A Study in Sherlock. Raymond G. Farney

       Publication & Dates:Strand, August, 1891The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes. (2nd story) 1892Illustrations: Sidney Paget (10)Conan Doyle’s 4th storyHolmes’ 29th case

       Story Introduction:I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the autumn of last year, and found him in deep conversation with a very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman, with fiery red hair. With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw, when Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room, and closed the door behind me. “You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear Watson,” said he cordially.Case Information

       Date:“one day in the autumn of last year, I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes.”“A few days after the adventure of a Case of Identity.”“To-day is Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion.”

       Duration:2 Days

       Crime:Robbery of the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank.To steal thirty thousand pounds (Napoleons) of French gold from the basement vault of the city branch of one of the principal London banks.

       Client:1stMr. Jabez Wilson, pawnbroker shop owner, widower without family. A very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman, with fiery red hair…from his small, fat-encircled eyes…“Our visitor bore every mark of being an average commonplace British tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey shepherd’s check trousers, a not over-clean black frockcoat, unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as an ornament. A frayed top hat and a faded brown overcoat with a wrinkled velvet collar.”“I was often weeks on end without putting my foot over the door-mat.”Holmes’ Observation of the Client:“Beyond the obvious fact that he has at sometime done manual labor, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of writing lately. I can deduce nothing else.”Manual labor? “Your right hand is quite a size larger than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more developed.”2ndCity and Suburban Bank.

       Victim:City and Suburban Bank.

       Crime Scene:Wilson’s pawnshop basement.City and Suburban Bank. “A small corridor, which ended in a very massive iron gate. This also was open, and led down a flight of winding stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all round with crates and massive boxes.”

       Criminals:John Clay, Wilson’s assistant, using the alias Vincent Spaulding, worked about a month for Wilson before showing him the newspaper ad.“He is, in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third.”“John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He’s a young man, but he is the head of his profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on any criminal in London. He is a remarkable man, is young John Clay. His grandfather was a royal Duke, and he himself has been to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and though we meet signs of him at every turn we never know where to find the man himself. He’ll crack a crib in Scotland one week and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. I’ve been on his track for years, and have never set eyes on him yet.” (Jones) .“I’ve had one or two little turns also with John Clay.” (Holmes) “Not such a youth either,”-----“small, stout-built very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, though he’s not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon his forehead.”-----“Have you ever observed that his ears are pierced for earrings?”“I only wished to ask you how you would go from here to the Strand.”—“Third right, fourth left” answered the assistant promptly (Holmes asking Clay for direction outside Wilson’s pawnshop).“You must be aware that I have royal blood in my veins.”Archie, John Clay’s accomplice, helped to break into the vault and used the aliases of Duncan Ross and William Morris.

       Punishment:None Mentioned.

       Official Police:Peter Jones, Scotland Yard, “the official police agent.”

       Characters:Mr. Duncan Ross, Red-Headed League manager & William Morris, Solicitor, aliases used by Archie.Mr. Merryweather, Director of the City and Suburban Bank.

       Others Mentioned:Ezekiah Hopkins, American millionaire, fictional founder of the Red-Headed League.A girl of fourteen “who does a bit of simple cooking and keeps the place clean” for Wilson.Sarasate. Holmes took time out to attend his concert at St. James school.

       Locations:Baker Street.Saxe-Coburg Square, Wilson’s pawnshop. Near the city. “Third right, fourth left to the Strand.”“It was a pokey, little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy two-storied brick houses looked onto a small railed-in enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass, and a few clumps of faded laurel bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with JABEZ WILSON in white letters, upon a corner house, announced the place where our red-headed client carried on his business.”17, King Edward Street, near St. Paul’s. Forwarding address given to Wilson for William Morris, solicitor. Was a factory of artificial kneecaps. No one there had ever heard of either.St. James Hall. Where Holmes attended. “I saw him that afternoon so enwrapped in music at St. James Hall.”Aldersgate. “Traveled by underground as far as Aldersgate, and a short walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square.”There is Mortimer’s, the tobacconist, the little newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, the vegetarian restaurant and McFarlane’s carriage building depot. Holmes’ observation of Saxe-Coburg Square, near the city, the area of Wilson’s pawnbroker’s shop.

       Locations Mentioned:7 Pope’s Court, Fleet Street. Offices of the Red-Headed League.Watson’s house in Kensington.Farringdon Street. Holmes passed by on the way to the city and Suburban bank.

       Evidence & Clues:“and having thumped vigorously upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up to the door and knocked.”Spaulding worked for half wages.“The knees of his trousers”“You see, Watson,” he explained, in the early hours of the morning, as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, “it was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible objective of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of the League, and the copying of the Encyclopedia, must be to get this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but really it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was no doubt suggested to Clay’s ingenious mind by the colour of his accomplice’s hair. The four pounds a week was a lure which must draw him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? They put in the advertisement; one rogue has the temporary office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for half wages, it was obvious to me