The Canon of Sherlock Holmes

Submitted To: Submitted By:

Mrs. Alka Mehta Achyut Tewari
Faculty of English B.A. LL.B. (Hons.)
Semester – II (B)
Batch XVI
Roll no. - 007
Date of submission: April 6th, 2017

Hidayatullah National Law University

Uparwara Post, Naya Raipur
Raipur – 492002, Chattisgarh
 Declaration

I, the undersigned, solemnly declare that this Project work titled, “The Canon of Sherlock
Holmes” is based on my own research work, carried out during the course of my study, under the
supervision and guidance of my faculty advisor.

I assert that the statements made and the conclusions drawn are the outcome of the said
research work. It further declares that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, proper references
have been given and it does not contain any part of any work which has been submitted for the
award of any other degree in this university or any other university.

Achyut Tewari
Semester – II (B), Batch XVI,
Roll No. – 007
HNLU, Raipur
 Acknowledgements

I, Achyut Tewari, would like to take up this opportunity to thank all those who have stood

by me throughout the duration of this project and helped me in completing it.

First of all my teacher and mentor Mrs. Alka Mehta Ma’am. I thank her for her faith in me

to provide me with such a topic of research. Her constant guidance at every step and keen attention

to detail has been elementary in the completion of this project.

The college administration and staff had no less a part in this job. The value of their support

cannot be expressed in mere words.

Finally I would like to thank God for his benevolence and grace in enabling me to finish

this task.

I express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone involved,

Thank You,

Achyut Tewari

B.A. LL.B. (Hon.)

Semester – II, Section B,

Batch XVI

Roll no. 007

 Abstract

Here dwell together still two men of note

Who never lived and so can never die:

How very near they seem, yet how remote

That age before the world went all awry.

But still the game's afoot for those with ears

Attuned to catch the distant view-halloo:

England is England yet, for all our fears--

Only those things the heart believes are true.

A yellow fog swirls past the window-pane

As night descends upon this fabled street:

A lonely hansom splashes through the rain,

The ghostly gas lamps fail at twenty feet.

Here, though the world explode, these two survive,

And it is always eighteen ninety-five.

-- Vincent Starrett
 Table of Contents

S. No. Topic Page No.

1 Introduction 1

2 Sherlock Holmes: A Victorian Gentleman 2

3 Novels 5

4 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 13

5 The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes 24

6 The Return of Sherlock Holmes 33

7 His Last Bow 44

8 The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes 51

9 Conclusion 61

10 References 63
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Introduction

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional private detective created by British author Sir Arthur

Conan Doyle. Known as a “consulting detective” in the stories, Holmes is known for a proficiency

with observation, forensic science, and logical reasoning that borders on the fantastic, which he

employs when investigating cases for a wide variety of clients, including Scotland Yard. First

appearing in print in 1887 (in A Study in Scarlet), the character’s popularity became widespread

with the first series of short stories in The Strand Magazine, beginning with “A Scandal in

Bohemia” in 1891; additional tales appeared from then to 1927, eventually totaling four novels

and 56 short stories. All but one are set in the Victorian or Edwardian periods, taking place between

1880 to 1914. Most are narrated by the character of Holmes’s friend and biographer Dr. Watson,

who usually accompanies Holmes during his investigations and often shares quarters with him at

the address of 221B Baker Street, London, where many of the stories begin. Though not the first

fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes is arguably the most well-known, with Guinness World

Records listing him as the “most portrayed movie character” in history. Holmes’s popularity and

fame are such that many have believed him to be not a fictional character but a real individual;

numerous literary and fan societies have been founded that pretend to operate on this principle.

Widely considered a British cultural icon, the character and stories have had a profound and lasting

effect on mystery writing and popular culture as a whole, with both the original tales as well as

thousands written by authors other than Conan Doyle being adapted into stage and radio plays,

television, films, video games, and other media for over one hundred years.
 Tewari |2

Sherlock Holmes: A Victorian Gentleman

In 1891, Sherlock Holmes was a character very much of his time and place, who appealed to British
readers directly by confronting the messy, changeable world they lived in. Rather than dwelling in
romance or in an idealized past, as many of Arthur Conan Doyle’s other characters did, Holmes
was grounded squarely in Victorian London. The Sherlock Holmes mystery stories, written over a
forty-year span from 1887 to 1927, represented the good, the bad, and the ugly of Victorian society:
its ideals, its accomplishments, and its deepest fears.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s birth year, 1859, fell 22 years into Queen Victoria’s 64-year reign, a time
of unparalleled growth and optimism for the British Empire. Resources and labor taken from
colonies worldwide had made England prosper, and the time of serious independence struggles lay
in the distant future. Business flourished, technology blossomed, and London grew at a great rate
and from one million people to six in the space of a century and creating problems of urban
overcrowding familiar to us today: poverty, homelessness, drug abuse, crime. While the great
divide between rich and poor and the economic and human strain of maintaining the colonies
exacerbated social problems that were as yet insoluble, Victorian Britons, led by Victoria’s
husband Albert, put their faith in technology and science. The contrasts and conundrums of this
fascinating time provided Conan Doyle with the raw material and the backdrop for Sherlock
Holmes: a man of science, undistracted by the gentler passions, who moved easily through the
disquieting urban space, using his wits to solve its moral and practical dilemmas.

Physically, London could be a place of disturbing contrasts, a cosmopolitan city where the middle
class drank tea in comfortable drawing rooms while epidemics of typhoid and cholera ravaged the
squalid, overpopulated East End. The putrid Thames River, the city’s main source of drinking
water, despite the network of open sewers that dumped tons of waste into it daily, carried a reeking
cloud of contagion to all levels of society as it meandered through the heart of the city.

Since 1844, the government had struggled with various solutions to the sewage problem. In 1858,
the year before Conan Doyle was born, the “Great Stink,” caused by the unfortunate effects of a
hot summer on a sluggish, polluted river, clotted with solid waste, drove thousands out of the city.
After years of effort, engineer Joseph Bazalgette designed and supervised construction of a sewer
 Tewari |3

system, completed in 1866, that drained sewage away from the Thames and used the ebbing tide
to wash it out to sea. London’s air was not much cleaner than its water. The burning of coal for
heat and cooking caused the greasy yellow “London fog” that Holmes and Watson prowl about in:
In the third week of November, in the year 1895, a dense yellow fog settled down upon London.
From the Monday to the Thursday I doubt whether it was ever possible from our windows in Baker
Street to see the loom of the opposite houses.

And from “The Bruce Partington Plans” Inhabitants of London had more to fear from their city
than an unhealthy environment. Barely thirty years before Doyle’s birth, London was a criminal’s
paradise. Whole areas of the city were “owned” by criminal groups, and honest citizens hardly
dared to walk through certain neighborhoods at night, even armed. In 1829, the Metropolitan
Police was founded by Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel (hence the nickname “Bobbies”). By
Conan Doyle’s birth in 1859, there were over 200 police constabulary units in England and Wales,
under the jurisdiction of individual counties. As Conan Doyle represents them in the Sherlock
Holmes stories, the constabularies were highly bureaucratized organizations that did things “by
the book”; constables themselves tended to be seen as good-intentioned, but plodding, and not
always successful. Luckily, unlike Inspectors Lestrade and Hopkins, Holmes’s erstwhile
colleagues, the Metropolitan Police was not actually forced to match wits with Holmes’s brilliant
nemesis, Moriarty, leader of the most insidious criminal syndicate in England.

In the Sherlock Holmes stories, at least, the idyllic-seeming English countryside holds its own
dangers. In Victorian England, small towns were still structured on the feudal model that had
prevailed for centuries. In general, a large manor house, such as Baskerville Hall, dominated its
village. And although the village people no longer led their lives serving the master of the manor,
a strict social hierarchy still dictated that the master was the community leader in more ways than
one. The health or dysfunction of the family living in the manor house could determine the whole
character of a village. Holmes and Watson pursue many mysteries in the countryside surrounding
London, where criminals carry on their nefarious activities away from prying eyes. As Holmes
remarks,

“It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London
do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.…
The pressure of public opinion can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no
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lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of a drunkard’s blow, does not beget
sympathy and indignation among the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever
so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is but a step between the crime and
the dock. But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor
ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness
which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser.”
—from “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”

England has seen a century of upheaval since the first Sherlock Holmes stories burst upon the
scene. The old, mysterious London has melted away with its “pea-soup” fogs and plagues of sewer
gas; British colonies have gained their independence, one by one; manor houses are as likely to be
museums or bed and breakfast inns as private residences. The problems faced by modern British
society would seem to have left the Victorian detective behind. Not so: the character that Conan
Doyle considered unworthy of his serious literary aspirations still strikes a chord with modern
audiences. As the world changed around him, Sherlock Holmes, the reassuring protector of British
superiority, transcended his time, and today is loved for his weaknesses and eccentricities as much
as for his strengths. In the 21st century, sequels and pastiches featuring the quintessential detective
are still being produced at a steady rate.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s original readers recognized their city and their time in the Sherlock Holmes
stories. It was easy to imagine that he was just around the corner, riding in the next hansom cab.
No wonder so many people believed that Holmes was real. Today, we can return to those stories
to immerse ourselves in the dank vapors and dark alleyways of London, and glimpse another world
in all of its splendor and squalor.
 Tewari |5

Novels
A Study in Scarlet

Watson was serving in India with the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers. At the battle of Mai-wand,
he was struck in the shoulder by a Jezail bullet. Murray, his orderly, saved his life and he was
sent to England to recover.

While he was looking for lodgings, he met young Stamford at the Criterion bar. Stam-ford had
been a dresser under him at Bart’s. Stamford told him that he knew Sherlock Holmes who was
also looking for lodgings. He introduced the immortal pair.

Holmes was just perfecting a test for occult blood when Watson met him. After one casual
glance in his direction, Holmes said, “You have been in Afghanistan I perceive.”

Holmes tells Watson he is a consulting detective and has written an article for the Times called
“The Book of Life.”

Gregson asks Holmes to help him with a murder in Lauriston Gardens. Enoch Drebber is found
dead by poisoning in an empty house. A wedding ring is on the floor beside him. The word
“RACHE” is written on the wall in blood.

Hope returned to the house to get the ring but Rance was there. Hope pretended to be drunk and
thus avoided capture.

Holmes placed an ad in The Times saying he found a wedding ring in Lauriston Gardens. Hope
answered the ad disguised as an old woman to get back the ring and gave Holmes the slip in a
cab.

Gregson arrests Arthur Charpentier for Drebber’s murder because Drebber made unsolicited and
unwelcome advances to Alice and Arthur swore revenge.

Strangerson did not return to Charpentier’s house after Drebber’s murder. Two days later he was
found murdered by stabbing in another hotel. A small pill box was found on the window sill
 Tewari |6

containing two pills. The murder occurred on the second floor of the hotel and the murderer
gained access to the room via a ladder at the window.

Holmes feeds half of one of the pills to an old dog but nothing happens. He feeds half of the
other pill to the dog and it promptly dies.

A cabman comes to 221B to pick up some boxes. As he leans over to do so, Holmes snaps a pair
of handcuffs on him and announces to Lestrade and Gregson that he has caught the murderer,
Jefferson Hope.

Hope tells the following story:

John and Lucy were the only two survivors of a wagon train that lost its way in Utah. They were
rescued by the Mormons who were on the journey which eventually took them to Salt Lake.
They were forced to adopt the Mormon faith.

Ferrier prospered and became one of the wealthiest men in Salt Lake City while Lucy grew to
become “The Flower of Utah.” Ferrier remained celibate.

Hope comes to Salt Lake and saves Lucy’s life in a cattle stampede. His father and Ferrier had
been friends in St. Louis. Hope and Lucy fall in love.

Hope leaves to get a silver mine functioning in Nevada and Lucy promises to marry him when he
returns.

Brigham Young visits Ferrier and tells him that Lucy must wed one of the Elder’s sons in a
month. Ferrier plans to flee from Utah and sends word via a wagon train to Hope in Nevada,
telling him what has transpired.

