Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Study in Scarlet
    A Study in Scarlet
    A Study in Scarlet
    Ebook178 pages2 hours

    A Study in Scarlet

    By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Dr. Watson, having returned to London after serving in the Second Anglo-Afghan War, is forced to leave the armed services and is now looking for a place to live. He runs into an old friend named Stamford who mentions that an acquaintance of his, Sherlock Holmes, is looking for someone to split the rent at a flat at 221B Baker Street, but he cautions Watson about Holmes's eccentricities. Watson is amazed by Holmes, who has profound knowledge of chemistry and sensational literature, and very precise knowledge of geology, botany and many other disciplines. After much speculation by Watson, Holmes reveals that he is a "consulting detective" and he reads the telegram requesting consultation in a fresh murder case. Watson urges him to join, so Holmes invites him to accompany him as he investigates the crime scene, an abandoned house off the Brixton Road.
    LanguageEnglish
    Publishere-artnow
    Release dateApr 3, 2018
    ISBN9788026881957
    Author

    Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

    Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) was a Scottish writer and physician, most famous for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes and long-suffering sidekick Dr Watson. Conan Doyle was a prolific writer whose other works include fantasy and science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction and historical novels.

    Read more from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

    Related to A Study in Scarlet

    Related ebooks

    Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      A Rear Old Time

      May 9, 2021

      A Rear Old Time
      7 min read

    • Article

      Storyteller

      Nov 4, 2021

      Storyteller
      11 min read

    • Article

      Fantasy and Reality

      Aug 3, 2017

      Fantasy and Reality
      4 min read

    • Article

      Book One: Notes Of Origin

      Feb 28, 2023

      Book One: Notes Of Origin
      14 min read

    • Article

      Soft Blues

      Feb 15, 2021

      Soft Blues
      15 min read

    • Article

      A Cardiologist’s 9/11 Story

      Sep 13, 2018

      The morgue was inside Brooks Brothers. I was standing at the corner of Church and Dey, right next to the rubble of the World Trade Center, when a policeman shouted that doctors were needed at the menswear emporium inside the building at One Liberty P

      14 min read

    • Article

      The Year That Changed My Life

      Mar 10, 2019

      The Year That Changed My Life
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Medical Student Remembers The Kindness Of Sir Roger Bannister, The Top Neurologist

      Apr 3, 2024

      In 1971, I was a medical student in Spain. Having done French at school, I decided English would be more useful for my future profession. I applied for a summer job in ten London hospitals. All of them answered politely, but only the National Hospita

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Time Traveller Returns

      Oct 29, 2018

      The Time Traveller Returns
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Things I Would Never Do

      Dec 23, 2021

      The Things I Would Never Do
      12 min read

    • Article

      Prohibition

      Sep 10, 2021

      It had been ten days since my last fix. I knew what I was going to do was wrong, but unless you knew the yearning that your body exerts, the internal pull which strangles your very soul into submission, then you cannot judge me. Yes, it was wrong. Ye

      15 min read

    • Article

      Last Chance Saloon

      Jun 28, 2023

      Last Chance Saloon
      4 min read

    • Article

      Where There Is No Hospital

      Mar 8, 2022

      Where There Is No Hospital
      15 min read

    • Article

      Readers' Letters

      Jul 26, 2023

      SIR: I have just celebrated my 80th birthday and been much acclaimed by my family and friends. Even the government has got in on the act, as it has increased my state pension by 25p a week. Unfortunately, my village shop has hardly anything to offer

      5 min read

    • Article

      ‘The Divines’: Featured Fiction from Ellie Eaton

      Jan 19, 2021

      An excerpt from a debut novel Booklist calls "sharp and haunting." The post ‘The Divines’: Featured Fiction from Ellie Eaton appeared first on The Millions.

      13 min read

    • Article

      A Place of Hope?

