distant Wasatch Mountains there was no name better known than that of John Ferrier.There was one way and only one in which he offended the susceptibilities of his co-religionists. No argument or persuasion could ever induce him to set up a female establishment after the manner of his companions.—Ferrier remained strictly celibate. In every other respect he conformed to the religion of the young settlement and gained the name of being an orthodox and straight-walking man.Shot, killed and buried by young Stangerson at a camp site in the Nevada mountains, trying to escape the Mormons.Lucy Ferrier, adopted daughter of John Ferrier. Forced to marry Enoch Drebber, died thirty days later of a broken heart.“Instantly there broke from the gray parcel a little moaning cry, and from it protruded a small scared face, with very bright brown eyes, and two little speckled dimpled fists. A pretty little girl about five years of age, whose dainty shoes and smart pink frock with its little linen apron, all bespoke a mother’s care. The child was pale and wan, but her healthy arms and legs showed that she had suffered less than her companion.”— “Her rosy lips were parted, showing the regular line of snowy-white teeth within, and a playful smile played over her infantile features. Her plump little white legs terminating in white socks and neat shoes with shining buckles.Pawnees and BlackfeetBob, Lucy’s brother“Mr. Bender, he was the first to go, and then Indian Pete, and then Mrs. McGregor, and then John Hones, and then, dearie, your mother.” Some of the twenty-one others in John Ferrier and Lucy’s party had all died from thirst and hunger.“We are the persecuted children of God—the chosen of the Angel Moroni.”“We are all of those who believe in the sacred writings, drawn in Egyptian letters on plates of beaten gold, which were handed onto the holy Joseph Smith at Palmyra. We have come from Nauvoo, in the state of Illinois, where we had founded our temple. We have come to seek a refuge from the violent man in from the godless, even though it be the heart of the desert.”“We are the Mormons.”Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church.Brigham Young. “Beside the driver there sat a man who could not have been more than thirty years of age, but whose massive head and resolute expression marked him as a leader.”“He has spoken with the voice of Joseph Smith, which is the voice of God.”“Young speedily proved himself to be a skillful administrator as well as a resolute chief.”“A stout, sandy-haired, middle-aged man.”Elders / Sacred Council of Four, Stangerson (senior), Kemball, Johnston, and Drebber (senior), the four principal Elders of the Mormon Church.Senior Stangerson’s three wives and his son, and headstrong, forward boy of twelve.Servants of John Ferrier, they slept in an outhouse.

 Locations:Baker Street.St Bartholomew’s Hospital Laboratory (St. Bart’s) where Watson is first introduced to Holmes and Watson knew Stamford from “Young Stamford, who had been a dresser under me at Bart’s.”3 Lauriston Gardens off Brixton Rd. (many miles from Euston Station) * “Wore an ill-omened and minatory look. It was one of four which stood back some little ways from the street, two being occupied and two empty. The latter looked out with three tiers of vacant melancholy windows, which were blank and dreary, save that here and there a To Let card had developed like a cataract upon the bleared panes. A small garden sprinkled over with scattered eruption of sickly plants separated each of these houses from the street, and was traversed by a narrow pathway, yellowish in colour, and consisting apparently of a mixture of clay and of gravel. The whole place was very sloppy from the rain which had fallen through the night. The garden was bounded by a three-foot brick wall with a fringe of wood rails upon the top.”Dark, grimy apartment which looked out upon one of the main arteries of suburban London.46 Audley Court, Kennington Park Gate. Constable John Rance’s home. “A narrow slit in the line of dead-coloured brick.”—“Audley Court was not an attractive locality. The narrow passage led us into a quadrangle paved with flags and lined by sordid dwellings.”Scotland Yard, “We were ushered into a small chamber, where a police inspector noted down our prisoner’s name and the names of the men with whose murder he had been charged.”