Hope tries to carry Lucy and Ferrier to safety, but the two are captured while Hope is away
hunting. Ferrier is killed on the spot and Lucy is forced to marry Drebber. She pines away and
dies within a month.
 Tewari |7

Hope tries to kill Drebber and Strangerson from ambush but their security is too tight. He
returns to Nevada and prospects. He is unable to return to Salt Lake for five years. He returns in
disguise to find that a schism has developed within the church and Drebber and Strangerson have
taken all the money they can get and left Utah. Hope tracks them across the United States to
Europe and then to England. He carries with him two identical capsules, one poisoned and one
placebo. He has taken a job as a cabman in London and when he gets Drebber into his cab
(Drebber is drunk), he takes him to the empty house in Lauriston Gardens where he offers him a
choice of one of the capsules. Drebber chooses the fatal one. When he catches Strangerson,
Strangerson won’t play the capsule game so Hope stabs him.

Hope suffers from an aortic aneurysm which causes him to have severe nose bleeds. The
aneurysm ruptures the day following his capture and he dies in his cell.

The Sign of the Four

When the story opens, Holmes has been using a 7% solution of cocaine for a number of days and
Watson protests.

Mary visits Holmes to ask his advice. Her mother has been dead since she was a child. Her father
was an officer in the army, stationed in India. She has not seen him for years and has been raised
in a boarding school.

Ten years prior, her father wrote that he was coming home to London. She received a wire that he
had arrived at a hotel. She went to the hotel but her father had gone out the night before and was
never seen again.

Major Sholto was a retired member of her father’s regiment and was living in London at the time
of his disappearance. The two had been stationed together in the Andaman Islands. Four years
after Col. Morstan’s disappearance, Maj. Sholto died.

Since Sholto’s death (i.e. – for the past six years) Mary has received a very valuable pearl by mail
on her birthday.
 Tewari |8

The day before her visit to Holmes, she received an unsigned note requesting that she meet the
author outside a theater.

Mary found a treasure map, signed by the four, among her father’s effects.

Holmes and Mary go to the theater and are whisked away by carriage to meet Thaddeus.

Thaddeus lives in luxury in an apartment. He tells them that his father brought a great treasure
home with him from India. Part of this treasure belonged to Col. Morstan who came to claim it
immediately upon his arrival in London. Maj. Sholto, on his death bed con-fessed that the two of
them had quarreled over the split and Morstan (who had a weak heart) had a heart attack and died.
Maj. Sholto was about to reveal the whereabouts of the treasure to his sons when he saw a face at
the window and the sight finished him.

At the time of their father’s death, Thaddeus and Bartholomew searched the grounds of their home
exhaustively but found no trace of the treasure.

Bartholomew discovered it at last, just a day ago, and Thaddeus wants to share it with Mary to
make up for his father’s shortcomings. Bartholomew reluctantly agreed.

The four (Holmes, Watson, Mary and Thaddeus) go to Bartholomew’s house only to find that he
has been murdered by a poisoned thorn and the treasure stolen.

The murderer stepped in creosote on the floor of Bartholomew’s lab. Holmes puts Toby on this
scent and Toby leads them to a wharf on the Thames where Holmes learns that his quarry has
rented a steam launch and gone away about 24 hours before.

Holmes has the Baker Street Irregulars, under the leadership of Wiggins, search up and down the
Thames for the Aurora but she cannot be found.

Holmes himself searches, disguised as a sailor. He finds the ship in dry dock having her rudder
checked and learns that Mordacai Smith et al will be leaving at 8:00 PM. He contacts Jones to
have a police launch ready across the river from the dry dock and follows the Aurora when she
leaves.
 Tewari |9

The Aurora is headed for the Esmeralda, outward bound for the Brazils.

The police boat catches the Aurora after an exciting chase during which the islander shoots a
poisoned dart at Holmes and Watson and is in turn shot by them. He falls over-board and is
drowned.

Watson takes the treasure chest to Mary and when it is opened, it is found to be empty. Since there
is no longer a fortune between them, Watson proposes and Mary accepts.

After it became obvious that they would be overtaken and captured, Small scattered the treasure
over a 5 mile stretch of the Thames.

Small tells his story to Holmes et al: He was in the army in India and after a series of ad-ventures,
ended up in a fort in Agra during the rebellion. He and three of his Sikh companions stole the
treasure from the servant of a rajah whom they murdered. After the rebellion was over, they were
caught, tried and convicted of murder. The four ended up a convicts in the Andaman Islands.

Sholto and Morstan were officers assigned to prison duty. Small made a deal with them that he
would tell where the treasure was hidden if the officers would assist the four to escape. However,
Sholto double crossed Small, Morstan and the others, took the treasure and returned to England.

Small’s job in the prison was assisting the doctor so he had picked up some medical knowledge.
He found a native, Tonga, who was near death and nursed him back to health. They become fast
friends. Tonga had a boat and helped Small escape.

It took Small and Tonga several years to get back to London. Sholto kept guards about himself
constantly and Small could not get at him until the night of his (Sholto’s) death.

Watson marries Mary and Holmes returns to cocaine. We are not told of Small’s fate.
 T e w a r i | 10

The Valley of Fear

Watson is living at Baker St.

Porlock sends Holmes a letter saying that Douglas is in danger at Birlstone. Within minutes,
MacDonald comes to consult Holmes on the very issue.

Holmes discourses at length about the evil of Moriarity and the extent of his empire.

The Douglases are living a quiet retired life at Birlstone. Mr. Douglas is an American and has told
his wife nothing of his life prior to their marriage.

He is murdered in his study by a double-barreled shotgun blast in the face. His wed-ding ring has
been taken but nothing else indicates robbery as a motive. Mr. Douglas has an old brand on his
forearm – a triangle within a circle.

Douglas worked out regularly and one of his dumb bells is missing. This is a big clue in Holmes’
mind.

Earlier in his life Douglas was a Pinkerton agent. He had become a Scowrer in Pennsylvania. The
Scowrers were members of a lodge whose purpose was to terrorize and extort miners and mine
owners. Part of his initiation into the lodge was to be branded. He betrayed the group to Pinkerton
and they vowed to kill him.

The Scowrers traced Douglas to England and sent Baldwin to kill him. In a fight between Douglas
and Baldwin, they wrestled with the shot-gun which discharged both barrels into Baldwin’s face.
Douglas and Barker seized the opportunity to exchange identities and make the Scowrers think
that Douglas was finally dead so they would stop hounding him.

After his flight to England, the Scowrers employed Moriarity’s agency to find Douglas there.

Holmes sees through the switch of identities. Douglas is acquitted on self-defense. He and his
wife go to South Africa to start life anew. Douglas is lost at sea. Holmes is sure Moriarity had
him drowned and vows to stop the “Napoleon of crime.”
 T e w a r i | 11

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Holmes is consulted by Dr. Mortimer because of some unusual circumstances surrounding the
death of Sir Charles Baskerville.

Sir Charles made a large fortune in the South African gold fields and returned to England where
he took over the family manor on the edge of Dartmoor. He was preoccupied by a legend popular
in his family that because of the indiscretions and cruelties of Sir Hugo, a curse had been placed
on the family and any of them who lived in the manor would be killed by a fiendish hound.

Mortimer reads Holmes an account of the legend. Mortimer says that Sir Charles obviously died
of a heart attack – he had had a weak heart for some time – but feels he was frightened to death
and the prints of a gigantic hound were found near his body.

Charles’ heir, Henry, son of his next younger brother (unnamed) has been found on a farm in
Canada and is due to arrive in London to claim his inheritance.

A second brother of Sir Charles, Rodger, supposedly died childless, but actually had a son (also
named Rodger). Rodger, Jr. was an atavistic throwback to Sir Hugo himself. He had become a
naturalist, specializing in entomology. He moved to an estate near Baskerville Hall under the
assumed name of Stapleton. He purchased a huge dog, half mastiff and half bloodhound, which
he kept on an island in Dartmoor, surrounded by a treacherous mire (Grimpen mire). He used the
dog to frighten Charles to death and was training it to kill in order to murder Henry after which he
planned to make his true identity known and become heir to the fortune.

Holmes solves the case from afar. He tells all concerned that he is in London when actually he is
living on the moor in order to better observe Stapleton.

In a dramatic conclusion, the hound is loosed upon Sir Henry and Holmes, Watson and Lestrade
kill it at the last moment. Stapleton attempts to reach his island in the mire but loses his path in
fog, falls in the mire and drowns.
 T e w a r i | 12

After the affair is over, Holmes discusses the case with Beryl on two occasions, but we are not told
any more about what became of her.

Sir Henry’s nerves are shattered by the hound’s attack and after recovering from an episode of
brain fever, he and Dr. Mortimer travel around the world to restore his constitution.

There are several interesting subplots. (1) Selden is Eliza Barrymore’s younger brother; Eliza’s
maiden name was Selden. He has escaped from prison and she is befriending him and hiding him
out on the moor. Henry gives Barrymore some of his American clothes and Barrymore in turn
gives them to Selden. Stapleton turns the hound loose and the hound, picking up Henry’s scent
from his old clothes, kills Selden. (2) Stapleton is supposedly un-married and woos Laura, getting
her to write a note to Charles asking him to meet her at the moor gate. When Charles goes to meet
her, Stapleton loses the hound to frighten him to death. (3) Henry falls in love with Beryl, thinking
that she is available. She wants nothing to do with her husband’s murderous schemes but because
of severe ill treatment is forced to remain silent.
 T e w a r i | 13

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

A Scandal in Bohemia

Watson is married and in civil practice. Holmes still uses cocaine.

The King of Bohemia is engaged to Clotilde Lothman, princess of Scandinavia. Formerly, the
king was informally engaged to Irene. The king jilted Irene because he felt that she was greatly
inferior to him socially and Irene felt much misused. She has letters which the king wrote to her
including a photo of the two of them together, and threatens to send them to Clotilde on the day
that her (Clotilde’s) and the king’s betrothal is announced publicly.

Holmes is hired to recover the photo and letters. The king tells him that several attempts have
been made to do this but all have failed.

Holmes, disguised as a drunken groom, is casing Irene’s house and is roped into being a witness
at her and Godfrey’s wedding. Irene gives Holmes a gold sovereign for his services which he
plans to wear on his watch chain.

Holmes stages an elaborate con and determines that Irene keeps the photo and letters in a secret
compartment beside her fireplace.

Returning to Baker Street in deep twilight, Holmes is unlocking his door when he hears a passing
voice say, “Goodnight Mister Sherlock Holmes.” He knows he has heard the voice before, but
can’t place it. The speaker is Irene, dressed in male costume.

Early next morning, Holmes, Watson and the King call on Irene, planning to take the photo. But
Irene and Godfrey have fled to the continent, taking the photo with them. She leaves another photo
of herself for the king and a letter for Holmes, in which she says that she was cleverly tricked into
betraying the photo’s hiding place but instantly realized what she had done and followed Holmes
back to Baker Street to confirm her suspicions.

Since she is now married, sending the photograph to Clotilde would involve Irene and Godfrey in
the ensuing scandal so Irene plans to keep it as a souvenir.
 T e w a r i | 14

Holmes refuses a heavy emerald encrusted ring but accepts Irene’s photograph as payment for his
services – plus the remainder of the £1,000 the King advanced him for expenses.

The Red Headed League

Watson is not living at Baker Street.

Wilson’s pawn brokerage is struggling. Clay offers to work with him at half wages in order to
learn the business. He alerts Wilson to an opening in the Red-headed league which is a fictional
society, created by Clay and Ross, supposedly to provide assistance to red haired men. Ross also
has red hair.

Wilson is hired by Ross to sit in a specific office for 4 hours a day and copy the Encyclopedia
Britannica.

The real reason for founding the league is to get Wilson away from the pawn shop for 4 hours a
day in order that the criminals may dig a tunnel from its basement into the basement of a bank
located next door, where 30,000 gold French Napoleons are being stored.

When the tunnel is completed and Wilson’s absence from the shop is no longer required, the fake
league is dissolved and he is deprived of his extra income.

He contacts Holmes because he wants the money which the League paid him. Holmes solves the
mystery and catches the criminals as they emerge from their tunnel into the bank vault.

A Case of Identity

Watson is married and not living at Baker Street.

Mary lives with her mother and stepfather. She is a good typist and can type as many as 15 to 20
pages a day for which she receives 2d per sheet. She also has some New Zealand stock which she
inherited from her Uncle Ned which pays her 20 pounds a year. She thus has a very good income
but gives her money to her parents since she lives with them. Naturally, her step-father does not
 T e w a r i | 15

wish her to get married and leave home, taking her inheritance with her. She meets Hosmer at the
Gasfitter’s Ball and falls in love with him.

