A Study in Scarlet

done up. I went on cabbing it for a day or so, intending to

  keep at it until I could save enough to take me back to

  America. I was standing in the yard when a ragged youngster

  asked if there was a cabby there called Jefferson Hope, and

  said that his cab was wanted by a gentleman at 221B, Baker

  Street. I went round, suspecting no harm, and the next thing

  I knew, this young man here had the bracelets on my wrists,

  and as neatly snackled {27} as ever I saw in my life. That's

  the whole of my story, gentlemen. You may consider me to be

  a murderer; but I hold that I am just as much an officer of

  justice as you are."

  So thrilling had the man's narrative been, and his manner was

  so impressive that we had sat silent and absorbed. Even the

  professional detectives, _blase_ {28} as they were in every detail

  of crime, appeared to be keenly interested in the man's story.

  When he finished we sat for some minutes in a stillness which

  was only broken by the scratching of Lestrade's pencil as he

  gave the finishing touches to his shorthand account.

  "There is only one point on which I should like a little more

  information," Sherlock Holmes said at last. "Who was your

  accomplice who came for the ring which I advertised?"

  The prisoner winked at my friend jocosely. "I can tell my own

  secrets," he said, "but I don't get other people into trouble.

  I saw your advertisement, and I thought it might be a plant,

  or it might be the ring which I wanted. My friend volunteered

  to go and see. I think you'll own he did it smartly."

  "Not a doubt of that," said Holmes heartily.

  "Now, gentlemen," the Inspector remarked gravely, "the forms

  of the law must be complied with. On Thursday the prisoner

  will be brought before the magistrates, and your attendance

  will be required. Until then I will be responsible for him."

  He rang the bell as he spoke, and Jefferson Hope was led off

  by a couple of warders, while my friend and I made our way

  out of the Station and took a cab back to Baker Street.

  CHAPTER VII.

  THE CONCLUSION.

  WE had all been warned to appear before the magistrates

  upon the Thursday; but when the Thursday came there was no

  occasion for our testimony. A higher Judge had taken the

  matter in hand, and Jefferson Hope had been summoned before

  a tribunal where strict justice would be meted out to him.

  On the very night after his capture the aneurism burst,

  and he was found in the morning stretched upon the floor

  of the cell, with a placid smile upon his face, as though

  he had been able in his dying moments to look back upon

  a useful life, and on work well done.

  "Gregson and Lestrade will be wild about his death,"

  Holmes remarked, as we chatted it over next evening.

  "Where will their grand advertisement be now?"

  "I don't see that they had very much to do with his capture,"

  I answered.

  "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. Never mind,"

  he continued, more brightly, after a pause. "I would not have

  missed the investigation for anything. There has been no

  better case within my recollection. Simple as it was, there

  were several most instructive points about it."

  "Simple!" I ejaculated.

  "Well, really, it can hardly be described as otherwise," said

  Sherlock Holmes, smiling at my surprise. "The proof of its

  intrinsic simplicity is, that without any help save a few

  very ordinary deductions I was able to lay my hand upon the

  criminal within three days."

  "That is true," said I.

  "I have already explained to you that what is out of the

  common is usually a guide rather than a hindrance.

  In solving a problem of this sort, the grand thing is to be able

  to reason backwards. That is a very useful accomplishment,

  and a very easy one, but people do not practise it much.

  In the every-day affairs of life it is more useful to

  reason forwards, and so the other comes to be neglected.

  There are fifty who can reason synthetically for one who can

  reason analytically."

  "I confess," said I, "that I do not quite follow you."

  "I hardly expected that you would. Let me see if I can make

  it clearer. Most people, if you describe a train of events

  to them, will tell you what the result would be. They can

  put those events together in their minds, and argue from them

  that something will come to pass. There are few people,

  however, who, if you told them a result, would be able to

  evolve from their own inner consciousness what the steps were

  which led up to that result. This power is what I mean when

  I talk of reasoning backwards, or analytically."

  "I understand," said I.

  "Now this was a case in which you were given the result and

  had to find everything else for yourself. Now let me

  endeavour to show you the different steps in my reasoning.

  To begin at the beginning. I approached the house, as you

  know, on foot, and with my mind entirely free from all

  impressions. I naturally began by examining the roadway, and

  there, as I have already explained to you, I saw clearly the

  marks of a cab, which, I ascertained by inquiry, must have

  been there during the night. I satisfied myself that it was

  a cab and not a private carriage by the narrow gauge of the

  wheels. The ordinary London growler is considerably less

  wide than a gentleman's brougham.

  "This was the first point gained. I then walked slowly down

  the garden path, which happened to be composed of a clay

  soil, peculiarly suitable for taking impressions. No doubt

  it appeared to you to be a mere trampled line of slush, but

  to my trained eyes every mark upon its surface had a meaning.

  There is no branch of detective science which is so important

  and so much neglected as the art of tracing footsteps.

