Sherlock Holmes

Elementary: Holmes and Mycroft deduce that a passer-by is an
ex-soldier, recently widowed and with two children.
Quotable Quote: ‘I cannot agree with those who rank modesty
among the virtues. To the logician all things should be seen
exactly as they are, and to underestimate oneself is as much a
departure from truth as to exaggerate one’s own powers.’
Problems: Instead of going to all the trouble of renting a house
and hiring an interpreter, the villains could have just faked
Kratides’ signature. Facial plasters are a very poor sort of
disguise – why not a mask? J Davenport’s role is never
explained. After dragging Paul Kratides from the poisoned
room, Watson doesn’t bother to check if he’s alive. Who sent
the Budapest newspaper cutting?
Observations: The scene where the Holmes brothers deduce a
man’s life from his appearance was directly inspired by Dr
Joseph Bell’s analysis of one of his patients at Edinburgh
University.
Verdict: Holmes is virtually redundant here, the actual explana-
tion coming from Watson for a change. Once again the villains
S H E R L O C K H O L M E S
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escape the law, only to receive their just deserts from another
quarter. Mycroft and his club are wonderful additions to the
canon. 4/5
25) The Adventure of the Naval Treaty
UK: The Strand Magazine (October-November 1893, SP); USA:
Harper’s Weekly (14–21 October 1893,WHH)
The Case: A top secret Anglo-Italian treaty goes missing from
the Foreign Office…
Date: Late July 1889.
Characters: Percy ‘Tadpole’ Phelps, Lord  Holdhurst, Mary
Watson, page-boy, Joseph Harrison, Annie Harrison, Inspector
Forbes, nurse, Mrs Hudson, Charles Gorot, Mr and Mrs Tangey,
Miss Tangey, policeman, female searcher, Dr Ferrier.
Locations: Watson’s medical practice; 221B Baker Street;
‘Briarbrae’, Woking, Surrey; Scotland Yard; Lord  Holdhurst’s
chambers, Downing Street, Whitehall; Foreign Office, Charles
Street,Whitehall; 16 Ivy Lane, Brixton; Ripley village inn, Surrey.
Recorded Cases:The Second Stain, The Speckled Band.
Unrecorded Case: The Tired  Captain.
Holmes: Conducts chemical experiments to determine a man’s
guilt. Sits with his knees against his chin and his hands round his
shins. Makes a note on his shirt cuff. Is capable of descending
into a reverie about the beauty of flowers, but at other times is
totally without emotion. Is an admirer of French medical stat-
istician Alphonse Bertillon (1853–1914), who in the 1890s
began studying fingerprint identification as a means of
detecting criminals. Has acted for three European royal fami-
lies. If he is off the scent, he admits it but when all is going well
he is usually uncommunicative. Has a taste for the dramatic.
Watson: Is ‘the stormy petrel of crime’, according to Holmes. A
T H E C A N O N
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petrel is a sea bird usually flying far from land. A stormy petrel
is a small petrel of the North Atlantic with black and white
plumage and long wings. Figuratively it means a person causing
unrest (as in Watson, when he brings news of a crime to
Holmes).
Quotable Quote: ‘Our highest assurance of the goodness of
Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers.’
Problems: It seems as if the commissionaire Mr Tangey is aware
of the real culprit, but this is never followed up. Why didn’t
Phelps copy the treaty in shorthand? After retrieving this top-
secret document, Holmes entrusts it to his landlady! (She must
be  very trustworthy.) A reference is made to the as yet
unwritten The Second Stain which is said to feature M Dubuque
and Fritz von Waldbaum. It doesn’t.