 Locations Mentioned:University of London, where Watson received a degree as a Doctor of Medicine.Netley, where Watson received training to be an army surgeon.Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers and Berkshires, where Watson was attached while serving in India.Bombay, Candahar, and MaiwandCriterion Bar, where Watson met Stamford.The Holborn, restaurant where Watson and Stamford had lunch before going to meet Holmes.The case of Von Bischoff at Frankfort last year. He would certainly have been hung had this test been in existence.Then there was Mason of Bradford, and the notorious Muller, and Lefevre of Montpellier, Samson of New Orleans.Utrecht, where Van Jansen was murdered in ’34.Barraud of London, maker of Drebber’s gold watch No.97163.Guion Steamship Company, two letters from them referencing boats sailing from Liverpool to New York were found on Drebber’s body.White Hart, pub at 11:00 p.m. Constable Rance dealt with a fight the night of Drebber’s murder.Henrietta Street. the corner where constables Rance and Murcher stood talking.Brixton Road, one of the locations Constable Rance on his beat checked about 2:00 a.m.13 Duncan Street. Houndsditch, Fictitious address Mrs. Sawyer gave Holmes as her home.3 Mayfield Place, Peckham. Fictitious address where Mrs. Sawyer told Holmes her daughter Sally and Tom Dennis lived.Euston Station, where Drebber and Stangerson after leaving Charpentier’s boarding house went to catch the Liverpool express.John Underwood and Sons 129 Camberwell Road, maker of the hat found beside Drebber’s body.Charpentier’s Boarding Establishment, Torquay Terrace, Camberwell. “Over the other side of the river.” Where Drebber was staying, for nearly three weeks.—To where the hat found beside Drebber’s body was sent by the maker.Copenhagen, travel labels Madame Charpentier noticed on both Drebber and Stangerson’s trunks.St. Petersburg, Paris, and Copenhagen. Cities where Jefferson Hope tracked Drebber and Stangerson.Waterloo Bridge, Drebber’s hansom passed over with Jefferson Hope following.PART II U.S.A.

 Locations Mentioned:“We are all of those who believe in the sacred writings, drawn in Egyptian letters on plates of beaten gold, which were handed onto the holy Joseph Smith at Palmyra. We have come from Nauvoo, in the state of Illinois, where we had founded our temple. We have come to seek a refuge from the violent man in from the godless, even though it be the heart of the desert.”The Rio Grande, Sierra Nevada to Nebraska, and the Yellowstone River, Colorado.Salt Lake City, Utah, Maps with drawn-in charts prepared, in which the future of the city was sketched out. All around farms were apportioned and allotted in proportion to the standing of each individual. The tradesman was put to his trade in the artisan to his calling. In the town streets and square sprang up as if by magic. In the country there was draining and hedging, planting and clearing, until next summer saw the whole country golden with the wheat crop. Everything prospered in the strange settlement. Above all, the great temple which they had erected in the centre of the city grew ever taller and larger.Nevada Mountains, where Jefferson Hope had prospected for silver.Eagle (Canon) Ravine, two miles from Ferrier’s ranch where Jefferson Hope had a mule and horses waiting for Lucy, John Ferrier, and himself to escape from the Mormons to Carson City.York College USA, where he worked as a janitor & sweeper-out. Also where he made the poison pills in their lab.Endowment House, where Jefferson Hope saw flags flow for Lucy’s wedding.In the central portion of the great North American Continent there lies an arid and repulsive desert, which for many a long year served as a barrier against the advance of civilization. From the Sierra Nevada to Nebraska, and from the Yellowstone River in the north to the Colorado upon the south.Illinois, Mormons, “We have come from Nauvoo, in the state of Illinois, where we had founded our temple.”

 Evidence & Clues:“Rache” written on the wall at both murder scenes. “‘Rache’ is the German word for revenge; so don’t lose your time looking for Miss Rachel.”“In this particular corner of the room a large piece had peeled off, leaving a yellow square of coarse plaster. Across this bare space there was scrawled in blood-red letters a single word—RACHE.”A lady’s wedding band found on Drebber’s body. “It’s a woman’s wedding ring.”—”The ring man, the ring: that was what he came back for.”“I remembered a German being found in New York with RACHE written up above him, and it was argued at the time in the newspapers that the secret societies must have done it. I guessed that what puzzled the New Yorkers would puzzle the Londoners.”“Found column.” “In Brixton Road, this morning,” it ran, “plain gold wedding ring, found in the roadway between the White Hart Tavern and Holland Grove. Apply Dr. Watson 221b, Baker Street, between eight and nine this evening.”Halliday’s Private Hotel, a ladder at the back of the Hotel which usually lay there was raised against one of the windows of the second floor, which was wide open.Telegram found in Stangerson’s pocket, dated from Cleveland about a month ago, containing the words “J.H. is in Europe.”“In Stangerson’s room on the window-sill a small chip ointment box containing a couple of pills.”—Of the two pills in that box, one was of the most deadly poison, and the other was entirely harmless.

 Motive:Revenge, for Stangerson murdering John Ferrier and Lucy dying of a broken heart over the death of her adopted father John Ferrier and the forced marriage to Enoch Drebber.

