第 41 页

IN CONTEXT

TYPE

Short story

FIRST PUBLICATION

UK: December 1911 US: December 1911

COLLECTION

His Last Bow, 1917

CHARACTERS

Lady Frances Carfax

Noble lady of modest means.

Honourable Philip Green

Englishman who has made his fortune in South Africa.

Dr. Shlessinger Convalescent missionary recently returned from South America.

Mrs. Shlessinger

Missionary’s wife.

Marie Devine Lady Frances Carfax’s maid.

Jules Vibart Marie Devine’s fiancé.

WE SIMPLY CAN’T AFFORD

TO WAIT FOR THE POLICE

OR TO KEEP WITHIN THE

FOUR CORNERS OF THE LAW

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF LADY FRANCES CARFAX (1911)

T

his case begins, as so many do, in the sitting room at 221B Baker Street, where Holmes divines Watson’s recent activities from the splashes of mud seen on his left coat sleeve (which indicate that he shared a hansom cab that morning) and the way his boots have been tied differently than usual (by the boy at the Turkish baths). He teases the doctor about his extravagant bathing habits, asking, “Why the relaxing and expensive Turkish rather than the invigorating homemade article?” A little hypocritical of him, perhaps, given Watson’s later claim in “The Adventure of the Illustrious Client” (pp.266–71) that “both Holmes and I had a weakness for the Turkish bath,” but the detective nevertheless suggests a far superior form of therapy for his friend—a trip to Switzerland to undertake some preliminary research on a case.

Watson goes abroad

Lady Frances Carfax, the middle-aged, unmarried daughter of an earl, has gone missing. She was staying at a hotel in the town of Lausanne, but left very suddenly and has not been heard from since.

Lady Frances is not a wealthy woman, but she does own some unique and valuable items of jewelry, which she carries with her everywhere. Holmes is buried in another case, and says, half-joking, that “It is best that I should not leave the country. Scotland Yard feels lonely without me, and it causes an unhealthy excitement among the criminal classes.” So Watson is dispatched as Holmes’s representative, and the pair agree to keep in contact via telegram.

Conan Doyle himself was very fond of Switzerland, having first visited the country in 1893. He took his first wife Louise (or “Touie”) on

Ah, what has happened to the Lady Frances? Is she alive or dead? There is our problem. Sherlock Holmes

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF LADY FRANCES CARFAX 237

Holmes deduces Watson’s movements that day

Watson is in the habit of tying his boots in a certain way, but today they are fastened with an elaborate double bow.

It is clear that he has removed his boots, and that someone else has later tied them.

It could only be either a bootmaker, or the boy at the Turkish baths.

It is unlikely to be the bootmaker, since Watson’s boots are nearly new.

an extended vacation to Davos in an attempt to alleviate the symptoms of her tuberculosis. While there, he became a very early exponent of skiing—a Norwegian sport that was almost unheard of in the Swiss Alps. But perhaps the greatest testament to his affection for the country was that, shortly after his first visit, he was inspired to use it as the location for Holmes’s death in “The Final Problem” (pp.142–47).

A suspicious stranger

In Lausanne, Watson speaks with the fiancé of Marie Devine, Lady Carfax’s maid, who reports that the noblewoman’s abrupt departure came shortly after she was seen talking earnestly to a wild-looking, bearded Englishman. He also discovers that her next destination was the German town of Baden. Hot on her trail, he heads there, only to find that three weeks earlier, she had departed for London with

“Well, what remains? The bath.”

some new friends—Dr. Shlessinger, a charismatic missionary who was recovering from a disease he had contracted in South America, and his wife. “Like most lonely ladies, Lady Frances found her comfort and occupation in religion,” Watson remarks on being told by the hotel manager that Lady Frances had helped Mrs. Shlessinger nurse the “convalescent saint.” It also emerges that Marie Devine no longer works for Lady Carfax, and that the mysterious Englishman has been in Baden, inquiring after her whereabouts. By now Watson is convinced that this “sinister and unrelenting figure” is pursuing poor Lady Carfax from place to place, forcing her to flee in fear of him. In a telegram to Holmes, he boasts of how “rapidly and surely I had got down to the roots of the matter.”

