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A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

A Study in Scarlet
Arthur Conan Doyle
Part 1
Chapter 1 - Mr. Sherlock Holmes

IN the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of

the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go
through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army.
Having completed my studies there, I was duly attached to
the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as Assistant Surgeon. The
regiment was stationed in India at the time, and before I
landing at Bombay, I learned that my corps had advanced
through the passes, and was already deep in the enemy's
country. I followed, however, with many other officers who
were in the same situation as myself, and succeeded in
reaching Candahar in safety, where I found my regiment, and
at once entered upon my new duties.
The campaign brought honours and promotion to many, but
for me it had nothing but misfortune and disaster. I was
removed from my brigade and attached to the Berkshires,
was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet, which
shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery. I
should have fallen into the hands of the murderous Ghazis

A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

had it not been for the devotion and courage shown by

succeeded in bringing me safely to the British lines.
Worn with pain, and weak from the prolonged hardships
wounded sufferers, to the base hospital at Peshawar. Here I
verandah, when I was struck down by enteric fever, that
curse of our Indian possessions. For months my life was
convalescent, I was so weak and emaciated that a medical
board determined that not a day should be lost in sending
me back to England. I was dispatched, accordingly, in the
troopship "Orontes," and landed a month later on Portsmouth
jetty, with my health irretrievably ruined, but with
permission from a paternal government to spend the next
nine months in attempting to improve it.
free as air -- or as free as an income of eleven shillings and
sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such
circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great
cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire
are irresistibly drained. There I stayed for some time at a
private hotel in the Strand, leading a comfortless,
meaningless existence, and spending such money as I had,
considerably more freely than I ought. So alarming did the
either leave the metropolis and rusticate somewhere in the
country, or that I must make a complete alteration in my
style of living. Choosing the latter alternative, I began by

A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle


quarters in some less pretentious and less expensive
standing at the Criterion Bar, when some one tapped me on
the shoulder, and turning round I recognized young
pleasant thing indeed to a lonely man. In old days Stamford
together in a hansom.
"Whatever have you been doing with yourself, Watson?" he
asked in undisguised wonder, as we rattled through the
crowded London streets. "You are as thin as a lath and as
brown as a nut."
concluded it by the time that we reached our destination.
"Poor devil!" he said, commiseratingly, after he had listened
to my misfortunes. "What are you up to now?"
"Looking for lodgings." {3} I answered. "Trying to solve the
problem as to whether it is possible to get comfortable
rooms at a reasonable price."

A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"And who was the first?" I asked.

"A fellow who is working at the chemical laboratory up at
the hospital. He was bemoaning himself this morning
because he could not get someone to go halves with him in
some nice rooms which he had found, and which were too
much for his purse."
prefer having a partner to being alone."
Young Stamford looked rather strangely at me over his wineglass. "You don't know Sherlock Holmes yet," he said;
"perhaps you would not care for him as a constant
"Why, what is there against him?"
"Oh, I didn't say there was anything against him. He is a little
queer in his ideas -- an enthusiast in some branches of
science. As far as I know he is a decent fellow enough."
"A medical student, I suppose?" said I.
"No -- I have no idea what he intends to go in for. I believe
medical classes. His studies are very desultory and
knowledge which would astonish his professors."
"Did you never ask him what he was going in for?" I asked.

A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle


can be communicative enough when the fancy seizes him."
"I should like to meet him," I said. "If I am to lodge with
am not strong enough yet to stand much noise or
excitement. I had enough of both in Afghanistan to last me
for the remainder of my natural existence. How could I meet
this friend of yours?"
"He is sure to be at the laboratory," returned my companion.
"He either avoids the place for weeks, or else he works there
together after luncheon."
"Certainly," I answered, and the conversation drifted away
into other channels.
As we made our way to the hospital after leaving the
Holborn, Stamford gave me a few more particulars about the
gentleman whom I proposed to take as a fellow-lodger.
"You mustn't blame me if you don't get on with him," he said;
"I know nothing more of him than I have learned from
meeting him occasionally in the laboratory. You proposed
this arrangement, so you must not hold me responsible."
"If we don't get on it will be easy to part company," I
answered. "It seems to me, Stamford," I added, looking hard
at my companion, "that you have some reason for washing
your hands of the matter. Is this fellow's temper so
formidable, or what is it? Don't be mealy-mouthed about it."

A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"It is not easy to express the inexpressible," he answered

with a laugh. "Holmes is a little too scientific for my tastes -it approaches to cold-bloodedness. I could imagine his giving
a friend a little pinch of the latest vegetable alkaloid, not
out of malevolence, you understand, but simply out of a
spirit of inquiry in order to have an accurate idea of the
himself with the same readiness. He appears to have a
passion for definite and exact knowledge."
"Very right too."
"Yes, but it may be pushed to excess. When it comes to
is certainly taking rather a bizarre shape."
"Beating the subjects!"
"Yes, to verify how far bruises may be produced after death.
I saw him at it with my own eyes."
"And yet you say he is not a medical student?"
"No. Heaven knows what the objects of his studies are. But
here we are, and you must form your own impressions about
him." As he spoke, we turned down a narrow lane and passed
through a small side-door, which opened into a wing of the
great hospital. It was familiar ground to me, and I needed no
guiding as we ascended the bleak stone staircase and made
our way down the long corridor with its vista of whitewashed
wall and dun-coloured doors. Near the further end a low
arched passage branched away from it and led to the
chemical laboratory.

A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

This was a lofty chamber, lined and littered with countless

bottles. Broad, low tables were scattered about, which
bristled with retorts, test-tubes, and little Bunsen lamps,
with their blue flickering flames. There was only one student
in the room, who was bending over a distant table absorbed
in his work. At the sound of our steps he glanced round and
sprang to his feet with a cry of pleasure. "I've found it! I've
found it," he shouted to my companion, running towards us
with a test-tube in his hand. "I have found a re-agent which
is precipitated by hoemoglobin, {4} and by nothing else."
Had he discovered a gold mine, greater delight could not
have shone upon his features.
"Dr. Watson, Mr.
introducing us.





"How are you?" he said cordially, gripping my hand with a

strength for which I should hardly have given him credit.
"You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive."
"How on earth did you know that?" I asked in astonishment.
"Never mind," said he, chuckling to himself. "The question
now is about hoemoglobin. No doubt you see the significance
of this discovery of mine?"
"It is interesting, chemically, no doubt," I answered, "but
practically ----"
"Why, man, it is the most practical medico-legal discovery
for years. Don't you see that it gives us an infallible test for
blood stains. Come over here now!" He seized me by the

A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

at which he had been working. "Let us have some fresh

blood," he said, digging a long bodkin into his finger, and
drawing off the resulting drop of blood in a chemical
pipette. "Now, I add this small quantity of blood to a litre of
water. You perceive that the resulting mixture has the
appearance of pure water. The proportion of blood cannot
be more than one in a million. I have no doubt, however,
that we shall be able to obtain the characteristic reaction."
and then added some drops of a transparent fluid. In an
instant the contents assumed a dull mahogany colour, and a
brownish dust was precipitated to the bottom of the glass
"Ha! ha!" he cried, clapping his hands, and looking as
delighted as a child with a new toy. "What do you think of
"It seems to be a very delicate test," I remarked.
"Beautiful! beautiful! The old Guiacum test was very clumsy
and uncertain. So is the microscopic examination for blood
corpuscles. The latter is valueless if the stains are a few
hours old. Now, this appears to act as well whether the
blood is old or new. Had this test been invented, there are
hundreds of men now walking the earth who would long ago
have paid the penalty of their crimes."
"Indeed!" I murmured.
"Criminal cases are continually hinging upon that one point.
A man is suspected of a crime months perhaps after it has
been committed. His linen or clothes are examined, and

A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

brownish stains discovered upon them. Are they blood stains,

they? That is a question which has puzzled many an expert,
and why? Because there was no reliable test. Now we have
the Sherlock Holmes' test, and there will no longer be any
over his heart and bowed as if to some applauding crowd
conjured up by his imagination.
"You are to be congratulated," I remarked, considerably
surprised at his enthusiasm.
"There was the case of Von Bischoff at Frankfort last year.
He would certainly have been hung had this test been in
existence. Then there was Mason of Bradford, and the
notorious Muller, and Lefevre of Montpellier, and Samson of
new Orleans. I could name a score of cases in which it would
have been decisive."
"You seem to be a walking calendar of crime," said Stamford
with a laugh. "You might start a paper on those lines. Call it
the `Police News of the Past.'"
"Very interesting reading it might be made, too," remarked
Sherlock Holmes, sticking a small piece of plaster over the
prick on his finger. "I have to be careful," he continued,
turning to me with a smile, "for I dabble with poisons a good
deal." He held out his hand as he spoke, and I noticed that it
was all mottled over with similar pieces of plaster, and
discoloured with strong acids.

A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"We came here on business," said Stamford, sitting down on

direction with his foot. "My friend here wants to take
diggings, and as you were complaining that you could get no
you together."
Sherlock Holmes seemed delighted at the idea of sharing his
rooms with me. "I have my eye on a suite in Baker Street,"
he said, "which would suit us down to the ground. You don't
mind the smell of strong tobacco, I hope?"
"I always smoke `ship's' myself," I answered.
"That's good enough. I generally have chemicals about, and
occasionally do experiments. Would that annoy you?"
"By no means."
"Let me see -- what are my other shortcomings. I get in the
alone, and I'll soon be right. What have you to confess now?
another before they begin to live together."
I laughed at this cross-examination. "I keep a bull pup," I
said, "and I object to rows because my nerves are shaken,
lazy. I have another set of vices when I'm well, but those are
the principal ones at present."


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"Do you include violin-playing in your category of rows?" he

asked, anxiously.
"It depends on the player," I answered. "A well-played violin
is a treat for the gods -- a badly-played one ----"
"Oh, that's all right," he cried, with a merry laugh. "I think
we may consider the thing as settled -- that is, if the rooms
are agreeable to you."
"When shall we see them?"
"Call for me here at noon to-morrow, and we'll go together
and settle everything," he answered.
"All right -- noon exactly," said I, shaking his hand.
We left him working among his chemicals, and we walked
together towards my hotel.
"By the way," I asked suddenly, stopping and turning upon
Stamford, "how the deuce did he know that I had come from
My companion smiled an enigmatical smile. "That's just his
little peculiarity," he said. "A good many people have wanted
to know how he finds things out."
"Oh! a mystery is it?" I cried, rubbing my hands. "This is very
piquant. I am much obliged to you for bringing us together.
`The proper study of mankind is man,' you know."


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"You must study him, then," Stamford said, as he bade me

good-bye. "You'll find him a knotty problem, though. I'll
wager he learns more about you than you about him. Goodbye."
"Good-bye," I answered, and strolled on to my hotel,
considerably interested in my new acquaintance.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

Chapter 2 - The Science of Deduction

WE met next day as he had arranged, and inspected the

rooms at No. 221B, {5} Baker Street, of which he had spoken
at our meeting. They consisted of a couple of comfortable
furnished, and illuminated by two broad windows. So
desirable in every way were the apartments, and so
moderate did the terms seem when divided between us, that
the bargain was concluded upon the spot, and we at once
entered into possession. That very evening I moved my
things round from the hotel, and on the following morning
Sherlock Holmes followed me with several boxes and
portmanteaus. For a day or two we were busily employed in
unpacking and laying out our property to the best
advantage. That done, we gradually began to settle down
and to accommodate ourselves to our new surroundings.
Holmes was certainly not a difficult man to live with. He was
quiet in his ways, and his habits were regular. It was rare for
breakfasted and gone out before I rose in the morning.
Sometimes he spent his day at the chemical laboratory,
sometimes in the dissecting-rooms, and occasionally in long
walks, which appeared to take him into the lowest portions
of the City. Nothing could exceed his energy when the
working fit was upon him; but now and again a reaction
muscle from morning to night. On these occasions I have
might have suspected him of being addicted to the use of
some narcotic, had not the temperance and cleanliness of
his whole life forbidden such a notion.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle


to his aims in life, gradually deepened and increased. His
very person and appearance were such as to strike the
attention of the most casual observer. In height he was
rather over six feet, and so excessively lean that he seemed
to be considerably taller. His eyes were sharp and piercing,
save during those intervals of torpor to which I have alluded;
and squareness which mark the man of determination. His
hands were invariably blotted with ink and stained with
chemicals, yet he was possessed of extraordinary delicacy of
touch, as I frequently had occasion to observe when I
watched him manipulating his fragile philosophical
confess how much this man stimulated my curiosity, and how
often I endeavoured to break through the reticence which he
showed on all that concerned himself. Before pronouncing
judgment, however, be it remembered, how objectless was
my life, and how little there was to engage my attention. My
health forbade me from venturing out unless the weather
was exceptionally genial, and I had no friends who would
call upon me and break the monotony of my daily existence.
Under these circumstances, I eagerly hailed the little
mystery which hung around my companion, and spent much
of my time in endeavouring to unravel it.
He was not studying medicine. He had himself, in reply to a
question, confirmed Stamford's opinion upon that point.
Neither did he appear to have pursued any course of reading
which might fit him for a degree in science or any other
recognized portal which would give him an entrance into the
learned world. Yet his zeal for certain studies was
remarkable, and within eccentric limits his knowledge was
so extraordinarily ample and minute that his observations
have fairly astounded me. Surely no man would work so hard


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

or attain such precise information unless he had some

definite end in view. Desultory readers are seldom
remarkable for the exactness of their learning. No man
burdens his mind with small matters unless he has some very
good reason for doing so.
His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of
contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he
appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas
when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the
Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar
System. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth
century should not be aware that the earth travelled round
the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact
that I could hardly realize it.
best to forget it."
"To forget it!"
"You see," he explained, "I consider that a man's brain
lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the
knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out,
workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his
to think that that little room has elastic walls and can
distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

when for every addition of knowledge you forget something

that you knew before. It is of the highest importance,
therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful
"But the Solar System!" I protested.
"What the deuce is it to me?" he interrupted impatiently;
moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me
or to my work."
but something in his manner showed me that the question
would be an unwelcome one. I pondered over our short
conversation, however, and endeavoured to draw my
deductions from it. He said that he would acquire no
knowledge which did not bear upon his object. Therefore all
the knowledge which he possessed was such as would be
useful to him. I enumerated in my own mind all the various
points upon which he had shown me that he was
exceptionally well-informed. I even took a pencil and jotted
had completed it. It ran in this way -SHERLOCK HOLMES -- his limits.
1. Knowledge of Literature. -- Nil. 2. Philosophy. -- Nil. 3.
Astronomy. -- Nil. 4. Politics. -- Feeble. 5. Botany. -Variable. Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons
generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening. 6. Geology.
-- Practical, but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from
each other. After walks has shown me splashes upon his
trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in
what part of London he had received them. 7. Chemistry. -Profound. 8. Anatomy. -- Accurate, but unsystematic. 9.
Sensational Literature. -- Immense. He appears to know


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century. 10.