 Timeline:May 4th 1847, John Ferrier and young Lucy Ferrier, the only survivors of a group heading west, wandering and close to death in the Sierra are found and rescued by Brigham Young, Elder, Stangerson, and a very large group of Mormons moving west.Three days earlier, Lucy’s mother and twenty others of their party died from thirst and hunger.For twelve years Ferrier and Lucy had been with the Mormons in Utah when Jefferson Hope arrived.August 4th 1860, Joseph Stangerson murders John Ferrier, and Drebber takes Lucy to Salt Lake City to be his bride.1878, Watson obtains his degree of Doctor of Medicine and training prescribed for surgeons in the Army.Soon after, Watson is attached to Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers, in India as assistant surgeon. Later transferred to the Berkshires, serving there he is badly wounded. After months recovering at a hospital in Peshawar, it is determined he is too weak to serve and sent by ship to England.One month later, the ship Orontes lands Watson in Portsmouth.Nine months after arriving in London, Watson spending his time recuperating meets an old friend, Stamford, at the Criterion Bar. There Stamford tells Watson about Holmes and that he is also looking for a roommate. Before going to the hospital laboratory to meet Holmes they have lunch at the Holborn.Next day 12:00 p.m., Watson meets Holmes as they had arranged the day before at the hospital and together they go to see the rooms at Baker St.That evening Watson leaves his hotel and moves into Baker St. “That very evening I move my things around from the hotel.”Next morning, “On the following morning Sherlock Holmes followed me with several boxes and portmanteaus.”A week or so of no callers, and then many of different classes.Day Before March 3rd,8:00 p.m., Drebber and Stangerson leave Charpentier boardinghouse after living there for nearly three weeks, to catch the 9:15 Liverpool express from Euston Station.8:30 p.m., Drebber and Stangerson had been seen together at Euston Station.Having missed their train, Drebber returns to Charpentier’s boardinghouse drunk, forces his way in, and is very inappropriate with Alice. Arthur, her brother, hearing Alice scream chases Drebber from the house.10:00 at night to 6:00 in the morning, Constable Rance is on his beat.11:00 p.m. Constable Rance deals with a fight at White Hart Tavern.11:00 p.m., Madame Charpentier goes to bed, her son Arthur has not yet returned home.1st Day March 4th TuesdayTwenty years have passed since Jefferson Hope was to marry Lucy and all the events in Utah.One week earlier, Jefferson Hope had been told by a doctor that his aneurism would burst before many days passed.Nearer 1:00 a.m. than midnight, Jefferson Hope takes Drebber to the empty house off Brixton Rd and murders him.2:00 a.m. Constable Rance on his beat discovers Drebber’s body in the empty house at 3 Lauriston Gardens.Morning, Holmes and Watson sitting in Baker St. discuss Holmes’ abilities and methods. A Commissionaire arrives delivering a letter from Gregson requesting Holmes to come to Lauriston Gardens before noon—Holmes and Watson leave for Brixton Rd.Morning, Gregson telegraphs Cleveland inquiring about Drebber.Before 12:00 noon, at Lauriston Gardens, Holmes examines the crime scene, the victim’s body, and his personal effects.“It was one o’clock p.m. when we left No.3 Lauriston Gardens.”Afternoon, on the way to speak with Constable Rance at his home in Kennington Park Gate with Watson, Holmes first stops at a telegraph office sending a long telegraph.Afternoon, they arrive at Constable Rance’s home, where Holmes interviews him about the night before and his finding Drebber’s body. Leaving, Holmes and Watson stop for lunch and then return to Baker St. There Watson gets a couple hours’ sleep and Holmes attends Halle’s concert to hear Norman Neruda.Evening, “He was very late in returning—so late that I knew that the concert could not have detained him all the time. Dinner was on the table before he appeared.” Holmes tells Watson that he would be expecting a caller in response to a news ad he placed under Watson’s name in reference to finding a ring near Brixton Road.After 8:00 p.m., A Mrs. Sawyer calls at Baker St in reference to the found column ad about the gold wedding ring.Close upon 9:00 p.m., Mrs. Sawyer leaves Baker St with the ring and Holmes following her. Watson remained behind.10:00 p.m., Watson passing the time reading, heard the maid patter of to bed.11:00 p.m., He heard the landlady past his door also on her way to bed.Close upon midnight, Holmes returns to Baker St. after following Mrs. Sawyer. He tells Watson the old woman had fooled him by disappearing from the cab and most likely she was actually a man in disguise.2nd Day6:00 a.m., Mr. Joseph Stangerson is murdered at Halliday’s Private Hotel.8:00 a.m., Lestrade discovers Stangerson dead in his room.Morning, Holmes and Watson sit at breakfast reading news articles about the murder. The Irregulars arrive to report on being unsuccessful in a unknown task Holmes had for them, and as they leave Gregson arrives, boasting that he has arrested Arthur Charpentier for Drebber’s murder, and as he is giving Holmes the details, Lestrade enters telling everyone that Joseph Stangerson has also been murdered. Holmes, after sitting much in thought, tells everyone that he now knows the name of the assassin. Wiggins is back and shown into the room; he tells Holmes that he has the cabman he wanted waiting downstairs, and Holmes has him come up. When the cabman enters, Holmes quickly handcuffs him and says to all, “Let me introduce you to Mr. Jefferson Hope, the murderer of Enoch Drebber and of Joseph Stangerson.” Jefferson Hope is taken into custody and they all leave for Scotland Yard with the prisoner.Evening, at Scotland Yard Hope tells Holmes and the others about the events of twenty years past, in Utah, and how he has spent those years since tracking Drebber and Stangerson to get his revenge. Hope is lead off by two wardens and Holmes and Watson return to Baker St.Night, while in custody at Scotland Yard Jefferson Hope’s aneurism bursts.3rd DayMorning, “Jefferson Hope is found dead on the floor of his cell. With a placid smile upon his face, as though he had been able in his dying moments to look back upon a useful life, and on work well done.”Evening, Holmes and Watson sit in Baker St., discuss the case and a newspaper article about its conclusion.