It is a very strange courtship. Hosmer only shows up when James is in France; he wears tinted
glasses and whiskers, he only walks out at dusk, all his letters to Mary reveal nothing about him
and all are typewritten – including his signature. He speaks in a whispered voice (he told Mary he
had quinsy as a child). He tells Mary he is a cashier in an office, but not where he works. He gets
his mail general delivery and Mary does not know his address. Even Lestrade could see that
Hosmer is James in disguise! He wants to keep Mary at home so he can enjoy her income. Hosmer
arranges to wed Mary and makes her promise that she will wait for him – no matter what happens.
He then disappears on the way to the altar. Mrs. Windibank, who was a part of the scheme, advises
Mary to come home and wait for Hosmer to reappear.

Holmes contacts James at his office by mail and asks him to drop by Baker Street. James writes
back to say he will come and Holmes can tell that both James’ letter of reply and Hosmer’s letters
were typed on the same machine.

Holmes threatens to beat Windebank severely because of his actions, although Windibank points
out that he has not committed a crime. Holmes decides not to tell Mary the truth because he feels
she will not believe him. He predicts that Windebank will rise higher in the annals of crime.

The Boscombe Valley Mystery

Watson is married and in practice. Anstruther covers for him.

In his youth, Turner went to Australia to search for gold. He became a highwayman. He was
known as “Black Jack of Ballarat.” He and his gang attacked a gold convoy and made off with
the gold, but all except three members of the gang were killed. McCarthey was a driver of one of
the convoy’s wagons. Turner could have killed him, but spared him.

Turner returned to England and bought a country estate. He married and had a daughter. His wife
died when Alice was just a small girl.
 T e w a r i | 16

McCarthey also returned to England. He married and had a son. His wife also died.

McCarthey found Turner and was blackmailing him. For years, Turner granted his every wish
until he asked that their children (who were now grown) be married. This was too much.

Turner arranged a meeting at the pool between him and McCarthy. As he was approaching the
pool, he made the call that he used in Australia of “Cooee.” He found the two McCartheys arguing.
Charles wanted his son to propose marriage to Alice, but John couldn’t because he was secretly
married to a barmaid in Bristol. After James left, Turner Killed McCarthey. Almost immediately,
he heard James returning and hid behind a tree. When James knelt beside his dying father, Turner
sneaked back into the clearing to retrieve his coat, and then he left.

Holmes comes on the scene and after carefully tracing the footsteps, declares, “It has been a case
of considerable interest.” He then proceeds to give a detailed description of the murderer to
Lestrade, however “that imbecile Lestrade” remained skeptical to the end. Holmes gives his
findings to James’ attorney which secures his release.

Holmes did not expose Turner, who died from his diabetes seven months after the murder.

When his barmaid-wife read in the paper that her “husband” was in jail for murder, she wrote him
a letter saying that she had previously married a Bristol dock-worker so their marriage was void.

At the conclusion of the story, Alice and James are courting.

The Adventure of the Five Orange Pips

About 1850, Elias Openshaw migrated to America and became a planter in Florida. He fought in
the American Civil War with Jackson and Hood (for the Confederacy). After the war, he became
deeply involved in the Ku Klux Klan but repented his activities. He returned to England in 1869
and brought back Clan records which implicated some very prominent Southerners. It is assumed
that he planned to use these papers to blackmail clan members (if they did not cease their nefarious
practices?).
 T e w a r i | 17

Although he lived as a recluse, he was found by the clansmen who sent him five orange pips as a
warning signal that he would be murdered if the papers were not returned. Instead of returning the
papers, he burned them. He was murdered anyway.

Joseph inherited Elias’ estate. He also got the orange pip warning and a demand to return the
papers, which were of course nonexistent. He ignored the warning and was also killed.

John inherited the estate and received the pips. He went to the police who laughed at him. His
father and uncles deaths had been cleverly disguised to look like accidents. He was referred to
Holmes.

Holmes instructed John to put the empty chest on the sundial, along with a single sheet which had
escaped the fire and a note saying all other papers had been burned. However, John was murdered
on his way home by being thrown off Waterloo Bridge.

Holmes was furious with himself. “That he should come to me for help and that I should send him
away to his death.” By examining the time lags between the arrival of the pips and the murders,
he deduced the men were traveling by sailing ship. He then pored over Lloyd’s records and found
that only the Lonestar of Savannah fit the bill. That very day the Lonestar had left to return to
America. Holmes wired the Savannah police that Captain Calhoun and his mates were wanted in
London for murder and sent five orange pips to Calhoun. “They will be waiting for him when he
arrives.”

However, the Lonestar was lost at sea, presumably with all hands.

The Man with the Twisted Lip

Watson is married and in practice.

As the story opens, Kate comes to the Watsons’ house and asks the Doctor to fetch her husband
from an opium den, the “Bar of Gold.” Watson does so and finds Holmes there in disguise, looking
for clues in a case he is working on. Watson puts Isa in a cab and accompanies Holmes.
 T e w a r i | 18

St. Clair was an actor, turned reporter. While doing an article on begging for his paper, he realized
that a comfortable living could be made thereby. With his gifts for makeup as well as his skill at
repartee, he was a very successful beggar.

Soon he gave up his reporter’s job, and subsequently bought a very comfortable home in the
country. Eventually he married and had two children. No one knew of his alter ego, who was
known as Hugh Boone, except a lascar who kept a boarding house where he changed costumes.

All was going well until his wife came by accidentally and caught him at his room. He had his
make-up on and was arrested on suspicion and charged with St. Clair’s murder. He did not reveal
his true identity because he did not want to scandalize his wife and children.

He managed to send a letter to his wife (via the lascar), but it was several days before the lascar
could mail it because he was watched so closely by the police. St. Clair enclosed his ring in the
letter and told his wife that all would be well.

Holmes solves the mystery, goes to the jail, washes off Boone’s makeup, revealing St. Clair and
since no crime had been committed, he was freed.

After making him promise to stop begging, Holmes agrees to prevent public disclosure of his
situation, thus avoiding a scandal.

The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

Watson is married. He stops in to see Holmes two days after Christmas and finds him examining
a felt hat which was given to him by Peterson.

Late Christmas Eve, Peterson was walking home. He saw Baker approaching from the opposite
direction carrying a goose. Baker was assaulted by a band of ruffians and in defending himself
with his walking stick, broke a large shop window. This frightened both Baker and the thugs who
fled. Peterson retrieved Baker’s goose and hat and brought them to Holmes. Holmes kept the hat
to examine it and Peterson took the goose home to cook it.
 T e w a r i | 19

When Peterson’s wife was dressing the goose, she found the blue carbuncle in its crop. Peterson
brought the stone to Holmes. Holmes traced the stone from Baker to Windigate to Breckenridge
to Oakshot and discovered the following plot.

Cusack told Ryder about the stone. Ryder arranged to have Homer come and fix a minor problem
in the Countess’ room. After he left, Ryder took the stone and went to visit his sister. Ryder was
sure that Homer would be charged with the theft because of his past record. He forced the stone
down a goose to avoid being discovered in possession of it, but then retrieved the wrong goose
from the flock and so the stone and goose went to market.

After confessing, Ryder was allowed to go free by Holmes and the stone was returned to the
countess. Holmes forgave Ryder in the spirit of the season and because he was convinced Ryder
would not go wrong again.

The Adventure of the Speckled Band

Dr. Roylott practiced medicine in India where he met and married the widow of Major General
Stoner. Roylott had a violent temper and beat a servant to death. This forced his return to England
and to Stoke Moran, his ancestral home. The estate was mortgaged to the hilt and the doctor was
broke. His wife had an inheritance from her first husband which allowed the family to live
comfortably.

Mrs. Stoner/Roylott was killed in a train accident but under her will, Dr. Roylott continued to
receive the inheritance as long as the girls lived with him. Roylott’s violent temper alienated the
entire village and the girls lived in almost complete isolation except for occasional brief visits to
Mrs. Westphail. On one of these visits Julia met and became engaged to an army officer. Shortly
thereafter she died quite suddenly and unexpectedly during the night. She said something about a
“speckled band” to Helen as she expired.

Helen became engaged to an old suitor and Dr. Roylott asked her to occupy Julia’s old room.
Helen heard a low whistle during the night and Julia had heard the same thing for several nights
before her death. Helen consulted Holmes.
 T e w a r i | 20

The “speckled band” was a swamp adder which Roylott introduced into the bedroom from an
adjacent chamber via a ventilator and a fake bell rope. Holmes visits the rooms and waits during
the night. When he hears noises, he beats the bell rope with the adder on it. The injured and
enraged adder retreats into Roylott’s room, bites and kills him.

The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb

Watson is married and in practice.

Hatherly is a bachelor who lives alone and has few friends. He is a struggling hydraulic engineer.
He is approached by Stark to examine and diagnose a defective hydraulic press. Stark insists upon
absolute secrecy and acts so suspiciously that anybody could see he is up to no good. He is using
the press to produce counterfeit coins.

He has Hatherly come to Eyford late at night but pays him ten times the usual fee for his
inconvenience. The press is located in an old mansion. Elsie begs Hatherly to leave but he refuses.
After diagnosing the problem with the press and telling the counterfeiters how to fix it, the crooks
try to crush Hatherly in the large press but Elsie saves him at the last moment and takes him to a
second story window and tells him to jump. While he is hanging by his hands, Stark whacks off
his thumb with a cleaver. Hatherly falls, faints and regains consciousness in the corner of the
garden. He takes the train to London and the guard takes him to Watson who dresses his wound
and takes him to Holmes who consults with Bradstreet.

When the party arrives at Eyford they find that a lamp which was crushed in the press when the
crooks tried to kill Hatherly has set the mansion on fire and it burns completely. The counterfeiters
escape and were never apprehended. By examining the foot prints in the garden, Holmes
determines that Becher and Elsie dragged Hatherly to safety before they left. Holmes consoles
Hatherly that though he may have lost his thumb and his fee, he has gained a story which “will
make him good company for the rest of his existence.”
 T e w a r i | 21

The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor

Watson is living at Baker Street, but is due to be married in a few weeks.

Aloysius struck it rich in the California gold fields. Hattie and Frank were in love. They secretly
married and he went away to seek his fortune. He did not return and after several years, Hattie
read in a newspaper that he had been killed in an Apache raid on a gold camp.

Hattie’s father took her to London for the season where she became reacquainted with St. Simon
whom she had met on one of his visits to California. They subsequently became engaged and
married.

Immediately after the wedding and before the marriage was consummated, Frank showed up and
Hattie and he ran away together, leaving St. Simon and the rest of the wedding party at breakfast.

Holmes finds the run-away couple and they come back and apologize to St. Simon who is very
disappointed because he is broke and could well have used the large dowry that Hattie was to bring
to their marriage.

The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet

A very prominent nobleman (unnamed) borrows £50,000 from Alexander and posts the coronet as
security. He does not actually own the coronet, which is part of the crown jewels, but only needs
the money for four days. Alexander is afraid to leave the coronet at the bank, so he brings it home
and puts it in his bureau. He awakens during the night to see Arthur wrenching at it. Upon
examining the coronet, it is found to be bent and three of the beryls are missing. He assumes Arthur
took the missing piece, but he was really trying to straighten it.

Mary took the coronet and handed it through the window to her lover, Burnwell. Arthur, who was
spying on Mary, chased him and got the coronet back from him but during their struggle, Burnwell
broke off a corner with the three beryls and kept it.
 T e w a r i | 22

Holmes solves the case by tracking the bad guys through the fresh snow. Holmes then buys back
the missing stones from the fence to whom Burnwell had passed them. Mary elopes with Sir
George, presumably to suffer “the fate worse than death.”

Lucy and Francis create a red herring.

The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

Violet has lost her position with Col. Munro and has applied to Westways for a position. There
she meets Ruecastle who offers her over twice what she was earning before. However he tells her
that he wants her to have her hair cut short and that he might require her to wear a blue dress of
which he is very fond, but will not require her to do anything unbecoming a lady. Violet smells a
rat and she doesn’t want to cut off her hair so she hesitates. Mrs. Stoper tells her this is the
opportunity of a lifetime. Violet has no living relations so she asks Holmes what to do. She has
already decided to do it. Holmes says, “It is not a position I should want a sister of mine to accept.”
He promises to come and help her if she sends him a telegram.