Plays the violin well. 11. Is an expert singlestick player,
boxer, and swordsman. 12. Has a good practical knowledge
of British law.
despair. "If I can only find what the fellow is driving at by
reconciling all these accomplishments, and discovering a
calling which needs them all," I said to myself, "I may as well
give up the attempt at once."
These were very remarkable, but as eccentric as all his
other accomplishments. That he could play pieces, and
played me some of Mendelssohn's Lieder, and other
favourites. When left to himself, however, he would seldom
produce any music or attempt any recognized air. Leaning
and scrape carelessly at the fiddle which was thrown across
his knee. Sometimes the chords were sonorous and
melancholy. Occasionally they were fantastic and cheerful.
Clearly they reflected the thoughts which possessed him, but
whether the music aided those thoughts, or whether the
playing was simply the result of a whim or fancy was more
than I could determine. I might have rebelled against these
exasperating solos had it not been that he usually
terminated them by playing in quick succession a whole
series of my favourite airs as a slight compensation for the
trial upon my patience.
begun to think that my companion was as friendless a man
as I was myself. Presently, however, I found that he had
many acquaintances, and those in the most different classes
of society. There was one little sallow rat-faced, dark-eyed
fellow who was introduced to me as Mr. Lestrade, and who
came three or four times in a single week. One morning a


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

young girl called, fashionably dressed, and stayed for half an

hour or more. The same afternoon brought a grey-headed,
to be much excited, and who was closely followed by a slipshod elderly woman. On another occasion an old whitehaired gentleman had an interview with my companion; and
on another a railway porter in his velveteen uniform. When
any of these nondescript individuals put in an appearance,
and I would retire to my bed-room. He always apologized to
me for putting me to this inconvenience. "I have to use this
room as a place of business," he said, "and these people are
my clients." Again I had an opportunity of asking him a point
blank question, and again my delicacy prevented me from
forcing another man to confide in me. I imagined at the time
soon dispelled the idea by coming round to the subject of his
own accord.
remember, that I rose somewhat earlier than usual, and
found that Sherlock Holmes had not yet finished his
breakfast. The landlady had become so accustomed to my
late habits that my place had not been laid nor my coffee
prepared. With the unreasonable petulance of mankind I
Then I picked up a magazine from the table and attempted
to while away the time with it, while my companion
munched silently at his toast. One of the articles had a
eye through it.
Its somewhat ambitious title was "The Book of Life," and it
attempted to show how much an observant man might learn
by an accurate and systematic examination of all that came
in his way. It struck me as being a remarkable mixture of
shrewdness and of absurdity. The reasoning was close and
intense, but the deductions appeared to me to be far-


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

fetched and exaggerated. The writer claimed by a

momentary expression, a twitch of a muscle or a glance of
an eye, to fathom a man's inmost thoughts. Deceit,
according to him, was an impossibility in the case of one
trained to observation and analysis. His conclusions were as
infallible as so many propositions of Euclid. So startling
would his results appear to the uninitiated that until they
learned the processes by which he had arrived at them they
might well consider him as a necromancer.
"From a drop of water," said the writer, "a logician could
infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without
chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown
a single link of it. Like all other arts, the Science of
Deduction and Analysis is one which can only be acquired by
long and patient study nor is life long enough to allow any
mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it. Before
turning to those moral and mental aspects of the matter
which present the greatest difficulties, let the enquirer
begin by mastering more elementary problems. Let him, on
belongs. Puerile as such an exercise may seem, it sharpens
the faculties of observation, and teaches one where to look
and what to look for. By a man's finger nails, by his coatsleeve, by his boot, by his trouser knees, by the callosities of
-- by each of these things a man's calling is plainly revealed.
That all united should fail to enlighten the competent
enquirer in any case is almost inconceivable."
"What ineffable twaddle!" I cried, slapping the magazine
down on the table, "I never read such rubbish in my life."
"What is it?" asked Sherlock Holmes.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"Why, this article," I said, pointing at it with my egg spoon as

I sat down to my breakfast. "I see that you have read it since
you have marked it. I don't deny that it is smartly written. It
irritates me though. It is evidently the theory of some armchair lounger who evolves all these neat little paradoxes in
the seclusion of his own study. It is not practical. I should
like to see him clapped down in a third class carriage on the
Underground, and asked to give the trades of all his fellowtravellers. I would lay a thousand to one against him."
"You would lose your money," Sherlock Holmes remarked
calmly. "As for the article I wrote it myself."
"Yes, I have a turn both for observation and for deduction.
The theories which I have expressed there, and which
appear to you to be so chimerical are really extremely
practical -- so practical that I depend upon them for my
bread and cheese."
"And how?" I asked involuntarily.
in the world. I'm a consulting detective, if you can
understand what that is. Here in London we have lots of
Government detectives and lots of private ones. When these
them on the right scent. They lay all the evidence before
family resemblance about misdeeds, and if you have all the
can't unravel the thousand and first. Lestrade is a wellknown detective. He got himself into a fog recently over a
forgery case, and that was what brought him here."


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"And these other people?"

"They are mostly sent on by private inquiry agencies. They
are all people who are in trouble about something, and want
a little enlightening. I listen to their story, they listen to my
comments, and then I pocket my fee."
"But do you mean to say," I said, "that without leaving your
room you can unravel some knot which other men can make
nothing of, although they have seen every detail for
"Quite so. I have a kind of intuition that way. Now and again
a case turns up which is a little more complex. Then I have
to bustle about and see things with my own eyes. You see I
have a lot of special knowledge which I apply to the
problem, and which facilitates matters wonderfully. Those
rules of deduction laid down in that article which aroused
your scorn, are invaluable to me in practical work.
Observation with me is second nature. You appeared to be
come from Afghanistan."
"You were told, no doubt."
"Nothing of the sort. I _knew_ you came from Afghanistan.
From long habit the train of thoughts ran so swiftly through
my mind, that I arrived at the conclusion without being
conscious of intermediate steps. There were such steps,
however. The train of reasoning ran, `Here is a gentleman of
for his wrists are fair. He has undergone hardship and
Where in the tropics could an English army doctor have seen


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

much hardship and got his arm wounded? Clearly in

Afghanistan.' The whole train of thought did not occupy a
second. I then remarked that you came from Afghanistan,
and you were astonished."
"It is simple enough as you explain it," I said, smiling. "You
remind me of Edgar Allen Poe's Dupin. I had no idea that
such individuals did exist outside of stories."
that you are complimenting me in comparing me to Dupin,"
thoughts with an apropos remark after a quarter of an hour's
silence is really very showy and superficial. He had some
phenomenon as Poe appeared to imagine."
up to your idea of a detective?"
Sherlock Holmes sniffed sardonically. "Lecoq was a miserable
me positively ill. The question was how to identify an
for detectives to teach them what to avoid."
I felt rather indignant at having two characters whom I had
admired treated in this cavalier style. I walked over to the
window, and stood looking out into the busy street. "This
fellow may be very clever," I said to myself, "but he is
certainly very conceited."
"There are no crimes and no criminals in these days," he
said, querulously. "What is the use of having brains in our


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

profession. I know well that I have it in me to make my

name famous. No man lives or has ever lived who has
brought the same amount of study and of natural talent to
bungling villany with a motive so transparent that even a
Scotland Yard official can see through it."
I was still annoyed at his bumptious style of conversation. I
thought it best to change the topic.
"I wonder what that fellow is looking for?" I asked, pointing
to a stalwart, plainly-dressed individual who was walking
slowly down the other side of the street, looking anxiously
at the numbers. He had a large blue envelope in his hand,
and was evidently the bearer of a message.
"You mean the retired sergeant of Marines," said Sherlock
"Brag and bounce!" thought I to myself. "He knows that I
cannot verify his guess."
The thought had hardly passed through my mind when the
man whom we were watching caught sight of the number on
our door, and ran rapidly across the roadway. We heard a
loud knock, a deep voice below, and heavy steps ascending
the stair.
"For Mr. Sherlock Holmes," he said, stepping into the room
and handing my friend the letter.
Here was an opportunity of taking the conceit out of him. He
little thought of this when he made that random shot. "May I
ask, my lad," I said, in the blandest voice, "what your trade
may be?"


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"Commissionaire, sir," he said, gruffly. "Uniform away for

"And you were?" I asked, with a slightly malicious glance at
my companion.
"A sergeant, sir, Royal Marine Light Infantry, sir. No answer?
Right, sir."
was gone.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

Chapter 3 - The Lauriston Garden Mystery {6}

I CONFESS that I was considerably startled by this fresh proof

of the practical nature of my companion's theories. My
respect for his powers of analysis increased wondrously.
There still remained some lurking suspicion in my mind,
however, that the whole thing was a pre-arranged episode,
intended to dazzle me, though what earthly object he could
have in taking me in was past my comprehension. When I
looked at him he had finished reading the note, and his eyes
had assumed the vacant, lack-lustre expression which
showed mental abstraction.
"How in the world did you deduce that?" I asked.
"Deduce what?" said he, petulantly.
"Why, that he was a retired sergeant of Marines."
"I have no time for trifles," he answered, brusquely; then
with a smile, "Excuse my rudeness. You broke the thread of
my thoughts; but perhaps it is as well. So you actually were
not able to see that that man was a sergeant of Marines?"
"No, indeed."
"It was easier to know it than to explain why I knew it. If you
Even across the street I could see a great blue anchor
tattooed on the back of the fellow's hand. That smacked of
the sea. He had a military carriage, however, and regulation
side whiskers. There we have the marine. He was a man with


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

some amount of self-importance and a certain air of

command. You must have observed the way in which he held
his head and swung his cane. A steady, respectable, middleaged man, too, on the face of him -- all facts which led me
to believe that he had been a sergeant."
"Wonderful!" I ejaculated.
"Commonplace," said Holmes, though I thought from his
expression that he was pleased at my evident surprise and
admiration. "I said just now that there were no criminals. It
appears that I am wrong -- look at this!" He threw me over
the note which the commissionaire had brought." {7}
"Why," I cried, as I cast my eye over it, "this is terrible!"
"It does seem to be a little out of the common," he
remarked, calmly. "Would you mind reading it to me aloud?"
This is the letter which I read to him ---"MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES, -- "There has been a bad
business during the night at 3, Lauriston Gardens, off the
Brixton Road. Our man on the beat saw a light there about
suspected that something was amiss. He found the door
discovered the body of a gentleman, well dressed, and
having cards in his pocket bearing the name of `Enoch J.
Drebber, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.' There had been no
his death. There are marks of blood in the room, but there is
no wound upon his person. We are at a loss as to how he
puzzler. If you can come round to the house any time before
twelve, you will find me there. I have left everything _in
statu quo_ until I hear from you. If you are unable to come I


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

shall give you fuller details, and would esteem it a great

kindness if you would favour me with your opinion. Yours
faithfully, "TOBIAS GREGSON."
"Gregson is the smartest of the Scotland Yarders," my friend
remarked; "he and Lestrade are the pick of a bad lot. They
are both quick and energetic, but conventional -- shockingly
so. They have their knives into one another, too. They are as
jealous as a pair of professional beauties. There will be
some fun over this case if they are both put upon the scent."
"Surely there is not a moment to be lost," I cried, "shall I go
and order you a cab?"
"I'm not sure about whether I shall go. I am the most
incurably lazy devil that ever stood in shoe leather -- that is,
when the fit is on me, for I can be spry enough at times."
"Why, it is just such a chance as you have been longing for."
"My dear fellow, what does it matter to me. Supposing I
unravel the whole matter, you may be sure that Gregson,
Lestrade, and Co. will pocket all the credit. That comes of
being an unofficial personage."
"But he begs you to help him."
"Yes. He knows that I am his superior, and acknowledges it to
to any third person. However, we may as well go and have a
look. I shall work it out on my own hook. I may have a laugh
at them if I have nothing else. Come on!"
showed that an energetic fit had superseded the apathetic


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"Get your hat," he said.

"You wish me to come?"
"Yes, if you have nothing better to do." A minute later we
were both in a hansom, driving furiously for the Brixton
over the house-tops, looking like the reflection of the mudcoloured streets beneath. My companion was in the best of
spirits, and prattled away about Cremona fiddles, and the
difference between a Stradivarius and an Amati. As for
business upon which we were engaged, depressed my spirits.
"You don't seem to give much thought to the matter in
hand," I said at last, interrupting Holmes' musical
"No data yet," he answered. "It is a capital mistake to
theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the
"You will have your data soon," I remarked, pointing with my
finger; "this is the Brixton Road, and that is the house, if I
am not very much mistaken."
"So it is. Stop, driver, stop!" We were still a hundred yards or
finished our journey upon foot.
Number 3, Lauriston Gardens wore an ill-omened and
minatory look. It was one of four which stood back some
little way from the street, two being occupied and two
empty. The latter looked out with three tiers of vacant
melancholy windows, which were blank and dreary, save


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

that here and there a "To Let" card had developed like a
cataract upon the bleared panes. A small garden sprinkled
over with a scattered eruption of sickly plants separated
narrow pathway, yellowish in colour, and consisting
apparently of a mixture of clay and of gravel. The whole
place was very sloppy from the rain which had fallen through
the night. The garden was bounded by a three-foot brick
this wall was leaning a stalwart police constable, surrounded
by a small knot of loafers, who craned their necks and
strained their eyes in the vain hope of catching some
glimpse of the proceedings within.
I had imagined that Sherlock Holmes would at once have
hurried into the house and plunged into a study of the
mystery. Nothing appeared to be further from his intention.
With an air of nonchalance which, under the circumstances,
seemed to me to border upon affectation, he lounged up
and down the pavement, and gazed vacantly at the ground,
the sky, the opposite houses and the line of railings. Having
finished his scrutiny, he proceeded slowly down the path, or
rather down the fringe of grass which flanked the path,
keeping his eyes riveted upon the ground. Twice he stopped,
and once I saw him smile, and heard him utter an
exclamation of satisfaction. There were many marks of
footsteps upon the wet clayey soil, but since the police had
companion could hope to learn anything from it. Still I had
had such extraordinary evidence of the quickness of his
great deal which was hidden from me.
At the door of the house we were met by a tall, whitefaced, flaxen-haired man, with a notebook in his hand, who
rushed forward and wrung my companion's hand with
effusion. "It is indeed kind of you to come," he said, "I have
had everything left untouched."


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"Except that!" my friend answered, pointing at the pathway.

"If a herd of buffaloes had passed along there could not be a
greater mess. No doubt, however, you had drawn your own
conclusions, Gregson, before you permitted this."
"I have had so much to do inside the house," the detective
said evasively. "My colleague, Mr. Lestrade, is here. I had
relied upon him to look after this."
Holmes glanced at me and raised his eyebrows sardonically.
"With two such men as yourself and Lestrade upon the
ground, there will not be much for a third party to find out,"
he said.
Gregson rubbed his hands in a self-satisfied way. "I think we
have done all that can be done," he answered; "it's a queer
case though, and I knew your taste for such things."
"You did not come here in a cab?" asked Sherlock Holmes.
"No, sir."
"Nor Lestrade?"
"No, sir."
"Then let us go and look at the room." With which
inconsequent remark he strode on into the house, followed
by Gregson, whose features expressed his astonishment.
A short passage, bare planked and dusty, led to the kitchen
and offices. Two doors opened out of it to the left and to the
right. One of these had obviously been closed for many
weeks. The other belonged to the dining-room, which was
the apartment in which the mysterious affair had occurred.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

Holmes walked in, and I followed him with that subdued

feeling at my heart which the presence of death inspires.
absence of all furniture. A vulgar flaring paper adorned the
and there great strips had become detached and hung down,
exposing the yellow plaster beneath. Opposite the door was
a showy fireplace, surmounted by a mantelpiece of imitation
white marble. On one corner of this was stuck the stump of
a red wax candle. The solitary window was so dirty that the
light was hazy and uncertain, giving a dull grey tinge to
everything, which was intensified by the thick layer of dust
which coated the whole apartment.
All these details I observed afterwards. At present my
attention was centred upon the single grim motionless figure
which lay stretched upon the boards, with vacant sightless
eyes staring up at the discoloured ceiling. It was that of a
man about forty-three or forty-four years of age, middlesized, broad shouldered, with crisp curling black hair, and a
short stubbly beard. He was dressed in a heavy broadcloth
frock coat and waistcoat, with light-coloured trousers, and
immaculate collar and cuffs. A top hat, well brushed and
trim, was placed upon the floor beside him. His hands were
clenched and his arms thrown abroad, while his lower limbs
were interlocked as though his death struggle had been a
grievous one. On his rigid face there stood an expression of
horror, and as it seemed to me, of hatred, such as I have
never seen upon human features. This malignant and terrible
contortion, combined with the low forehead, blunt nose,
and prognathous jaw gave the dead man a singularly simious
and ape-like appearance, which was increased by his
writhing, unnatural posture. I have seen death in many
aspect than in that dark grimy apartment, which looked out
upon one of the main arteries of suburban London.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle


doorway, and greeted my companion and myself.
"This case will make a stir, sir," he remarked. "It beats
anything I have seen, and I am no chicken."
"There is no clue?" said Gregson.
"None at all," chimed in Lestrade.
Sherlock Holmes approached the body, and, kneeling down,
examined it intently. "You are sure that there is no wound?"
he asked, pointing to numerous gouts and splashes of blood
which lay all round.
"Positive!" cried both detectives.
"Then, of course, this blood belongs to a second individual -{8} presumably the murderer, if murder has been committed.
It reminds me of the circumstances attendant on the death
of Van Jansen, in Utrecht, in the year '34. Do you remember
the case, Gregson?"
"No, sir."
"Read it up -- you really should. There is nothing new under
the sun. It has all been done before."
everywhere, feeling, pressing, unbuttoning, examining,
while his eyes wore the same far-away expression which I
have already remarked upon. So swiftly was the examination
made, that one would hardly have guessed the minuteness
with which it was conducted. Finally, he sniffed the dead
man's lips, and then glanced at the soles of his patent
leather boots.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"He has not been moved at all?" he asked.