Watson then heads to France, in the hope of getting a lead from Marie Devine. He tracks her down

Conan Doyle helped to popularize skiing, and correctly predicted that in the future people would flock to Switzerland to enjoy the skiing season.

in Montpellier, and she confesses her own suspicions about the “fierce and terrible” bearded man; as the two talk, the man himself appears in the street outside. Watson accosts him, demanding to know what he has done with Lady Carfax. The man is amazed, and then furious, grabbing Watson by the throat: the doctor is saved only by the unexpected intervention of a local workman, who turns out to be Holmes, in disguise. The half-strangled Watson is then told mockingly by Holmes, “A very pretty hash you have made of it!… I cannot at the moment recall any possible blunder which you have omitted. The total effect of your proceeding has been to give the alarm everywhere and yet to ❯❯

238 HOLMES TAKES A BOW

discover nothing.” He lampoons his friend’s investigative efforts before going on to trumpet his own superior findings in the case.

If Watson feels bitter about this, he is probably justified, since Holmes’s treatment of him is even more insensitive than usual. It is not the first time he has sent Watson on ahead, following more discreetly himself, but unlike in The Hound of the Baskervilles (pp.152–61), in which Watson’s presence as the apparent sole investigator serves a valuable purpose, Holmes’s somewhat unsatisfactory explanation for his sudden appearance here is simply that he was able to get away from London after all. Holmes can be a mercurial creature, and there is clearly no sign of the occasionally humble and affectionate man who exclaims, in “The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot” (pp.240–45), “Upon my word, Watson! I owe you both my thanks and an apology.”

On the trail of a scoundrel

Watson’s irascible assailant turns out to be the Honourable Philip Green—an English noble who has recently returned from living in

Well, there’s nothing for it now but a direct frontal attack.

Sherlock Holmes

South Africa. He explains that he and Lady Frances had been sweethearts when they were young. However, as he had been a “wild youngster” and “she could not tolerate a shadow of coarseness,” ultimately she rejected him. Now, many years later, he has made his fortune in South Africa and has been attempting to win her over.

Holmes is then provided with information which confirms that “Dr. Shlessinger” is in fact an extremely dangerous Australian criminal by the name of “Holy” Peters, who preys on “lonely ladies by playing upon their religious feelings,” and that the vulnerable

Chloroform

Widely used as an anesthetic during the Victorian period, chloroform—a colorless liquid, the vapors of which can cause unconsciousness—eventually fell out of favor in the early 20th century, when it was linked to heart complications. Although the image of a sinister kidnapper clapping a chloroform-soaked handkerchief over the mouth of his victim is a popular one in fiction, it is actually very difficult to incapacitate a non-consenting person with chloroform. It takes

Lady Frances is undoubtedly in grave danger. Together with Green, they return to London to continue the search. It proves fruitless until some distinctive ancestral jewelry turns up in a pawnshop. Green lies in wait there and before long, Peters’s so-called wife returns with more of Lady Frances’s inheritance; he follows her, first to an undertaker, and then to an address in South London. Ominously, as he watches the building, a coffin is delivered.

One funeral or two?

Inside the “dusty and moth-eaten” apartment, Holmes and Watson confront Peters, demanding to know what happened to Lady Frances. He claims that she had traveled to London with the couple before giving them the slip, leaving a few old-fashioned jewels behind to cover her bills. Although he has no warrant, Holmes announces that he wants to search the place, and while Peters’s wife calls the police, he barges into a room off the hall. Inside is a coffin, and when Holmes lifts the lid he is astonished to find the wizened body of an old woman. Peters taunts him mercilessly: had he expected it to be Lady Carfax?

at least five minutes, and a continuous supply needs to be administered thereafter. This did not stop people from trying, however, and there are many stories of criminals attempting to sedate their victims in this way. The notorious serial poisoner and (tenuous) Jack the Ripper suspect Dr. Thomas Neill Cream (pictured) is alleged to have used it in at least one of his murders, when in 1879 one of his patients (perhaps also his lover) was discovered dead of a chloroform overdose in an alleyway behind his clinic.

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF LADY FRANCES CARFAX 239

The corpse is that of his wife’s old nurse, who they found, close to death, in the local workhouse and brought home with them; she is to be buried at 8am the next day. The police arrive and eject Holmes and Watson; they can do nothing more until a warrant is secured.

Back at Baker Street, Holmes spends a sleepless night relentlessly going over every detail of the case; then, the next morning, he suddenly realizes what is going on. “Quick, man, quick! It’s life or death… I’ll never forgive myself, never, if we are too late!” He and Watson race to Peters’s house and arrive just as the casket is being carried out. Holmes demands that it is opened and inside, along with the old woman, they find Lady Frances, who has been heavily chloroformed. They are able to revive her, but in the confusion, the criminals slink away.