She wires two weeks later and has Holmes and Watson meet her at the Black Swan Hotel in
Manchester. She tells Holmes that the Ruecastles have on several occasions required her to wear
the blue dress and to sit prominently in a bay window with her back to it. There she is amused to
laughter and reads to them. She conceals a piece of mirror in her hanky and sees a bearded man
standing in the road. She is asked to stand and face him and to then motion for him to go away.
She does so and Mrs. Ruecastle quickly pulls down the blind.

One wing of the house is locked off from the rest. Toller has a key to this area. One day, when in
his cups, he leaves the door open. Violet explores and finds a locked room with someone inside.
Ruecastle catches her in the wing and tells her that if he finds her there again, he will throw her to
Carlo. Violet wires Holmes at this point.

In the train, Holmes tells Watson that he has formed “seven separate explanations of the facts as
they are known.” It is obvious that Violet has been hired to impersonate someone who is being
held prisoner in the room. The Ruecastles are going out for the evening. Mr. Toller is on a drinking
 T e w a r i | 23

binge. This means that he will not let Carlo out of his pen. Violet says that she will send Mrs.
Toller into the cellar on an errand and lock her in. Then they will be able to free the prisoner.

They break into the secret room only to find it empty, the occupant having escaped via a skylight
onto the roof and a light ladder to the ground. At this point, Ruecastle returns and Holmes accuses
him of kidnapping. Ruecastle accuses him of the same thing and goes to release the dog. Holmes
locks the exterior doors and after Ruecastle releases Carlo, the dog turns on him. Watson blows
the dog’s brains out and carries Ruecastle to the sofa. Violet lets Mrs. Toller out of the cellar and
she tells them that Fowler bribed her to put the ladder up and that he and Alice made a get-away.
She said Rucastle wanted Alice to sign her inheritance over to him, but she refused.

The case being solved, Holmes loses all interest in Violet, much to Watson’s disappointment.
Ruecastle survived, but was a broken man. The Tollers remained in his employ. Alice and Fowler
were married and he accepted a government appointment on the island of Mauritius. Violet became
manager of a successful private school at Walsall. We are not told what became of young Edward.
 T e w a r i | 24

The Memoirs of Sherlock Homes

Silver Blaze

John Straker had a mistress in London with expensive tastes. Consequently he was head over heels
in debt. Silver Blaze was the favorite in an upcoming race.

Silver blaze disappeared and Straker was found on the moor with his skull crushed and a cataract
knife in his hand.

Holmes solved the case. Straker planned to nick Silver Blaze’s tendon with the cataract knife
thereby slowing him enough to make him lose the race but not enough that he would be withdrawn.
He then planned to bet against him and win enough to pay off his debts. He put powdered opium
in Ned’s curried mutton (the curry masked the taste) and when all was quiet led Silver Blaze onto
the moor to do the nicking. The horse however, kicked him in the head, killing him. As he fell, he
cut his thigh with the cataract knife.

Silver Blaze wandered across the moor and was found early next morning by Silas Brown who
recognized him and dyed the identifying blaze and foreleg to conceal his identity. Holmes saw
through his scheme and forced Silas to care for the horse until race time and produce him.

Brown kept his part of the bargain. Silver Blaze won the race and Holmes protected Silas from
legal prosecution.

The Adventure of the Yellow Face

Holmes and Watson are sharing quarters at Baker St. Holmes still uses cocaine occasionally. A
page is on duty.

Effie immigrated to Atlanta and married John Hebron, a black lawyer. They had Lucy. Soon after
Lucy’s birth, John died in a yellow fever epidemic. Effie returned to England and left Lucy in the
charge of a Scotch nurse who was a former servant.
 T e w a r i | 25

Effie met and married Jack. She sent for Lucy and the nurse but was ashamed to tell Jack that her
daughter was a mulatto. Therefore she kept her existence a secret from him and forced Lucy to
completely cover herself, including wearing a mask, to hide her Negroid features.

Jack consulted Holmes because of the peculiar changes in Effie’s behavior caused by her
concealing of Lucy and the Nurse.

Jack forced a disclosure and accepted Lucy as his daughter. Holmes did nothing. No crime was
committed.

The Stock Broker’s Clerk

Watson is married to Mary Morstan and in practice.

Hall Pycroft has obtained a position with a large securities firm. He was hired by mail so that his
employers knew his handwriting but not his face.

In the interval between his acceptance and his going to work for the first time, Arthur Pinner
contacts him, posing as an agent for a large European company and offering him another position
which pays a fantastic salary. Pycroft accepts this second position.

Pinner says his brother will meet him at their new offices. Their offices are barely furnished.
Pycroft notices that both Pinners have the same badly filled gold tooth and therefore are the same
man. He consults Holmes. Holmes recommends that he and Watson meet Pinner. They do so
and Pinner attempts suicide but Watson saves him.

Pinner was in partnership with Beddington who impersonated Pycroft at his job, made casts of the
locks and had duplicate keys made. He robbed the firm of a large amount of securities, killing a
watchman in the process, but as he was leaving was confronted and arrested by Tuson and Pollock.

On his way to meet Pycroft, Pinner buys a newspaper in which he reads of Beddington’s capture
and therefore tries to take his own life.
 T e w a r i | 26

The Gloria Scott

In his youth, Armitage, who was a bank employee, embezzled money to pay a debt of honor and
was detected before he could replace it. He was convicted and sentenced to penal servitude in
Australia. He was being transported there on the bark, Gloria Scott. The prisoner on one side of
him was Evans, a forger, and on the other side Jack Prendergast, who had defrauded a group of
rich merchants out of £750,000 – and had not surrendered it.

Prendergast’s partner, Wilson, had obtained the position of ship’s parson and had bribed the
crewmen. Wilson also supplied the convicts with pistols, powder and files (for their irons).

A mutiny was successful. After it was over, a disagreement arose about what to do about the
surviving crewmen. Prendergast wanted to kill them all to completely cover their tracks but some
of the mutineers, including Armitage and Evans refused to go along with this, not wanting murder
on their conscience. Prendergast allowed the dissenting mutineers to be set adrift in an open boat
before proceeding with the slaughter of the soldiers and crewmen.

Shortly after they were adrift, the Gloria Scott exploded. The dissenters rowed back to check for
survivors and only found one, Hudson, whom they took onto their boat. They were soon picked
up by the Hotspur, bound for Australia and they posed as flotsam from a passenger ship. The
Admiralty considered the Gloria Scott lost at sea.

Once in Australia, they changed their names, went to the gold fields, became wealthy and returned
to England where they lived quiet lives in the country for almost 30 years until Hudson showed up
at Trevor’s and began to blackmail him. He then went to do the same thing to Beddoes who would
have none of it, so Hudson told the police.

When he learned that Hudson had told all, Senior Trevor had a stroke and died.

Victor became a tea planter in Terai and prospered. Neither Beddoes nor Hudson was ever seen
again and Holmes concluded that Beddoes had killed Hudson and fled the country with all the
money he could get his hands on.
 T e w a r i | 27

The Musgrave Ritual

The “Musgrave Ritual” is a cryptic catechism of questions and answers which has been in the
family for many generations ― so many that the original meaning has been lost – all male
Musgraves must learn it as a rite of passage into manhood.

Musgrave finds Brunton poring over the ritual and related family documents late at night. He fires
Brunton on the spot, but after much pleading on Brunton’s part, allows him to remain for one
week. Two days later, Brunton vanishes late at night.

Two days after Brunton’s disappearance, Rachael (who has been distraught since her break-up
with Brunton) also disappears. Her tracks lead into the mere. The mere is dragged and although
no body is found, a linen parcel containing a number of blackened metal plates and pebbles is
found.

Musgrave knew Holmes at school and asks him for his advice.

Holmes deduces that the ritual is a guide to a treasure buried on the estate long ago by noble
ancestors and that this treasure is the contents of the linen parcel. He finds Brunton’s body in a
small subterranean vault, bent over an ancient chest. The chest is empty.

He proves that Rachael was taken into Brunton’s confidence so she could help him raise the large,
heavy flagstone “lid” which served as an entrance to the secret vault. Whether she closed the lid
intentionally to get revenge on her former lover or whether it closed accidentally and she was
unable to reopen it remains unresolved as she was never found.

We also never learn why the treasure was not returned to Charles I after he regained the throne.

The Reigate Puzzle

Holmes has just completed a case in Europe and is physically and emotionally exhausted. He and
Watson visit Col. Hayter at his country estate for a rest. Just prior to their visit, the home of Acton
has been burglarized of a hodge-podge of items.
 T e w a r i | 28

Shortly after Holmes’ arrival, the coachman of another of Hayter’s neighbors, the Cunninghams,
is murdered. Forrester calls upon Hayter and asks for Holmes’ help in solving same.

A fragment of a note was found clutched in Kirwin’s hand.

With this small fragment of paper as a basis, Holmes solves the case. The note is reproduced
below. The fragment upon which Holmes based his deductions is the outlined upper right corner.

Acton had a valid claim against a large portion of Cunningham’s estate. The Cunninghams
burglarized his house looking for the claim but did not find it. They took a bunch of junk to hide
the real motive for the burglary. Kirwin saw them do it and was blackmailing them so they killed
him, hoping to blame his murder on the “burglars” who were terrorizing the countryside.

The fate of the Cunninghams is unknown but they are apprehended and Holmes is fully rested and
returns to his active life in London.

The Crooked Man

Watson has been married only a few months. Holmes drops by at midnight and asks him to come
along in the morning and serve as a witness when he questions a very important suspect.

The Munsters were at the Indian rebellion. They were trapped in a fort, along with their women
and children. Both James and Henry were in love with Nancy. Nancy loved Henry, but her father
wanted her to marry James because he was more ambitious.

James sent Henry to sneak through enemy lines and bring help, but he also tipped off the enemy
that Henry was coming. Henry was captured. This eliminated James’ rival.

The Munsters were relieved and Henry was presumed dead. James married Nancy and rose through
the ranks to become commanding officer of the regiment. Almost 30 years passed.

Henry was not dead, but was enslaved and tortured so severely that he was permanently deformed.
He eventually escaped and made his way via Nepal, Afghanistan and the Punjab back to England.
He brought Teddy and a defanged cobra with him and earned a living as a conjurer in pubs, using
 T e w a r i | 29

Teddy and the cobra as a finish. He came upon Nancy who was on her way home from a church
mission meeting and told her of James’ treachery. He then decided that he should follow her home,
in case James became violent.

Nancy confronted James. Henry looked through the window and saw them arguing. He entered
the room through a French door. At the sight of him, James had a stroke and fell dead. As he fell,
he hit his head on the hearth, producing an ugly wound. Teddy got loose during the excitement.
Henry caught him and left because he felt it would look bad for him should he be caught. Nancy
collapsed with “brain fever.”

Because of James’ head injury, Nancy was accused of murdering her husband. Murphy called
Holmes in. Holmes solved the case and located Henry, but said nothing of Henry’s connection
with the case because an autopsy revealed apoplexy and not violence was the cause of death so
Nancy was released.

We are not told anything about the future of Nancy and/or Henry.

The Resident Patient

The gang robbed the Worthingdon bank. Tobin was shot and killed during the robbery. All five
were captured. Sutton informed on the rest and got a much shorter sentence. Cartwright (the
triggerman) was executed.

After his release from prison, Sutton, wishing to hide from the gang, set Trevelyan up in a nice
office for a share of the proceeds and the two lived in separate apartments over the office.

After the gang was released, they traced Sutton. Twice they attempted to get to him. On both
occasions one posed as a patient – a Russian nobleman – and the other his caretaker/translator.
Naturally Sutton, who knew the gang had been released, was living in absolute terror at this time,
so Trevelyan consulted Holmes. Holmes asked Sutton who it was that was stalking him and Sutton
claimed ignorance of everything so Holmes left in disgust.

Early next morning Holmes was summoned by Trevelyan. Sutton had hanged himself.
 T e w a r i | 30

Holmes visited the crime scene and proved that Sutton had been executed by the gang and that the
page had been bribed to assist them.

None of the gang was ever caught. They were presumed lost at sea on the Norah Creina. The
page was released for lack of evidence.

