The Sign of the Four Chapter 1

Books at Bedtime by Calming Anxiety Sherlock Holmes, the sign of the four, chapter one, the science of deduction.

Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantelpiece and his hyperdermic syringe from its neat, marocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers, he adjusted the delicate needle and rolled back his left shirt cuff. For some little time, his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and the wrist, all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture marks. Finally, he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston and sank back into the velvete lined armchair with a long sigh of satisfaction.

Three times a day, for many months, I had witnessed this performance, but custom had not reconciled my mind to it. On the contrary, from day to day, I had become more irritable at the sight and my conscience swelled nightly within me of the thought that I had lacked the courage to protest. Again and again, I had registered a vow that I should deliver my soul upon the subject. But there was that in the cool, nonchalant hair of my companion which made him the last man with whom one would care to take anything approaching to a liberty.

His great powers, his masterly manner and the experience which I had of his many extraordinary qualities all made me different and backward in crossing him. Yet, upon this afternoon, whether it was the beyond which I had taken with my lunch, or the additional exasperation produced by the extreme deliberation of his manner, I suddenly felt that I could hold out no longer. Which is it today, I asked? Morphine or Cacane?

He raised his eyes languidly from the old plaque less of volume which he had opened. "It is Cacane," he said. "A 7% solution? Would you care to try it?"

"No, indeed, I answered brusquely." My constitution has not got over the Afghan campaign yet. I cannot afford to throw away any extra strain upon it. He smiled at my vehemence.

Perhaps you are right, Watson, he said. I suppose that its influence is physically a bad one. I find it, however, so transcendently stimulating and clarifying to the mind that its second reaction is a matter of small moment. But consider, I said earnestly, "Count the cost.

Your brain may, as you say, be roused and excited, but it is pathologically a morbid process, which involves increased tissue change, and may at last leave a permanent weakness." You know, too, what a black reaction comes upon you. Surely, the game is hardly worth the candle. Why should you, for a mere passing pleasure, risk the loss of those great powers with which you have been in doubt?

Perhaps, that I speak not only is one comrade to another, but as a medical man, to one whose constitution hears some extent answerable. He did not seem offended. On the contrary, he put his fingertips together and leaned his elbows on his arms on a chair, like one who has a relish for conversation. My mind, he said, "Rebells at stagnation.

Give me problems. Give me work. Give me the most obtuse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis. And I'm in my own proper atmosphere.

I can dispense then with artificial stimulants, but I abhor the del routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. This is why I have chosen my own particular profession, or rather created it, for I am the only one in the world. The only unofficial detective I said, raising my eyebrows.

The only unofficial consultant detective he answered, "I am the last and highest court of appeal in detection." When Gregson, or the Stride, or Athlean-Neigh-Jones are out of their depths, which, by the way, is their normal state. The matter is laid before me. I examine the data as an expert and pronounce a specialist's opinion.

I claim no credit in such cases. My name figures in no newspaper. The work itself, the pleasure of finding a field for my peculiar powers, is my highest reward. But you have yourself had some experience of my methods of work in the Jefferson Hope case.

Yes, indeed, said I cordially. I was never so struck by anything in my life. I even embodied it in a small brochure with the somewhat fantastic title of "A Study in Scarlet." He shook his head sadly.

I glanced over it, said he, "honestly, I cannot congratulate you upon it. Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science, and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner." You have attempted to tinge it with romanticism, which produces much the same effect as if you worked a love story or an elotement into the fifth proposition of the Euclid. But the romance was there, I remonstrated.

I could not tamper with the facts. Some facts should be suppressed, or at least a just sense of repulsion should be observed in treating them. The only point in the case, which deserved mention, was the curious, analytical reasoning from effects to causes by which I succeeded in unraveling it. I was annoyed at this criticism of a work which had been specially designed to please him.

I confessed, too, that I was irritated by the Egotism which seemed to demand that every line of my pamphlet should be devoted to his own special doings. More than once during the years that I had lived with him in Baker Street, I had observed that a small vanity underlay my companions quite in didactic manner. I made no remark, however, but by sat nursing my wounded leg. I had a jazale bullet through it sometime before, and though it did not prevent me from walking, it ached wearily at every change of the weather.

