第 46 页

And there are still more revelations: after consulting the rental agent who manages Nathan Garrideb’s apartment, Holmes learns that the previous tenant was a tall, dark, bearded man—a description that matches Rodger Prescott. The fact that the tenant disappeared suddenly lends weight to Holmes’s theory that John Garrideb and Evans are one and the same man.

Holmes is now sure that “Killer Evans” invented the Garrideb story as an elaborate diversion, in order to gain access to the former home of the man he murdered—but to what end he has no idea. There is, he says, a guilty secret in the room, and this makes their imminent visit to Nathan’s museum of curiosities a much riskier undertaking. Evans is known to carry a gun, so Holmes ensures that he and Watson are both fully armed. As always, the doctor

The word “plough” is misspelled, in “bad English but good American.”

HOWARD GARRIDEB CONSTRUCTOR OF AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY

Binders, reapers, steam and hand plows, drills, harrows, farmer’s carts, buckboards, and all other appliances. Estimates for Artesian Wells.

Apply Grosvenor Buildings, Aston

“Buckboards” is an American term for an open wagon or carriage.

“Artesian Wells” are more common in the US than in Britain.

You’re not hurt, Watson? For God’s sake, say that you are not hurt!

Sherlock Holmes

accepts the dangers he may face with equanimity. He is determined to stand by, and support, his friend.

A close confrontation

The pair make their way to the empty apartment and conceal themselves in a closet in the main room, where they wait. As predicted, Evans arrives and breaks into the house. He makes a beeline for a table in the middle of the room, which he moves to reveal a trapdoor. Once he has descended through it, Holmes and Watson begin to creep stealthily toward the opening. A creaking floorboard alerts Evans to their presence, who emerges to find himself confronted by two pistols. Initially he is both bewildered and furious, but then he appears to give himself up: “I guess you have been one too many for me, Mr. Holmes. Saw through my game, I suppose, and played me for a sucker from the first.” But this is just another diversionary tactic— moving quickly, Evans manages to fire two shots from his revolver, one of which grazes Watson’s leg, before Holmes brings his gun crashing down on the man’s head.

Evans’s elaborate plot is then revealed. The man is a criminal. Beneath the trapdoor is a hidden

THE ADVENTURE OF THE THREE GARRIDEBS 265

room that contains a printing press, and Evans explains that the late Rodger Prescott was an expert counterfeiter—the most accomplished in London. Evans’s quarry was the £200,000 in forged notes concealed in the hidden room. His story of the Garrideb inheritance is as counterfeit as the forged notes that lie beneath their feet. He had woven an elaborate web of lies so he could distract the gullible and preoccupied collector, whom he dismisses as a “crazy boob of a bug-hunter,” and claim the wealth that lay just beneath his floorboards. Desperate to secure his freedom, Evans offers Holmes a share of the counterfeit booty, but the detective laughs in his face. Holmes hands the villain over to the police, and Evans finds himself back in jail for attempted murder.

Truth, lies, and loyalty

Nathan Garrideb’s museum-style collection is a reflection of his single-minded passion for the past, and his desire to understand it.

His treasures—the reader is led to believe—are authentic, acquired from London’s fine art auctioneers Sotheby’s and Christies, and nothing gives him greater pleasure than studying and cataloging them. In contrast, “John Garrideb” is nothing but a fake—just a violent, greedy man who has utilized his intelligence for mere criminal gain. It seems strangely symbolic that underneath the lovingly assembled collection of an authentic seeker of knowledge lies the equipment of a criminal counterfeiter. Sadly, the news that his fabulous inheritance is mere fantasy sends Nathan Garrideb into a shock from which he never recovers, and he ultimately ends up living in a nursing home.

With its examination of truth and lies, authenticity and fakery, this story is also a tribute to the enduring friendship between Holmes and Watson. For all the banter and teasing, it is quite clear that Holmes feels genuine love for Watson and great respect for the unquestioning loyalty and bravery

Oxford University’s Pitt Rivers Museum, founded in 1884, holds more than 500,000 objects gathered by Victorian collector General Pitt Rivers.

that his friend has displayed during their years together. His panic about the potential severity of Watson’s injury, and his heartfelt concern for his friend, is very touching, and there is a rare moment of open emotion from the normally taciturn and cool detective when he turns furiously to Evans and declares, “If you had killed Watson you would not have got out of this room alive.”