The Greek Interpreter

Sophy is on an extended visit with friends in London. She met Lattimer who “gained an
ascendancy over her” and convinced her to elope with him. She wrote to Paul of her plans and he
came to London to stop the wedding. Lattimer and Kemp captured Paul and tried to get him to
sign over his and Sophy’s considerable estate to them. He refused to do so.

The conspirators kidnapped Meles to better communicate with Paul and further coerce him into
signing away his fortune. After he had interrogated Paul, they turned Meles loose. He
communicated the matter to Mycroft (his neighbor) who relayed the matter to Sherlock and
Watson. Mycroft placed an ad in the Times offering a reward to anyone who supplied information
as to the whereabouts of Paul Kratides.

Davenport answered the ad and the house was known. Holmes, Watson, Mycroft and Inspector
Gregson went there to rescue the Kratides and punish their captors. They arrived to find Paul and
Meles (whom the conspirators had re-kidnapped) in a room which was shut tightly and in which a
charcoal brazier was lit, and generating noxious fumes, consuming the Oxygen and emitting
Carbon Monoxide. Paul died. Meles recovered.

Lattimer and Kemp escaped, taking Sophy with them. Several months later a report appeared in
the Times from Budapest that two Englishmen traveling with a Greek lady had argued, fought and
stabbed each other fatally. Holmes was sure that Sophy had murdered them and staged the whole
thing.
 T e w a r i | 31

The Naval Treaty

Watson is married and in practice. He receives a letter from Phelps asking him to bring Holmes
to his home to solve the theft of the Naval Treaty.

Phelps was instructed to copy the Treaty by Holdhurst. This was an involved document written in
French. It took several hours to copy it. During the copying, Phelps took a coffee break. When
he came back, the treaty was gone. After a frantic and futile search, Percy had a sudden attack of
brain fever and was put immediately to bed in the room Joseph had been occupying, as it was the
most convenient.

Percy is insensate for nine weeks, during which time the treaty is not found, but no government
has claimed possession of it and there have been no repercussions. Percy writes Watson as soon
as he is again in possession of his faculties.

Holmes solves the case. Joseph came to meet Percy the night of the theft. He arrived via the side
door (see diagram) while Percy was taking his break with the commissionaire. Seeing the treaty
and realizing it was valuable, he took it (he had lost heavily in the market) and went home. He hid
the treaty beneath the carpet in an access box. Phelps was brought in shortly thereafter and
displaced Joseph from his room.

Joseph could not retrieve the treaty because either a nurse or Annie was in constant attendance of
Percy.

Holmes sends Percy to London in Watson’s care and lies in wait for Joseph who is caught red
handed when he tries to retrieve the treaty.

Since no harm was done and the treaty recovered, Holmes allows the thief to go unpunished.
 T e w a r i | 32

The Final Problem

Watson is married and is in practice. Holmes sneaks into his waiting room and closes the shutters
because he is afraid of air guns. He tells Watson all about Moriarty and of his “treatise on the
binomial theorem which had a European vogue.”

Holmes says that Moriarty is trying to kill him and that in three days he will be able to put the
whole gang in jail. He invites Watson to go to Europe with him and

Watson does so, leaving his practice to “an accommodating neighbor.”

Moriarty tries to kill Holmes by: running him down with a wagon, dropping a brick on him,
attacking him with a bludgeon, burning his rooms.

Following Holmes’ instructions, Watson makes a circuitous route to Victoria station, riding in a
brougham driven by Mycroft in disguise. They also take a sneaky route to Europe and are devious
in their travel plans to throw any pursuers off their path.

Eventually Moriarty overtakes them at the Reichenbach Falls and the two men (Holmes and
Moriarty that is) fall to their death, ending the career – as Watson says – “of the best and wisest
man whom I have ever known.”
 T e w a r i | 33

The Return of Sherlock Holmes

The Adventure of the Empty House

Watson is in practice and is a widower. Holmes has been presumed dead for 3 years, since the
Reichenbach falls. Holmes reappears and tells Watson what really happened at the falls and of his
adventures since.

Parker has seen Holmes enter Baker Street, which has been preserved for Holmes by Mycroft
during Holmes’ absence.

Holmes and Watson wait in an empty house (Camden house) across the street from 221B. In the
window of 221B is a silhouette of Holmes against the blind. It is really the mannequin which Mrs.
Hudson moves at intervals. Moran arrives and shoots the mannequin with the air rifle. He is
captured by Lestrade (Holmes told Lestrade to be on hand) and charged with the murder of Adair.

Moran and Adair played as partners at whist. Moran was cheating and Adair had just figured it
out. Moran killed him to avoid exposure.

As the story ends, Moran is awaiting trial, the air gun is in the Scotland Yard museum and Holmes
is free to resume his practice.

The Adventure of the Norwood Builder

Holmes has been back for several months. Watson is again living at Baker St. Nothing is said
about the whereabouts of Mrs. Watson (deceased?).

McFarlane is a solicitor. He is a bachelor and lives with his parents. Oldacre appears in his office
one day and asks him to draw up a will for him. Oldacre has made MacFarlane his sole heir
although the two have never met. MacFarlane recalls that his parents once knew him but have not
seen him for many years.
 T e w a r i | 34

Oldacre asks McFarlane to come to his house that night to go over some deeds etc. He explains
that he has remained a bachelor and has no other heirs. McFarlane goes to Deep Dene as requested.

The next morning McFarlane reads in the paper that Oldacre was murdered during the night and
his body burned in a pile of lumber in the back yard. He is the prime suspect. MacFarlane rushes
to Holmes for help.

When a bloody thumbprint of MacFarlane’s appears on a wall that Holmes knows for sure was
blank the day before, he solves the case: the murder was staged to free Oldacre from his creditors.
MacFarlane was made the patsy because Oldacre never forgave his mother for jilting him.

Oldacre is hiding in a small secret room which he has built within Deep Dene. Holmes literally
“smokes him out” by faking a house fire.

The Adventure of the Dancing Men

Abe Slaney and Elsie Patrick were raised together in Chicago. They intended to be married, but
Elsie realized that Abe was a crook and she refused. He hounded her so much that she sneaked
away to England, where she met, fell in love with and Married Hilton – all within a month. Elsie
told Hilton that she had done nothing wrong, but that he should not ask her anything about her
past. He promised he would not.

All went well with the Cubitts for about a year, at which time messages written in a cipher
consisting of stick-men in various positions began to appear in the yard.

Hilton consulted Holmes who told him to go home and await developments.

Abe had followed Elsie to England and tracked her down. It was he who was leaving the cypher
messages. Elsie refused to forsake Hilton for Abe but promised to talk with him. In the middle of
the night, Elsie was talking with Abe through the open drawing-room window. Hilton came upon
them and Abe shot and killed Hilton. Almost simultaneously, Hilton shot at Abe too, but his aim
was poor and the bullet struck the sash. Elsie, realizing that Hilton was dead, locked the window
and shot herself in the head.
 T e w a r i | 35

Holmes figured it all out and settled things. Abe got life imprisonment. Elsie recovered
completely and devoted the remainder of her life to helping the poor and managing Ridingthorpe
manor.

The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist

Ralph Smith went to South Africa and amassed a large fortune in the gold fields. He became
gravely ill and only had a few months to live. Violet and her mother were his only living relatives
and would inherit his fortune.

Woodley and Carruthers met Smith and upon finding he would soon be dead, decided to come to
England with the intention that one of them would marry Violet and both would share her
inheritance.

They came to England where they meet Williamson, who had leased Chiltern Grange, and took
him into their confidence. They contacted Violet and hired her as an instructor for Carruther’s
daughter.

Violet stayed at Chiltern Grange and cycled to the train station on weekends to go visit her mother.

Violet was engaged and would have nothing to do, romantically, with any of the villains.
Williamson forged a marriage license and forced – at gunpoint – Violet to marry Woodley.

Carruthers, who was a widow, had fallen in love with Violet. He followed Violet (in disguise) on
her weekly trips to the train station in order to prevent Woodley from harming her. He helped
Holmes foil the plot, but not before Carruthers shot Woodley.

Woodley survived and Watson thought Carruthers got a very light sentence. Violet’s marriage to
Woodley was of course invalid and she married Cyril and inherited her uncle’s large fortune.
 T e w a r i | 36

The Adventure of the Priory School

The Duke loved a woman in his youth who refused to marry him “for noble reasons.” They had
an illegitimate son, James. The lady died. The Duke kept James at his side and eventually married
and had a second son, Arthur. Since James was illegitimate, he was ineligible to inherit the
dukedom so Arthur became the Duke’s heir.

James resented Arthur (Saltire) and his presence in the household placed such a severe strain upon
the duke’s marriage that he and the duchess separated. When the story begins, the duchess is living
in France. Although Arthur would have preferred to be with his mother, he had no say in the
matter.

Because of the intense animosity James had for Arthur, the duke sent the boy to the Priory School
for his own safety.

James became friends with Reuben Hayes, proprietor of the Game Cock Inn. Hayes had at one
time been a coachman for the Duke but was sacked. James plotted with Hayes to kidnap Arthur
and hold him until the Duke made James his legal heir.

James inserted a note into a letter the Duke had written to Arthur at the Priory School. The note
purported to be from his mother and told him to meet Hayes in the woods near the school that
night and Hayes would take Arthur to her.

As Arthur was leaving via his room window, he was seen by Heidegger who followed him on his
bicycle. Heidegger overtook Arthur and Hayes, and was murdered by Hayes who then continued
on to the Game cock Inn where he kept Arthur confined.

After following bicycle tracks and animal tracks, Holmes unravels the matter. Hayes is
apprehended, the Duke and his wife are reunited, Saltire returns to school and James goes to
Australia to seek his fortune.
 T e w a r i | 37

Black Peter

The senior Neligan was a principal partner in a bank which was in deep financial trouble. In an
honest effort to save the bank and its investors, he set off in his light yacht for Norway to invest
them there. In the stormy September gales of the North Sea, his light boat floundered and he was
the sole survivor. He managed to retain the securities in a tin box.

Neligan was picked up by the Sea Unicorn which was returning from a whaling expedition in the
Arctic. Carey, the captain of The Sea Unicorn, murdered Neligan for the securities and the murder
was witnessed by Cairns.

Cairns found Carey years later and attempted to blackmail him in exchange for the securities. A
fight ensued and Cairns pinned Carey to the wall of his cabin with a harpoon.

A few months prior to his murder, Carey sold some of the securities. Neligan, Jr., who had kept a
close watch on the market since his father’s disappearance, discovered that some of the securities
had been sold and traced Carey as the seller. He tracked Carey down. When he arrived on the
scene, Carey had just been murdered.

Neligan, Jr. returned later to obtain the securities and was captured by Holmes and Hopkins. He
was charged with Carey’s murder. He was a gracile young man who was totally incapable of
impaling another human with a harpoon.

Holmes solves the crime and captures Cairns who confesses but claims self-defense.

Young Neligan is released and the unsold securities returned to him. Cairns fate is unknown but
it is inferred that his claim of self-defense was legitimate.

Holmes and Watson plan to leave soon on a tour of Norway.

The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton

Holmes has been retained by Eva to make the best terms he can with Milverton to purchase some
“imprudent” letters she wrote to a country squire some time ago. The sum is far too high for the
 T e w a r i | 38

lady to raise and she is threatened with exposure. Holmes disguises himself as Escott, a plumber,
and becomes engaged to Milverton’s maid. He explains to Watson that he has a rival who will
relieve Agatha’s heartache after he (Holmes) disappears.

Armed with knowledge of the premises provided by Agatha, Holmes and Watson break into
Milverton’s house and have just cracked his safe when they hear someone coming. They hide
behind the drapes and witness Milverton’s murder by an anonymous noble woman; she shoots him
repeatedly with a small caliber revolver. She makes a speedy escape. Holmes dumps the contents
of Milverton’s safe into the fire and he and Watson escape over the wall and across the heath.

The next day, Lestrade visits Holmes and asks him to help solve Milverton’s murder, but Holmes
says he thinks Milverton got what he deserved and refuses.

Holmes shows Watson a picture of the noblewoman and her late husband in a photographer’s
window and Watson is amazed to discover the high position she holds.

The Adventure of the Six Napoleons

Lestrade consults Holmes about a series of petty burglaries in which someone is stealing and
breaking cheap busts of Napoleon. Watson observes, “There are no limits to the possibilities of
monomania.” Then, one of the thefts is accompanied by a murder.