"No more than was necessary for the purposes of our
"You can take him to the mortuary now," he said. "There is
nothing more to be learned."
Gregson had a stretcher and four men at hand. At his call
they entered the room, and the stranger was lifted and
carried out. As they raised him, a ring tinkled down and
rolled across the floor. Lestrade grabbed it up and stared at
it with mystified eyes.
"There's been a woman here," he cried. "It's a woman's
He held it out, as he spoke, upon the palm of his hand. We
all gathered round him and gazed at it. There could be no
doubt that that circlet of plain gold had once adorned the
finger of a bride.
"This complicates matters," said Gregson. "Heaven knows,
they were complicated enough before."
"You're sure it doesn't simplify them?" observed Holmes.
"There's nothing to be learned by staring at it. What did you
find in his pockets?"
"We have it all here," said Gregson, pointing to a litter of
objects upon one of the bottom steps of the stairs. "A gold
watch, No. 97163, by Barraud, of London. Gold Albert chain,
very heavy and solid. Gold ring, with masonic device. Gold
pin -- bull-dog's head, with rubies as eyes. Russian leather
card-case, with cards of Enoch J. Drebber of Cleveland,
corresponding with the E. J. D. upon the linen. No purse, but
loose money to the extent of seven pounds thirteen. Pocket


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

edition of Boccaccio's `Decameron,' with name of Joseph

Stangerson upon the fly-leaf. Two letters -- one addressed to
E. J. Drebber and one to Joseph Stangerson."
"At what address?"
"American Exchange, Strand -- to be left till called for. They
are both from the Guion Steamship Company, and refer to
the sailing of their boats from Liverpool. It is clear that this
unfortunate man was about to return to New York."
"Have you made any inquiries as to this man, Stangerson?"
"I did it at once, sir," said Gregson. "I have had
advertisements sent to all the newspapers, and one of my
men has gone to the American Exchange, but he has not
returned yet."
"Have you sent to Cleveland?"
"We telegraphed this morning."
"How did you word your inquiries?"
"We simply detailed the circumstances, and said that we
should be glad of any information which could help us."
"You did not ask for particulars on any point which appeared
to you to be crucial?"
"I asked about Stangerson."
"Nothing else? Is there no circumstance on which this whole
case appears to hinge? Will you not telegraph again?"


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"I have said all I have to say," said Gregson, in an offended

Sherlock Holmes chuckled to himself, and appeared to be
about to make some remark, when Lestrade, who had been
in the front room while we were holding this conversation in
pompous and self-satisfied manner.
"Mr. Gregson," he said, "I have just made a discovery of the
highest importance, and one which would have been
overlooked had I not made a careful examination of the
The little man's eyes sparkled as he spoke, and he was
evidently in a state of suppressed exultation at having
scored a point against his colleague.
"Come here," he said, bustling back into the room, the
atmosphere of which felt clearer since the removal of its
ghastly inmate. "Now, stand there!"
"Look at that!" he said, triumphantly.
I have remarked that the paper had fallen away in parts. In
this particular corner of the room a large piece had peeled
off, leaving a yellow square of coarse plastering. Across this
bare space there was scrawled in blood-red letters a single
word -RACHE.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"What do you think of that?" cried the detective, with the air
of a showman exhibiting his show. "This was overlooked
thought of looking there. The murderer has written it with
his or her own blood. See this smear where it has trickled
down the wall! That disposes of the idea of suicide anyhow.
Why was that corner chosen to write it on? I will tell you.
See that candle on the mantelpiece. It was lit at the time,
the darkest portion of the wall."
"And what does it mean now that you _have_ found it?"
asked Gregson in a depreciatory voice.
"Mean? Why, it means that the writer was going to put the
female name Rachel, but was disturbed before he or she had
time to finish. You mark my words, when this case comes to
be cleared up you will find that a woman named Rachel has
something to do with it. It's all very well for you to laugh,
Mr. Sherlock Holmes. You may be very smart and clever, but
the old hound is the best, when all is said and done."
"I really beg your pardon!" said my companion, who had
ruffled the little man's temper by bursting into an explosion
of laughter. "You certainly have the credit of being the first
of us to find this out, and, as you say, it bears every mark of
having been written by the other participant in last night's
mystery. I have not had time to examine this room yet, but
with your permission I shall do so now."
magnifying glass from his pocket. With these two
implements he trotted noiselessly about the room,
sometimes stopping, occasionally kneeling, and once lying
flat upon his face. So engrossed was he with his occupation
that he appeared to have forgotten our presence, for he
chattered away to himself under his breath the whole time,


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

keeping up a running fire of exclamations, groans, whistles,

and little cries suggestive of encouragement and of hope. As
I watched him I was irresistibly reminded of a pure-blooded
well-trained foxhound as it dashes backwards and forwards
through the covert, whining in its eagerness, until it comes
across the lost scent. For twenty minutes or more he
continued his researches, measuring with the most exact
care the distance between marks which were entirely
invisible to me, and occasionally applying his tape to the
walls in an equally incomprehensible manner. In one place
he gathered up very carefully a little pile of grey dust from
the floor, and packed it away in an envelope. Finally, he
examined with his glass the word upon the wall, going over
every letter of it with the most minute exactness. This done,
glass in his pocket.
"They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains,"
he remarked with a smile. "It's a very bad definition, but it
does apply to detective work."
Gregson and Lestrade had watched the manoeuvres {9} of
their amateur companion with considerable curiosity and
some contempt. They evidently failed to appreciate the
fact, which I had begun to realize, that Sherlock Holmes'
smallest actions were all directed towards some definite and
practical end.
"What do you think of it, sir?" they both asked.
"It would be robbing you of the credit of the case if I was to
presume to help you," remarked my friend. "You are doing so
well now that it would be a pity for anyone to interfere."
There was a world of sarcasm in his voice as he spoke. "If
you will let me know how your investigations go," he
continued, "I shall be happy to give you any help I can. In


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

the meantime I should like to speak to the constable who

found the body. Can you give me his name and address?"
Lestrade glanced at his note-book. "John Rance," he said.
"He is off duty now. You will find him at 46, Audley Court,
Kennington Park Gate."
Holmes took a note of the address.
"Come along, Doctor," he said; "we shall go and look him up.
I'll tell you one thing which may help you in the case," he
continued, turning to the two detectives. "There has been
murder done, and the murderer was a man. He was more
Trichinopoly cigar. He came here with his victim in a fourwheeled cab, which was drawn by a horse with three old
shoes and one new one on his off fore leg. In all probability
the murderer had a florid face, and the finger-nails of his
right hand were remarkably long. These are only a few
indications, but they may assist you."
Lestrade and Gregson glanced at each other with an
incredulous smile.
"If this man was murdered, how was it done?" asked the
"Poison," said Sherlock Holmes curtly, and strode off. "One
other thing, Lestrade," he added, turning round at the door:
"`Rache,' is the German for `revenge;' so don't lose your
time looking for Miss Rachel."
With which Parthian shot he walked away, leaving the two
rivals open-mouthed behind him.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

Chapter 4 - What John Rance Had To Tell?

IT was one o'clock when we left No. 3, Lauriston Gardens.

Sherlock Holmes led me to the nearest telegraph office,
whence he dispatched a long telegram. He then hailed a
us by Lestrade.
"There is nothing like firsthand evidence," he remarked; "as
case, but still we may as well learn all that is to be learned."
"You amaze me, Holmes," said I. "Surely you are not as sure
as you pretend to be of all those particulars which you
"There's no room for a mistake," he answered. "The very first
thing which I observed on arriving there was that a cab had
made two ruts with its wheels close to the curb. Now, up to
wheels which left such a deep impression must have been
there during the night. There were the marks of the horse's
new shoe. Since the cab was there after the rain began, and
was not there at any time during the morning -- I have
Gregson's word for that -- it follows that it must have been
two individuals to the house."
"That seems simple enough," said I; "but how about the other
man's height?"


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle


told from the length of his stride. It is a simple calculation
enough, though there is no use my boring you with figures. I
had this fellow's stride both on the clay outside and on the
dust within. Then I had a way of checking my calculation.
about the level of his own eyes. Now that writing was just
over six feet from the ground. It was child's play."
"And his age?" I asked.
"Well, if a man can stride four and a-half feet without the
That was the breadth of a puddle on the garden walk which
he had evidently walked across. Patent-leather boots had
gone round, and Square-toes had hopped over. There is no
mystery about it at all. I am simply applying to ordinary life
a few of those precepts of observation and deduction which I
advocated in that article. Is there anything else that puzzles
"The finger nails and the Trichinopoly," I suggested.
"The writing on the wall was done with a man's forefinger
dipped in blood. My glass allowed me to observe that the
plaster was slightly scratched in doing it, which would not
have been the case if the man's nail had been trimmed. I
gathered up some scattered ash from the floor. It was dark
in colour and flakey -- such an ash as is only made by a
Trichinopoly. I have made a special study of cigar ashes -- in
fact, I have written a monograph upon the subject. I flatter
myself that I can distinguish at a glance the ash of any
known brand, either of cigar or of tobacco. It is just in such
details that the skilled detective differs from the Gregson
and Lestrade type."
"And the florid face?" I asked.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"Ah, that was a more daring shot, though I have no doubt

that I was right. You must not ask me that at the present
state of the affair."
I passed my hand over my brow. "My head is in a whirl," I
remarked; "the more one thinks of it the more mysterious it
grows. How came these two men -- if there were two men -into an empty house? What has become of the cabman who
drove them? How could one man compel another to take
poison? Where did the blood come from? What was the
object of the murderer, since robbery had no part in it? How
came the woman's ring there? Above all, why should the
second man write up the German word RACHE before
decamping? I confess that I cannot see any possible way of
reconciling all these facts."
My companion smiled approvingly.
"You sum up the difficulties of the situation succinctly and
well," he said. "There is much that is still obscure, though I
have quite made up my mind on the main facts. As to poor
Lestrade's discovery it was simply a blind intended to put the
police upon a wrong track, by suggesting Socialism and
secret societies. It was not done by a German. The A, if you
noticed, was printed somewhat after the German fashion.
Now, a real German invariably prints in the Latin character,
but by a clumsy imitator who overdid his part. It was simply
a ruse to divert inquiry into a wrong channel. I'm not going
to tell you much more of the case, Doctor. You know a
conjuror gets no credit when once he has explained his trick,
will come to the conclusion that I am a very ordinary
individual after all."


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"I shall never do that," I answered; "you have brought

detection as near an exact science as it ever will be brought
in this world."
My companion flushed up with pleasure at my words, and
the earnest way in which I uttered them. I had already
observed that he was as sensitive to flattery on the score of
his art as any girl could be of her beauty.
"I'll tell you one other thing," he said. "Patent leathers {10}
down the pathway together as friendly as possible -- arm-inarm, in all probability. When they got inside they walked up
and down the room -- or rather, Patent-leathers stood still
while Square-toes walked up and down. I could read all that
and more excited. That is shown by the increased length of
his strides. He was talking all the while, and working himself
up, no doubt, into a fury. Then the tragedy occurred. I've
and conjecture. We have a good working basis, however, on
which to start. We must hurry up, for I want to go to Halle's
concert to hear Norman Neruda this afternoon."
This conversation had occurred while our cab had been
threading its way through a long succession of dingy streets
and dreary by-ways. In the dingiest and dreariest of them
our driver suddenly came to a stand. "That's Audley Court in
there," he said, pointing to a narrow slit in the line of deadcoloured brick. "You'll find me here when you come back."
Audley Court was not an attractive locality. The narrow
passage led us into a quadrangle paved with flags and lined
by sordid dwellings. We picked our way among groups of
dirty children, and through lines of discoloured linen, until
we came to Number 46, the door of which was decorated
with a small slip of brass on which the name Rance was


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

engraved. On enquiry we found that the constable was in

his coming.
He appeared presently, looking a little irritable at being
disturbed in his slumbers. "I made my report at the office,"
he said.
Holmes took a half-sovereign from his pocket and played
with it pensively. "We thought that we should like to hear it
all from your own lips," he said.
"I shall be most happy to tell you anything I can," the
constable answered with his eyes upon the little golden disk.
"Just let us hear it all in your own way as it occurred."
Rance sat down on the horsehair sofa, and knitted his brows
as though determined not to omit anything in his narrative.
"I'll tell it ye from the beginning," he said. "My time is from
ten at night to six in the morning. At eleven there was a
fight at the `White Hart'; but bar that all was quiet enough
on the beat. At one o'clock it began to rain, and I met Harry
Murcher -- him who has the Holland Grove beat -- and we
stood together at the corner of Henrietta Street a-talkin'.
Presently -- maybe about two or a little after -- I thought I
Brixton Road. It was precious dirty and lonely. Not a soul did
I was a strollin' down, thinkin' between ourselves how
uncommon handy a four of gin hot would be, when suddenly
same house. Now, I knew that them two houses in Lauriston
Gardens was empty on account of him that owns them who
won't have the drains seed to, though the very last tenant
what lived in one of them died o' typhoid fever. I was


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

knocked all in a heap therefore at seeing a light in the

window, and I suspected as something was wrong. When I got
to the door ----"
"You stopped, and then walked back to the garden gate," my
companion interrupted. "What did you do that for?"
Rance gave a violent jump, and stared at Sherlock Holmes
with the utmost amazement upon his features.
"Why, that's true, sir," he said; "though how you come to
know it, Heaven only knows. Ye see, when I got up to the
door it was so still and so lonesome, that I thought I'd be
none the worse for some one with me. I ain't afeared of
anything on this side o' the grave; but I thought that maybe
it was him that died o' the typhoid inspecting the drains
what killed him. The thought gave me a kind o' turn, and I
walked back to the gate to see if I could see Murcher's
lantern, but there wasn't no sign of him nor of anyone else."
"There was no one in the street?"
"Not a livin' soul, sir, nor as much as a dog. Then I pulled
myself together and went back and pushed the door open.
was a-burnin'. There was a candle flickerin' on the
mantelpiece -- a red wax one -- and by its light I saw ----"
"Yes, I know all that you saw. You walked round the room
walked through and tried the kitchen door, and then ----"
John Rance sprang to his feet with a frightened face and
suspicion in his eyes. "Where was you hid to see all that?" he
cried. "It seems to me that you knows a deal more than you