 Story Conclusion:It was the Echo for the day, and the paragraph to which he pointed was devoted to the case in question.“The public,” it said, “have lost a sensational treat through the sudden death of the man Hope, who was suspected of the murder of Mr. Enoch Drebber and of Mr. Joseph Stangerson. The details of the case will probably be never known now, though we are informed upon good authority that the crime was of an old standing and romantic feud, in which love and Mormonism bore part. It seems that both victims belonged, in their younger days, to the Latter Day Saints, and Hope, the deceased prisoner, hails also from Salt Lake City. If the case has had no other effect, it at least brings out in the most striking manner the efficiency of our detective police force, and will serve as a lesson to all foreigners that they will do wisely to settle their feuds at home, and not to carry them on to British soil. It is an open secret that the credit of this smart capture belongs entirely to the well-known Scotland Yard officials, Messrs. Lestrade and Gregson. The man was apprehended, it appears, in the rooms of a certain Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who has himself, as an amateur, shown some talent in the detective line and who, with such instructors, may hope in time to attain to some degree of their skills. It is expected that a testimonial of some sort will be presented to the two officers as a fitting recognition of their services.”“Didn’t I tell you so when we started?” cried Sherlock Holmes with a laugh. “That’s the result of all our Study in Scarlet: to get them a testimonial!”“Never mind,” I answered; “I have all the facts in my journal, and the public shall know them. In the meantime you must make yourself contented by the consciousness of success, like the Roman miser—“Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo Ipse domi simul ac nummos contemplar in arca.”

 Weather:Night before, “The whole place was very sloppy from the rain which had fallen through the night.”“Up to last night, we have had no rain for a week.”Night of Drebber’s murder, “At one o’clock it began to rain.”—“A wild, bleak night, blowing hard and raining in torrents.”1st Day “It was a foggy, cloudy morning, and a dun-coloured veil hung over the house tops.”

 Payment/credit:“My dear fellow, what does it matter to me? Supposing I unravel the whole matter, you may be sure that Gregson, Lestrade, and Co. will pocket all the credit. That comes of being an unofficial personage.”“It is an open secret that the credit of this smart capture belongs entirely to the well-known Scotland Yard officials, Messrs. Lestrade and Gregson. The man was apprehended, it appears, in the rooms of a certain Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who has himself, as an amateur, shown some talent in the detective line and who, with such instructors, may hope in time to attain to some degree of their skills. It is expected that a testimonial of some sort will be presented to the two officers as a fitting recognition of their services.”“Didn’t I tell you so when we started?” cried Sherlock Holmes with a laugh. “That’s the result of all our Study in Scarlet: to get them a testimonial!”