Through a complex series of inquiries, Holmes deduces the chain of events: Beppo learned of the
pearl from Pietro who in turn had learned of it from his sister. Beppo stole it and still had it in his
possession two days later when he stabbed a fellow worker just outside Gelder & Co. The police
were hot on his heels for the stabbing, so he hid the pearl in a newly poured plaster bust of
Napoleon which had not yet solidified.

Beppo was sentenced to a year in jail (his victim lived) and when he got out, the busts had been
sold. He began tracking them down and cracking them open, looking for the pearl. Pietro caught
him in the act of committing one of the burglaries (of Horace Harker) and was murdered by Beppo.
Holmes and Lestrade lay in wait for him at Brown’s house and capture him.
 T e w a r i | 39

Since the other five busts had been opened and found empty, the sixth, owned by Mr. Sandeford,
must contain the pearl. Holmes paid him 10 pounds for it and recovered the pearl, which he kept
– he had Watson put it in the safe.

The Adventure of the Three Students

Holmes is doing research in English charters at a “University town.” Watson is intentionally vague
as to which town to avoid any possibility of scandal.

Soames comes in and begs him to aid in solving a mystery: someone has copied part of an
examination for the Fortescue scholarship. It was obviously one of the three students who occupy
the same building as Soames. Holmes solves the mystery.

Gilchrist was the guilty party. Bannister had known young Gilchrist since infancy (he battled for
Jabez prior to Jabez’ downfall) and tried to shield him.

Young Gilchrist had already written a letter to Soames, withdrawing from the examination. He
leaves immediately to accept a commission with the Rhodesian police.

The Adventure of the Golden Pince Nez

One “dark and stormy night,” Stanley Hopkins knocks on the door of 221B. He is investigating a
murder which occurred at an isolated country estate (Yoxley Old Place).

Willoby Smith was found in the library by Susan Tarlton. He was dying. He had been stabbed in
the neck with a sealing wax knife. He muttered “The professor – it was she…” just before he died.
Clutched in his hand was a pair of golden pince nez with the broken end of a black cord attached.
Obviously the glasses belonged to the murderer.

With this as the set-up, the following plot unfolds:

About 30 years previously, the professor was a Russian revolutionary. He had been captured, but
informed on his fellow dissenters and was freed. When he left Russia, he took with him letters
and papers which would prove the innocence of Alexis. Anna was released, but Alexis remained
 T e w a r i | 40

a prisoner. She came looking for Coram to get the papers which would free Alexis. She was
taking them in the library when Willoby Smith grabbed her. She struck at him with the first thing
she could lay her hands on – a sealing-wax knife – with the intent to make him loose his hold.
Unfortunately, the blow was fatal, severing his carotid artery. Realizing that she had killed
Willoby, she attempted to flee the house, but without the aid of her spectacles, took a wrong turn
and ended up in Coram’s bed room (see diagram). Coram hid her in a secret closet. Holmes figured
everything out and tricked Anna into exposing herself.

Anna poisoned herself and died. Stanley Hopkins went to the Yard to make his report – we all
know that Holmes’ name will not be mentioned. Holmes and Watson left to take the papers to the
Russian embassy. Nothing is said of what became of Coram, but he was near death anyway ―
No wonder after smoking 70+ cigarettes a day.

The Adventure of the Missing Three Quarter

Staunton is a rugby player for Cambridge with an international reputation. He disappears a few
days before a key game with Oxford. Overton contacts Holmes to find him.

Staunton is secretly married and both he and his wife are friends of Dr. Armstrong. The marriage
has been kept a secret because of Lord Mount-James who is an extremely wealthy miser. Godfrey
is Mount-James sole heir but he would certainly disinherit Godfrey if he learned of the marriage.

Shortly after their marriage, Mrs. Staunton was stricken with an extremely virulent form of
consumption (tuberculosis) and is on her death bed. It is to be with her in her final moments that
Godfrey has disappeared.

As the story ends, Godfrey’s wife has just passed away. We are not told if he returned to play the
game or not. Holmes promises Armstrong that he will not reveal the secret marriage.

The Adventure of the Abby Grange

Watson is living at Baker Street. Holmes awakens him in the middle of the night because he has
just received a wire from Stanley Hopkins asking him to come to Abbey Grange at once.
 T e w a r i | 41

Crocker is captain of a passenger ship traveling between England and Australia. He met Mary
when she was coming to England aboard his vessel and fell in love with her. Although Mary was
very fond of Crocker there was no agreement between them.

During the time Crocker returned to Australia and back again to England, Mary and Eustace were
married. Eustace was a brutal drunkard who abused his wife severely.

Crocker had a lay-over of several weeks. Although he knew Mary was married, he traveled
to the vicinity of Abbey Grange, hoping to meet her. First he met Theresa who told him of Mary’s
unfortunate status, and then he met with Mary. After a second rendezvous, Mary refused to meet
with him again.

That night Crocker peeped into Mary’s living room window and found her alone. He pecked on
the glass and Mary admitted him. While they were conversing, Eustace came upon them. He loudly
and profanely accused Mary of infidelity and struck her viciously with his cane. Crocker grabbed
a poker, the two men fought and Eustace was killed.

With the aid of Theresa, they make it look as though the Randalls had broken into the house, beat
up Mary, tied her to a chair, stole a bunch of silver plate, were surprised by Eustace, whom they
killed and then left. After their story was arranged, Crocker left because his presence would have
been difficult to explain.

Mary feigns unconsciousness and Hopkins, being confused by the crime scene, summons Holmes.
By the time Holmes arrives, Mary has regained (?) her senses and told the concocted story outlined
above.

Initially Holmes believes the story but as he examines the scene, his doubts multiply. He returned
to Baker Street but immediately returned to the grange and asked Mary if she wanted to change
her story. She refused.

Holmes tracks down Jack and he confesses all. Holmes does not turn them in for he feels Eustace
got his just desserts. He tells Jack that unless the law charges an innocent man with the crime, he
will do nothing.
 T e w a r i | 42

The Randalls were arrested in New York the day after the affair at the grange so they could not
have been guilty. Hopkins is left with an unsolved case.

Holmes suggests that Jack contact Mary again in about a year.

The Adventure of the Second Stain

Watson is living at Baker Street.

Lucas leads a double life – part time in London and part time in Paris. He has a wife in Paris who
is emotionally unstable.

Lucas is in possession of an embarrassing letter written by Hilda in her youth. Through an

informant he learns of an important letter which Trewlaney Hope has received from a foreign
potentate. If this letter were made public, war would result. He threatens to make Hilda’s letter
public if she does not steal the potentate’s letter for him.

Trewlaney keeps his political affairs private from his wife and she does not realize the immense
importance of the letter, so she has a duplicate key made for her husband’s dispatch box and steals
the letter from it.

She takes the letter to Lucas’ London home and they trade. Mrs. Fournaye has developed
suspicions about her husband and has followed him to London. She sees Hilda go into the house
and rushes in (the servants are out to assure Hilda of privacy but she leaves the door open as she
does not want to be alone with Lucas). Lucas just has time to hide the letter in a secret compartment
beneath the rug before Madame Fournaye is upon him. Hilda sees where he hides it and then flees.
Madame Fournaye grabs a knife from the wall and kills Lucas. She then returns to Paris.

Holmes is consulted by Hope and Bellinger to recover the letter. He feels that one of the three
international agents must have it.

Nothing happens – the letter is not made public – no war – nothing. Several days pass.
 T e w a r i | 43

Mrs. Fournaye flips her lid and all are sure she murdered her husband, but the official police do
not know of the stolen letter.

Lestrade contacts Holmes and asks him to come to Lucas’ house. There is a large blood stain on
his carpet – a loose drugget – but the corresponding stain on the floor beneath it – the second stain
– is 90 degrees away. Someone has rotated the carpet.

Holmes immediately solves the case. He finds a secret compartment in the floor but it is empty.

He learns that Hilda visited the house and by plying her feminine wiles on Constable MacPherson,
gained admittance to the murder room where she pretended to faint. The constable went to get her
some water but when he returned, she was gone. During MacPherson’s absence, Hilda opened the
secret compartment and took the letter but in her haste turned the carpet so the stains did not
correspond.

Holmes confronts Hilda in her home. She confesses. Holmes replaces the letter in the dispatch
box and stuffs it between some other papers. He tells Hope and Bellinger that since no
international incident has developed, he is convinced the letter never left the house. Hope searches
the box again and finds the missing letter.

Holmes does not expose Hilda. Bellinger knows something is not quite right but is not sure what.
 T e w a r i | 44

His Last Bow

The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge

Holmes and Watson are living together. Mrs. Hudson is on duty.

Eccles comes to them with the story that he was invited to spend a few days with Garcia. He
arrived, had a lousy dinner, went to bed, was awakened by Garcia who asked if he had rung and
told him it was 1:00 A.M. When Eccles awoke next morning, the house was empty and everyone
had vanished. He contacted Holmes.

Garcia’s house and Henderson’s house are about a mile apart and separated by a common. Garcia
is found murdered in a dark corner of the common.

Henderson was formerly an exceedingly cruel despot in Central America. He was finally forced
to flee the country by a group of Freedom Fighters of whom Garcia was one. Miss Burnet was
Garcia’s confederate. Henderson had her husband assassinated. She had obtained a position as
governess in Henderson’s house. She attempted to send a note to Garcia telling the room where
Henderson was to be sleeping.

Garcia had Eccles spend the night, and lied to him about the time when he looked in at his room,
and went to kill Henderson while he slept. Eccles – supplied with the misinformation as to the time
– was to supply an alibi.

Burnet’s note had been intercepted, and then sent on. As Garcia was crossing the common, he was
attacked and murdered by Lucas. The mulatto fled but returned to Wisteria Lodge the next night
to get his fetish. His first attempt was unsuccessful so he returned a few nights later to try again.
Baynes et al were waiting for him and captured him after a fierce struggle.

With the Mulatto arrested and charged with the murder, Henderson and his gang felt free to move
about. They were holding Mrs. Burnet prisoner. They decided to flee while they were safe, but
were followed by Warner whom Holmes had hired to watch their house. Miss Burnet broke free
 T e w a r i | 45

at the station, was picked up by Warner and brought to Holmes. She told Holmes about the
freedom fighters, about her husband’s assassination and about Henderson’s unsavory past.

Henderson escaped but was murdered six months later in Madrid along with Lucas.

Baynes had solved the case too and had arrested the Mulatto so Henderson would feel he was not
suspected, lower his guard, and permit Baynes et al to rescue Burnet.

The Adventure of the Cardboard Box

On a hot day in August, Holmes gets a letter from Lestrade asking for help in a case. Susan
Cushing, a quiet maiden lady of 50 received a cardboard box in the mail containing two human
ears. She had no idea where they came from. She rented rooms to medical students in the past
and thought she might be the butt of a joke.

Holmes examined the string which had been around the box, the paper in which the box was
wrapped, the box (a ½ lb. “Honey Dew” tobacco box), the salt which filled it and the ears. He
then interviewed Susan and told Lestrade that he did not want his name associated with the case
because he only wanted to be associated with difficult cases. After sending a telegram and
receiving a reply, he gave Lestrade the name of the murderer and where he could be found.
Naturally, Lestrade took full credit for solving the case.

Susan and Sara had lived together until very recently. Sara was very mean and vindictive. Mary
was married to Jim. Sara went to stay with them. Sara propositioned Jim but was spurned. Her
love for him turned to hate. She moved a couple blocks away and had a boyfriend, Alec. Sara
planted seeds of doubt in Mary’s mind about Jim’s fidelity. Sara then threw Alec and Mary
together and they had an affair. Jim caught them and killed them. He meant the ears for Sara. He
addressed the box to “Miss S. Cushing,” but since Sara had recently moved out, Susan received
them.

We are not told of Browner’s fate but execution is inferred. Sara was suffering from brain fever
when we last heard of her.
 T e w a r i | 46

The Adventure of the Red Circle

Emelia and Gennaro met and married in their native Italy. In his youth, Gennaro became involved
with a group of criminals who later became the Mafia. They called themselves “The Red Circle.”

The Luccas migrated to America to get away from The Circle and seek their fortune but they were
unsuccessful. Gorgiano also came to America to avoid the Italian police. They met in New York.
Gorgiano made a pass at Emelia. She spurned him. Gorgiano then rigged an assassination of one
of Gennaro’s friends and the New York chapter of the Red Circle was going to force Gennaro to
perform the murder. That is, Gennaro was going to be forced to kill his best friend.