Unusually, Holmes’s methods are fairly unsophisticated here. There are few illustrations of his analytical mind at work, and, save a timely inference drawn from one important clue (the admission by the undertaker’s wife that the coffin “took longer, being out of the ordinary”—large enough for

My night was haunted by the thought that somewhere a clue, a strange sentence, a curious observation, had come under my notice and had been too easily dismissed.

Sherlock Holmes

two bodies), the results are reached mainly through patient surveillance and straightforward questioning.

An unwanted admirer?

Philip Green displays distinct similarities to Leon Sterndale in “The Devil’s Foot.” Both are big, bearded men with hot tempers who have lived for long periods in Africa and returned to Britain with an element of residual savagery and a propensity to take the law into their own hands. Most significantly, both men are frustrated lovers—a motivation that makes them at once gallant and potentially dangerous.

Modern readers may feel uneasy about Green’s persistent stalking of Lady Frances, not to mention Holmes’s apparent complicity. Although Green claims that she “loved me well enough to remain single all her sainted days just for my sake alone,” the fact is that Lady Carfax has turned him down at least twice, even going to the extraordinary lengths of fleeing Lausanne and taking an elaborate route to Baden with the intention of throwing him off her trail. It is

Victorian workhouses, from one of which Peters takes the old lady, were set up to house and provide work for the poor, elderly, and infirm. Those living in workhouses faced tough conditions.

true that Conan Doyle’s stronger female characters tend to be middle-class, such as Violet Hunter in “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches” (pp.98–101) or Irene Adler in “A Scandal in Bohemia” (pp.56– 61), and Lady Carfax’s propensity to be so easily duped seems to place her in the same category of credulous noblewomen as Violet de Merville in “The Illustrious Client” (pp.266–71). However, at no point do Holmes or Green consider the possibility that her independent lifestyle might be a conscious choice rather than an unhappy circumstance. Lady Frances’s true feelings are not known, but there is something faintly alarming about the ending, as Green’s heavy step is heard, and Holmes withdraws, leaving the semiconscious and defenseless spinster in the hands of “someone who has a better right to nurse this lady than we have.” ■

I HAVE SELDOM

KNOWN A CASE

WHICH AT FIRST

SIGHT PRESENTED

A MORE SINGULAR

PROBLEM

THE ADVENTURE OF THE DEVIL’S FOOT (1910)

IN CONTEXT

TYPE

Short story

FIRST PUBLICATION

UK: December 1910 US: January 1911

COLLECTION

His Last Bow, 1917

CHARACTERS

Dr. Leon Sterndale

Lion-hunter and explorer.

Mortimer Tregennis

Bachelor lodging at the local vicarage.

Owen and George Tregennis

Mortimer’s brothers.

Brenda Tregennis

Mortimer’s sister.

Mr. Roundhay Local vicar.

Dr. Richards Local doctor.

Mrs. Porter Housekeeper at Tredannick Wartha.

W

hen asked by The Strand Magazine in 1927 to list his 12 favorite Holmes stories (see p.18), Conan Doyle commented laconically: “‘The Devil’s Foot’ has points. It is grim and new. We will give it the ninth place.” It is indeed a grim tale—one of Conan Doyle’s most atmospheric and chilling, with a wild, sinister setting, and a horrific mystery at its heart that hints at the dark forces of the supernatural. To solve this case Holmes has to be at his most objective, ingenious, and daring.

In 1910, Conan Doyle and his second wife Jean went to Poldhu in Cornwall for a spring break, staying

THE ADVENTURE OF THE DEVIL’S FOOT 241

The dramatic setting of Mounts Bay, Cornwall, has inspired writers and artists for centuries. This painting was made in 1909 by Canadian Elizabeth Forbes, who settled in Newlyn.

at the Poldhu Hotel. Jean was pregnant with their second son, Adrian, who was born just a few weeks before “The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot” was published. This area of England was steeped in legends of witchcraft, and Conan Doyle evidently decided it was the perfect setting for “The Devil’s Foot”; the story is also perhaps influenced by Conan Doyle’s increasing interest in spiritualism.

Holmes on vacation

It is March 1897, and work has taken its toll on Holmes—he has been advised by an eminent Harley Street doctor to take a vacation, “on the threat of being permanently disqualified from work.” And so Holmes and Watson rent a cottage on the headland at Poldhu. It is a wonderfully atmospheric setting, overlooking “the whole sinister semicircle of Mounts Bay, that old deathtrap of sailing vessels, with its fringe of black cliffs and surge-swept reefs on which innumerable seamen have met their end.”