 Quotes:“No data yet,” he answered. “It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment.”“I have my eye on a suite in Baker Street.”“Doctor … I must thank you for it all. I might not have gone but for you, and so have missed the finest study I ever came across: study in scarlet, eh? Why shouldn’t we use a little art jargon. There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.”HolmesYoung Stamford looked rather strangely at me over his wineglass. “You don’t know Sherlock Holmes yet,” he said; “perhaps you would not care for him as a constant companion.”“Why, what is there against him?”“Oh, I don’t say there is anything against him. He is a little queer in his ideas—an enthusiast in some branches of science. As far as I know he is a decent fellow enough.”“A medical student, I suppose?” said I.“No—I have no idea what he intends to go in for. I believe he is well up in anatomy, and he is a first-class chemist; but, as far as I know, he has never taken out any symptomatic medical classes. His studies are very desultory and eccentric, but he has amassed a lot of out-of-the-way knowledge which would astonish professors.”“Did you ever ask him what he was going in for?” I asked.“No; he is not a man that it is easy to draw out, though he can be communicative enough when the fancy seizes him.”“It is not easy to express the inexpressible,” he answered with a laugh. “Holmes is a little too scientific to my tastes—it approaches to cold-bloodedness. I could imagine his giving a friend a little pinch of the latest vegetable alkaloid, not out of malevolence, you understand, but simply out of a spirit of inquiry in order to have an accurate idea of its effects. To do him justice, I think that he would take it himself with the same readiness. He appears to have a passion for definite and exact knowledge.”“Very right to.”“Yes, but it may be pushed to excess. When it comes to beating the subjects in the dissecting-rooms with a stick, it is certainly taking rather a bizarre shape.”“Beating the subject!”“Yes, to verify how far bruise may be produced after death. I saw him at it with my own eyes.”“And yet you say he is not a medical student?”“No. Heaven knows what the object of the studies are.”“Do you include violin playing in your category of rows?” he asked anxiously.“It depends on the player,” I answered. “A well-played violin is a treat for the gods—a badly played one—”“Oh, that’s all right,” he cried, with a merry laugh. “I think we may consider the thing as settled—that is, if the rooms are agreeable to you.”“Let me see—what are my other shortcomings? I get in the dumps at times, and don’t open my mouth for days on end. You must not think I am sulky when I do that. Just let me alone, and I’ll soon be right. What have you to confess now? It’s just as well for two fellows to know the worst of one another before they begin to live together. Now we have the Sherlock Holmes’s test and there will no longer be any difficulty.”“Very interesting reading it might be made, too,” remarked Sherlock Holmes, sticking a small piece of plaster over the prick on his finger. “I have to be careful,” he continued, turning to me with a smile, “for I dabble with poisons a good deal.” He held out his hand as he spoke, and I noticed that it was all mottled over with similar pieces of plaster, and discoloured with strong acids.“Holmes was certainly not a difficult man to live with. He was quiet in his ways, and his habits were regular. It was rare for him to be up after ten at night, and he had invariably breakfasted and gone out before I rose in the morning. Sometimes he spent his day at the chemical laboratory, sometimes in the dissecting-rooms, and occasionally in long walks, which appear to take him into the lowest portions of the city. Nothing could exceed his energy when the working fit was upon him; but now again a reaction would seize him, and for days on end he would lie upon the sofa in the sitting-room, hardly uttering a word or moving a muscle from morning to night. On these occasions I have noticed such a dreamy, vacant expression in his eyes, that I might have suspected him of being addicted to some use of some narcotics, had not the temperance and cleanliness of his whole life forbidden such a notion.”“As the weeks went by, my interest in him and my curiosity as to his aim in life gradually deepened and increased. His very person and appearance were such as to strike the attention of the most casual observer. In height he was rather over six feet, and so excessively lean that he seemed to be considerably taller. His eyes were sharp and piercing, save during those intervals of torpor to which I have alluded; and his thin, hawk-like nose gave his whole expression an air of alertness and decision. His chin, too, had the prominence and sureness which mark the man of determination. His hands were invariably blotted with ink and stained with chemicals, yet he was possessed of extraordinary delicacy of touch, as I frequently had occasions to observe when I watched him manipulating his fragile physiological instruments.”“I endeavor to break through the reticence which he showed on all that concerned himself. Before pronouncing judgment, however, be it remembered how objectless was my life, and how little there was to engage my attention. My health forbade me from venturing out unless the weather was exceptionally genial, and I had no friends who would call upon me to break the monotony of my daily existence. Under the circumstances, I eagerly hailed the little mystery which hung around my companion, and spent much of my time in endeavoring to unravel it.”“Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it.”“But the solar system!” I protested.— “What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently: “you say that we go around the sun. If we went around the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.”“I have a turn both for observation and deduction. The theories which I have expressed there, and which appear to you to be so chimerical, are really extremely practical—so practical that I depend upon them for my bread and cheese.”“They are mostly sent on by private inquiry agencies. They are all people who are in trouble about something and want a little enlightening. I listen to their story, they listen to my comments, and then I pocket my fee.”