The Luccas fled to London and Gorgiano pursued them. Eventually Gennaro killed Gorgiano in
self-defense.

In order to keep his wife safe in London while he warded off Gorgiano, Gennaro got her a room
under mysterious circumstances. Her landlady sought Holmes advice about these circumstances
and he became involved.

Gregson tells Signora Lucca that her husband will not be prosecuted for killing Gorgiano and
Leverton suggests The Yard give him a vote of Thanks.

However the other members of The Red Circle remain at large.

The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans

London has been blanketed in heavy fog for several days. Holmes is restless; he is studying the
music of the middle ages. Mycroft comes to visit, accompanied by Lestrade. Holmes tells Watson
that at times Mycroft IS the British government. Mycroft is “the most indispensable man in the
country...his specialism is omniscience.”
 T e w a r i | 47

West’s body has been found along the underground tracks near Aldgate station. He died of a
fractured skull. In his pocket were the plans for the Bruce-Partington submarine, a revolutionary
war machine. The plans were ultra-top-secret. There were 10 pages to the plans. Only seven were
in West’s pocket. The missing pages were almost enough to allow someone to construct a
submarine. Mycroft implores Sherlock to find the missing pages.

West worked almost daily with the plans. Two people had keys to the safe – Sir James Walter and
Sidney Johnson. Both had air-tight alibis for the entire night of the murder.

Sidney Johnson is positive that the plans were in the safe when it was closed the day of the murder.
He locked them there himself and was the last to leave the office. He also told Holmes that a
fourth page of the plans, dealing with valves and compressors, would be extremely helpful to
someone trying to build the submarine.

Holmes visits Sir James and finds that he has died suddenly, either from a heart attack or by his
own hand. He visits Violet and learns that she and Arthur were walking to the theater on the night
of the murder when he suddenly stopped and told her to wait. They were near the arsenal office
at the time. He did not return.

Holmes has Mycroft send him a list of foreign agents known to be in London at the time. One of
them – Oberstein – lives beside the railroad tracks.

Holmes asks Watson to help him burglarize Oberstein’s house. “’Think of the exalted person who
waits. We are bound to go.’ I rose from the table.”

In the house they find the window from which West’s body was placed on the train and a series of
agony column ads placed by Oberstein, arranging to buy the plans.

Holmes places another ad asking to meet with the unknown seller that night. Watson is very
restless while they wait but Holmes relaxes with “the polyphonic motets of Lassus.”

Colonel Valentine Walter answers the ad and is caught. He copied his brother’s keys. West saw a
light through the shutters on his way to the theater and peeked in. He followed Valentine to
Oberstein’s house and confronted him. Oberstein clubbed him. Holmes has Valentine write a
 T e w a r i | 48

letter to Oberstein offering the additional page of gear/compressor plans. Oberstein is also
captured and the plans recovered.

Colonel Walter died in prison. Oberstein served 15 years. The Queen gave Holmes an emerald
stick-pin. Holmes published, for private circulation, a monograph on the polyphonic motets of
Lassus, which is “the last word on the subject.”

The Case of the Dying Detective

Watson has been married 2 years. Culverton Smith is a self-taught expert in tropical diseases.
Culverton murdered Victor Savage by infecting him with “a coolie disease from Sumatra.” His
motive was to gain a reversion. Holmes knew he was guilty but could not prove it and told the
police as much. In an attempt to silence Holmes, Culverton Smith sent him a box in the mail.
When the box was opened, a concealed spring caused a sharp needle to fly out and prick the finger
of the opener. The needle had been inoculated with the bacteria of the Coolie disease. Naturally,
Holmes was not fooled or smitten by the lethal box but he feigned the illness and convinced
Watson that Culverton Smith was the only man in London who could cure him. Watson convinced
Culverton to come and see Holmes, then hid behind the bed and witnessed the confession of Smith
to Holmes of the murder of Victor Savage. Inspector Morton led the culprit off to jail and Holmes
and Watson dined at Simpsons.

The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax

Lady Frances is a wealthy maiden-lady of 40 who goes from resort to resort as the season changes.
She has some unique Spanish jewelry of which she is extremely fond and proud. She corresponds
regularly with Miss Dobney and when her letters cease, Miss Dobney consults Holmes. Holmes
sends Watson to France to see if he can find out what became of her. Watson gets things all fouled
up and Holmes arrives on the scene to straighten them out.

Lady Frances has fallen under the influence of the Shlessingers who take her as a prisoner to
London. The Shlessingers find Rose Spender in the poor house near death. They adopt her and
care for her until she dies. They plan to wait until Rose dies and get a nice legal death certificate
 T e w a r i | 49

for her. Then they plan to murder lady Frances and bury them both in the same coffin. Holmes
spoils their dastardly plot at the last moment and Frances and Philip are reunited.

During the excitement of resuscitating Lady Frances, the Shlessingers escape. Holmes is sure he
will hear of them again.

The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot

Holmes has been working too hard. He and Watson take a cottage in Cornwall for a complete rest.
They become friends with the local vicar who comes rushing in one morning to tell Holmes that
the three Tregennises who lived together (Owen, George and Brenda) had been found under
extraordinary circumstances. Brenda was dead and the two brothers were raving lunatics. Holmes
investigates but reaches no conclusions.

Leon was at Plymouth, getting ready to leave for Africa when he heard the news. He returned
immediately to Cornwall.

A couple days later, Mortimer is found dead in his room under the same conditions as those of his
siblings.

Holmes examines Mortimer’s room and scrapes some red powder from the smoke guard of the
lamp. In their cottage, the dynamic duo attempt to reconstruct the experiment and they would have
succumbed to the fumes if Watson had not pulled them to safety.

Leon was a secret lover of Brenda. He was married and estranged but could not obtain a divorce.
Mortimer stole some devil’s foot powder from Leon and used it, hoping to kill his siblings and
inherit their estates. Mortimer felt that Leon would be on his way to Africa and would not hear of
the affair for years. Roundhay knew of Leon and Brenda’s love and telegraphed him at Plymouth.
Leon returned and forced Mortimer to sit beside a lamp into which he poured devil’s foot powder
while he, Leon, watched from outside the window with a pistol in his hand.

Holmes lets Leon return to Africa and tells Watson that if he had ever loved a woman and seen her
treated in such a fashion, he might have acted as Leon did.
 T e w a r i | 50

His Last Bow

It is the eve of World War One. Von Bork is the head of a German spy ring operating in England.
Altmont, his chief operative is really Holmes in disguise. Holmes spent two years preparing for
the job, starting by joining an Irish secret society in Chicago.

Holmes captures Von Bork and he and Watson carry him off to jail after removing all the papers
and correspondence from his safe.
 T e w a r i | 51

The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes

The Adventure of the Illustrious Client

Gruner has completely infatuated Violet and has explained away all of his past love affairs (which
have become public).

General de Merville has been very loyal to the crown and the king wishes to spare Violet the
heartbreak which a marriage to Gruner is sure to produce, so he has Damery hire Holmes to put
some sense into Violet’s head so she will break her engagement.

Holmes in turn engages Johnson who turns up Kitty. Kitty and Holmes meet with Violet but
Gruner has brain washed her well and Violet feels that Kitty herself caused the end of her affair
with Gruner and that Kitty’s fate is her own doing.

Gruner hires a pair of assassins to murder Holmes. Only Holmes’ boxing/single-stick skills save
his life. Holmes has his surgeon, Oakshott, and Watson tell the press that he is at death’s door and
his life despaired for.

Holmes learns from Kitty that Gruner has a very private diary in which he brags about all of his
former love affairs. He keeps this diary in an inner study.

Gruner is also an avid collector of ancient Chinese pottery.

Damery acquires a rare piece of Chinese pottery which Holmes gives to Watson. Watson has
crammed about Chinese pottery and visits Gruner pretending that he wants to sell his collection.
This engages Gruner’s attention long enough that Holmes can burglarize the inner study and steal
the secret diary.

Gruner sees through Watson’s façade, deduces that he is an agent of Holmes and enters his inner
study just as Holmes is getting away through the window. Gruner attempts to follow Holmes
through the window but Kitty, who has been hiding in the shrubbery, throws vitriol in his face,
maiming and disfiguring him for life.
 T e w a r i | 52

Holmes gives the diary to Damery and Violet, confronted with indisputable evidence, now sees
that Gruner is truly evil and breaks her engagement. Holmes is charged with burglary and Kitty
with vitriol throwing. The illustrious client gets the charges dropped against Holmes and gets
Kitty off with the lightest possible sentence.

The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier

The story is narrated by Holmes. Watson is married and does not appear in the story.

James and Godfrey campaigned together during the Boer war and became fast friends. Godfrey
was wounded by a round from an elephant gun. He survived but was discharged to his family
home, Tuxbury Old Park. Tuxbury Old Park is a large place with a spacious old manor house and
a vast park with numerous out-buildings and cottages.

James received letters from Godfrey every few months until the war ended and he too was
discharged, about a year later. James returned to London and resumed his profession of
stockbroker. The letters from Godfrey stopped.

James wrote to Godfrey three times at Tuxbury. The first two letters were unanswered; the third
received a terse reply from the Colonel saying Godfrey had gone on a tour around the world and
would not be back for at least a year.

James then wrote Godfrey’s mother. This letter received a prompt reply which warmly invited him
to visit Tuxbury and reminisce about Godfrey. Naturally, he accepted.

He was given a room on the ground floor and late in the night, while reading, he saw Godfrey with
his face pressed against the window. Godfrey’s face was fish-belly white. When he got up from
his chair, Godfrey ran away. James tried to follow him but lost him in the darkness.

The next night, James went exploring and came upon a snug cottage. He peered in the window and
saw a little man with a beard reading a paper and a large man who had his back to the window. He
was sure this large man was Godfrey, although he did not see his face. At this point the colonel
 T e w a r i | 53

clapped him on the shoulder, upbraided him for snooping into private affairs and ordered him from
the property.

James consulted Holmes who immediately solved the case.

Holmes returned to Tuxbury with James and Mr. Saunders. They persuaded the colonel to allow
Saunders to examine Godfrey.

Immediately after he was wounded, Godfrey wandered about and after nightfall, came upon a large
house where he spent the night. In the morning he learned he had spent the night in a leper colony.
Soon after he began to get blotches on his face.

Saunders proclaimed Godfrey’s illness to be Ichthiosis and not leprosy as all had feared. Ichthiosis
is disfiguring but neither infectious nor fatal.

The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone

Watson is not living at Baker Street and Holmes deduces that he is a very busy practitioner. A
crown jewel, the Mazarin stone, has been stolen and Holmes is trying to recover it. (£ 100,000)

Watson leaves to get the police and is not seen again. There is a mannequin of Holmes by the
window. Holmes gets Sylvius and Merton to discuss the whereabouts of the stone while they
believe he is in the bedroom playing the violin. Actually it is a gramophone playing the music and
Holmes has taken the place of the mannequin.

Holmes slips the recovered stone into Cantlemere’s pocket and teases him therewith.

The Adventure of the Three Gables

Watson is not living at Baker Street, but is visiting Holmes.

Dixie barges into their rooms and attempts to intimidate Holmes who says that he will convict him
of the murder of young Perkins if he does not leave.
 T e w a r i | 54

Mary has consulted Holmes – she knew of him because he had done some work for her late
husband – because of a strange offer she has received. A house agent has approached her with an
offer to buy her house and furniture for a princely sum. When she has Sutro look over the
agreement he tells her that it is worded in such a manner that she cannot even take her personal
effects from the house.

Douglas was a promising young diplomat living in Italy. He met Isadora and had an affair with
her. She ended the affair and Douglas was devastated. He took to drink and died of pneumonia.
Before his death, Douglas wrote a novel describing their affair in graphic detail. There were two
copies of the novel’s manuscript. Douglas gave Isadora one of them but died before he could take
the other copy to a publisher. Isadora is now engaged to the Duke of Lombard and the appearance
of this novel would create a scandal.

The other copy of the novel is among Douglas’ effects which have just arrived from Italy and are
now with his mother at Three Gables. Isadora wishes to buy the house in order to obtain and
destroy the manuscript. When Mary refuses her offer, she has Stockdale and his gang break into
the house and steal it. She then burns it.