      Mar 30, 2024

      A Place of Hope?
      5 min read

    • Article

      Equinox

      May 18, 2022

      In this strange world, where identities change with the rising and setting of the sun, supernatural forces are at work – and they’re causing trouble… St Leonars prison was an appropriately imposing building. It rose out of the surrounding shacks and

      5 min read

    • Article

      Dark Tales

      Dec 2, 2021

      Dark Tales
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Long Way Home

      Nov 11, 2020

      The Long Way Home
      4 min read

    • Article

      Secrets Of The Dead

      Aug 7, 2020

      Secrets Of The Dead
      7 min read

    • Article

      Singing In The Turnip Fields Of Hope

      Jan 13, 2021

      WHEN the miracle arrived, I didn’t fall to my knees in prayerful gratitude. In my bewildered and relieved state, I burst into song: ‘Vaccine! Vaccine! Vaccine! Vaccine! Please take away this plague!’ My lyrics didn’t stretch beyond two lines, but I b

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Great Unknowing

      Sep 1, 2020

      ...woman is her body as man is his, but her body is something other than her. —Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex THAT SPRING I walked into the hospital for a minor procedure and walked out with a handful of balloons into the strangest six weeks of

      14 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Study in Scarlet

    4/5

    2,923 ratings124 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      (Audiobook) Wasn't overly impressed with this, but perhaps that's due to it being among the first of its genre. It had two key features I enjoyed, whoever: 1) Watson's first meeting with Holmes and 2) the surprisingly long whodunnit explanation in Part 2. I often struggle with mystery books given their penchant to focus on a large cast of names, objects, places, and other nouns which I find hard to keep track of and continually visualize in my head. I encounter this issue with some more detail-obsessed fantasy stories, too. So, I became lost throughout a lot of the first half even though it was still mildly enjoyable (in great part due to Stephen Fry's narration). The most consistently amusing part of that half is Watson's developing relationship with Holmes, in which we get to discover the detective's eccentricities along with his new sidekick. I often enjoy buddy (cop) comedies, so that stuff provided a more easy connection than the actual investigation. The book then switches out of Watson's POV for most of the second half, providing an extended backstory for the killer and his motivation. While long and not always riveting, it was a novel approach to the often tedious form of exposition dumps you find in mysteries. By the end of it I had even sympathized with the killer enough to hope to see them victorious. It became the emotional throughline of the book how the Holmes-Watson dynamic used to be, but I wouldn't say either of those elements were particularly deep or resolved. A short, mildly entertaining read.
    • 4/5
      The introduction of Sherlock Holmes and his roommate Dr.Watson and the beginning of an unlikely pairing. This is the first case that they work together and we see the start of an unbeatable pair.
    • 5/5
      Was this the one with all the red heads?
    • 4/5
      Study in Scarlet is in two parts. Part one: "Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., Late of the Army Medical Department." It's here that Dr. Watson and Mr. Sherlock Holmes meet for the first time. Watson, arriving in London and needing a place to stay, learns of Holmes looking to share his apartment. From the very beginning they are thrown together in a murder mystery. Watson is astounded by Holmes's ability to deduce facts from the smallest pieces of evidence.Part two: "Country of the Saints" steps back in time and tells the story of the Brigham Young and the Mormons settling in the plains of Utah. John Ferrier meets up with the four elders, Stangerson, Kemball, Jonston & Drebber and they take him and his young companion in. This story sets the backdrop for the murder mystery Holmes is trying to solve.
    • 5/5
      Classic (1st) Sherlock Holmes, very well read. The Mormons don't come out so well in this story...
    • 4/5
      Not even gonna try to calculate how long it's been since I've read these original Holmes stories. They're still just as good as I remember from way back when. I admit I skip the little detour in the middle about how the original crimes happened. It's not necessary to enjoy the real story, which is how Holmes and Watson got together and started solving crimes. Very good story.
    • 4/5
      Thought I'd give this author a try, and I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed the story. The second part was even more intriguing, and fitted well. Will be reading more from ACD.
    • 2/5
      Holmes is just too full of himself.
    • 3/5
      I've long felt bad about never having read any of the nine books that make up the Sherlock Holmes canon, so finally I've rectified that... and what an odd little work it is.

