that she had actually seen her husband at the window.“a small box of children’s bricks lay upon the table.”Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair with the exception of his coat.Mrs. St. Clair receives a letter from her husband, with his signet ring. Possibly written on Monday but only received on Friday.“The name, you see, is a perfectly black ink, which is dried itself. The rest is of the grayish colour which shows blotting paper has been used.”Posted to-day in Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb.
Motive:To support his family, earning seven hundred pounds a year.
Timeline:May 1884, Neville St. Clair takes “The Cedars” in Lee, Kent.1887, Neville St. Clair marries his wife.Monday a.m.. Mr. Neville St. Clair leaves home and goes to town, earlier than usual, and has not been heard from since.4:35 p.m., Mrs. St Clair sees her husband in the opium den second-floor window.Wednesday June 17th, Isa Whitney arrives at the opium den Bar of Gold.1st Day Friday, June 19thMrs. St. Clair receives a letter from her husband Neville, postmarked and delivered that day.Late in the evening, Kate Whitney goes to Watson and his wife’s house seeking help in getting her husband back from the opium den11:00 p.m., Watson finds his friend Isa in the Bar of Gold and also meets Holmes disguised as an old man.Soon after 11:00 p.m., Watson sends Isa home in a cab, and leaves with Holmes for St. Clair’s house.Nearly midnight, Holmes and Watson arrive at The Cedars, to speak with Mrs. St. Clair.2nd Day Saturday, June 20thConsiderably after midnight, * Mrs. St. Clair tells Holmes about receiving a letter from her husband, Neville, the day before, Friday. Holmes and Watson finish speaking with Mrs. St. Clair, have a cold supper, and retire to their room.4:25 a.m., Holmes wakes Watson, asks him to dress while he has the stableboy prepare the dogcart for a trip to London’s Bow Street police Station.In the very early morning, Holmes and Watson arrive at the cell of Hugh Boone in the Bow Street police Station. Holmes washes his face to expose that he is really Neville St. Clair in disguise.11:00 a.m. Saturday, the night before Holmes asks John the dogcart driver to meet him.
Story Conclusion:“It must stop here, however,” said Bradstreet. “If the police are to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone.”“I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take.”“In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reached your results.”“I reached this one,” said my friend, “by sitting upon five pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast.”
Weather:Monday, five days earlier, when Mrs. St. Clair saw Neville in the window at Bar of Gold. “I remember it was an exceedingly hot day.”1st Day, “a dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of the clouds.”2nd Day, “we made our way downstairs as quickly as possible; and out into the bright morning sun.”
Payment:None. “I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reached your results.”
Quotes:Holmes:“I suppose, Watson,” said he, “that you imagine that I have added opium-smoking to cocaine injections and all the other little weaknesses on which you have favored me with your medical advice.”“I should recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to say that you have thrown in your lot with me.”“Had I have been recognized in that den my life would not have been worth an hour’s purchase.”“In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?” “Frankly then, Madam, I do not.”“Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, who when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind would go for days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view, until he had either fathomed it, or convinced himself that his data were insufficient.”“I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve to be kicked from here to Charing-cross. But I think I have the key of the affair now.”“I confess that I have been as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late, than never to learn it all.”“Holmes opened his Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my astonishment, a very large bath sponge.”Watson:“You have a grand gift of silence, Watson,” said Holmes. “It makes you quite invaluable as a companion.”“This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to me in several of my cases.”
Notes:Holmes is in a disguise at the Bar of Gold.Baker Street not part of the story.Watson, although married at the time, stayed with Holmes overnight to solve the case.Similar plot to Silver Blaze, Holmes washing an individual’s face to expose true identity.
The Adventure of
the Blue Carbuncle
Publication & Dates:Strand, January, 1892The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes. (7th story) 1892Illustrations: Sidney Paget (8)Conan Doyle’s 9th storyHolmes’ 27th case
Story Introduction:I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second morning after Christmas, with the intentions of wishing him the compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable hard felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the purpose of examination.“You are engaged,” said I; “perhaps I interrupt you.”“Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one,” (he jerked his thumb in the direction of the old hat), “but there are points in connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest, and even of instruction.”I seated myself in his armchair, and warmed my hands before his crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows were thick with the ice crystals. “I suppose,” I remarked, “that, homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story link onto it that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of some mystery, and the punishment of some criminal.”“No, no. No crime,” said Sherlock Holmes, laughingly. “Only one of those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have four million human beings all jostling each other within the space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be presented which may be striking and bizarre without being criminal. We have already had experience of such.”“So much so,” I remarked, “that of the last six cases which I have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any legal crime.”“Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the adventures of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt that the small matter will fall into the same innocent category. You know Peterson, the commissionaire?”“Yes.”“It is to him that this trophy belongs.”“It is his hat.”“No, no; he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will look upon it, not as a battered bullycock, but as an intellectual problem. And first as to how it came here. It arrived upon Christmas morning, in company with the good fat goose, which I have no doubt, is roasting at this moment in front of Peterson’s fire.”“My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don’t know.”Case Information
Date:The second morning after Christmas.
Duration:3 Days
Crime:Theft of the Blue Carbuncle, very valuable gem, not yet 20 years old, found in the banks of the Amoy River in Southern China, normally red in color. “Having a sinister history of two murders, a suicide and several robberies.”
Client:Commissionaire
