The Sign of the Four Part 1 (1/2)
The Sign of the Four
by Arthur Conan Doyle
Chapter I
The Science of Deduction
Sherlock Holmes took his bottle froe froers he adjusted the delicate needle, and rolled back his left shi+rt-cuff For sohtfully upon the sinewy forearm and 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 velvet-lined arh 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, froht, and ht 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 air of my companion which made hi approaching to a liberty His great powers, his masterly manner, and the experience which I had had of his many extraordinary qualities, allhim
Yet upon that afternoon, whether it was the Beaune which I had taken with my lunch, or the additional exasperation produced by the extreme deliberation of his er
”Which is it to-day?” I asked,--”uidly from the old black-letter volume which he had opened ”It is cocaine,” he said,--”a seven-per-cent solution Would you care to try it?”
”No, indeed,” I answered, brusquely ”My constitution has not got over the Afghan can yet I cannot afford to throw any extra strain upon it”
He sht, Watson,” he said ”I suppose that its influence is physically a bad one I find it, however, so transcendently sti to the mind that its secondary action is a matter of small moment”
”But consider!” I said, earnestly ”Count the cost! Your brain ical and e and may at last leave a permanent weakness You know, too, what a black reaction coame is hardly worth the candle Why should you, for a reat pohich you have been endowed? Remember that I speak not only as one comrade to another, but as a medical man to one for whose constitution he is to some extent answerable”
He did not seeether and leaned his elbows on the arms of his chair, like one who has a relish for conversation
”My ive ram or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere I can dispense then with artificial stimulants But I abhor the dull routine of existence I crave for mental exaltation That 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, raisingdetective,” he answered ”I ason or Lestrade or Athelney 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 claiures in no newspaper The work itself, the pleasure of finding a field for hest 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 sae it with romanticism, which produces much the same effect as if you worked a love-story or an elopement into the fifth proposition of 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 proportion should be observed in treating them The only point in the case which deservedfro it”
I was annoyed at this criticisned to please hiotism which seemed to demand that every line of s More than once during the years that I had lived with him in Baker Street I had observed that a small vanity underlay my companion's quiet and didactich it so, it ached wearily at every change of the weather
”My practice has extended recently to the Continent,” said Hol up his old brier-root pipe ”I was consulted last week by Francois Le Villard, 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 intuition, 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 hia in 1857, and the other at St Louis in 1871, which have suggested to him the true solution Here is the letter which I had thismy assistance” He tossed over, as he spoke, a crulanceda profusion of notes of adnifiques,” ”coup-de- to the ardent admiration of the Frenchman
”He speaks as a pupil to his hly,” said Sherlock Holifts 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 thatmy small works into French”
”Your works?”
”Oh, didn't you know?” he cried, laughing ”Yes, I have been guilty of several raphs They are all upon technical subjects Here, for example, is one 'Upon the Distinction between the Ashes of the Various Tobaccoes' In it I enuarette-, and pipe-tobacco, with colored 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 exa an Indian lunkah, it obviously narrows your field of search To the trained eye there is as much difference between the black ash of a Trichinopoly and the white fluff of bird's-eye as there is between a cabbage and a potato”
”You have an extraordinary genius for minutiae,” I reraph upon the tracing of footsteps, with 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 a trade upon the form of the hand, with lithotypes of the hands of slaters, sailors, corkcutters, compositors, weavers, and diareat practical interest to the scientific detective,--especially in cases of unclai the antecedents of criminals But I weary you with my hobby”
”Not at all,” I answered, earnestly ”It is of the greatest interest toyour practical application of it But you spoke just now of observation and deduction Surely the one to some extent i back luxuriously in his ar up thick blue wreaths from his pipe ”For exa, but deduction lets ht!” said I ”Right on both points! 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 si at my surprise,--”so absurdly simple that an explanation is superfluous; and yet it may serve to define the limits of observation and of deduction Observation tellsto your instep Just opposite the Seymour 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 in entering The earth is of this peculiar reddish tint which is found, as far as I knohere else in the neighborhood 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 to you allI see also in your open desk there that you have a sheet of stao into the post-office for, then, but to 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,” he answered, ”it would prevent hted to look into any probleht submit to me”
”I have heard you say that it is difficult for athe impress of his individuality upon it in such a way that a trained observer ht read it Now, I have here a watch which has recently come into my possession Would you have the kindness to let me have an opinion upon the character or habits of the late owner?”
I handed hi of aht, an iainst the somatic tone which he occasionally assuazed hard at the dial, opened the back, and examined the works, first with his naked eyes and then with a powerful convex lens I could hardly keep fro at his crestfallen face when he finally snapped the case to and handed it back
”There are hardly any data,” he remarked ”The watch has been recently cleaned, which robs ht,” I answered ”It was cleaned before being sent toforward a most lame and impotent excuse to cover his failure What data could he expect froh unsatisfactory, my research has not been entirely barren,” he observed, staring up at the ceiling with dreamy, lack-lustre eyes ”Subject to your correction, I should judge that the watch belonged to your elder brother, who inherited it froather, no doubt, froests your own name The date of the watch is nearly fifty years back, and the initials are as old as the watch: so it was eneration Jewelry usually descends to the eldest son, and he is most likely to have the saht, been dead many years It has, therefore, been in the hands of your 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 threay his chances, 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, Holmes,” I said ”I could not have believed that you would have descended to this You have made inquires 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 his old watch! It is unkind, and, to speak plainly, has a touch of charlatanism in it”
”My dear doctor,” said he, kindly, ”pray acceptthe otten how personal and painful a thing it ht be to you I assure you, however, that I never even knew that you had a brother until you handed me the watch”
”Then how in the naet these facts? They are absolutely correct in every particular”