      The first half of the book is what's important, historically, but it's the least interesting. Conan Doyle doesn't write natural dialogue, and a result the discussions between Watson and Holmes come across more like a treatise on how detective work - in the real world and in novels - is evolving and progressing. While this is all very very interesting, particularly to someone like myself who has read a lot of Christie and Poe etc, it feels like an essay that has been structured in story form, rather than the other way around.

      On top of this, I concede that I have a bias against this "one really smart quirky man always outdoes everyone" formula. Holmes started it, but it's returned in the last ten years or so to television, and personally I think it just weakens the narrative when every other character functions only as a sounding board for our god of a leading man. Sherlock is cunningly described by Watson as a seemingly paradoxical man who in fact has rational reasons for all of his education and activities, although even the great detective can't seem to fix his (bipolar?) moods. As their friendship is still embryonic at this stage, Watson can give us no insight into Holmes' life, and Holmes offers none, so he remains a cipher. But I'm treating this as a pilot episode, so that's okay. More immediately fascinating are the elements of contemporary life: street beggars working for Holmes, the necessary advantages and disadvantages that came from being a police officer in the era - thrilling stuff.

      The second half is a mixed bag also. Conan Doyle is an admirable prose writer, and his description of the events twenty years prior to the murders is captivating and gripping. On the other hand, it is filled with amazingly anti-Mormon sentiment. I'm no religious sympathiser myself, but I couldn't take it seriously when the narrator assured us that all Mormons kill or destroy anyone who attempts to leave their faith.

      An odd little novel, and I've already started the second one, since I'm very eager to see if Conan Doyle can somehow retain his marvelous leading character, whilst furthering his skills in the other required areas.