My practice has extended recently to the continent said Holmes, "After a while filling up his old, preer-root pipe." I was consulted last week by Francois Le Villeard, who, as you probably know, has come rather to the front lately in the French detective service. He has all the Celtic power of quick intration, but he is deficient in the wide range of exact knowledge which is essential to the higher developments of his art. The case was concerned with a will and possessed some features of interest.

I was able to refer him to parallel casins, the one at Riga in 1857, and the other at St Louis in 1871, which have suggested to him the true solution. Here is a letter which I had this morning acknowledging my assistance. He tossed over, as he spoke, a crumpled sheet of foreign newspaper. I glanced my eyes down it, catching a profusion of notes of admiration, with stray, malefic and coup d'aumeur, or tour de force, all testifying to the ardent admiration of the Frenchman.

He speaks as a pupil to his master said, "I, oh, he writes my assistance too highly," said Sherlock Holmes lightly. He has considered all gifts himself. He possesses two out of the three qualities necessary for the ideal detective. He has the power of observation and that of deduction.

He is only wanting in knowledge, and that may come in time. He is now translating my small works into French. Your works? Oh, didn't you know he cried laughing?

Yes, I have been guilty of several monographs. They are all upon technical subjects. Here, for example, is one. Upon the distinction between the ashes of various debackers.

In it, I enumerate 140 forms of cigar, cigarette and pipe-tigger-backer, with coloured plates illustrating the difference in the ash. It is a point which is continually turning up in criminal trials, and which is sometimes of supreme importance as a clue. If you can say definitely, for example, that some murder had been done by a man who was smoking an Indian longa, it is obviously that it will narrow your field down of search. For the trained eye, there is as much difference between the black ash and that of the triconopoli, and the white fluff of bird's eye, as there is between a cabbage and a potato.

You have an extraordinary genius for the minute eye, I remarked. I appreciate their importance. Here is my monograph upon the tracing of the footsteps, where some remarks upon the uses of plaster of Paris as a preserver of impresses. Here too is a curious little work upon the influence of the trade upon the form of the hand, with litthotypes of the hands of the slaters, sailors, court-cutters, compositors and weavers.

This is a matter of great practical interest to the scientific detective, especially in the cases of unclean bodies or in discovering the antecedents of criminals. But I wear you with my hobby. Not at all I answered earnestly. It is of the greatest interest to me, especially since I have had the opportunity of observing your practical application of it.

But you spoke just now of observation and deduction. Surely the one to some extent implies the other. Why, hardly, he answered, leaning back luxuriously in his armchair and sending up thick blue reeds from his pipe. For example, observation shows me that you have been to the Whittmore Street post office this morning.

But deduction lets me know that when you are there you dispatched a telegram. Bright said I, right on both counts, but I confess that I don't see how you arrived at it. It was a sudden impulse upon my part and I have mentioned it to no one. It is simplicity itself you remarked, chuckling at my surprise.

So absurdly simple, that an explanation is superfluous and yet it may serve to define the limits of observation and deduction. Observation tells me that you have a little reddish mould adhering to your inslet. Just opposite the Whittmore Street office they have taken up the pavement and thrown up some earth which lies in such a way that it is difficult to avoid treading in it on entering. The earth is of a very peculiar reddish tint which is found as far as I know, nowhere else in the neighbourhood.

So much is observation, the rest is deduction. How then did you deduce the telegram? Why? Of course I knew that you had not written a letter since I sat opposite you to all morning.

I see also in your open desk that you have a sheet of stamps and a thick bundle of postcards. What could you go into the post office for then but send a wire, eliminate all other factors and the one which remains must be the truth. In this case it certainly is so, I replied after a little thought. The thing however is as you say of the simplest.

Would you think me impertinent if I were to put your theories to a more severe test? On the contrary you answered. It would prevent me from taking a second dose of cocaine. I should be delighted to look into any problem which you may submit to me.

I have heard you say that it is difficult for a man to have any object in day use without leaving the impress of his individuality upon it in such a way that a trained observer might read it. Now, I have here a watch which was recently come into my possession. Would you have the kindness to let me have an opinion upon the character or the habits of the late owner? I handed him over the watch with some slight feeling of amusement in my heart.