Holmes learns the sordid details from Pike. He confronts Isadora who reminds him that she tried
all legitimate means before resorting to theft. Holmes has Isadora make out a check to Mary so
that Mary can take a trip around the world.

The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire

Watson is living at Baker St.

Ferguson has been married twice and Jackie was from his first marriage. Jackie had been injured
as a small child and was left a cripple. He and his father were extremely devoted to each other ―
to the point that his father doted on him. Jackie developed a jealous cruel hatred for the infant
because it took some of his father’s affection from himself.

Mrs. Ferguson was found sucking blood from her infant’s neck. She was actually sucking poison
from a wound which Jackie had made with an arrow dipped in curare. Ferguson had brought the
 T e w a r i | 55

arrows etc. as mementos of his visit to Peru. To make his wife feel more at home, he had decorated
the house with a Peruvian décor.

Mrs. Ferguson could not tell her husband what really happened because she felt that either her
husband would not believe her or else that it would break his heart to learn that Jackie was so cruel.
Holmes solved the case before he even left Baker Street. He recommended a long sea voyage for
Jackie but left the Fergusons to settle the matter among themselves. We are not told anything
further.

The Adventure of the Three Garridebs

Prescott had a counterfeiting plant in a secret basement of his flat. Winter killed him and was sent
to jail. While Winter was incarcerated, the flat was rented to Nathan Garrideb. Nathan was a very
eccentric man who never left his rooms.

As the story opens, Nathan has not left his apartment for five years. Winter is posing as John
Garrideb and tells Nathan that they each stand to gain $5,000,000, if they can find a third Garrideb.
Nathan telephones Holmes and asks him to look into the matter to see if it is legitimate. Holmes
interviews Winter and immediately knows he is running a scam, but does not expose him.

Winter claims to have found a third Garrideb (Howard) and insists that Nathan go to Birmingham
to talk to him and explain the inheritance set-up. Nathan agrees to go.

Holmes finds Winter’s picture in Scotland Yard’s rogues gallery and by interviewing the house
agents, determines that Prescott had occupied Nathan’s flat before him.

During Nathan’s absence, Holmes and Watson lie in wait for Winter and capture him once he has
revealed the plates and counterfeit money.

Nathan never recovered from his disillusionment and ended up in a rest home. Winter was
convicted of attempted murder and returned to prison.
 T e w a r i | 56

The Problem of Thor Bridge

Watson is living at Baker Street. Billy the page is on duty.

Gibson and his wife are middle aged. Although Maria was a raving beauty when she was younger,
her physical charms are fading.

Grace is hired to be governess. She is an absolutely stunning young woman and Gibson falls head
over heels in love with her. Grace spurns Gibson’s physical advances and maintains their
relationship platonic.

Maria is insanely jealous and tries to force Grace to leave. Grace does not do so for three reasons:
(1) other people are depending on her for financial aid and she is extremely well paid, (2) she feels
she can induce Neil into great works of philanthropy and (3) he promises he will never approach
her again.

Maria suicides and attempts to make it look like Grace murdered her. Holmes sets things straight.
We are told nothing further, but it seems likely that Gibson and Dunbar would marry.

The Creeping Man

Watson is married and has a busy practice. He says this was one of Holmes’ last cases (Sept.
1903) and that the facts have been in the dispatch box for over 20 years.

Holmes is considering writing a monograph on dogs in detective work, not for tracking, but
because a dog reflects the attitude of a family: a happy family has a happy dog, a dangerous family
has a dangerous dog etc.

Holmes has been contacted by Bennett who says that Roy had attacked Professor Presbury on
several occasions before being banished to the barn. Roy has attacked no one else and is otherwise
quite manageable.
 T e w a r i | 57

Professor Presbury fell in love with his colleague’s daughter and she reluctantly agreed to marry
him. After the marriage, the professor disappeared for two weeks and would not tell anyone where
he had been, but one of his former students told Bennett that he had seen him in Prague.

The professor has been radically different since his return: combative, more physical etc. “A
shadow darkened his higher qualities.” He is seen creeping about on all fours (Hence the title,
clever, huh?)

Holmes deduces that he has been taking a rejuvenating serum manufactured from Langur monkeys
by Lowenstein and supplied to Presbury via Dorak. Just after taking the serum, the professor is
quite ape-like for an interval of several hours and likes to tease the dog while in this state. Roy
breaks loose and attacks the professor. Fortunately, Holmes, Watson and Bennett are on hand to
pull them apart.

Holmes says he will write Lowenstein and tell him he will be held responsible for the criminal
effects of his serum. No further epilogue is given.

The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane

Holmes is living in retirement in Sussex. He and Stackuurst are walking along the high chalk cliff
which borders the ocean when McPherson comes staggering toward them. He is dying and his
last words are, “The lion’s mane.” His torso is covered with welts, “as from a fine wire scourge.”

Holmes discovers that McPherson is engaged to Maude. They have kept their engagement a secret
because Maude gets no encouragement from either Tom or William and because Fitzroy’s uncle
would disinherit him if he were to become engaged without his consent. Holmes is very impressed
with Maude – almost as with Irene Adler.

Fitzroy’s dog, which has been haunting the seashore at the site of his mater’s death, dies in a
manner very similar to McPherson.
 T e w a r i | 58

Murdoch has been searching the shore of the crime scene and decides to explore aquatically. He
staggers into Holmes’ house in a state of collapse. Simultaneously, Holmes has independently
solved the case!

The killer is a huge jellyfish.

Murdoch quickly recovers from his injuries.

Holmes finds the culprit caught in a tidal pool and smashes it with a boulder.

The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger

Watson is not living at Baker St.

Mrs. Merilew visits Holmes at Eugenia‘s request.

Eugenia has been a lodger at Mrs. Merrilew’s for seven years; her face is horribly mutilated and
she wears a heavy veil. She feels she is near death and wants to tell the facts of her husband’s
murder to someone who will understand. Holmes had investigated this murder at the request of
Edmunds but could not solve it.

Holmes and Watson visit Eugenia who tells them the following story.

Rounder had a circus. Eugenia married him in a weak moment. He was a huge man and a terrible
bully who beat his wife savagely. All pitied her. She fell in love with Leonardo and the two of
them planned her husband’s murder.

Leonardo fashioned a club shaped like a lion’s claw. When Rounder and Eugenia went to feed the
lion in the evening as was their custom, Leonardo hit Rounder in the back of the head, crushing
his skull and leaving the mark of a lion. Eugenia turned the lion loose, planning to give the
impression it had escaped. Since she did tricks in the show with the lion every night, she did not
fear it. But the lion smelled fresh human blood which enraged it and when it was released, it turned
on Eugenia and mauled her face. Leonardo could have prevented her mauling but he fled in panic
and was never seen again. She had not spoken out sooner because she did not wish to involve
 T e w a r i | 59

Leonardo, but she read of his death in the paper (he drowned) and wanted to tell the facts to clear
her conscience.

She planned to suicide, but Holmes talked her out of it and she sent him via post the bottle of
prussic acid she had planned to consume.

The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place

Watson is living at Baker St. A page is on duty.

Shoscombe Old Place came to Lady Beatrice from her late husband. It reverts to her husband’s
brother upon her death.

Robert is deeply in debt. He has placed his entire hope of financial salvation on winning the derby
with Shoscombe prince. He worries about touts and runs the prince’s half-brother when they are
about. Since the half-brother is much slower, this keeps the odds long on the prince.

Mason comes to Holmes with the story that Robert has been acting strangely. He has driven Lady
Beatrice to drink. Lady Beatrice never visits the stable anymore and only goes out for an afternoon
ride in the presence of her maid. Robert gave Beatrice’s favorite Spaniel away to Barnes. He was
seen visiting an ancient “haunted” crypt late at night in the presence of a strange man with a mean
yellow face. He brings Holmes a piece of charred bone which was found in the ashes of the furnace
by Harvey. Watson identifies the bone as part of a human femur.

Holmes ascertains the facts. Lady Beatrice, who has been extremely ill with heart and kidney
disease, dies of natural causes two weeks before the derby. If Robert let this fact be known,
Shoscombe Old Place would revert to his brother-in-law and the money lenders would ruin him.
Therefore, he digs up the remains of one of his wife’s ancient ancestors from the crypt and buries
her there. He burns the disinterred remains in the furnace. That’s where the femoral fragment
came from. To carry off the illusion that Beatrice is alive, he has Norlett veil himself heavily and
impersonate Beatrice on a drive every afternoon, accompanied by his wife. The spaniel raises
such a fuss that Robert gives him to Barnes.
 T e w a r i | 60

Shoscombe Prince wins the derby. Robert pays off his debts and has enough left to situate himself
comfortably and the magistrates forgive him for everything.

The Adventure of the Retired Colorman

After he retired from his firm which manufactured paint and artists supplies, Amberly married a
beautiful, much younger woman. He was a miser and made her life miserable with his niggardly
ways.

Amberly frequently played chess with Ernest, a man approximately his wife’s age. Ernest and
Mrs. Amberly might have been having an affair; at least Mr. Amberly thought so. Amberly had
constructed a “Strong room” inside his house which was much like a bank vault. He contrived to
lock his wife and Dr. Ernest in this room and flood it with natural gas from an adjacent pipe. They
both died from the fumes.

Amberly hid the bodies in an abandoned well and faked an elopement. He called in the police who
referred him to Holmes. Holmes was absorbed in another case and sent Watson to investigate.

Barker had been hired by Ernest’s family to investigate the matter. Holmes and he crossed paths
and continued together. They soon solved the case.

When confronted by the evidence, Amberly tried to poison himself with a capsule. Holmes makes
him spit it out with the comment, “No shortcuts, Amberly!”
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Conclusion

The role of Sherlock Holmes should never be underrated. He remains the most popular and iconic
detective of all times. It is a canon of fiction that has not only enthralled several generations of
fans, but has also made real contributions to modern criminology.

I must begin by admitting that I am a serious fan of all things Sherlock! I began reading Holmes
and Watson when I was about ten years old. By my mid-teens, I had devoured the entire Sherlock
canon. There is, quite simply, no detective in literary history that has had a greater impact on our
culture than Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes is ubiquitous. The list of references in various
media, is truly astounding, and simple quotes, such as “Elementary, my dear Watson”, have
become universally recognized, in a manner only surpassed by Shakespeare. Though the roots of
literary detection go back at least half a century before Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and include such
illustrious characters as Edgar Allan Poe’s, Dupin, and Emile Gaboriau’s, Lecoq, right from the
beginning, the Sherlock Holmes stories were in a class of their own. Holmes even notes in A Study
in Scarlet: “Now, in my opinion, Dupin was a very inferior fellow. That trick of his of breaking in
on his friends’ thoughts with an apropos remark after a quarter of an hour’s silence is really very
showy and superficial. He had some analytical genius, no doubt; but he was by no means such a
phenomenon as Poe appeared to imagine…. Lecoq was a miserable bungler,” he said, in an angry
voice; “he had only one thing to recommend him, and that was his energy. That book made me
positively ill.”

Today, more than 100 million Sherlock Holmes books have been sold, though since it was written
before 1923, and is now in the public domain, an accurate total is virtually impossible to compile.
Current sales still average around 50,000 copies a year, but that does not include free internet
`downloads. It has also resulted in a truly amazing number of movies, TV episodes, radio
programs, theatrical performances, comic books, dedicated internet websites, video games, board
games, and nearly everything else you might imagine. The Sherlock Holmes museum at 221b
Baker Street in London passed two million visitors several years ago – at £10 a shot. Conan Doyle
may not have sold as many books as Agatha Christie, but with only four short novels and five
collections, totaling 56 short stories, often marketed in a single volume, against Christie’s 66
 T e w a r i | 62

novels, and 153 short stories, this comparison is hardly surprising. While not the first or largest
mystery franchise, there can still be little doubt that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes
virtually created the mystery genre, opening up the door for all those great writers that would soon
follow.
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References

Bibliography:

 Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories – Volume I

 Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories – Volume II

Webliography:

 www.wikipedia.com
 www.quora.com
 www.diogenes-club.com
 www.sherlockholmes.stanford.edu
 www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk
 www.schoolandholmes.com
 www.sherlockholmes.com
 www.bakerstreet.wikia.com
 www.sherlockian.net