      (Two and a half stars)
    • 3/5
      If you are a science fiction fan, you have probably already read the Sherlock Holmes books. I know I’m late to the bandwagon on this, but if you’ve been avoiding them for some reason, let me add my voice of encouragement. You should read at least one Sherlock Holmes mystery in your life. This was my first, and I really enjoyed it. In this first volume, Dr. Watson meets Sherlock Holmes and they become roommates. Holmes demonstrates all the nigh-magical powers that his deductive reasoning grant him from the start. Watson finds this at once mysterious and fascinating, resolving to chronicle Holmes’ skill. Those skills are tested by the death of a man in an empty house, with no wounds, covered in blood. Whodunnit? The language holds up quite well for the modern reader. It is a little archaic, but flows just fine. The most anachronistic part of it is the structure. For one, unlike a modern mystery, the reader doesn’t have access to all the clues and has no chance to solve the puzzle on their own. Also, Sherlock Holmes reveals the murder in the middle of the story instead of at the end. After the big reveal, the scene shifts so suddenly that I was afraid that my download of the ebook had been corrupted, and that there was another book in the middle of mine. It goes from Holmes’ rooms in London to the middle of the American Western desert forty years previously, where a man and a girl are dying of thirst. This shift was mind bogglingly abrupt, but by following it all the way through one learns about why Holmes’ was right in his identification of the murderer. This emphasis on deductive reasoning and its power forms a strong link with the mindset of your average science fiction novel – things are known and knowable, the universe works logically and predictably, and by applying logic the most difficult puzzles can be solved. However, by being set in a “normal” setting, it is non-threatening to your everyday reader. I imagine that you can draw a direct line from the popularity of the Holmes’ stories to the popularity of the currently multiplying CSI series. So if you’re a fan of science fiction, or just forensics, this book should be a part of your library.
    • 2/5
      The first Sherlock Holmes book -- did Conan Doyle invent the filtering of a story through a secondary participant (Dr. Watson)? I haven't ever read any Sherlock Holmes books, and I wasn't overly impressed. It was okay and a quick read, but Holmes seems like a pretty arrogant SOB to me. Knows too much and is glad to tell everyone so. The Utah digression was distracting.
    • 5/5
      The original and best Sherlock Holmes story, about fear, hatred, tragedy, recrimination, and all with a back story of Mormonism in the USA. If you have not read this yet, I'd encourage you to. You'll be hard pushed to find better mystery writing today.
    • 4/5
      The quirky character of famous detective Sherlock Holmes is introduced with rapid language and ensuing hilarity in A Study in Scarlet, the first of the Holmes novels. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle engages readers in a story filled with twists, turns, and trails with dead ends. Told initially from the reminiscences of Doctor Watson, A Study in Scarlet follows the team through their first case together, a seemingly unsolvable murder. The oblivious Scotland Yard cannot find a single clue as to a potential suspect or the method of murder when Sherlock Holmes is called to assist. Witty banter allows readers to become acquainted with Holmes, and nonstop action (he seems incapable of sitting still or even sleeping) keeps the plot flowing with ease. Readers remain hooked as Conan Doyle presents new characters with perplexing additions to the case, another murder and a disguise that deceives even Holmes. Natural dialogue and picturesque descriptions bring the reader right to the streets of London, always one erratic step behind Sherlock.After Holmes abruptly and unexpectedly apprehends a suspect in the murders of Americans E.J. Drebber and Joseph Stangerson, readers are taken back many years before the crimes were ever committed and given a look into their past. Conan Doyle’s narrative here is slow and struggles without the character of Holmes to push the story along, but readers will press forward, searching for answers that seem nonexistent in this baffling mystery. Bookworms will be left searching for the next Holmes novel, eager for more stories of the witty and relentless detective.Paige
    • 5/5
      Sherlock was one of the books I thought I'd never read... until I caught the BBC series. After reading, I think both the series and the books are fantastic in their own ways. This is my favorite of the first three Sherlock books. I'm planning on reading the others at another time. I had to write a review after a previous reviewer said they didn't like the books after seeing the series. It IS possible to enjoy both!
    • 5/5
      Sherlock Holmes is an iconic character, and his first book is (I think) his best. A Study in Scarlet introduces Mr Holmes and showcases his analytical genius as he navigates through the first of many cases the detective solves. A classic.
    • 3/5
      What better place to start reading Holmes than at the beginning? Although not usually a fan of mysteries, I enjoyed reading about Holmes and his unapologetically superior powers of observation and deduction. It was nice to begin at the beginning and read about how Holmes and Watson first met, but I am looking forward to moving past the introduction stage and discovering more of the depth in their characters and their friendship.As for the story itself, the spiral of story upon story upon story kept me engaged and entertained. The abrupt switch in the middle of the book from a 1900s London crime scene to an unexplored, pre-Mormon Utah was more than a little confusing, but once I figured out it was part of the story the switch was easy enough to follow. I don't know if I liked it enough to read the entire Holmes saga, but for now I'm looking forward to the next one in the series.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed this Holmes tale much more than "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." The depth of the mystery was much greater than in the shorter vignettes and took me completely by surprise. At one point I had to actually look up information on the book to make sure it was one story and not two shorter ones because the second part was not obviously a flashback. Well done mystery and an enjoyable read.
    • 4/5
      Funny... I guess I read this 30 years ago when I was a kid, and compared to the short stories, I didn't remember it too well... halfway through the book and all of a sudden there are four or five chapters in Utah with Bringham Young and the Mormons? Huh? What happened to the pocket watches and the gaslights and the coach-and-fours? Still great, of course.
    • 4/5
      I loved the story and the way it was constructed then deconstructed at the end to show the thinking of the great detective. I look forward to reading the rest of Conan Doyle's work which I have just acquired on Kindle.
    • 4/5
      Deduction porn, really. Rather large digression in the middle though.
    • 4/5
      Doyle's work is surprisingly accessible for being so old. I'm glad that a bookcrossing.com member gave me a stack of Holmes. This novelette (?) was actually one of my least favorite, though, as it got complex and boring. Start with a short story collection. (Hound of the Baskervilles was also one that dragged for me.)
    • 3/5
      This is were it all started. It was okay. A bit on the boring side. There are better Sherlock Holmes story than this one.
    • 3/5
      My first Sherlock Holmes book, so I figured I'd start from the beginning.