Watson, for his part, is clearly moved by Holmes’s capacity for friendship here, saying, “It was worth a wound—it was worth many wounds—to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask… For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation.” ■

SOME PEOPLE’S

AFFABILITY IS MORE

DEADLY THAN THE

VIOLENCE OF

COARSER SOULS

THE ADVENTURE OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS CLIENT (1925)

IN CONTEXT

TYPE

Short story

FIRST PUBLICATION

US: November 1924 UK: February 1925

COLLECTION

The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes, 1927

CHARACTERS

Colonel Sir James Damery

High-society figure acting on behalf of an anonymous client.

Baron Adelbert Gruner

Austrian aristocrat and notorious violent womanizer.

Violet de Merville

Baron Gruner’s fiancée.

Shinwell Johnson

Former criminal and associate of Holmes.

Kitty Winter Shunned former mistress of the baron.

Sir Leslie Oakshott Surgeon.

O

ver ten years have passed since the events of this story took place, and Holmes has finally given Watson permission to write up the case, presumably because there is no longer a need to protect certain reputations. Watson claims the case is “in some ways, the supreme moment of my friend’s career.” However, readers might not entirely agree. It does not involve any particularly extraordinary deductions on Holmes’s part, and the identity of the client remains undisclosed. The plot is also strikingly similar to the earlier Holmes tale “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton” (pp.186–87). Nevertheless,

THE ADVENTURE OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS CLIENT 267

“The Adventure of the Illustrious Client” is a thrilling yarn that blends high-society glamour with the grit of London’s criminal underworld. It also has one of the most compelling villains and most horrifically violent endings displayed anywhere in the entire Holmes canon.

A high-society visitor

Turkish baths were extremely popular among the well-to-do Victorians, and by the late 19th century, London was full of them. As Holmes and Watson enjoy a smoke in such an establishment on Northumberland Avenue (which runs between Trafalgar Square and the Embankment), Holmes takes out a note sent to him by a certain Colonel Sir James Damery, who has requested an audience with Holmes at Baker Street that day. Sir James’s name is recognized by Watson as “a household word in society,” and the Carlton Club in Pall Mall, where the note was written, was itself a well-known spot for high-ranking Conservative politicians and socialites in real life.

These high-society reference points suggest this case is likely to be one that will require the utmost discretion. Holmes himself notes that Damery has “a reputation for arranging delicate matters which are to be kept out of the papers”— that is, matters of social propriety. When Sir James arrives at 221B later that day, Watson describes

The connections of the mystery client

Illustrious

friends with

client

General de Merville

father of

Violet de Merville

engaged to

represented by

Sir James Damery

appeals for help from

Sherlock Holmes

asks for assistance from

former friends

Baron mistress of Kitty with Shinwell

Gruner Winter Johnson

It is my business to follow the details of Continental crime.

Sherlock Holmes

his fastidiously well-turned-out figure, with top hat, frock coat, and varnished shoes. Sir James expresses his satisfaction at Watson’s presence—a nod to the chronicler’s own fame by this point.

An ill-advised match

Sir James then introduces his subject: the infamous Baron Albert Gruner, who he claims is the most dangerous man in Europe. Holmes immediately refers to Gruner as “the Austrian murderer”—clearly, both Holmes and Sir James are in agreement that (despite an official verdict to the contrary) the baron almost certainly murdered his ex-wife in Austria, and escaped prosecution only on technical grounds and due to “the suspicious death of a witness.”

Sir James then declares that he is working on behalf of a man who wishes to remain anonymous—the “illustrious client” of the story title. Holmes is perturbed by this desire for secrecy and presses Sir James to reveal the client’s identity, saying he is unable to commit to the case without knowing all the details. Damery remains resolute that he cannot disclose the client’s name, but assures Holmes that “his motives are, to the last degree, honourable and chivalrous” and ❯❯

268 THE FINAL DEDUCTIONS

that Holmes will be proud to serve him. He begs Holmes to listen to all the facts before making a decision.