  Happily, I have always laid great stress upon it, and much

  practice has made it second nature to me. I saw the heavy

  footmarks of the constables, but I saw also the track of the

  two men who had first passed through the garden. It was easy

  to tell that they had been before the others, because in

  places their marks had been entirely obliterated by the

  others coming upon the top of them. In this way my second

  link was formed, which told me that the nocturnal visitors

  were two in number, one remarkable for his height (as I

  calculated from the length of his stride), and the other

  fashionably dressed, to judge from the small and elegant

  impression left by his boots.

  "On entering the house this last inference was confirmed.

  My well-booted man lay before me. The tall one, then, had done

  the murder, if murder there was. There was no wound upon the

  dead man's person, but the agitated expression upon his face

  assured me that he had foreseen his fate before it came upon

&nbsp
; him. Men who die from heart disease, or any sudden natural

  cause, never by any chance exhibit agitation upon their

  features. Having sniffed the dead man's lips I detected a

  slightly sour smell, and I came to the conclusion that he had

  had poison forced upon him. Again, I argued that it had been

  forced upon him from the hatred and fear expressed upon his

  face. By the method of exclusion, I had arrived at this

  result, for no other hypothesis would meet the facts. Do not

  imagine that it was a very unheard of idea. The forcible

  administration of poison is by no means a new thing in

  criminal annals. The cases of Dolsky in Odessa, and of

  Leturier in Montpellier, will occur at once to any toxicologist.

  "And now came the great question as to the reason why.

  Robbery had not been the object of the murder, for nothing

  was taken. Was it politics, then, or was it a woman? That

  was the question which confronted me. I was inclined from

  the first to the latter supposition. Political assassins are

  only too glad to do their work and to fly. This murder had,

  on the contrary, been done most deliberately, and the

  perpetrator had left his tracks all over the room, showing

  that he had been there all the time. It must have been a

  private wrong, and not a political one, which called for such

  a methodical revenge. When the inscription was discovered

  upon the wall I was more inclined than ever to my opinion.

  The thing was too evidently a blind. When the ring was

  found, however, it settled the question. Clearly the

  murderer had used it to remind his victim of some dead or

  absent woman. It was at this point that I asked Gregson

  whether he had enquired in his telegram to Cleveland as

  to any particular point in Mr. Drebber's former career.

  He answered, you remember, in the negative.

  "I then proceeded to make a careful examination of the room,

  which confirmed me in my opinion as to the murderer's height,

  and furnished me with the additional details as to the

  Trichinopoly cigar and the length of his nails. I had

  already come to the conclusion, since there were no signs of

  a struggle, that the blood which covered the floor had burst

  from the murderer's nose in his excitement. I could perceive

  that the track of blood coincided with the track of his feet.

  It is seldom that any man, unless he is very full-blooded,

  breaks out in this way through emotion, so I hazarded the opinion

  that the criminal was probably a robust and ruddy-faced man.

  Events proved that I had judged correctly.

  "Having left the house, I proceeded to do what Gregson had

  neglected. I telegraphed to the head of the police at Cleveland,

  limiting my enquiry to the circumstances connected with the

  marriage of Enoch Drebber. The answer was conclusive.

  It told me that Drebber had already applied for the protection

  of the law against an old rival in love, named Jefferson Hope,

  and that this same Hope was at present in Europe.

  I knew now that I held the clue to the mystery in my hand,

  and all that remained was to secure the murderer.

  "I had already determined in my own mind that the man who had

  walked into the house with Drebber, was none other than the

  man who had driven the cab. The marks in the road showed me

  that the horse had wandered on in a way which would have been

  impossible had there been anyone in charge of it. Where,

  then, could the driver be, unless he were inside the house?

  Again, it is absurd to suppose that any sane man would carry

  out a deliberate crime under the very eyes, as it were, of a

  third person, who was sure to betray him. Lastly, supposing

  one man wished to dog another through London, what better

  means could he adopt than to turn cabdriver. All these

  considerations led me to the irresistible conclusion that

  Jefferson Hope was to be found among the jarveys of the

  Metropolis.

  "If he had been one there was no reason to believe that he

  had ceased to be. On the contrary, from his point of view,

  any sudden chance would be likely to draw attention to

  himself. He would, probably, for a time at least, continue

  to perform his duties. There was no reason to suppose that

  he was going under an assumed name. Why should he change his

  name in a country where no one knew his original one? I

  therefore organized my Street Arab detective corps, and sent

  them systematically to every cab proprietor in London until

  they ferreted out the man that I wanted. How well they

  succeeded, and how quickly I took advantage of it, are still

  fresh in your recollection. The murder of Stangerson was an

  incident which was entirely unexpected, but which could

  hardly in any case have been prevented. Through it, as you

  know, I came into possession of the pills, the existence of

  which I had already surmised. You see the whole thing is a

  chain of logical sequences without a break or flaw."