      Starts off with a bang - Holmes and Wattson are swiftly established and the mystery put in motion, and all of it runs nicely and without contrivances. The problem comes in halfway into the book where there is a huge shift in narration, that I can't go into due to its spoilerific nature, but that completely breaks apart the flow of the book for the proceeding 30% of it. At the end it ties back up with some good stuff, but it's unfortunate that the middle was such a drag.
    • 4/5
      I’m a lover of mysteries. I grew up watching Perry Mason with my grandmother (did I just age myself?), Columbo and Matlock came out on top as well, and currently, I enjoy a lot of detective shows. So, Sherlock Holmes always appealed to me, but I never read a full length novel (shocker!). So, in my attempt to rectify this, I decided to listen to the audiobook version of A Study in Scarlet. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a bit of a genius. I wish I could just say, “read this book!” and be done with it, but, I’ll try to be coherent.

      A Study in Scarlet is written in two parts, John Watson is the narrator. He is introduced to Sherlock Holmes and the two agree to share a room together - the famous 221B Baker Street lodgings. Their introduction to each other is detailed and a bit tedious, but we learn, along with Watson, the curious nature of Holmes; his diverse visitors and his strange habits. The case starts, as most do, with a murder. Holmes is called to the scene of the crime where he is asked to aid in the murder investigation of Enoch Drebber, who was found dead in a building with the word “RACHE” scribbled above the corpse. Soon, another corpse shows up - Stangerson, the Drebber’s secretary is found dead with “RACHE” written above the corpse.

      The first part focuses on the present, the murder of the two men and Holmes’s deduction of the killer. As Watson is relaying the story, the reader isn’t privvy to Holmes’s methods until he reveals them to Watson - who asks intellegent questions (even though he does spend most of the beginning questioning Holmes’s authenticity).

      The second part of the story switches to the past and is written in third person. It follows the story of John Ferrier and Lucy, two lone survivors of a party of pioneers who are rescued by a group of Mormons. The sudden switch in story and perspective is a bit jarring, but I was quickly sucked into the society and Lucy’s situation Information on Stangerson and Drebber’s past is revealed in such a way that I felt empathetic towards their murderer - a really interesting twist.

      Though it’s very heavy on the narration and light on the dialogue, and though the pace is rather slow, A Study in Scarlet still managed to capture my imagination and only served to cement my love of Holmes. If you’re a fan of mysteries and smart reads, then A Study in Scarlet will be a great read for you.
    • 3/5
      After they caught a suspect the story suddenly changes to the American west. I thought it was a problem with my download, but that is the way the book is. After going through a story that seems to be totally unrelated to the mystery the explanation of the connection comes. The change was very jarring.
    • 3/5
      I think this is the first time I've read a Sherlock Holmes story. They're so familiar from film and TV adaptations that it's good to get back to the original. I was startled by the change of pace in part two, where we're thrown out of 1880s London and into the Mormons' journey to Utah and the story of John and Lucy Ferrier. I'm guessing Conan Doyle doesn't have too many Mormon fans...
    • 5/5
      This, the very first Sherlock Holmes story, is a re-read, I have read the whole canon several times before. It is particularly striking as being a story of two halves. After the initial meeting between Holmes and Watson - surely one of the most significant and memorable literary acquaintanceships - the story of murder unfolds against the London backdrop that is considered so typically Sherlockian. The mystery is solved half way through. The second half is then a sympathetic backstory of why the murderer committed his crimes, which takes us to Utah and the Mormons (whose cultish nature depicted here is the source of the evil). This is very atypical Conan Doyle material, but brilliantly and dramatically described, his evocation of the bleak and barren landscape every bit as convincing as that of the more familiar foggy London streets. No doubt this contrastingly wide spaced environment is part of the reason why this story has been much less adapted for the screen than Hound of the Baskervilles (Dartmoor is more accessible and realisable than the Utah desert!) or The Sign of Four (set in London). But this is a real classic that deserves to be better known as the beginning of a literary legend. 5/5
    • 3/5
      I've never read any Sherlock Holmes before, so I thought I ought to start at the beginning. Most of the story is told by Watson, recording events after the fact in the form of a rather formal diary. A section is more of a traditional story, recounting events that took place in America which provide the motive for the crime. I didn't enjoy this writing style nearly so much as the first. I found the facts a little thin on the ground, and Holmes supposed deductions far too obscure to form a really engaging mystery. Overall a good book, but not great.
    • 4/5
      This is the first novel featuring Sherlock Holmes. As an introduction, it's perfect. Almost. The book comes in two parts. The first part is Holmes meeting Watson and working their first case together. The second part follows the story of the murderer, detailing his background and motive. At the end of that section the two stories join and he relates his tale to Holmes, Watson, and the police.The first part is obviously the best, since it features Holmes. After all, he is the reason I read the book, so it was a little disappointing to have him absent from nearly half of it. On the other hand, this is the first Holmes book, so Conan Doyle had very little way of anticipating the draw his detective would have on the audience.I already know the character so well, most recently from BBC's Sherlock (which, by the way, does a tremendous job at following this story in the episode titled "A Study In Pink.") and I couldn't help but smile at everything that I recognized and all the little details that I knew would figure in later, like testing poison on Watson's dog. I highly recommend this to any Holmes fan. the book is fast and fresh. It may be over 100 years old, but it doesn't feel like it. Go for it!
    • 4/5
      _A Study in Scarlet_ is an interesting book for several reasons. Here we have the first written adventure of Sherlock Holmes and get both the first introduction to the famous sleuth and his comrade Dr. Watson, as well as details of their first meeting. We are treated to a somewhat humorous précis of Watson’s first impressions of his strange room-mate (detailed in several other reviews) and even manage to see a fledgling Holmes occasionally wrong, or at least not 100% accurate, in some of his initial surmises at the mystery they become embroiled in. We also see the somewhat ambivalent and competitive relationship Holmes has with Scotland Yard and his disdain for the official investigators and their inferior methods of detection.

