A Study in Sherlock. Raymond G. Farney
to be considerably taller. His eyes were sharp and piercing, save during those intervals of torpor to which I have alluded; and his thin, hawk-like nose gave his whole expression an air of alertness and decision. His chin, too, had the prominence and sureness which mark the man of determination. His hands were invariably blotted with ink and stained with chemicals, yet he was possessed of extraordinary delicacy of touch, as I frequently had occasions to observe when I watched him manipulating his fragile physiological instruments.”“I endeavor to break through the reticence which he showed on all that concerned himself. Before pronouncing judgment, however, be it remembered how objectless was my life, and how little there was to engage my attention. My health forbade me from venturing out unless the weather was exceptionally genial, and I had no friends who would call upon me to break the monotony of my daily existence. Under the circumstances, I eagerly hailed the little mystery which hung around my companion, and spent much of my time in endeavoring to unravel it.”“Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it.”“But the solar system!” I protested.— “What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently: “you say that we go around the sun. If we went around the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.”“I have a turn both for observation and deduction. The theories which I have expressed there, and which appear to you to be so chimerical, are really extremely practical—so practical that I depend upon them for my bread and cheese.”“They are mostly sent on by private inquiry agencies. They are all people who are in trouble about something and want a little enlightening. I listen to their story, they listen to my comments, and then I pocket my fee.”“I have to bustle about and see things with my own eyes. You see I have a lot of special knowledge which I apply to the problem, and which facilitates matters wonderfully. Those rules of deduction laid down in the article which aroused your scorn are invaluable to me in practical work. Observation with me is second nature.”Sherlock Holmes rose and lit his pipe. “No doubt you think that you are complimenting me in comparing me to Dupin.”“Well, I have a trade of my own. I suppose I am the only one in the world. I am a consulting detective, if you can understand what that is. Here in London we have lots of government detectives and lots of private ones. When these fellows are at fault, they come to me, and I manage to put them on the right scent. They lay evidence before me, and I am generally able, by the help of my knowledge of the history of crime to set them straight.”“I’m not sure about whether I shall go. I am the most incurably lazy devil that ever stood in shoe leather—that is, when the fit is on me, for I can be spry enough at times.”“Mr. Sherlock Holmes. You may be very smart and clever, but the old hound is the best, when all is said and done.”“They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains,” he remarked with a smile. “It’s a very bad definition, but it does apply to detective work.”“You know a conjurer gets no credit when once he has explained his trick; and if I show you too much of my method of working, you will come to the conclusion that I am a very ordinary individual after all.”“My companion flushed up with pleasure at my words, and the earnest way in which I uttered them. I had already observed that he was as sensitive to flattery on the score of his art as any girl could be of her beauty.”“I might not have gone but for you, and so have missed the finest study I ever came across: a study in scarlet, eh? Why shouldn’t we use a little art jargon. There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.”“Leaning back in the cab, this amateur bloodhound carolled away like a lark while I meditated upon the many sideness of the human mind.”“His quiet, self-confident manner convinced me that he had already formed a theory which explained all the facts.”Sherlock Holmes sprang to his feet the moment that she was gone and rushed into his room. He returned in a few seconds enveloped in a ulster and a cravat. “I’ll follow her,” he said.“I perched myself behind (Mrs. Sawyer’s cab). That’s an art which every detective should be an expert at.”“I left Holmes seated in front of the smoldering fire, and long into the watches of the night I heard the low melancholy wailings of his violin, and knew that he was still pondering over the strange problem which he had set himself to unravel.”“To a great mind, nothing is little,” remarked Holmes, sententiously.“Holmes showed signs of irresolution. He continued to walk up and down the room with his head sunk on his chest and his brows drawing down, as was his habit when lost in thought.”“If there’s a vacant place for a chief of the police, I reckon you are the man for it,” he said, gazing with undisguised admiration at my fellow-lodger.“The way you kept on my trail was a caution.”“We have his cab,” said Sherlock Holmes. “It will serve to take him to Scotland Yard. And now, gentlemen,” he continued, with a pleasant smile, “we have reached the end of our little mystery. You are very welcome to put any question that you like to me now, and there is no danger that I will refuse to answer them.”“What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence,” returned my companion bitterly. “The question is, what can you make people believe that you have done?”Watson’s First Observation of Sherlock HolmesSherlock Holmes his limitsKnowledge of Literature. Nil.Knowledge of Philosophy. Nil.Knowledge of Astronomy. Nil.Knowledge of Politics. Feeble.Knowledge of Botany. VariableWell up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally.Knowledge of Geology. Practical, but limited.Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them.Knowledge of Chemistry. Profound.Knowledge of Anatomy. Accurate, but unsystematic.Knowledge of Sensational Literature. Immense.He appear to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the country.Plays the violin well.Is an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman.Has a good practical knowledge of British Law.Watson“I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air—or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day would permit a man to be. Under such circumstances I naturally gravitated to London, the great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained. There I stayed for some time at a private hotel in the Strand, leading a comfortless, meaningless existence, and spending such money as I had, considerably more freely than I ought. So alarming did the state of my finances become that I soon realized that I must either leave the metropolis and rusticate somewhere in the country, or that I must make a complete alteration in my style of living. Choosing the latter alternative, I began by making up my mind to leave the hotel, and take up my quarters in some less pretentious and less expensive domicile.”“I should like to meet him,” I said. “If I am to lodge with anyone, I should prefer a man of studious and quiet habits. I am not strong enough yet to stand much noise or excitement. I had enough of both in Afghanistan to last me for the remainder of my natural existence.”“I keep a bull pup,” I said, “and I object to rows because my nerves are shaken, and I get up at all sorts of ungodly hours, and I am extremely lazy. I have another set of vices when I’m well, but those are the principal ones at present.”“You don’t mind the smell of strong tobacco, I hope?”“I always smoke ‘ships’s’ myself,” I answered.“My health forbade me from venturing out unless the weather was exceptionally genial, and I had no friends who would call upon me to break the monotony of my daily existence.”“I rose somewhat earlier than usual, and found that Sherlock Holmes had not yet finished his breakfast. The landlady had become so accustomed to my late habits that my place had not been laid or my coffee prepared.”“What ineffable twaddle!” I cried, slapping the magazine down on the table; “I never read such rubbish in my life.”Crime and Deduction“I have a turn both for observation and deduction. The theories which I have expressed there, and which appear to you to be so chimerical, are really extremely practical—so practical that I depend upon them for my bread and cheese.”“I have to bustle about and see things with my own eyes. You see I have a lot of special knowledge which I apply to the problem, and which facilitates matters wonderfully. Those rules of deduction laid down in the article which aroused your scorn are invaluable to me in practical work. Observation with me is second nature.”“Well, I have a trade of my own. I suppose I am the only one in the world. I am a consulting detective, if you can understand what that is. Here in London we have lots of government detectives and lots of private ones. When these fellows are at fault, they come to me, and I manage to put them on the right scent. They lay evidence before me, and I am generally able, by my the help of my knowledge of the history of crime to set them straight.”“From a drop of water,” said the writer, “logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without