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

Holmes laughed and threw his card across the table to the
constable. "Don't get arresting me for the murder," he said. "I
am one of the hounds and not the wolf; Mr. Gregson or Mr.
Lestrade will answer for that. Go on, though. What did you
do next?"
Rance resumed his seat, without however losing his
mystified expression. "I went back to the gate and sounded
my whistle. That brought Murcher and two more to the
"Was the street empty then?"
"Well, it was, as far as anybody that could be of any good
"What do you mean?"
The constable's features broadened into a grin. "I've seen
many a drunk chap in my time," he said, "but never anyone
so cryin' drunk as that cove. He was at the gate when I came
out, a-leanin' up agin the railings, and a-singin' at the pitch
such stuff. He couldn't stand, far less help."
"What sort of a man was he?" asked Sherlock Holmes.
John Rance appeared to be somewhat irritated at this
digression. "He was an uncommon drunk sort o' man," he
said. "He'd ha' found hisself in the station if we hadn't been
so took up."
"His face -- his dress -- didn't you notice them?" Holmes
broke in impatiently.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"I should think I did notice them, seeing that I had to prop
him up -- me and Murcher between us. He was a long chap,
with a red face, the lower part muffled round ----"
"That will do," cried Holmes. "What became of him?"
"We'd enough to do without lookin' after him," the policeman
said, in an aggrieved voice. "I'll wager he found his way
home all right."
"How was he dressed?"
"A brown overcoat."
"Had he a whip in his hand?"
"A whip -- no."
"He must have left it behind," muttered my companion. "You
didn't happen to see or hear a cab after that?"
"There's a half-sovereign for you," my companion said,
standing up and taking his hat. "I am afraid, Rance, that you
will never rise in the force. That head of yours should be for
use as well as ornament. You might have gained your
sergeant's stripes last night. The man whom you held in your
whom we are seeking. There is no use of arguing about it
now; I tell you that it is so. Come along, Doctor."
We started off for the cab together, leaving our informant
incredulous, but obviously uncomfortable.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"The blundering fool," Holmes said, bitterly, as we drove

back to our lodgings. "Just to think of his having such an
incomparable bit of good luck, and not taking advantage of
"I am rather in the dark still. It is true that the description of
this man tallies with your idea of the second party in this
mystery. But why should he come back to the house after
leaving it? That is not the way of criminals."
"The ring, man, the ring: that was what he came back for. If
our line with the ring. I shall have him, Doctor -- I'll lay you
two to one that I have him. I must thank you for it all. I
finest study I ever came across: a study in scarlet, eh? Why
shouldn't we use a little art jargon. There's the scarlet
thread of murder running through the colourless skein of
every inch of it. And now for lunch, and then for Norman
Neruda. Her attack and her bowing are splendid. What's that
little thing of Chopin's she plays so magnificently: Tra-la-lalira-lira-lay."
Leaning back in the cab, this amateur bloodhound carolled
away like a lark while I meditated upon the many-sidedness
of the human mind.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

Chapter 5 - Our Advertisement Brings A Visitor

OUR morning's exertions had been too much for my weak

health, and I was tired out in the afternoon. After Holmes'
departure for the concert, I lay down upon the sofa and
endeavoured to get a couple of hours' sleep. It was a useless
occurred, and the strangest fancies and surmises crowded
distorted baboon-like countenance of the murdered man. So
sinister was the impression which that face had produced
upon me that I found it difficult to feel anything but
gratitude for him who had removed its owner from the
world. If ever human features bespoke vice of the most
malignant type, they were certainly those of Enoch J.
Drebber, of Cleveland. Still I recognized that justice must be
done, and that the depravity of the victim was no
condonment {11} in the eyes of the law.
The more I thought of it the more extraordinary did my
companion's hypothesis, that the man had been poisoned,
no doubt that he had detected something which had given
the man's death, since there was neither wound nor marks of
struggle, nor had the victim any weapon with which he
might have wounded an antagonist. As long as all these
questions were unsolved, I felt that sleep would be no easy
matter, either for Holmes or myself. His quiet self-confident
manner convinced me that he had already formed a theory
for an instant conjecture.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

He was very late in returning -- so late, that I knew that the

concert could not have detained him all the time. Dinner
was on the table before he appeared.
"It was magnificent," he said, as he took his seat. "Do you
remember what Darwin says about music? He claims that the
power of producing and appreciating it existed among the
human race long before the power of speech was arrived at.
are vague memories in our souls of those misty centuries
when the world was in its childhood."
"That's rather a broad idea," I remarked.
"One's ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to
interpret Nature," he answered. "What's the matter? You're
not looking quite yourself. This Brixton Road affair has upset
"To tell the truth, it has," I said. "I ought to be more casehardened after my Afghan experiences. I saw my own
comrades hacked to pieces at Maiwand without losing my
"I can understand. There is a mystery about this which
stimulates the imagination; where there is no imagination
there is no horror. Have you seen the evening paper?"
"It gives a fairly good account of the affair. It does not
mention the fact that when the man was raised up, a
woman's wedding ring fell upon the floor. It is just as well it
does not."


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"Look at this advertisement," he answered. "I had one sent to

every paper this morning immediately after the affair."
indicated. It was the first announcement in the "Found"
column. "In Brixton Road, this morning," it ran, "a plain gold
wedding ring, found in the roadway between the `White
Hart' Tavern and Holland Grove. Apply Dr. Watson, 221B,
Baker Street, between eight and nine this evening."
"Excuse my using your name," he said. "If I used my own
some of these dunderheads would recognize it, and want to
meddle in the affair."
"That is all right," I answered. "But supposing anyone applies,
I have no ring."
"Oh yes, you have," said he, handing me one. "This will do
very well. It is almost a facsimile."
"And who do you expect will answer this advertisement."
"Why, the man in the brown coat -- our florid friend with the
square toes. If he does not come himself he will send an
"Would he not consider it as too dangerous?"
"Not at all. If my view of the case is correct, and I have
anything than lose the ring. According to my notion he
dropped it while stooping over Drebber's body, and did not
loss and hurried back, but found the police already in
possession, owing to his own folly in leaving the candle
suspicions which might have been aroused by his appearance


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

at the gate. Now put yourself in that man's place. On

thinking the matter over, it must have occurred to him that
leaving the house. What would he do, then? He would
eagerly look out for the evening papers in the hope of seeing
of the ring should be connected with the murder. He would
come. He will come. You shall see him within an hour?"
"And then?" I asked.
"Oh, you can leave me to deal with him then. Have you any
"I have my old service revolver and a few cartridges."
"You had better clean it and load it. He will be a desperate
man, and though I shall take him unawares, it is as well to
be ready for anything."
I went to my bedroom and followed his advice. When I
returned with the pistol the table had been cleared, and
Holmes was engaged in his favourite occupation of scraping
upon his violin.
"The plot thickens," he said, as I entered; "I have just had an
correct one."
"And that is?" I asked eagerly.
"My fiddle would be the better for new strings," he
remarked. "Put your pistol in your pocket. When the fellow
comes speak to him in an ordinary way. Leave the rest to
me. Don't frighten him by looking at him too hard."


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"It is eight o'clock now," I said, glancing at my watch.

"Yes. He will probably be here in a few minutes. Open the
yesterday -- `De Jure inter Gentes' -- published in Latin at
Liege in the Lowlands, in 1642. Charles' head was still firm
on his shoulders when this little brown-backed volume was
struck off."
"Who is the printer?"
"Philippe de Croy, whoever he may have been. On the flyleaf, in very faded ink, is written `Ex libris Guliolmi Whyte.'
I wonder who William Whyte was. Some pragmatical
seventeenth century lawyer, I suppose. His writing has a
legal twist about it. Here comes our man, I think."
Holmes rose softly and moved his chair in the direction of
sharp click of the latch as she opened it.
"Does Dr. Watson live here?" asked a clear but rather harsh
voice. We could not hear the servant's reply, but the door
closed, and some one began to ascend the stairs. The
footfall was an uncertain and shuffling one. A look of
surprise passed over the face of my companion as he
was a feeble tap at the door.
"Come in," I cried.
At my summons, instead of the man of violence whom we
expected, a very old and wrinkled woman hobbled into the
apartment. She appeared to be dazzled by the sudden blaze


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

us with her bleared eyes and fumbling in her pocket with

face had assumed such a disconsolate expression that it was
all I could do to keep my countenance.
advertisement. "It's this as has brought me, good
gentlemen," she said, dropping another curtsey; "a gold
as was married only this time twelvemonth, which her
went to the circus last night along with ----"
"Is that her ring?" I asked.
"The Lord be thanked!" cried the old woman; "Sally will be a
glad woman this night. That's the ring."
"And what may your address be?" I inquired, taking up a
"13, Duncan Street, Houndsditch. A weary way from here."
"The Brixton Road does not lie between any circus and
Houndsditch," said Sherlock Holmes sharply.
The old woman faced round and looked keenly at him from
her little red-rimmed eyes. "The gentleman asked me for
_my_ address," she said. "Sally lives in lodgings at 3,
Mayfield Place, Peckham."
"And your name is ----?"


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"My name is Sawyer -- her's is Dennis, which Tom Dennis

married her -- and a smart, clean lad, too, as long as he's at
when on shore, what with the women and what with liquor
shops ----"
"Here is your ring, Mrs. Sawyer," I interrupted, in obedience
to a sign from my companion; "it clearly belongs to your
rightful owner."
With many mumbled blessings and protestations of gratitude
down the stairs. Sherlock Holmes sprang to his feet the
moment that she was gone and rushed into his room. He
returned in a few seconds enveloped in an ulster and a
cravat. "I'll follow her," he said, hurriedly; "she must be an
accomplice, and will lead me to him. Wait up for me." The
hall door had hardly slammed behind our visitor before
Holmes had descended the stair. Looking through the
window I could see her walking feebly along the other side,
while her pursuer dogged her some little distance behind.
"Either his whole theory is incorrect," I thought to myself, "or
else he will be led now to the heart of the mystery." There
that sleep was impossible until I heard the result of his
skipping over the pages of Henri Murger's "Vie de Boheme."
{12} Ten o'clock passed, and I heard the footsteps of the
maid as they pattered off to bed. Eleven, and the more
stately tread of the landlady passed my door, bound for the
same destination. It was close upon twelve before I heard
the sharp sound of his latch-key. The instant he entered I
saw by his face that he had not been successful. Amusement
and chagrin seemed to be struggling for the mastery, until


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

the former suddenly carried the day, and he burst into a

hearty laugh.
"I wouldn't have the Scotland Yarders know it for the world,"
he cried, dropping into his chair; "I have chaffed them so
them in the long run."
"What is it then?" I asked.
"Oh, I don't mind telling a story against myself. That
creature had gone a little way when she began to limp and
show every sign of being foot-sore. Presently she came to a
enough to be heard at the other side of the street, `Drive to
13, Duncan Street, Houndsditch,' she cried. This begins to
perched myself behind. That's an art which every detective
drew rein until we reached the street in question. I hopped
jumped down, and I saw him open the door and stand
expectantly. Nothing came out though. When I reached him
he was groping about frantically in the empty cab, and
giving vent to the finest assorted collection of oaths that
fare. On inquiring at Number 13 we found that the house
belonged to a respectable paperhanger, named Keswick, and
been heard of there."


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"You don't mean to say," I cried, in amazement, "that that

while it was in motion, without either you or the driver
seeing her?"
"Old woman be damned!" said Sherlock Holmes, sharply. "We
Take my advice and turn in."
I left Holmes seated in front of the smoldering fire and long
into the watches of the night I heard the low, melancholy
wailings of his violin, and knew that he was still pondering
over the strange problem which he had set himself to


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

Chapter 6 - Tobias Greg Son Shows What He Can



some had leaders upon it in addition. There was some
my scrap-book numerous clippings and extracts bearing upon
the case. Here is a condensation of a few of them:-The _Daily Telegraph_ remarked that in the history of crime
there had seldom been a tragedy which presented stranger
other motive, and the sinister inscription on the wall, all
pointed to its perpetration by political refugees and
revolutionists. The Socialists had many branches in America,
and the deceased had, no doubt, infringed their unwritten
laws, and been tracked down by them. After alluding airily
to the Vehmgericht, aqua tofana, Carbonari, the Marchioness
de Brinvilliers, the Darwinian theory, the principles of
Malthus, and the Ratcliff Highway murders, the article
concluded by admonishing the Government and advocating a
closer watch over foreigners in England.
The _Standard_ commented upon the fact that lawless
outrages of the sort usually occurred under a Liberal
Administration. They arose from the unsettling of the minds
of the masses, and the consequent weakening of all
authority. The deceased was an American gentleman who
had been residing for some weeks in the Metropolis. He had
stayed at the boarding-house of Madame Charpentier, in
Torquay Terrace, Camberwell. He was accompanied in his
travels by his private secretary, Mr. Joseph Stangerson. The


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

and departed to Euston Station with the avowed intention of

catching the Liverpool express. They were afterwards seen
together upon the platform. Nothing more is known of them
empty house in the Brixton Road, many miles from Euston.
which are still involved in mystery. Nothing is known of the
whereabouts of Stangerson. We are glad to learn that Mr.
Lestrade and Mr. Gregson, of Scotland Yard, are both
engaged upon the case, and it is confidently anticipated that
these well-known officers will speedily throw light upon the
The _Daily News_ observed that there was no doubt as to
the crime being a political one. The despotism and hatred of
Liberalism which animated the Continental Governments had
might have made excellent citizens were they not soured by
the recollection of all that they had undergone. Among these
men there was a stringent code of honour, any infringement
of which was punished by death. Every effort should be
made to find the secretary, Stangerson, and to ascertain
some particulars of the habits of the deceased. A great step
had been gained by the discovery of the address of the
due to the acuteness and energy of Mr. Gregson of Scotland
Sherlock Holmes and I read these notices over together at
breakfast, and they appeared to afford him considerable
"I told you that, whatever happened, Lestrade and Gregson
would be sure to score."
"That depends on how it turns out."


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle


caught, it will be _on account_ of their exertions; if he
escapes, it will be _in spite_ of their exertions. It's heads I
came the pattering of many steps in the hall and on the
stairs, accompanied by audible expressions of disgust upon
the part of our landlady.
said my companion, gravely; and as he spoke there rushed
into the room half a dozen of the dirtiest and most ragged
street Arabs that ever I clapped eyes on.
little scoundrels stood in a line like so many disreputable
statuettes. "In future you shall send up Wiggins alone to
found it, Wiggins?"
Here are your wages. {13} He handed each of them a
report next time."
He waved his hand, and they scampered away downstairs
like so many rats, and we heard their shrill voices next
moment in the street.
These youngsters, however, go everywhere and hear


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle


is organisation."
with a vengeance! Here is Gregson coming down the road
with beatitude written upon every feature of his face. Bound
time, and burst into our sitting-room.
clear as day."
A shade of anxiety seemed to me to cross my companion's
expressive face.
"And his name is?"
cried Gregson, pompously, rubbing his fat hands and inflating
his chest.
Sherlock Holmes gave a sigh of relief, and relaxed into a


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

anxious to know how you managed it. Will you have some
whiskey and water?"
tremendous exertions which I have gone through during the
hear how you arrived at this most gratifying result."
The detective seated himself in the arm-chair, and puffed
complacently at his cigar. Then suddenly he slapped his thigh
in a paroxysm of amusement.
thinks himself so smart, has gone off upon the wrong track
altogether. He is after the secretary Stangerson, who had no
doubt that he has caught him by this time."
The idea tickled Gregson so much that he laughed until he
"And how did you get your clue?"
strictly between ourselves. The first difficulty which we had
to contend with was the finding of this American's
antecedents. Some people would have waited until their
advertisements were answered, or until parties came
forward and volunteered information. That is not Tobias
Gregson's way of going to work. You remember the hat
beside the dead man?"


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle


Camberwell Road."
Gregson looked quite crest-fallen.
been there?"
neglect a chance, however small it may seem."
Drebber, residing at Charpentier's Boarding Establishment,
Torquay Terrace. Thus I got at his address."
"Smart -- very smart!" murmured Sherlock Holmes.
"I next called upon Madame Charpentier," continued the
detective. "I found her very pale and distressed. Her
thrill in your nerves. `Have you heard of the mysterious
Cleveland?' I asked.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

The daughter burst into tears. I felt more than ever that
these people knew something of the matter.
train?' I asked.
to catch the first. {14}
question. Her features turned perfectly livid. It was some
when it did come it was in a husky unnatural tone.
"There was silence for a moment, and then the daughter
spoke in a calm clear voice.
`Let us be frank with this gentleman. We _did_ see Mr.
Drebber again.'
your brother.'
answered firmly.
"`You had best tell me all about it now,' I said. `Halfconfidences are worse than none. Besides, you do not know
how much we know of it.'