For the test was, as I thought, an impossible one. And as I intended, it has a lesson against the somewhat dogmatic tone which he occasionally assumed. He balanced the watch in his hand, gazed hard at the dial, opened the back and was in an exam in the works. First, with his naked eyes and then with a powerful convex lens.

I could hardly keep from smiling at his crestful and face when he finally snapped the case too and handed it back. There were hardly any data he remarked. The watch has been recently cleaned which robs me of the most suggestive facts. "You are right," I answered.

It was cleaned before being sent to me. In my heart, I had accused my companion of putting forward a most lame and impotent excuse to cover his failure. What data could he have expected from an unclean watch? The one satisfactory, "My research has not been entirely barren," he observed, staring up at the ceiling with creamy, black-luster eyes.

Subject to your correction, I should judge that the watch belonged to your older brother who inherited it from your father. That you gather no doubt from the HW upon the back. Quite so. The W suggests your own name, the date of the watch is nearly fifty years back and the initials are as old as the watch.

But it was made for the last generation. Georey usually descends to the eldest son and he is the most likely to have the same name as your father. Your father has, if I remember right, been dead many years. It was therefore been in the hands of the eldest brother.

Right so far said I, anything else? He was a man of untidy habits, very untidy and careless. He was left with good prospects but he threw away his chance, lived for some time in poverty with occasional short intervals of prosperity and finally taking to drink. He died.

That is all I can gather. I sprang from my chair and limped impatiently about the room with considerable bitterness in my heart. This is unworthy of you homes I said. I could not believe that you would have descended to this.

You have made inquiries into the history of my unhappy brother and you now pretend to deduce this knowledge in some fanciful way. You cannot expect me to believe that you have read all this from an old watch. It is unkind and to speak plainly, has a touch of charlatanism about it. My dear doctor said he kindly, pray accept my apologies.

Viewing the matter is an abstract problem. I had forgotten how personal and painful this thing might be to you. I assure you, however, that I have never even knew that you had a brother until you handed me the watch. Then the how in the name of all that is wonderful, did you get these facts?

They are absolutely correct in every particular. Ah, that is good luck. I could only say what was the balance of probability? I did not at all expect to be so accurate.

But it was not me a guesswork. No, no. I never guess it is a shocking habit destructive to the logical faculty. What seems strange to you is only so because you do not follow my train of thought or observe the small facts upon which large inferences made a bit of bending.

For example, I began by stating that your brother was careless. When you observe the lower part of that watch case, you notice that it is not only dented into places, but it is cut and marked all over from the habit of keeping other hard objects such as coins or keys in the same pocket. Surely, it is no great feat to assume that a man who treats a 50-giny watch so cavalierly must be a careless man. Neither is it at very far-fetched inference that a man who inherits one article of such value is pretty well provided for in other areas.

I nodded to show that I followed his reasoning. It is very customary for porn brokers in England when they take a watch to scratch the number of the ticket with a pinpoint upon the inside of the case. It is more handy than a label, and there is no risk the number being lost or transposed. There are no less than four such numbers visible to my lens on the inside of this case.

Inference, that your brother was often at low water. Secondary inference that he had occasional bursts of prosperity or he could not have redeemed the pledge. Finally, I asked you to look at the inner plate, which contains the keyhole. Look at the thousands of scratches all around the home marks where the key has slipped.

Soba Man's key could have scored those grooves, but you will never see a drunkard's watch without them. He winds it at night and he leaves those traces of his unsteady hand. Where is the mystery in all this? It is as clear as daylight I answered.

I regret the injustice which I did you. I should have been more faithful in your marvellous faculty. May I ask whether you have any professional inquiry on foot at present? None, hence the cocaine.

I cannot live without brain work. What helps is there to live for? Stand at the window here. Wars every such a dreary, disamable and profitable world.

See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and grips across the done coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly priseic and material? What is the use of having powers, doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them? Crime is commonplace.

Existence is commonplace, and no qualities save those which are commonplace have any function upon the earth. I had opened my mouth to reply to his tarad, when, with a crisp knock, our land lady entered, bearing a card upon a brass salver. "A young lady for you," she said, addressing my companion. "Miss Mary Morstin," he read.

"Hum, I have no recollection of the name. Ask the young lady to step up, Mrs. Hudson. Don't go, doctor, I should prefer you to remain."