The baron, who is irresistible to women and frequently takes advantage of them, has recently become engaged to the wealthy and attractive Miss Violet de Merville, the daughter of a famous British general. Given the baron’s violent and highly untrustworthy character, the match is sure to end in disaster for Violet. Holmes hears how deeply she has fallen for the handsome baron. “To say that she loves him hardly expresses it,” says Damery. He says she is “obsessed” by Gruner, who has managed to convince her of his innocence in any wrongdoing to which his name is attached. General de Merville is extremely concerned about the engagement, as is the anonymous client, who has known Violet since she was very young.

After hearing the full story, Holmes agrees to take on the case. He asks whether there is any further information he needs to know about the baron, and learns that he is artistic and an avid collector of Chinese pottery and has even written a book on

I am accustomed to have mystery at one end of my cases, but to have it at both ends is too confusing.

Sherlock Holmes

the subject. Holmes observes that all great criminals have complex minds, citing the famous real-life Victorian villains Charles Peace— an inventor, violin virtuoso, and murderer—and “Wainwright,” that is, Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, a talented artist, critic, and poisoner.

From the stars to the gutter

Holmes’s first port of call is to contact his associate Shinwell Johnson—an ex-criminal who once served two jail terms but has since reformed. In creating this rather unlikely connection, Conan Doyle outlines the panorama of Victorian

Vitriol-throwing

Various descriptions of skin conditions in this story foreshadow the baron’s disfigurement as a result of Kitty’s throwing vitriol in his face. Watson describes Shinwell Johnson as “scorbutic,” or scurvy-ridden, and “leprous,” while Holmes reports how Violet received Kitty and him “like a Reverend Abbess receiving two rather leprous mendicants.” Later on there are newspaper reports that claim Holmes is suffering from erysipelas—an infection that often manifests itself as a face rash.

society in one story—with the “famous” high-society figure of Sir Damery at one end, and the shadowy figure of Johnson, with his contacts in London’s seedy criminal underworld, at the other.

Watson is not living at 221B at this point, but on Queen Anne Street. He meets the detective at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand—a favorite dining establishment of Conan Doyle’s in what was then one of London’s busiest thoroughfares. It is there that Holmes gives a description of the baron, whom he had brazenly called upon earlier. Holmes had demanded that the baron call off the marriage, but Gruner responded with threats, alluding to another former detective who had been horribly crippled after inquiring into the baron’s affairs. He also bragged that he has Violet de Merville in his thrall, and that, should Holmes call on her, she will not waver in her devotion to him.

Johnson tracks down a young working-class woman named Kitty Winter, who has suffered at the baron’s hands as one of his many former mistresses—although the reader never finds out precisely how. She tells Holmes of a “beastly

Vitriol is better known today as sulfuric acid. As a common disinfectant, it was easy to get hold of, and Watson refers to another vitriol-throwing incident in “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” (pp.82–83), but in reality the crime was actually relatively rare. In a letter to The Times in 1867, one man tells how his wife had vitriol thrown at her, but was saved from harm by the quantity of dresses and petticoats she was wearing. By the 20th century, regulations on the substance’s sale meant that such attacks became even rarer.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS CLIENT 269

book” in which the baron records the truth of all his misdeeds. He keeps it in his inner study, secreted behind another room containing his “Chinese crockery,” as she refers to his porcelain collection. Her own down-at-heel status, so far from that of Violet de Merville, is further evidence of the baron’s indifferent womanizing. “This man collects women,” Kitty tells Holmes, “and takes a pride in his collection, as some men collect moths or butterflies.” She recalls two other murders that the baron laid claim to while she was his lover, and also describes to Holmes in detail the location of the baron’s “inner study,” where she believes his secret book is kept.

The next evening, at Simpson’s again, Holmes tells Watson how he and Kitty visited the de Merville residence in upmarket Berkeley Square, Mayfair, which—in a show of his typical antipathy for houses of the wealthy—Holmes describes as “one of those awful gray London castles which would make a church seem frivolous.” Holmes says that when he tried to dissuade Violet from marrying the baron, she accused him of being a mercenary, a paid agent: as far as she is concerned, he is the immoral one. Even the plain-speaking Kitty could not convince her, and the visit was a failure.

A murderous attack

Two days later, Watson is walking along the Strand when he sees a newspaper billboard announcing: “Murderous attack upon Sherlock Holmes.” Both the experience, and Watson’s stunned response, recall a moment in Conan Doyle’s own life. In his 1924 autobiography, Memories and Adventures, the author reports how he learned of