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

agitation on behalf of my son arises from any fear lest he
the eyes of others he may appear to be compromised. That
however is surely impossible. His high character, his
profession, his antecedents would all forbid it.'
be none the worse.'
and her daughter withdrew. `Now, sir,' she continued, `I had
no intention of telling you all this, but since my poor
daughter has disclosed it I have no alternative. Having once
decided to speak, I will tell you all without omitting any
"`It is your wisest course,' said I.
his secretary, Mr. Stangerson, had been travelling on the
trunks, showing that that had been their last stopping place.
sober. His manners towards the maid-servants were
disgustingly free and familiar. Worst of all, he speedily
assumed the same attitude towards my daughter, Alice, and
she is too innocent to understand. On one occasion he
actually seized her in his arms and embraced her -- an


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

outrage which caused his own secretary to reproach him for

his unmanly conduct.'
can get rid of your boarders when you wish.'
"Mrs. Charpentier blushed at my pertinent question. `Would
his going.'
returned. He was much excited, and evidently the worse for
with my daughter, and made some incoherent remark about
have money enough and to spare. Never mind the old girl
endeavoured to draw her towards the door. I screamed, and
at that moment my son Arthur came into the room. What


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle


When I did look up I saw Arthur standing in the doorway
took his hat and started off down the street. The next
morning we heard of Mr. Drebber's mysterious death.'
"This statement came from Mrs. Charpentier's lips with many
hardly catch the words. I made shorthand notes of all that
"What happened next?"
saw that the whole case hung upon one point. Fixing her
with my eye in a way which I always found effective with
women, I asked her at what hour her son returned.
"`I do not know,' she answered.
"`Not know?'
"`After you went to bed?'
"`When did you go to bed?'
"`About eleven.'


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle


"`Possibly four or five?'
"`What was he doing during that time?'
found out where Lieutenant Charpentier was, took two
the shoulder and warned him to come quietly with us, he
me for being concerned in the death of that scoundrel
that his alluding to it had a most suspicious aspect."
"Very," said Holmes.
"He still carried the heavy stick which the mother described
stout oak cudgel."
"What is your theory, then?"
Brixton Road. When there, a fresh altercation arose between
them, in the course of which Drebber received a blow from
one was about, so Charpentier dragged the body of his


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle


Gregson, you are getting along. We shall make something of
you yet."
detective answered proudly. "The young man volunteered a
statement, in which he said that after following Drebber
where this old shipmate lived, he was unable to give any
satisfactory reply. I think the whole case fits together
uncommonly well. What amuses me is to think of Lestrade,
won't make much of {15} Why, by Jove, here's the very man
It was indeed Lestrade, who had ascended the stairs while
we were talking, and who now entered the room. The
assurance and jauntiness which generally marked his
demeanour and dress were, however, wanting. His face was
disturbed and troubled, while his clothes were disarranged
and untidy. He had evidently come with the intention of
consulting with Sherlock Holmes, for on perceiving his
colleague he appeared to be embarrassed and put out. He
stood in the centre of the room, fumbling nervously with his
triumphantly. "I thought you would come to that conclusion.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

Have you managed to find the Secretary, Mr. Joseph

"The Secretary, Mr. Joseph Stangerson," said Lestrade
gravely, "was murdered at Halliday's Private Hotel about six
o'clock this morning."


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

Chapter 7 - Light in The Darkness

THE intelligence with which Lestrade greeted us was so

momentous and so unexpected, that we were all three fairly
dumfoundered. Gregson sprang out of his chair and upset
the remainder of his whiskey and water. I stared in silence at
Sherlock Holmes, whose lips were compressed and his brows
drawn down over his eyes.
"It was quite thick enough before," grumbled Lestrade,
of war."
"Are you -- are you sure of this piece of intelligence?"
stammered Gregson.
"I have just come from his room," said Lestrade. "I was the
first to discover what had occurred."
"We have been hearing Gregson's view of the matter,"
Holmes observed. "Would you mind letting us know what you
have seen and done?"
freely confess that I was of the opinion that Stangerson was
concerned in the death of Drebber. This fresh development
has shown me that I was completely mistaken. Full of the
Secretary. They had been seen together at Euston Station
the morning Drebber had been found in the Brixton Road.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

The question which confronted me was to find out how

Stangerson had been employed between 8.30 and the time
telegraphed to Liverpool, giving a description of the man,
and warning them to keep a watch upon the American boats.
I then set to work calling upon all the hotels and lodginghouses in the vicinity of Euston. You see, I argued that if
Drebber and his companion had become separated, the
natural course for the latter would be to put up somewhere
station again next morning."
"They would be likely to agree on some meeting-place
beforehand," remarked Holmes.
making enquiries entirely without avail. This morning I began
very early, and at eight o'clock I reached Halliday's Private
Hotel, in Little George Street. On my enquiry as to whether
in the affirmative.
"`No doubt you are the gentleman whom he was expecting,'
they said. `He has been waiting for a gentleman for two
"`Where is he now?' I asked.
"`He is upstairs in bed. He wished to be called at nine.'
"`I will go up and see him at once,' I said.
"It seemed to me that my sudden appearance might shake
his nerves and lead him to say something unguarded. The
Boots volunteered to show me the room: it was on the


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

downstairs again when I saw something that made me feel

meandered across the passage and formed a little pool along
knocked it in. The window of the room was open, and beside
the window, all huddled up, lay the body of a man in his
nightdress. He was quite dead, and had been for some time,
for his limbs were rigid and cold. When we turned him over,
the Boots recognized him at once as being the same
gentleman who had engaged the room under the name of
Joseph Stangerson. The cause of death was a deep stab in
the left side, which must have penetrated the heart. And
now comes the strangest part of the affair. What do you
suppose was above the murdered man?"
horror, even before Sherlock Holmes answered.
"The word RACHE, written in letters of blood," he said.
"That was it," said Lestrade, in an awe-struck voice; and we
were all silent for a while.
There was something so methodical and so incomprehensible
about the deeds of this unknown assassin, that it imparted a
fresh ghastliness to his crimes. My nerves, which were
steady enough on the field of battle tingled as I thought of
"The man was seen," continued Lestrade. "A milk boy, passing
which leads from the mews at the back of the hotel. He
noticed that a ladder, which usually lay there, was raised
against one of the windows of the second floor, which was


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

wide open. After passing, he looked back and saw a man

descend the ladder. He came down so quietly and openly
that the boy imagined him to be some carpenter or joiner at
work in the hotel. He took no particular notice of him,
be at work. He has an impression that the man was tall, had
a reddish face, and was dressed in a long, brownish coat. He
must have stayed in the room some little time after the
where he had washed his hands, and marks on the sheets
where he had deliberately wiped his knife."
I glanced at Holmes on hearing the description of the
murderer, which tallied so exactly with his own. There was,
however, no trace of exultation or satisfaction upon his face.
"Did you find nothing in the room which could furnish a clue
to the murderer?" he asked.
"Nothing. Stangerson had Drebber's purse in his pocket, but
it seems that this was usual, as he did all the paying. There
was eighty odd pounds in it, but nothing had been taken.
Whatever the motives of these extraordinary crimes,
robbery is certainly not one of them. There were no papers
or memoranda in the murdered man's pocket, except a
single telegram, dated from Cleveland about a month ago,
and containing the words, `J. H. is in Europe.' There was no
name appended to this message."
"And there was nothing else?" Holmes asked.
"Nothing of any importance. The man's novel, with which he
had read himself to sleep was lying upon the bed, and his
pipe was on a chair beside him. There was a glass of water
box containing a couple of pills."


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

Sherlock Holmes sprang from his chair with an exclamation

of delight.
"The last link," he cried, exultantly. "My case is complete."
The two detectives stared at him in amazement.
"I have now in my hands," my companion said, confidently,
"all the threads which have formed such a tangle. There are,
the main facts, from the time that Drebber parted from
the latter, as if I had seen them with my own eyes. I will give
you a proof of my knowledge. Could you lay your hand upon
those pills?"
"I have them," said Lestrade, producing a small white box; "I
took them and the purse and the telegram, intending to
have them put in a place of safety at the Police Station. It
to say that I do not attach any importance to them."
"Give them here," said Holmes. "Now, Doctor," turning to me,
"are those ordinary pills?"
They certainly were not. They were of a pearly grey colour,
small, round, and almost transparent against the light.
"From their lightness and transparency, I should imagine that
they are soluble in water," I remarked.
"Precisely so," answered Holmes. "Now would you mind going
down and fetching that poor little devil of a terrier which
put out of its pain yesterday."
I went downstairs and carried the dog upstair in my arms. It's
laboured breathing and glazing eye showed that it was not


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

far from its end. Indeed, its snow-white muzzle proclaimed

that it had already exceeded the usual term of canine
existence. I placed it upon a cushion on the rug.
"I will now cut one of these pills in two," said Holmes, and
drawing his penknife he suited the action to the word. "One
half we return into the box for future purposes. The other
half I will place in this wine glass, in which is a teaspoonful
of water. You perceive that our friend, the Doctor, is right,
and that it readily dissolves."
"This may be very interesting," said Lestrade, in the injured
tone of one who suspects that he is being laughed at, "I
cannot see, however, what it has to do with the death of Mr.
Joseph Stangerson."
"Patience, my friend, patience! You will find in time that it
has everything to do with it. I shall now add a little milk to
make the mixture palatable, and on presenting it to the dog
we find that he laps it up readily enough."
As he spoke he turned the contents of the wine glass into a
saucer and placed it in front of the terrier, who speedily
licked it dry. Sherlock Holmes' earnest demeanour had so far
convinced us that we all sat in silence, watching the animal
intently, and expecting some startling effect. None such
appeared, however. The dog continued to lie stretched upon
tho {16} cushion, breathing in a laboured way, but
apparently neither the better nor the worse for its draught.
Holmes had taken out his watch, and as minute followed
minute without result, an expression of the utmost chagrin
and disappointment appeared upon his features. He gnawed
his lip, drummed his fingers upon the table, and showed
every other symptom of acute impatience. So great was his
emotion, that I felt sincerely sorry for him, while the two


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

detectives smiled derisively, by no means displeased at this

check which he had met.
"It can't be a coincidence," he cried, at last springing from
his chair and pacing wildly up and down the room; "it is
impossible that it should be a mere coincidence. The very
pills which I suspected in the case of Drebber are actually
found after the death of Stangerson. And yet they are inert.
What can it mean? Surely my whole chain of reasoning
cannot have been false. It is impossible! And yet this
wretched dog is none the worse. Ah, I have it! I have it!"
it to the terrier. The unfortunate creature's tongue seemed
hardly to have been moistened in it before it gave a
convulsive shiver in every limb, and lay as rigid and lifeless
as if it had been struck by lightning.
Sherlock Holmes drew a long breath, and wiped the
perspiration from his forehead. "I should have more faith,"
he said; "I ought to know by this time that when a fact
appears to be opposed to a long train of deductions, it
invariably proves to be capable of bearing some other
interpretation. Of the two pills in that box one was of the
most deadly poison, and the other was entirely harmless. I
ought to have known that before ever I saw the box at all."
This last statement appeared to me to be so startling, that I
could hardly believe that he was in his sober senses. There
been correct. It seemed to me that the mists in my own
mind were gradually clearing away, and I began to have a
dim, vague perception of the truth.
you failed at the beginning of the inquiry to grasp the
importance of the single real clue which was presented to


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle


everything which has occurred since then has served to
confirm my original supposition, and, indeed, was the logical
sequence of it. Hence things which have perplexed you and
made the case more obscure, have served to enlighten me
and to strengthen my conclusions. It is a mistake to
confound strangeness with mystery. The most commonplace
crime is often the most mysterious because it presents no
new or special features from which deductions may be
drawn. This murder would have been infinitely more difficult
to unravel had the body of the victim been simply found
lying in the roadway without any of those _outre_ {17} and
sensational accompaniments which have rendered it
remarkable. These strange details, far from making the case
more difficult, have really had the effect of making it less
Mr. Gregson, who had listened to this address with
considerable impatience, could contain himself no longer.
"Look here, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," he said, "we are all ready
your own methods of working. We want something more
than mere theory and preaching now, though. It is a case of
taking the man. I have made my case out, and it seems I was
wrong. Young Charpentier could not have been engaged in
this second affair. Lestrade went after his man, Stangerson,
and it appears that he was wrong too. You have thrown out
right to ask you straight how much you do know of the
business. Can you name the man who did it?"
"I cannot help feeling that Gregson is right, sir," remarked
Lestrade. "We have both tried, and we have both failed. You
have remarked more than once since I have been in the
room that you had all the evidence which you require.
Surely you will not withhold it any longer."


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"Any delay in arresting the assassin," I observed, "might give

him time to perpetrate some fresh atrocity."
Thus pressed by us all, Holmes showed signs of irresolution.
He continued to walk up and down the room with his head
when lost in thought.
"There will be no more murders," he said at last, stopping
abruptly and facing us. "You can put that consideration out
of the question. You have asked me if I know the name of
the assassin. I do. The mere knowing of his name is a small
thing, however, compared with the power of laying our
hands upon him. This I expect very shortly to do. I have good
hopes of managing it through my own arrangements; but it is
a thing which needs delicate handling, for we have a shrewd
had occasion to prove, by another who is as clever as
himself. As long as this man has no idea that anyone can
had the slightest suspicion, he would change his name, and
vanish in an instant among the four million inhabitants of
this great city. Without meaning to hurt either of your
have not asked your assistance. If I fail I shall, of course,
prepared for. At present I am ready to promise that the
instant that I can communicate with you without
endangering my own combinations, I shall do so."
Gregson and Lestrade seemed to be far from satisfied by this
assurance, or by the depreciating allusion to the detective
police. The former had flushed up to the roots of his flaxen
hair, while the other's beady eyes glistened with curiosity
and resentment. Neither of them had time to speak,


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

spokesman of the street Arabs, young Wiggins, introduced

his insignificant and unsavoury person.
"Please, sir," he said, touching his forelock, "I have the cab
"Good boy," said Holmes, blandly. "Why don't you introduce
this pattern at Scotland Yard?" he continued, taking a pair of
steel handcuffs from a drawer. "See how beautifully the
spring works. They fasten in an instant."
"The old pattern is good enough," remarked Lestrade, "if we
can only find the man to put them on."
"Very good, very good," said Holmes, smiling. "The cabman
may as well help me with my boxes. Just ask him to step up,
I was surprised to find my companion speaking as though he
anything to me about it. There was a small portmanteau in
the room, and this he pulled out and began to strap. He was
busily engaged at it when the cabman entered the room.
"Just give me a help with this buckle, cabman," he said,
kneeling over his task, and never turning his head.
The fellow came forward with a somewhat sullen, defiant
air, and put down his hands to assist. At that instant there
was a sharp click, the jangling of metal, and Sherlock
Holmes sprang to his feet again.
"Gentlemen," he cried, with flashing eyes, "let me introduce
you to Mr. Jefferson Hope, the murderer of Enoch Drebber
and of Joseph Stangerson."


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

The whole thing occurred in a moment -- so quickly that I

had no time to realize it. I have a vivid recollection of that
instant, of Holmes' triumphant expression and the ring of his
the glittering handcuffs, which had appeared as if by magic
upon his wrists. For a second or two we might have been a
group of statues. Then, with an inarticulate roar of fury, the
prisoner wrenched himself free from Holmes's grasp, and
hurled himself through the window. Woodwork and glass
gave way before him; but before he got quite through,
Gregson, Lestrade, and Holmes sprang upon him like so
many staghounds. He was dragged back into the room, and
then commenced a terrific conflict. So powerful and so
fierce was he, that the four of us were shaken off again and
again. He appeared to have the convulsive strength of a man
in an epileptic fit. His face and hands were terribly mangled
effect in diminishing his resistance. It was not until Lestrade
succeeded in getting his hand inside his neckcloth and halfstrangling him that we made him realize that his struggles
had pinioned his feet as well as his hands. That done, we
rose to our feet breathless and panting.
"We have his cab," said Sherlock Holmes. "It will serve to
take him to Scotland Yard. And now, gentlemen," he
continued, with a pleasant smile, "we have reached the end
of our little mystery. You are very welcome to put any
that I will refuse to answer them."