      The mystery itself involves the double homicide of two Americans and an embarrassment of mysterious clues at the place of the first murder. Of course both Scotland Yard detectives assigned to the case manage to make the wrong assumptions and go off in different directions, though Holmes has to grudgingly admit that they “are coming along” and even wonders at one point if they have managed to beat him to the punch when one of his own assumptions seems to have gone awry.

      The story is actually in two parts, the first of which covers the initial mystery and the very engrossing portrait of Holmes and his many quirks. Holmes ultimately proves able to solve the mystery by the end of this section in a fashion perhaps more mysterious than the murders themselves. From here we go to a flashback of events separated in both time and space by great distance in order to be given the background of the two murders in London and many readers seem to have a big problem with this. I actually found this section, while certainly a bit jarring at first, to be a well-written and entertaining story in itself. Its chief failings seem to be that a) it is not a story involving Sherlock Holmes, and b) the historicity of some of its facts can be considered somewhat questionable as it turns the early Mormons and their leaders into some kind of nefarious secret society rivalling even the Illuminati or Rosicrucians. I didn’t find either of these elements to be too great of an obstacle personally. I knew that we would return to Holmes & Watson in due course to be provided with our explanations and revelations and if I wasn’t being given a straight history lesson on the true founding of Salt Lake City, then I was certainly given an entertaining tale that was probably more interesting than the facts themselves would have been. The only part of this tale I really found questionable was that a man like Jefferson Hope would simply wait a month for Lucy to die of a broken heart after she’d been abducted and didn’t try to rescue her, even if it proved impossible and meant his death.

      The culmination of both stories as they meet in the rooms of Holmes and Watson at 221B Baker Street in London was satisfying and I highly recommend this story. Another 4, or 4.5 star book from Doyle.

    Book preview

    A Study in Scarlet - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

    I. Mr. Sherlock Holmes

    Table of Contents

    In the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army. Having completed my studies there, I was duly attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as Assistant Surgeon. The regiment was stationed in India at the time, and before I could join it, the second Afghan war had broken out. On landing at Bombay, I learned that my corps had advanced through the passes, and was already deep in the enemy's country. I followed, however, with many other officers who were in the same situation as myself, and succeeded in reaching Kandahar in safety, where I found my regiment, and at once entered upon my new duties.