“I have to bustle about and see things with my own eyes. You see I have a lot of special knowledge which I apply to the problem, and which facilitates matters wonderfully. Those rules of deduction laid down in the article which aroused your scorn are invaluable to me in practical work. Observation with me is second nature.”Sherlock Holmes rose and lit his pipe. “No doubt you think that you are complimenting me in comparing me to Dupin.”“Well, I have a trade of my own. I suppose I am the only one in the world. I am a consulting detective, if you can understand what that is. Here in London we have lots of government detectives and lots of private ones. When these fellows are at fault, they come to me, and I manage to put them on the right scent. They lay evidence before me, and I am generally able, by the help of my knowledge of the history of crime to set them straight.”“I’m not sure about whether I shall go. I am the most incurably lazy devil that ever stood in shoe leather—that is, when the fit is on me, for I can be spry enough at times.”“Mr. Sherlock Holmes. You may be very smart and clever, but the old hound is the best, when all is said and done.”“They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains,” he remarked with a smile. “It’s a very bad definition, but it does apply to detective work.”“You know a conjurer gets no credit when once he has explained his trick; and if I show you too much of my method of working, you will come to the conclusion that I am a very ordinary individual after all.”“My companion flushed up with pleasure at my words, and the earnest way in which I uttered them. I had already observed that he was as sensitive to flattery on the score of his art as any girl could be of her beauty.”“I might not have gone but for you, and so have missed the finest study I ever came across: a study in scarlet, eh? Why shouldn’t we use a little art jargon. There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.”“Leaning back in the cab, this amateur bloodhound carolled away like a lark while I meditated upon the many sideness of the human mind.”“His quiet, self-confident manner convinced me that he had already formed a theory which explained all the facts.”Sherlock Holmes sprang to his feet the moment that she was gone and rushed into his room. He returned in a few seconds enveloped in a ulster and a cravat. “I’ll follow her,” he said.“I perched myself behind (Mrs. Sawyer’s cab). That’s an art which every detective should be an expert at.”“I left Holmes seated in front of the smoldering fire, and long into the watches of the night I heard the low melancholy wailings of his violin, and knew that he was still pondering over the strange problem which he had set himself to unravel.”“To a great mind, nothing is little,” remarked Holmes, sententiously.“Holmes showed signs of irresolution. He continued to walk up and down the room with his head sunk on his chest and his brows drawing down, as was his habit when lost in thought.”“If there’s a vacant place for a chief of the police, I reckon you are the man for it,” he said, gazing with undisguised admiration at my fellow-lodger.“The way you kept on my trail was a caution.”“We have his cab,” said Sherlock Holmes. “It will serve to take him to Scotland Yard. And now, gentlemen,” he continued, with a pleasant smile, “we have reached the end of our little mystery. You are very welcome to put any question that you like to me now, and there is no danger that I will refuse to answer them.”“What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence,” returned my companion bitterly. “The question is, what can you make people believe that you have done?”Watson’s First Observation of Sherlock HolmesSherlock Holmes his limitsKnowledge of Literature. Nil.Knowledge of Philosophy. Nil.Knowledge of Astronomy. Nil.Knowledge of Politics. Feeble.Knowledge of Botany. VariableWell up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally.Knowledge of Geology. Practical, but limited.Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them.Knowledge of Chemistry. Profound.Knowledge of Anatomy. Accurate, but unsystematic.Knowledge of Sensational Literature. Immense.He appear to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the country.Plays the violin well.Is an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman.Has a good practical knowledge of British Law.Watson“I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air—or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day would permit a man to be. Under such circumstances I naturally gravitated to London, the great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained. There I stayed for some time at a private hotel in the Strand, leading a comfortless, meaningless existence, and spending such money as I had, considerably more freely than I ought. So alarming did the state of my finances become that I soon realized that I must either leave the metropolis and rusticate somewhere in the country, or that I must make a complete alteration in my style of living. Choosing the latter alternative, I began by making up my mind to leave the hotel, and take up my quarters in some less pretentious and less expensive domicile.”“I should like to meet him,” I said. “If I am to lodge with anyone, I should prefer a man of studious and quiet habits. I am not strong enough yet to stand much noise or excitement. I had enough of both in Afghanistan to last me for the remainder of my natural existence.”“I keep a bull pup,” I said, “and I object to rows because my nerves are shaken, and I get up at all sorts of ungodly hours, and I am extremely lazy. I have another set of vices when I’m well, but those are the principal ones at present.”“You don’t mind the smell of strong tobacco, I hope?”“I always smoke ‘ships’s’ myself,” I answered.“My health forbade me from venturing out unless the weather was exceptionally genial, and I had no friends who would call upon me to break the monotony of my daily existence.”“I rose somewhat earlier than usual, and found that Sherlock Holmes had not yet finished his breakfast. The landlady had become so accustomed to my late habits that my place had not been laid or my coffee prepared.”“What ineffable twaddle!” I cried, slapping the magazine down on the table; “I never read such rubbish in my life.”Crime and Deduction“I have a turn both for observation and deduction. The theories which I have expressed there, and which appear to you to be so chimerical, are really extremely practical—so practical that I depend upon them for my bread and cheese.”