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

A Study in Scarlet
Arthur Conan Doyle
Part 2 - The Country of the Saints
Chapter 1 - On the Great Alkali Plain

IN the central portion of the great North American Continent

there lies an arid and repulsive desert, which for many a
long year served as a barrier against the advance of
civilisation. From the Sierra Nevada to Nebraska, and from
the Yellowstone River in the north to the Colorado upon the
always in one mood throughout this grim district. It
comprises snow-capped and lofty mountains, and dark and
gloomy valleys. There are swift-flowing rivers which dash
through jagged canons; {18} and there are enormous plains,
common characteristics of barrenness, inhospitality, and
Pawnees or of Blackfeet may occasionally traverse it in order
to reach other hunting-grounds, but the hardiest of the
find themselves once more upon their prairies. The coyote
skulks among the scrub, the buzzard flaps heavily through
the air, and the clumsy grizzly bear lumbers through the dark
ravines, and picks up such sustenance as it can amongst the
rocks. These are the sole dwellers in the wilderness.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

In the whole world there can be no more dreary view than

dusted over with patches of alkali, and intersected by
clumps of the dwarfish chaparral bushes. On the extreme
their rugged summits flecked with snow. In this great stretch
of country there is no sign of life, nor of anything
heaven, no movement upon the dull, grey earth -- above all,
shadow of a sound in all that mighty wilderness; nothing but
silence -- complete and heart-subduing silence.
It has been said there is nothing appertaining to life upon
Sierra Blanco, one sees a pathway traced out across the
desert, which winds away and is lost in the extreme
distance. It is rutted with wheels and trodden down by the
feet of many adventurers. Here and there there are
scattered white objects which glisten in the sun, and stand
out against the dull deposit of alkali. Approach, and examine
and more delicate. The former have belonged to oxen, and
the latter to men. For fifteen hundred miles one may trace
this ghastly caravan route by these scattered remains of
those who had fallen by the wayside.
Looking down on this very scene, there stood upon the
traveller. His appearance was such that he might have been
the very genius or demon of the region. An observer would
have found it difficult to say whether he was nearer to forty
parchment-like skin was drawn tightly over the projecting
burned with an unnatural lustre; while the hand which


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

grasped his rifle was hardly more fleshy than that of a

skeleton. As he stood, he leaned upon his weapon for
support, and yet his tall figure and the massive framework
of his bones suggested a wiry and vigorous constitution. His
over his shrivelled limbs, proclaimed what it was that gave
him that senile and decrepit appearance. The man was dying
-- dying from hunger and from thirst.
Now the great salt plain stretched before his eyes, and the
distant belt of savage mountains, without a sign anywhere of
plant or tree, which might indicate the presence of
moisture. In all that broad landscape there was no gleam of
questioning eyes, and then he realised that his wanderings
twenty years hence," he muttered, as he seated himself in
the shelter of a boulder.
Before sitting down, he had deposited upon the ground his
which he had carried slung over his right shoulder. It
appeared to be somewhat too heavy for his strength, for in
lowering it, it came down on the ground with some little
violence. Instantly there broke from the grey parcel a little
moaning cry, and from it there protruded a small, scared
face, with very bright brown eyes, and two little speckled,
dimpled fists.
"You've hurt me!" said a childish voice reproachfully.
"Have I though," the man answered penitently, "I didn't go for
to do it." As he spoke he unwrapped the grey shawl and
extricated a pretty little girl of about five years of age,


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

whose dainty shoes and smart pink frock with its little linen
apron all bespoke a mother's care. The child was pale and
wan, but her healthy arms and legs showed that she had
suffered less than her companion.
rubbing the towsy golden curls which covered the back of
her head.
shoving {19} the injured part up to him. "That's what mother
used to do. Where's mother?"
"Gone, eh!" said the little girl. "Funny, she didn't say goodbye; she 'most always did if she was just goin' over to
Auntie's for tea, and now she's been away three days. Say,
it's awful dry, ain't it? Ain't there no water, nor nothing to
agin me like that, and then you'll feel bullier. It ain't easy to
know how the cards lie. What's that you've got?"
"Pretty things! fine things!" cried the little girl
enthusiastically, holding up two glittering fragments of mica.
though -- you remember when we left the river?"
"Oh, yes."


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle


little drop for the likes of you and -- and ----"
"And you couldn't wash yourself," interrupted his companion
gravely, staring up at his grimy visage.
Hones, and then, dearie, your mother."
"Then mother's a deader too," cried the little girl dropping
her face in her pinafore and sobbing bitterly.
over my shoulder and we tramped it together. It don't seem
as though we've improved matters. There's an almighty small
chance for us now!"
"Do you mean that we are going to die too?" asked the child,
checking her sobs, and raising her tear-stained face.
"I guess that's about the size of it."
we die we'll be with mother again."
"Yes, you will, dearie."
she meets us at the door of Heaven with a big pitcher of


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"I don't know -- not very long." The man's eyes were fixed
upon the northern horizon. In the blue vault of the heaven
there had appeared three little specks which increased in
size every moment, so rapidly did they approach. They
speedily resolved themselves into three large brown birds,
which circled over the heads of the two wanderers, and then
settled upon some rocks which overlooked them. They were
buzzards, the vultures of the west, whose coming is the
forerunner of death.
their ill-omened forms, and clapping her hands to make
"In course He did," said her companion, rather startled by
this unexpected question.
They forgot the water and the trees."
"It ain't night yet," she answered.
every night in the waggon when we was on the Plains."
wondering eyes.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle


hands up like this. It makes you feel kind o' good."
It was a strange sight had there been anything but the
the two wanderers, the little prattling child and the
reckless, hardened adventurer. Her chubby face, and his
haggard, angular visage were both turned up to the
cloudless heaven in heartfelt entreaty to that dread being
the entreaty for mercy and forgiveness. The prayer finished,
they resumed their seat in the shadow of the boulder until
the child fell asleep, nestling upon the broad breast of her
protector. He watched over her slumber for some time, but
three nights he had allowed himself neither rest nor repose.
Slowly the eyelids drooped over the tired eyes, and the head
sunk lower and lower upon the breast, until the man's
grizzled beard was mixed with the gold tresses of his
companion, and both slept the same deep and dreamless
Had the wanderer remained awake for another half hour a
strange sight would have met his eyes. Far away on the
extreme verge of the alkali plain there rose up a little spray
from the mists of the distance, but gradually growing higher
cloud continued to increase in size until it became evident
that it could only be raised by a great multitude of moving
creatures. In more fertile spots the observer would have


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

come to the conclusion that one of those great herds of

bisons which graze upon the prairie land was approaching
whirl of dust drew nearer to the solitary bluff upon which
the two castaways were reposing, the canvas-covered tilts of
waggons and the figures of armed horsemen began to show
up through the haze, and the apparition revealed itself as
being a great caravan upon its journey for the West. But
of the mountains, the rear was not yet visible on the
horizon. Right across the enormous plain stretched the
straggling array, waggons and carts, men on horseback, and
men on foot. Innumerable women who staggered along
under burdens, and children who toddled beside the
waggons or peeped out from under the white coverings. This
was evidently no ordinary party of immigrants, but rather
some nomad people who had been compelled from stress of
circumstances to seek themselves a new country. There rose
through the clear air a confused clattering and rumbling
from this great mass of humanity, with the creaking of
sufficient to rouse the two tired wayfarers above them.
grave ironfaced men, clad in sombre homespun garments
halted, and held a short council among themselves.
"The wells are to the right, my brothers," said one, a hardlipped, clean-shaven man with grizzly hair.
"To the right of the Sierra Blanco -- so we shall reach the Rio
Grande," said another.
from the rocks will not now abandon His own chosen


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"Amen! Amen!" responded the whole party.

They were about to resume their journey when one of the
youngest and keenest-eyed uttered an exclamation and
pointed up at the rugged crag above them. From its summit
there fluttered a little wisp of pink, showing up hard and
bright against the grey rocks behind. At the sight there was a
general reining up of horses and unslinging of guns, while
fresh horsemen came galloping up to reinforce the vanguard.
The word `Redskins' was on every lip.
Pawnees, and there are no other tribes until we cross the
great mountains."
"Shall I go forward and see, Brother Stangerson," asked one
of the band.
"And I," "and I," cried a dozen voices.
Elder answered. In a moment the young fellows had
dismounted, fastened their horses, and were ascending the
precipitous slope which led up to the object which had
excited their curiosity. They advanced rapidly and
noiselessly, with the confidence and dexterity of practised
scouts. The watchers from the plain below could see them
flit from rock to rock until their figures stood out against the
skyline. The young man who had first given the alarm was
leading them. Suddenly his followers saw him throw up his
hands, as though overcome with astonishment, and on
joining him they were affected in the same way by the sight
which met their eyes.
On the little plateau which crowned the barren hill there
stood a single giant boulder, and against this boulder there


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle


excessive thinness. His placid face and regular breathing
showed that he was fast asleep. Beside him lay a little child,
with her round white arms encircling his brown sinewy neck,
and her golden haired head resting upon the breast of his
velveteen tunic. Her rosy lips were parted, showing the
played over her infantile features. Her plump little white
legs terminating in white socks and neat shoes with shining
buckles, offered a strange contrast to the long shrivelled
members of her companion. On the ledge of rock above this
strange couple there stood three solemn buzzards, who, at
the sight of the new comers uttered raucous screams of
disappointment and flapped sullenly away.
The cries of the foul birds awoke the two sleepers who
stared about {20} them in bewilderment. The man staggered
to his feet and looked down upon the plain which had been
so desolate when sleep had overtaken him, and which was
now traversed by this enormous body of men and of beasts.
His face assumed an expression of incredulity as he gazed,
and he passed his boney hand over his eyes. "This is what
they call delirium, I guess," he muttered. The child stood
nothing but looked all round her with the wondering
questioning gaze of childhood.
The rescuing party were speedily able to convince the two
castaways that their appearance was no delusion. One of
them seized the little girl, and hoisted her upon his shoulder,
while two others supported her gaunt companion, and
assisted him towards the waggons.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"Is she your child?" asked someone.

continued, glancing with curiosity at his stalwart, sunburned
"Nigh upon ten thousand," said one of the young men; "we
are the persecuted children of God -- the chosen of the
Angel Merona."
to have chosen a fair crowd of ye."
"Do not jest at that which is sacred," said the other sternly.
in Egyptian letters on plates of beaten gold, which were
handed unto the holy Joseph Smith at Palmyra. We have
founded our temple. We have come to seek a refuge from
heart of the desert."
The name of Nauvoo evidently recalled recollections to John
Ferrier. "I see," he said, "you are the Mormons."
"We are the Mormons," answered his companions with one
"And where are you going?"
say what is to be done with you."


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

surrounded by crowds of the pilgrims -- pale-faced meeklooking women, strong laughing children, and anxious
earnest-eyed men. Many were the cries of astonishment and
of commiseration which arose from them when they
perceived the youth of one of the strangers and the
they reached a waggon, which was conspicuous for its great
size and for the gaudiness and smartness of its appearance.
Six horses were yoked to it, whereas the others were
furnished with two, or, at most, four a-piece. Beside the
driver there sat a man who could not have been more than
thirty years of age, but whose massive head and resolute
expression marked him as a leader. He was reading a brownbacked volume, but as the crowd approached he laid it
aside, and listened attentively to an account of the episode.
Then he turned to the two castaways.
wolves in our fold. Better far that your bones should bleach
in this wilderness than that you should prove to be that little
speck of decay which in time corrupts the whole fruit. Will
you come with us on these terms?"
such emphasis that the grave Elders could not restrain a
smile. The leader alone retained his stern, impressive
teach him our holy creed. We have delayed long enough.
Forward! On, on to Zion!"


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle


rippled down the long caravan, passing from mouth to mouth
With a cracking of whips and a creaking of wheels the great
waggons got into motion, and soon the whole caravan was
winding along once more. The Elder to whose care the two
waifs had been committed, led them to his waggon, where a
meal was already awaiting them.
recovered from your fatigues. In the meantime, remember
that now and for ever you are of our religion. Brigham Young
Smith, which is the voice of God."


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

Chapter 2 - The Flower Of Utah

THIS is not the place to commemorate the trials and

privations endured by the immigrant Mormons before they
came to their final haven. From the shores of the Mississippi
to the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains they had
struggled on with a constancy almost unparalleled in history.
fatigue, and disease -- every impediment which Nature could
place in the way, had all been overcome with Anglo-Saxon
tenacity. Yet the long journey and the accumulated terrors
had shaken the hearts of the stoutest among them. There
was not one who did not sink upon his knees in heartfelt
prayer when they saw the broad valley of Utah bathed in the
sunlight beneath them, and learned from the lips of their
leader that this was the promised land, and that these virgin
acres were to be theirs for evermore.
Young speedily proved himself to be a skilful administrator
as well as a resolute chief. Maps were drawn and charts
prepared, in which the future city was sketched out. All
around farms were apportioned and allotted in proportion to
the standing of each individual. The tradesman was put to
his trade and the artisan to his calling. In the town streets
and squares sprang up, as if by magic. In the country there
was draining and hedging, planting and clearing, until the
next summer saw the whole country golden with the wheat
crop. Everything prospered in the strange settlement. Above
all, the great temple which they had erected in the centre
of the city grew ever taller and larger. From the first blush
hammer and the rasp of the saw was never absent from the
monument which the immigrants erected to Him who had
led them safe through many dangers.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

The two castaways, John Ferrier and the little girl who had
shared his fortunes and had been adopted as his daughter,
accompanied the Mormons to the end of their great
pilgrimage. Little Lucy Ferrier was borne along pleasantly
enough in Elder Stangerson's waggon, a retreat which she
shared with the Mormon's three wives and with his son, a
headstrong forward boy of twelve. Having rallied, with the
elasticity of childhood, from the shock caused by her
reconciled herself to this new life in her moving canvascovered home. In the meantime Ferrier having recovered
from his privations, distinguished himself as a useful guide
and an indefatigable hunter. So rapidly did he gain the
esteem of his new companions, that when they reached the
end of their wanderings, it was unanimously agreed that he
should be provided with as large and as fertile a tract of
land as any of the settlers, with the exception of Young
who were the four principal Elders.
On the farm thus acquired John Ferrier built himself a
substantial log-house, which received so many additions in
succeeding years that it grew into a roomy villa. He was a
skilful with his hands. His iron constitution enabled him to
work morning and evening at improving and tilling his lands.
Hence it came about that his farm and all that belonged to
him prospered exceedingly. In three years he was better off
whole of Salt Lake City who could compare with him. From
the great inland sea to the distant Wahsatch Mountains there
was no name better known than that of John Ferrier.
There was one way and only one in which he offended the
susceptibilities of his co-religionists. No argument or
persuasion could ever induce him to set up a female
establishment after the manner of his companions. He never


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

gave reasons for this persistent refusal, but contented

himself by resolutely and inflexibly adhering to his
determination. There were some who accused him of
lukewarmness in his adopted religion, and others who put it
down to greed of wealth and reluctance to incur expense.
Others, again, spoke of some early love affair, and of a fairhaired girl who had pined away on the shores of the Atlantic.
Whatever the reason, Ferrier remained strictly celibate. In
every other respect he conformed to the religion of the
young settlement, and gained the name of being an orthodox
and straight-walking man.
adopted father in all his undertakings. The keen air of the
mountains and the balsamic odour of the pine trees took the
place of nurse and mother to the young girl. As year
succeeded to year she grew taller and stronger, her cheek
more rudy, and her step more elastic. Many a wayfarer upon
the high road which ran by Ferrier's farm felt long-forgotten
thoughts revive in their mind as they watched her lithe
girlish figure tripping through the wheatfields, or met her
mounted upon her father's mustang, and managing it with all
the ease and grace of a true child of the West. So the bud
blossomed into a flower, and the year which saw her father
the richest of the farmers left her as fair a specimen of
American girlhood as could be found in the whole Pacific
child had developed into the woman. It seldom is in such
cases. That mysterious change is too subtle and too gradual
to be measured by dates. Least of all does the maiden
nature has awoken within her. There are few who cannot
recall that day and remember the one little incident which
heralded the dawn of a new life. In the case of Lucy Ferrier