  "It is wonderful!" I cried. "Your merits should be publicly

  recognized. You should publish an account of the case.

  If you won't, I will for you."

  "You may do what you like, Doctor," he answered. "See here!"

  he continued, handing a paper over to me, "look at this!"

  It was the _Echo_ for the day, and the paragraph to which he

  pointed was devoted to the case in question.

  "The public," it said, "have lost a sensational treat through

  the sudden death of the man Hope, who was suspected of the

  murder of Mr. Enoch Drebber and of Mr. Joseph Stangerson.

  The details of the case will probably be never known now,

  though we are informed upon good authority that the crime was

  the result of an old standing and romantic feud, in which

  love and Mormonism bore a part. It seems that both the

  victims belonged, in their younger days, to the Latter Day

  Saints, and Hope, the deceased prisoner, hails also from Salt

  Lake City. If the case has had no other effect, it, at

  least, brings out in the most striking manner the efficiency

  of our detective police force, and will serve as a lesson to

  all foreigners that they will do wisely to settle their feuds

  at home, and not to carry them on to British soil. It is an

  open secret that the credit of this smart capture belongs

  entirely to the well-known Scotland Yard officials, Messrs.

  Lestrade and Gregson. The man was apprehended, it appears,

  in the rooms of a certain Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who has

  himself, as an amateur, shown some talent in the detective

  line, and who, with such instructors, may hope in time to

  attain to some degree of their skill. It is expected that

  a testimonial of some sort will be presented to the two

  officers as a fitting recognition of their services."

  "Didn't I tell you so when we started?" cried Sherlock Holmes

  with a laugh. "That's the result of all our Study in Scarlet:

  to get them a testimonial!"

  "Never mind," I answered, "I have all the facts in my journal,

  and the pub
lic shall know them. In the meantime you must make

  yourself contented by the consciousness of success,

  like the Roman miser --

  "`Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo

  Ipse domi simul ac nummos contemplor in arca.'"

  -------------

  * Heber C. Kemball, in one of his sermons, alludes

  to his hundred wives under this endearing epithet.

  ----------------------- End of Text ---------------------------------

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------

  ----------------------------Textual notes------------------------------

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------

  {1} {Frontispiece, with the caption: "He examined with his glass

  the word upon the wall, going over every letter of it with

  the most minute exactness." (_Page_ 23.)}

  {2} {"JOHN H. WATSON, M.D.": the initial letters in the name are

  capitalized, the other letters in small caps. All chapter

  titles are in small caps. The initial words of chapters are

  in small caps with first letter capitalized.}

  {3} {"lodgings.": the period should be a comma, as in later editions.}

  {4} {"hoemoglobin": should be haemoglobin. The o&e are concatenated.}

  {5} {"221B": the B is in small caps}

  {6} {"THE LAURISTON GARDEN MYSTERY": the table-of-contents lists

  this chapter as "...GARDENS MYSTERY" -- plural, and probably

  more correct.}

  {7} {"brought."": the text has an extra double-quote mark}

  {8} {"individual --": illustration this page, with the caption:

  "As he spoke, his nimble fingers were flying here, there,

  and everywhere."}

  {9} {"manoeuvres": the o&e are concatenated.}

  {10} {"Patent leathers": the hyphen is missing.}

  {11} {"condonment": should be condonement.}

  {12} {"Boheme": the first "e" has a backward accent () above it.}

  {13} {"wages.": ending quote is missing.}

  {14} {"the first.": ending quote is missing.}

  {15} {"make much of...": Other editions complete this sentence with

  an "it." But there is a gap in the text at this point, and,

  given the context, it may have actually been an interjection,

  a dash. The gap is just the right size for the characters

  "it." and the start of a new sentence, or for a "----"}

  {16} {"tho cushion": "tho" should be "the"}

  {17} {"_outre_": the e has a forward accent (/) above it.}

  {18} {"canons": the first n has a tilde above it, as do all other

  occurrences of this word.}

  {19} {"shoving": later editions have "showing". The original is

  clearly superior.}

  {20} {"stared about...": illustration, with the caption: "One of them

  seized the little girl, and hoisted her upon his shoulder."}

  {21} {"upon the": illustration, with the caption: "As he watched

  it he saw it writhe along the ground."}

  {22} {"FORMERLY...": F,S,L,C in caps, other letters in this line

  in small caps.}

  {23} {"ancles": ankles.}

  {24} {"asked,": should be "asked."}

  {25} {"poisions": should be "poisons"}

  {26} {"...fancy": should be "I fancy". There is a gap in the text.}

  {27} {"snackled": "shackled" in later texts.}

  {28} {"_blase_": the e has a forward accent (/) above it.}

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

  ------------------------ End Textual Notes ---------------------------

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

  *********** End Of Project Gutenberg Etext study10.txt *************

 

 

  Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet

  (Series: Sherlock Holmes # 1)

 

  Thank you for reading books on abookseries.com