“I have to bustle about and see things with my own eyes. You see I have a lot of special knowledge which I apply to the problem, and which facilitates matters wonderfully. Those rules of deduction laid down in the article which aroused your scorn are invaluable to me in practical work. Observation with me is second nature.”“Well, I have a trade of my own. I suppose I am the only one in the world. I am a consulting detective, if you can understand what that is. Here in London we have lots of government detectives and lots of private ones. When these fellows are at fault, they come to me, and I manage to put them on the right scent. They lay evidence before me, and I am generally able, by my the help of my knowledge of the history of crime to set them straight.”“From a drop of water,” said the writer, “logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other. So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a single link of it. Like all other arts, the Science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can only be acquired by long and patient study, nor is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it.”“There are no crimes and no criminals in these days,” he said, querulously. “What is there the use of having brains in our profession? I know well that I have it in me to make my name famous. No man lives or has ever lived who has brought the same amount of study and of natural talent to detection of crime which I have done. And what is the result? There is no crime to detect, or, at most, some bungling villain with a motive so transparent that even a Scotland Yard official can see through it.”“No data yet,” he answered. “It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment.”Sherlock Holmes drew a long breath, and wiped the perspiration from his forehead. “I should have more faith,” he said; “I ought to know by this time that when a fact appears to be opposed to a long train of deductions, it invariably proves to be capable of bearing some other interpretation.”“It is a mistake to confound strangeness with mystery. The most commonplace crime is often the most mysterious, because it presents no new or special features from which deductions may be drawn.”— “These strange details, far from making the case more difficult, have really had the effect of making it less so.”“I have already explained to you that what is out of the common is usually a guide rather than a hindrance. In solving a problem of the sort, the grand thing is to be able to reason backward. That is a very useful accomplishment, and a very easy one, but people do not practise it much. In the everyday affairs of life it is more useful to reason forward, and so the other comes to be neglected. There are fifty who can reason systematically for one who can reason analytically.”— “There are few people, however, who, if you told them a result would be able to evoke from their own inner consciousness what the steps were which led up to that result. This power is what I mean when I talk of reasoning backward, and analytically.”“There is no branch of detective science which is more important and so much neglected as the art of tracing footprints.”Holmes’ Observation of Watson“How are you?” he said cordially, gripping my hand with the strength for which I should have hardly had given him credit. “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”“How on earth did you know that?” I asked in astonishment.“I know you came from Afghanistan. From long habit the train of thoughts ran so swiftly through my mind that I arrived at the conclusion without being conscious of intermediate steps. There were such steps, however. The train of reasoning ran, ‘Here is a gentleman of a medical type, but with the air of a military man. Clearly an army doctor, then. He has just come from the tropics, for his face is dark, and that is not the natural tint of the skin, for his wrists are fair. He has under-gone hardship and sickness, as his haggard face says clearly. His left arm has been injured. He holds it in a stiff and unnatural matter. Where in the tropics could an English army doctor have seen much hardship and got his arm wounded? Clearly in Afghanistan.’ The whole train of thought did not occupy a second. I remarked that you came from Afghanistan and you were astonished.”“Its somewhat ambitious title was “The Book of Life” and it attempted to show how much an observant man might learn by an accurate and systematic examination of all that came in his way. It struck me as being a remarkable mixture of shrewdness and of absurdity. The reasoning was close and intense, but the deductions appeared to me to be far fetched and exaggerated. The writer claimed by a momentary expression, a twitch of a muscle or a glance of an eye, to fathom a man’s innermost thoughts. Deceit, according to him, was an impossibility in the case of one trained to observation and analysis. His conclusions were as infallible as so many propositions of Euclid. So startling would his results appear to be to the uninitiated that until they learned the processes by which he had arrived that they might well consider him as a necromancer.”“From a drop of water,” said the writer, “logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other. So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a single link of it. Like all other arts, the Science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can only be acquired by long and patient study, nor is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it. Before turning to those mortal and mental aspects of the matter which present the greatest difficulties, let the inquirer begin by mastering more elementary problems. Let him, on meeting a fellow-mortal, learn at a glance to distinguish the history of the man, and the trade or profession to which he belongs. Puerile as such an exercise may seem, it sharpens the faculties of observation, and teaches one where to look and what to look for. By a man’s finger-nails, by his coat-sleeve, by his boots, by his trousers-knees, by the callosities of his forefinger and thumb, by his expression, by his shirt-cuffs—by each of these things a man’s calling is plainly repealed. That all united should fail to enlighten the competent inquirer in any case is most inconceivable.”Holmes’ Observation of Commissionaire:“I wonder what that fellow was looking for?” I asked, pointing to a stalwart, plainly dressed individual who was walking slowly down the other side of the street, looking anxiously at the numbers. He had a large blue envelope in his hand, and was evidently the bearer of the message.