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

the occasion was serious enough in itself, apart from its

future influence on her destiny and that of many besides.
as busy as the bees whose hive they have chosen for their
emblem. In the fields and in the streets rose the same hum
of human industry. Down the dusty high roads defiled long
the gold fever had broken out in California, and the
Overland Route lay through the City of the Elect. There, too,
were droves of sheep and bullocks coming in from the
outlying pasture lands, and trains of tired immigrants, men
and horses equally weary of their interminable journey.
Through all this motley assemblage, threading her way with
the skill of an accomplished rider, there galloped Lucy
Ferrier, her fair face flushed with the exercise and her long
chestnut hair floating out behind her. She had a commission
from her father in the City, and was dashing in as she had
The travel-stained adventurers gazed after her in
astonishment, and even the unemotional Indians, journeying
in with their pelties, relaxed their accustomed stoicism as
they marvelled at the beauty of the pale-faced maiden.
She had reached the outskirts of the city when she found the
road blocked by a great drove of cattle, driven by a halfdozen wild-looking herdsmen from the plains. In her
impatience she endeavoured to pass this obstacle by pushing
her horse into what appeared to be a gap. Scarcely had she
got fairly into it, however, before the beasts closed in
behind her, and she found herself completely imbedded in
Accustomed as she was to deal with cattle, she was not
alarmed at her situation, but took advantage of every
opportunity to urge her horse on in the hopes of pushing her
way through the cavalcade. Unfortunately the horns of one
of the creatures, either by accident or design, came in


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

violent contact with the flank of the mustang, and excited it

to madness. In an instant it reared up upon its hind legs with
have unseated any but a most skilful rider. The situation was
full of peril. Every plunge of the excited horse brought it
against the horns again, and goaded it to fresh madness. It
yet a slip would mean a terrible death under the hoofs of
the unwieldy and terrified animals. Unaccustomed to sudden
bridle to relax. Choked by the rising cloud of dust and by the
steam from the struggling creatures, she might have
abandoned her efforts in despair, but for a kindly voice at
her elbow which assured her of assistance. At the same
moment a sinewy brown hand caught the frightened horse by
her to the outskirts.
"You're not hurt, I hope, miss," said her preserver,
"I'm awful frightened," she said, naively; "whoever would
have thought that Poncho would have been so scared by a
lot of cows?"
"Thank God you kept your seat," the other said earnestly. He
with a long rifle slung over his shoulders. "I guess you are the
daughter of John Ferrier," he remarked, "I saw you ride down
from his house. When you see him, ask him if he remembers
the Jefferson Hopes of St. Louis. If he's the same Ferrier, my
father and he were pretty thick."
"Hadn't you better come and ask yourself?" she asked,


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

The young fellow seemed pleased at the suggestion, and his

dark eyes sparkled with pleasure. "I'll do so," he said, "we've
above in visiting condition. He must take us as he finds us."
"He has a good deal to thank you for, and so have I," she
answered, "he's awful fond of me. If those cows had jumped
on me he'd have never got over it."
"Neither would I," said her companion.
"You! Well, I don't see that it would make much matter to
you, anyhow. You ain't even a friend of ours."
The young hunter's dark face grew so gloomy over this
remark that Lucy Ferrier laughed aloud.
"There, I didn't mean that," she said; "of course, you are a
friend now. You must come and see us. Now I must push
"Good-bye," he answered, raising his broad sombrero, and
bending over her little hand. She wheeled her mustang
down the broad road in a rolling cloud of dust.
Young Jefferson Hope rode on with his companions, gloomy
and taciturn. He and they had been among the Nevada
Mountains prospecting for silver, and were returning to Salt
Lake City in the hope of raising capital enough to work some
lodes which they had discovered. He had been as keen as
any of them upon the business until this sudden incident had
drawn his thoughts into another channel. The sight of the
fair young girl, as frank and wholesome as the Sierra
breezes, had stirred his volcanic, untamed heart to its very
depths. When she had vanished from his sight, he realized


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

speculations nor any other questions could ever be of such
importance to him as this new and all-absorbing one. The
changeable fancy of a boy, but rather the wild, fierce
passion of a man of strong will and imperious temper. He had
been accustomed to succeed in all that he undertook. He
effort and human perseverance could render him successful.
until his face was a familiar one at the farm-house. John,
little chance of learning the news of the outside world
during the last twelve years. All this Jefferson Hope was able
her father. He had been a pioneer in California, and could
narrate many a strange tale of fortunes made and fortunes
lost in those wild, halcyon days. He had been a scout too,
and a trapper, a silver explorer, and a ranchman. Wherever
stirring adventures were to be had, Jefferson Hope had been
there in search of them. He soon became a favourite with
the old farmer, who spoke eloquently of his virtues. On such
occasions, Lucy was silent, but her blushing cheek and her
bright, happy eyes, showed only too clearly that her young
heart was no longer her own. Her honest father may not
have observed these symptoms, but they were assuredly not
thrown away upon the man who had won her affections.
It was a summer evening when he came galloping down the
road and pulled up at the gate. She was at the doorway, and
came down to meet him. He threw the bridle over the fence
and strode up the pathway.
"I am off, Lucy," he said, taking her two hands in his, and
gazing tenderly down into her face; "I won't ask you to come


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"And when will that be?" she asked, blushing and laughing.
"A couple of months at the outside. I will come and claim
you then, my darling. There's no one who can stand between
"And how about father?" she asked.
"He has given his consent, provided we get these mines
working all right. I have no fear on that head."
"Oh, well; of course, if you and father have arranged it all,
there's no more to be said," she whispered, with her cheek
against his broad breast.
"Thank God!" he said, hoarsely, stooping and kissing her. "It is
settled, then. The longer I stay, the harder it will be to go.
They are waiting for me at the canon. Good-bye, my own
darling -- good-bye. In two months you shall see me."
upon his horse, galloped furiously away, never even looking
round, as though afraid that his resolution might fail him if
he took one glance at what he was leaving. She stood at the
gate, gazing after him until he vanished from her sight. Then


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

Chapter 3 - John Ferrier Talks With the Prophet

THREE weeks had passed since Jefferson Hope and his

comrades had departed from Salt Lake City. John Ferrier's
heart was sore within him when he thought of the young
Yet her bright and happy face reconciled him to the
arrangement more than any argument could have done. He
had always determined, deep down in his resolute heart,
that nothing would ever induce him to allow his daughter to
wed a Mormon. Such a marriage he regarded as no marriage
think of the Mormon doctrines, upon that one point he was
for to express an unorthodox opinion was a dangerous
matter in those days in the Land of the Saints.
saintly dared only whisper their religious opinions with bated
breath, lest something which fell from their lips might be
misconstrued, and bring down a swift retribution upon them.
The victims of persecution had now turned persecutors on
their own account, and persecutors of the most terrible
description. Not the Inquisition of Seville, nor the German
Vehm-gericht, nor the Secret Societies of Italy, were ever
able to put a more formidable machinery in motion than
that which cast a cloud over the State of Utah.
Its invisibility, and the mystery which was attached to it,
made this organization doubly terrible. It appeared to be
omniscient and omnipotent, and yet was neither seen nor
heard. The man who held out against the Church vanished
away, and none knew whither he had gone or what had
befallen him. His wife and his children awaited him at home,


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle


the hands of his secret judges. A rash word or a hasty act
was followed by annihilation, and yet none knew what the
nature might be of this terrible power which was suspended
over them. No wonder that men went about in fear and
trembling, and that even in the heart of the wilderness they
dared not whisper the doubts which oppressed them.
At first this vague and terrible power was exercised only
upon the recalcitrants who, having embraced the Mormon
faith, wished afterwards to pervert or to abandon it. Soon,
however, it took a wider range. The supply of adult women
was running short, and polygamy without a female
population on which to draw was a barren doctrine indeed.
Strange rumours began to be bandied about -- rumours of
murdered immigrants and rifled camps in regions where
Indians had never been seen. Fresh women appeared in the
harems of the Elders -- women who pined and wept, and
bore upon their faces the traces of an unextinguishable
horror. Belated wanderers upon the mountains spoke of
flitted by them in the darkness. These tales and rumours
name. To this day, in the lonely ranches of the West, the
sinister and an ill-omened one.
Fuller knowledge of the organization which produced such
terrible results served to increase rather than to lessen the
horror which it inspired in the minds of men. None knew who
belonged to this ruthless society. The names of the
participators in the deeds of blood and violence done under
the name of religion were kept profoundly secret. The very
friend to whom you communicated your misgivings as to the
Prophet and his mission, might be one of those who would
come forth at night with fire and sword to exact a terrible


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

reparation. Hence every man feared his neighbour, and none

spoke of the things which were nearest his heart.
One fine morning, John Ferrier was about to set out to his
looking through the window, saw a stout, sandy-haired,
middle-aged man coming up the pathway. His heart leapt to
his mouth, for this was none other than the great Brigham
Young himself. Full of trepidation -- for he knew that such a
visit boded him little good -- Ferrier ran to the door to greet
the Mormon chief. The latter, however, received his
salutations coldly, and followed him with a stern face into
the sitting-room.
"Brother Ferrier," he said, taking a seat, and eyeing the
farmer keenly from under his light-coloured eyelashes, "the
true believers have been good friends to you. We picked you
protection. Is not this so?"
"It is so," answered John Ferrier.
"In return for all this we asked but one condition: that was,
that you should embrace the true faith, and conform in
every way to its usages. This you promised to do, and this, if
common report says truly, you have neglected."
"And how have I neglected it?" asked Ferrier, throwing out his
hands in expostulation. "Have I not given to the common
fund? Have I not attended at the Temple? Have I not ----?"
"Where are your wives?" asked Young, looking round him.
"Call them in, that I may greet them."


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"It is true that I have not married," Ferrier answered. "But

women were few, and there were many who had better
claims than I. I was not a lonely man: I had my daughter to
attend to my wants."
"It is of that daughter that I would speak to you," said the
leader of the Mormons. "She has grown to be the flower of
in the land."
John Ferrier groaned internally.
"There are stories of her which I would fain disbelieve -stories that she is sealed to some Gentile. This must be the
gossip of idle tongues. What is the thirteenth rule in the
code of the sainted Joseph Smith? `Let every maiden of the
she commits a grievous sin.' This being so, it is impossible
that you, who profess the holy creed, should suffer your
daughter to violate it."
John Ferrier made no answer, but he played nervously with
his riding-whip.
"Upon this one point your whole faith shall be tested -- so it
has been decided in the Sacred Council of Four. The girl is
would we deprive her of all choice. We Elders have many
heifers, * but our children must also be provided. Stangerson
gladly welcome your daughter to their house. Let her choose
between them. They are young and rich, and of the true
faith. What say you to that?"
Ferrier remained silent for some little time with his brows


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"You will give us time," he said at last. "My daughter is very

young -- she is scarce of an age to marry."
"She shall have a month to choose," said Young, rising from
his seat. "At the end of that time she shall give her answer."
He was passing through the door, when he turned, with
flushed face and flashing eyes. "It were better for you, John
Ferrier," he thundered, "that you and she were now lying
blanched skeletons upon the Sierra Blanco, than that you
should put your weak wills against the orders of the Holy
With a threatening gesture of his hand, he turned from the
door, and Ferrier heard his heavy step scrunching along the
shingly path.
He was still sitting with his elbows upon his knees,
considering how he should broach the matter to his daughter
her standing beside him. One glance at her pale, frightened
face showed him that she had heard what had passed.
"I could not help it," she said, in answer to his look. "His
voice rang through the house. Oh, father, father, what shall
we do?"
"Don't you scare yourself," he answered, drawing her to him,
and passing his broad, rough hand caressingly over her
chestnut hair. "We'll fix it up somehow or another. You don't
find your fancy kind o' lessening for this chap, do you?"
"No; of course not. I shouldn't care to hear you say you did.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

There's a party starting for Nevada to-morrow, and I'll

manage to send him a message letting him know the hole we
are in. If I know anything o' that young man, he'll be back
here with a speed that would whip electro-telegraphs."
Lucy laughed through her tears at her father's description.
"When he comes, he will advise us for the best. But it is for
you that I am frightened, dear. One hears -- one hears such
dreadful stories about those who oppose the Prophet:
something terrible always happens to them."
"But we haven't opposed him yet," her father answered. "It
will be time to look out for squalls when we do. We have a
best shin out of Utah."
"Leave Utah!"
"That's about the size of it."
"But the farm?"
"We will raise as much as we can in money, and let the rest
go. To tell the truth, Lucy, it isn't the first time I have
thought of doing it. I don't care about knuckling under to any
man, as these folk do to their darned prophet. I'm a freeborn American, and it's all new to me. Guess I'm too old to
learn. If he comes browsing about this farm, he might
chance to run up against a charge of buckshot travelling in
the opposite direction."
"But they won't let us leave," his daughter objected.
"Wait till Jefferson comes, and we'll soon manage that. In


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

he sees you. There's nothing to be afeared about, and there's
no danger at all."
John Ferrier uttered these consoling remarks in a very
confident tone, but she could not help observing that he
paid unusual care to the fastening of the doors that night,
and that he carefully cleaned and loaded the rusty old
shotgun which hung upon the wall of his bedroom.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

Chapter 4 - A Flight for Life

ON the morning which followed his interview with the

having found his acquaintance, who was bound for the
Nevada Mountains, he entrusted him with his message to
Jefferson Hope. In it he told the young man of the imminent
danger which threatened them, and how necessary it was
that he should return. Having done thus he felt easier in his
mind, and returned home with a lighter heart.
hitched to each of the posts of the gate. Still more surprised
was he on entering to find two young men in possession of
his sitting-room. One, with a long pale face, was leaning
stove. The other, a bull-necked youth with coarse bloated
features, was standing in front of the window with his hands
in his pocket, whistling a popular hymn. Both of them
nodded to Ferrier as he entered, and the one in the rockingchair commenced the conversation.
"Maybe you don't know us," he said. "This here is the son of
Elder Drebber, and I'm Joseph Stangerson, who travelled
with you in the desert when the Lord stretched out His hand
and gathered you into the true fold."
"As He will all the nations in His own good time," said the
other in a nasal voice; "He grindeth slowly but exceeding
John Ferrier bowed coldly. He had guessed who his visitors


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"We have come," continued Stangerson, "at the advice of our

fathers to solicit the hand of your daughter for whichever of
us may seem good to you and to her. As I have but four wives
and Brother Drebber here has seven, it appears to me that
my claim is the stronger one."
"Nay, nay, Brother Stangerson," cried the other; "the
can keep. My father has now given over his mills to me, and I
am the richer man."
"But my prospects are better," said the other, warmly. "When
his leather factory. Then I am your elder, and am higher in
the Church."
"It will be for the maiden to decide," rejoined young
Drebber, smirking at his own reflection in the glass. "We will
leave it all to her decision."
During this dialogue, John Ferrier had stood fuming in the
of his two visitors.
"Look here," he said at last, striding up to them, "when my
want to see your faces again."
The two young Mormons stared at him in amazement. In
their eyes this competition between them for the maiden's
"There are two ways out of the room," cried Ferrier; "there
is the door, and there is the window. Which do you care to