    The campaign brought honours and promotion to many, but for me it had nothing but misfortune and disaster. I was removed from my brigade and attached to the Berkshires, with whom I served at the fatal battle of Maiwand.

    There I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery. I should have fallen into the hands of the murderous Ghazis had it not been for the devotion and courage shown by Murray, my orderly, who threw me across a pack-horse, and succeeded in bringing me safely to the British lines.

    Worn with pain, and weak from the prolonged hardships which I had undergone, I was removed, with a great train of wounded sufferers, to the base hospital at Peshawar. Here I rallied, and had already improved so far as to be able to walk about the wards, and even to bask a little upon the verandah, when I was struck down by enteric fever, that curse of our Indian possessions. For months my life was despaired of, and when at last I came to myself and became convalescent, I was so weak and emaciated that a medical board determined that not a day should be lost in sending me back to England. I was dispatched, accordingly, in the troopship Orontes, and landed a month later on Portsmouth jetty, with my health irretrievably ruined, but with permission from a paternal government to spend the next nine months in attempting to improve it.

    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 will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that 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 realised 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 to take up my quarters in some less pretentious and less expensive domicile.

    On the very day that I had come to this conclusion, I was standing at the Criterion Bar, when some one tapped me on the shoulder, and turning round I recognised young Stamford, who had been a dresser under me at Barts. The sight of a friendly face in the great wilderness of London is a pleasant thing indeed to a lonely man. In old days Stamford had never been a particular crony of mine, but now I hailed him with enthusiasm, and he, in his turn, appeared to be delighted to see me. In the exuberance of my joy, I asked him to lunch with me at the Holborn, and we started off together in a hansom.

    Whatever have you been doing with yourself, Watson? he asked in undisguised wonder, as we rattled through the crowded London streets. You are as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut.

    I gave him a short sketch of my adventures, and had hardly concluded it by the time that we reached our destination.

    Poor devil! he said, commiseratingly, after he had listened to my misfortunes. What are you up to now?

    Looking for lodgings, I answered. Trying to solve the problem as to whether it is possible to get comfortable rooms at a reasonable price.

    That's a strange thing, remarked my companion; you are the second man to-day that has used that expression to me.

    And who was the first? I asked.

    A fellow who is working at the chemical laboratory up at the hospital. He was bemoaning himself this morning because he could not get someone to go halves with him in some nice rooms which he had found, and which were too much for his purse.

    By Jove! I cried, if he really wants someone to share the rooms and the expense, I am the very man for him. I should prefer having a partner to being alone.

    Young Stamford looked rather strangely at me over his wine-glass. You don't know Sherlock Holmes yet, he said; perhaps you would not care for him as a constant companion.

    Why, what is there against him?

    Oh, I didn't say there was anything against him. He is a little queer in his ideas—an enthusiast in some branches of science. As far as I know he is a decent fellow enough.

    A medical student, I suppose? said I.

    No—I have no idea what he intends to go in for. I believe he is well up in anatomy, and he is a first-class chemist; but, as far as I know, he has never taken out any systematic medical classes. His studies are very desultory and eccentric, but he has amassed a lot of out-of-the way knowledge which would astonish his professors.

    Did you never ask him what he was going in for? I asked.

    No; he is not a man that it is easy to draw out, though he can be communicative enough when the fancy seizes him.

    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. How could I meet this friend of yours?

    He is sure to be at the laboratory, returned my companion. He either avoids the place for weeks, or else he works there from morning to night. If you like, we shall drive round together after luncheon.

    Certainly, I answered, and the conversation drifted away into other channels.

    As we made our way to the hospital after leaving the Holborn, Stamford gave me a few more particulars about the gentleman whom I proposed to take as a fellow-lodger.

    You mustn't blame me if you don't get on with him, he said; I know nothing more of him than I have learned from meeting him occasionally in the laboratory. You proposed this arrangement, so you must not hold me responsible.

    If we don't get on it will be easy to part company, I answered. It seems to me, Stamford, I added, looking hard at my companion, that you have some reason for washing your hands of the matter. Is this fellow's temper so formidable, or what is it? Don't be mealy-mouthed about it.