“You mean the retired sergeant of the Marines,” said Sherlock Holmes.“Brag and bounce!” thought I to myself. “He knows that I cannot verify his guess.”5Here was an opportunity of taking the conceit out of him. He little thought of this when he made that random shot. “May I ask, my lad,” I said, in the blandest voice, “what your trade may be?”“Commissionaire, sir,” he said, gruffly. “Uniform away for repairs.”“And you were?” I asked, with a slightly malicious glance at my companion.“A sergeant, sir, Royal Marine Light Infantry, sir, no answer? Right, sir.”5“Even across the street I could see a great blue anchor tattooed on the back of the fellow’s hand. That smacked of the sea. He had a military carriage, however, and regulation side whiskers. There we have the marine. He was a man with some amount of self-importance and a certain air of command. You must have observed the way in which he held his head and swung his cane. A steady, respectable, middle-age man, too, on the face of him—all facts which led me to believe that he had been a sergeant.”Holmes’ Examination of Enoch J. Drebber’s Body and Crime Scene:“As he spoke, his nimble fingers were flying here, there, and everywhere, feeling, pressing, unbuttoning, examining, while his eyes wore the same faraway expression which I have already remarked upon. So swiftly was the examination made, that one would hardly have guessed the minuteness with which it was conducted. Finally, he sniffed the dead man’s lips, and then glanced at the soles of his patent leather boots.”“I have not had time to examine this room yet, but with your permission I shall do so now.” As we spoke, he whipped a tape measure and a large round magnifying glass from his pocket. With these two implements he trotted noiselessly about the room, sometimes stopping, occasionally kneeling, and once lying flat upon his face. So engrossed was he with his occupation that he appeared to have forgotten our presence, for he chattered away to himself under his breath the whole time, keeping up a running fire of exclamations, groans, whistles, and little cries suggestive of encouragement and of hope. As I watched him I was irresistibly reminded of a pure-blooded, well-trained foxhound, as it dashes backward and forward through the convert, whining in its eagerness, until it comes across the lost scent. For twenty minutes or more he continued his researches, measuring with the most exact care the distance between marks which were entirely invisible to me, and occasionally applying his tape to the walls in an even an equally incomprehensible manner. In one place he gathered up very carefully a little pile of gray dust from the floor, and packed away in an envelope. Finally he examined with his glass the word upon the wall, going over every letter of it with the most minute exactness. This done, he appeared to be satisfied, for he replaced the tape and his glass in his pocket.Watson’s Questions“My head is in a whirl,” I remarked; “the more one thinks of it the more mysterious it grows. How came these two men—if there were two men—into an empty house? What became of the cabman who drove them? How could one man compel another to take poison? Where did the blood come from? What was the object of the murderer, since robbery had no part in it? How came the woman’s ring there? Above all, why should the second man write up the German word RACHE before decamping?”Holmes’ Analysis and Deduction of the Criminal:“There has been murder done, and the murderer was a man. He was more than six foot high, was in the prime of his life, had small feet for his height, wore coarse, square-toed boots and smoked a Trichinopoly cigar. He came here with his victim in a four-wheeler cab, which was drawn by a horse with three old shoes and one new one on his off fore-leg. In all probability the murderer had a florid face, and the finger-nails of his right hand were remarkably long.“Now, up to last night, we have had no rain for a week, so that those wheels which left such a deep impression must have been there during the night. There were the marks of the horse’s hoofs, too, the outline of one of which was far more clearly cut than that of the other three, showing that that was a new shoe. Since the cab was there after the rain began, and was not there at any time during the morning it follows that it must have been there during the night, and therefore, that it brought those two individuals to the house.”“That seems quite simple enough,” said I; “but how about the other man’s height?”“Why, the height of a man, in nine cases out of ten, can be told from the length of his stride. It is a simple calculation enough, though there is no reason for my boring you with figures. I had this fellow’s stride both on the clay outside and on the dust within. Then I had a way of checking my calculations. When a man writes on a wall, his instinct leads him to write above the level of his eyes. Now that writing was just over six feet from the ground. It was child’s play.”“And his age?” I asked.“Well, if a man can stride four and a half feet without the smallest effort, he can’t be quite in the spry and yellow. That was the breath of a puddle on the garden walk which he had evidently walked across. Patent-leather boots had gone round, and Square-toes had hopped over. There is no mystery about it at all. I am simply applying to ordinary life a few of those precepts of observation and deduction which I advocated in that article. Is there anything else that puzzles you?”“The finger-nails in the Trichinopoly,” I suggested.“The writing on the wall was done with a man’s forefinger dipped in blood. My glass allowed me to observe that the plaster was slightly scratched in doing it, which would not have been the case if the man’s nail had been trimmed. I gathered up some scattered ash from the floor. It was dark in colour and flaky—such an ash is only made by Trichinopoly. I made a special study of cigar ashes—in fact, I have written a monograph upon the subject. I flatter myself that I can distinguish at a glance the ash of any known brand either of cigar or of tobacco. It is just in such details that the skilled detective differs from the Gregson and Lestrade type.”“And the florid-face?” I asked.“Ah, that was a more daring shot, though I have no doubt that I was right. You must not ask me that at the present state of the affair.”

 NotesKnown as the “Brixton Mystery” in the newspapers.