    It is not easy to express the inexpressible, he answered with a laugh. Holmes is a little too scientific for my tastes—it approaches to cold-bloodedness. I could imagine his giving a friend a little pinch of the latest vegetable alkaloid, not out of malevolence, you understand, but simply out of a spirit of inquiry in order to have an accurate idea of the effects. To do him justice, I think that he would take it himself with the same readiness. He appears to have a passion for definite and exact knowledge.

    Very right too.

    Yes, but it may be pushed to excess. When it comes to beating the subjects in the dissecting-rooms with a stick, it is certainly taking rather a bizarre shape.

    Beating the subjects!

    Yes, to verify how far bruises may be produced after death. I saw him at it with my own eyes.

    And yet you say he is not a medical student?

    No. Heaven knows what the objects of his studies are. But here we are, and you must form your own impressions about him. As he spoke, we turned down a narrow lane and passed through a small side-door, which opened into a wing of the great hospital. It was familiar ground to me, and I needed no guiding as we ascended the bleak stone staircase and made our way down the long corridor with its vista of whitewashed wall and dun-coloured doors. Near the further end a low arched passage branched away from it and led to the chemical laboratory.

    This was a lofty chamber, lined and littered with countless bottles. Broad, low tables were scattered about, which bristled with retorts, test-tubes, and little Bunsen lamps, with their blue flickering flames. There was only one student in the room, who was bending over a distant table absorbed in his work. At the sound of our steps he glanced round and sprang to his feet with a cry of pleasure. I've found it! I've found it, he shouted to my companion, running towards us with a test-tube in his hand. I have found a re-agent which is precipitated by haemoglobin, and by nothing else. Had he discovered a gold mine, greater delight could not have shone upon his features.

    Dr. Watson, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, said Stamford, introducing us.

    How are you? he said cordially, gripping my hand with a strength for which I should hardly have given him credit. You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.

    How on earth did you know that? I asked in astonishment.

    Never mind, said he, chuckling to himself. The question now is about haemoglobin. No doubt you see the significance of this discovery of mine?

    It is interesting, chemically, no doubt, I answered, but practically—

    Why, man, it is the most practical medico-legal discovery for years. Don't you see that it gives us an infallible test for blood stains. Come over here now! He seized me by the coat-sleeve in his eagerness, and drew me over to the table at which he had been working. Let us have some fresh blood, he said, digging a long bodkin into his finger, and drawing off the resulting drop of blood in a chemical pipette. Now, I add this small quantity of blood to a litre of water. You perceive that the resulting mixture has the appearance of pure water. The proportion of blood cannot be more than one in a million. I have no doubt, however, that we shall be able to obtain the characteristic reaction. As he spoke, he threw into the vessel a few white crystals, and then added some drops of a transparent fluid. In an instant the contents assumed a dull mahogany colour, and a brownish dust was precipitated to the bottom of the glass jar.

    Ha! ha! he cried, clapping his hands, and looking as delighted as a child with a new toy. What do you think of that?

    It seems to be a very delicate test, I remarked.

    Beautiful! beautiful! The old Guiacum test was very clumsy and uncertain. So is the microscopic examination for blood corpuscles. The latter is valueless if the stains are a few hours old. Now, this appears to act as well whether the blood is old or new. Had this test been invented, there are hundreds of men now walking the earth who would long ago have paid the penalty of their crimes.

    Indeed! I murmured.

    Criminal cases are continually hinging upon that one point. A man is suspected of a crime months perhaps after it has been committed. His linen or clothes are examined, and brownish stains discovered upon them. Are they blood stains, or mud stains, or rust stains, or fruit stains, or what are they? That is a question which has puzzled many an expert, and why? Because there was no reliable test. Now we have the Sherlock Holmes' test, and there will no longer be any difficulty.

    His eyes fairly glittered as he spoke, and he put his hand over his heart and bowed as if to some applauding crowd conjured up by his imagination.

    You are to be congratulated, I remarked, considerably surprised at his enthusiasm.

    "There was the case of Von Bischoff at Frankfort last year. He would certainly have been hung had this test been in existence.

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1