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

His brown face looked so savage, and his gaunt hands so

threatening, that his visitors sprang to their feet and beat a
hurried retreat. The old farmer followed them to the door.
"Let me know when you have settled which it is to be," he
said, sardonically.
"You shall smart for this!" Stangerson cried, white with rage.
"You have defied the Prophet and the Council of Four. You
shall rue it to the end of your days."
"The hand of the Lord shall be heavy upon you," cried young
Drebber; "He will arise and smite you!"
"Then I'll start the smiting," exclaimed Ferrier furiously, and
would have rushed upstairs for his gun had not Lucy seized
him by the arm and restrained him. Before he could escape
beyond his reach.
"The young canting rascals!" he exclaimed, wiping the
perspiration from his forehead; "I would sooner see you in
your grave, my girl, than the wife of either of them."
"And so should I, father," she answered, with spirit; "but
Jefferson will soon be here."
"Yes. It will not be long before he comes. The sooner the
better, for we do not know what their next move may be."
It was, indeed, high time that someone capable of giving
advice and help should come to the aid of the sturdy old
farmer and his adopted daughter. In the whole history of the
settlement there had never been such a case of rank
disobedience to the authority of the Elders. If minor errors
were punished so sternly, what would be the fate of this
arch rebel. Ferrier knew that his wealth and position would


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

be of no avail to him. Others as well known and as rich as

himself had been spirited away before now, and their goods
given over to the Church. He was a brave man, but he
trembled at the vague, shadowy terrors which hung over
him. Any known danger he could face with a firm lip, but
this suspense was unnerving. He concealed his fears from his
daughter, however, and affected to make light of the whole
that he was ill at ease.
He expected that he would receive some message or
remonstrance from Young as to his conduct, and he was not
mistaken, though it came in an unlooked-for manner. Upon
chest. On it was printed, in bold straggling letters:-"Twenty-nine days are given you for amendment, and then
The dash was more fear-inspiring than any threat could have
been. How this warning came into his room puzzled John
doors and windows had all been secured. He crumpled the
paper up and said nothing to his daughter, but the incident
struck a chill into his heart. The twenty-nine days were
evidently the balance of the month which Young had
promised. What strength or courage could avail against an
enemy armed with such mysterious powers? The hand which
could never have known who had slain him.
Still more shaken was he next morning. They had sat down
to their breakfast when Lucy with a cry of surprise pointed
upwards. In the centre of the ceiling was scrawled, with a
burned stick apparently, the number 28. To his daughter it
was unintelligible, and he did not enlighten her. That night


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

he sat up with his gun and kept watch and ward. He saw and
been painted upon the outside of his door.
Thus day followed day; and as sure as morning came he
found that his unseen enemies had kept their register, and
had marked up in some conspicuous position how many days
were still left to him out of the month of grace. Sometimes
the fatal numbers appeared upon the walls, sometimes upon
the floors, occasionally they were on small placards stuck
upon the garden gate or the railings. With all his vigilance
John Ferrier could not discover whence these daily warnings
proceeded. A horror which was almost superstitious came
upon him at the sight of them. He became haggard and
restless, and his eyes had the troubled look of some hunted
creature. He had but one hope in life now, and that was for
the arrival of the young hunter from Nevada.
Twenty had changed to fifteen and fifteen to ten, but there
was no news of the absentee. One by one the numbers
dwindled down, and still there came no sign of him.
Whenever a horseman clattered down the road, or a driver
shouted at his team, the old farmer hurried to the gate
thinking that help had arrived at last. At last, when he saw
and abandoned all hope of escape. Single-handed, and with
his limited knowledge of the mountains which surrounded
the settlement, he knew that he was powerless. The morefrequented roads were strictly watched and guarded, and
none could pass along them without an order from the
Council. Turn which way he would, there appeared to be no
avoiding the blow which hung over him. Yet the old man
never wavered in his resolution to part with life itself before
he consented to what he regarded as his daughter's
He was sitting alone one evening pondering deeply over his
troubles, and searching vainly for some way out of them.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

That morning had shown the figure 2 upon the wall of his
time. What was to happen then? All manner of vague and
terrible fancies filled his imagination. And his daughter -what was to become of her after he was gone? Was there no
escape from the invisible network which was drawn all round
them. He sank his head upon the table and sobbed at the
thought of his own impotence.
What was that? In the silence he heard a gentle scratching
sound -- low, but very distinct in the quiet of the night. It
came from the door of the house. Ferrier crept into the hall
and listened intently. There was a pause for a few moments,
and then the low insidious sound was repeated. Someone
was evidently tapping very gently upon one of the panels of
the door. Was it some midnight assassin who had come to
carry out the murderous orders of the secret tribunal? Or
grace had arrived. John Ferrier felt that instant death would
be better than the suspense which shook his nerves and
chilled his heart. Springing forward he drew the bolt and
threw the door open.
Outside all was calm and quiet. The night was fine, and the
stars were twinkling brightly overhead. The little front
garden lay before the farmer's eyes bounded by the fence
being to be seen. With a sigh of relief, Ferrier looked to
right and to left, until happening to glance straight down at
his own feet he saw to his astonishment a man lying flat
upon his face upon the ground, with arms and legs all
So unnerved was he at the sight that he leaned up against
call out. His first thought was that the prostrate figure was
saw it writhe along the ground and into the hall with the


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

rapidity and noiselessness of a serpent. Once within the

revealed to the astonished farmer the fierce face and
resolute expression of Jefferson Hope.
"Good God!" gasped John Ferrier. "How you scared me!
Whatever made you come in like that."
"Give me food," the other said, hoarsely. "I have had no time
for bite or sup for eight-and-forty hours." He flung himself
upon the {21} cold meat and bread which were still lying
upon the table from his host's supper, and devoured it
voraciously. "Does Lucy bear up well?" he asked, when he had
satisfied his hunger.
"Yes. She does not know the danger," her father answered.
"That is well. The house is watched on every side. That is
why I crawled my way up to it. They may be darned sharp,
but they're not quite sharp enough to catch a Washoe
John Ferrier felt a different man now that he realized that
he had a devoted ally. He seized the young man's leathery
hand and wrung it cordially. "You're a man to be proud of,"
he said. "There are not many who would come to share our
danger and our troubles."
"You've hit it there, pard," the young hunter answered. "I
I'd think twice before I put my head into such a hornet's
nest. It's Lucy that brings me here, and before harm comes
"What are we to do?"


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"To-morrow is your last day, and unless you act to-night you
are lost. I have a mule and two horses waiting in the Eagle
Ravine. How much money have you?"
"Two thousand dollars in gold, and five in notes."
"That will do. I have as much more to add to it. We must
push for Carson City through the mountains. You had best
wake Lucy. It is as well that the servants do not sleep in the
While Ferrier was absent, preparing his daughter for the
approaching journey, Jefferson Hope packed all the eatables
jar with water, for he knew by experience that the mountain
wells were few and far between. He had hardly completed
his arrangements before the farmer returned with his
daughter all dressed and ready for a start. The greeting
between the lovers was warm, but brief, for minutes were
precious, and there was much to be done.
"We must make our start at once," said Jefferson Hope,
speaking in a low but resolute voice, like one who realizes
it. "The front and back entrances are watched, but with
caution we may get away through the side window and
across the fields. Once on the road we are only two miles
from the Ravine where the horses are waiting. By daybreak
we should be half-way through the mountains."
"What if we are stopped," asked Ferrier.
Hope slapped the revolver butt which protruded from the
front of his tunic. "If they are too many for us we shall take
two or three of them with us," he said with a sinister smile.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

The lights inside the house had all been extinguished, and
from the darkened window Ferrier peered over the fields
abandon for ever. He had long nerved himself to the
sacrifice, however, and the thought of the honour and
happiness of his daughter outweighed any regret at his
ruined fortunes. All looked so peaceful and happy, the
rustling trees and the broad silent stretch of grain-land, that
it was difficult to realize that the spirit of murder lurked
through it all. Yet the white face and set expression of the
young hunter showed that in his approach to the house he
had seen enough to satisfy him upon that head.
Ferrier carried the bag of gold and notes, Jefferson Hope
had the scanty provisions and water, while Lucy had a small
bundle containing a few of her more valued possessions.
Opening the window very slowly and carefully, they waited
until a dark cloud had somewhat obscured the night, and
then one by one passed through into the little garden. With
bated breath and crouching figures they stumbled across it,
and gained the shelter of the hedge, which they skirted until
they came to the gap which opened into the cornfields. They
had just reached this point when the young man seized his
two companions and dragged them down into the shadow,
where they lay silent and trembling.
It was as well that his prairie training had given Jefferson
Hope the ears of a lynx. He and his friends had hardly
crouched down before the melancholy hooting of a mountain
owl was heard within a few yards of them, which was
immediately answered by another hoot at a small distance.
At the same moment a vague shadowy figure emerged from
the gap for which they had been making, and uttered the
plaintive signal cry again, on which a second man appeared
out of the obscurity.
"To-morrow at midnight," said the first who appeared to be
in authority. "When the Whip-poor-Will calls three times."


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"It is well," returned the other. "Shall I tell Brother Drebber?"

"Pass it on to him, and from him to the others. Nine to
"Seven to five!" repeated the other, and the two figures
flitted away in different directions. Their concluding words
had evidently been some form of sign and countersign. The
instant that their footsteps had died away in the distance,
Jefferson Hope sprang to his feet, and helping his
companions through the gap, led the way across the fields at
when her strength appeared to fail her.
"Hurry on! hurry on!" he gasped from time to time. "We are
through the line of sentinels. Everything depends on speed.
Hurry on!"
Once on the high road they made rapid progress. Only once
field, and so avoid recognition. Before reaching the town the
hunter branched away into a rugged and narrow footpath
which led to the mountains. Two dark jagged peaks loomed
above them through the darkness, and the defile which led
between them was the Eagle Canon in which the horses were
awaiting them. With unerring instinct Jefferson Hope picked
his way among the great boulders and along the bed of a
dried-up watercourse, until he came to the retired corner,
screened with rocks, where the faithful animals had been
picketed. The girl was placed upon the mule, and old Ferrier
Hope led the other along the precipitous and dangerous
It was a bewildering route for anyone who was not
accustomed to face Nature in her wildest moods. On the one


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

stern, and menacing, with long basaltic columns upon its

rugged surface like the ribs of some petrified monster. On
the other hand a wild chaos of boulders and debris made all
advance impossible. Between the two ran the irregular
file, and so rough that only practised riders could have
traversed it at all. Yet in spite of all dangers and difficulties,
the hearts of the fugitives were light within them, for every
step increased the distance between them and the terrible
despotism from which they were flying.
the jurisdiction of the Saints. They had reached the very
wildest and most desolate portion of the pass when the girl
gave a startled cry, and pointed upwards. On a rock which
overlooked the track, showing out dark and plain against the
sky, there stood a solitary sentinel. He saw them as soon as
they perceived him, and his military challenge of "Who goes
there?" rang through the silent ravine.
"Travellers for Nevada," said Jefferson Hope, with his hand
upon the rifle which hung by his saddle.
They could see the lonely watcher fingering his gun, and
peering down at them as if dissatisfied at their reply.
"By whose permission?" he asked.
"The Holy Four," answered Ferrier. His Mormon experiences
had taught him that that was the highest authority to which
he could refer.
"Nine from seven," cried the sentinel.
"Seven from five," returned Jefferson Hope promptly,
remembering the countersign which he had heard in the


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"Pass, and the Lord go with you," said the voice from above.
Beyond his post the path broadened out, and the horses
were able to break into a trot. Looking back, they could see
the solitary watcher leaning upon his gun, and knew that
they had passed the outlying post of the chosen people, and
that freedom lay before them.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

Chapter 5 - The Avenging Angels

ALL night their course lay through intricate defiles and over
irregular and rock-strewn paths. More than once they lost
their way, but Hope's intimate knowledge of the mountains
enabled them to regain the track once more. When morning
broke, a scene of marvelous though savage beauty lay before
them. In every direction the great snow-capped peaks
hemmed them in, peeping over each other's shoulders to the
far horizon. So steep were the rocky banks on either side of
them, that the larch and the pine seemed to be suspended
hurtling down upon them. Nor was the fear entirely an
illusion, for the barren valley was thickly strewn with trees
and boulders which had fallen in a similar manner. Even as
they passed, a great rock came thundering down with a
hoarse rattle which woke the echoes in the silent gorges,
and startled the weary horses into a gallop.
a festival, until they were all ruddy and glowing. The
magnificent spectacle cheered the hearts of the three
fugitives and gave them fresh energy. At a wild torrent which
swept out of a ravine they called a halt and watered their
horses, while they partook of a hasty breakfast. Lucy and
her father would fain have rested longer, but Jefferson Hope
was inexorable. "They will be upon our track by this time,"
he said. "Everything depends upon our speed. Once safe in
Carson we may rest for the remainder of our lives."
During the whole of that day they struggled on through the
defiles, and by evening they calculated that they were more
than thirty miles from their enemies. At night-time they


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

chose the base of a beetling crag, where the rocks offered

some protection from the chill wind, and there huddled
together for warmth, they enjoyed a few hours' sleep.
Before daybreak, however, they were up and on their way
once more. They had seen no signs of any pursuers, and
Jefferson Hope began to think that they were fairly out of
the reach of the terrible organization whose enmity they had
incurred. He little knew how far that iron grasp could reach,
About the middle of the second day of their flight their
scanty store of provisions began to run out. This gave the
hunter little uneasiness, however, for there was game to be
had among the mountains, and he had frequently before had
to depend upon his rifle for the needs of life. Choosing a
sheltered nook, he piled together a few dried branches and
made a blazing fire, at which his companions might warm
themselves, for they were now nearly five thousand feet
above the sea level, and the air was bitter and keen. Having
over his shoulder, and set out in search of whatever chance
might throw in his way. Looking back he saw the old man and
the young girl crouching over the blazing fire, while the
three animals stood motionless in the back-ground. Then the
intervening rocks hid them from his view.
He walked for a couple of miles through one ravine after
another without success, though from the marks upon the
bark of the trees, and other indications, he judged that
there were numerous bears in the vicinity. At last, after two
or three hours' fruitless search, he was thinking of turning
back in despair, when casting his eyes upwards he saw a
sight which sent a thrill of pleasure through his heart. On
the edge of a jutting pinnacle, three or four hundred feet
above him, there stood a creature somewhat resembling a
sheep in appearance, but armed with a pair of gigantic
horns. The big-horn -- for so it is called -- was acting,
probably, as a guardian over a flock which were invisible to


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

the hunter; but fortunately it was heading in the opposite

direction, and had not perceived him. Lying on his face, he
before drawing the trigger. The animal sprang into the air,
tottered for a moment upon the edge of the precipice, and
then came crashing down into the valley beneath.
The creature was too unwieldy to lift, so the hunter
contented himself with cutting away one haunch and part of
the flank. With this trophy over his shoulder, he hastened to
retrace his steps, for the evening was already drawing in. He
had hardly started, however, before he realized the
difficulty which faced him. In his eagerness he had wandered
easy matter to pick out the path which he had taken. The
valley in which he found himself divided and sub-divided
impossible to distinguish one from the other. He followed
which he was sure that he had never seen before. Convinced
the same result. Night was coming on rapidly, and it was
almost dark before he at last found himself in a defile which
was familiar to him. Even then it was no easy matter to keep
high cliffs on either side made the obscurity more profound.
Weighed down with his burden, and weary from his
exertions, he stumbled along, keeping up his heart by the
reflection that every step brought him nearer to Lucy, and
that he carried with him enough to ensure them food for the
remainder of their journey.
he had left them. Even in the darkness he could recognize
the outline of the cliffs which bounded it. They must, he
reflected, be awaiting him anxiously, for he had been absent
nearly five hours. In the gladness of his heart he put his


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

halloo as a signal that he was coming. He paused and

listened for an answer. None came save his own cry, which
clattered up the dreary silent ravines, and was borne back
to his ears in countless repetitions. Again he shouted, even
louder than before, and again no whisper came back from
the friends whom he had left such a short time ago. A vague,
nameless dread came over him, and he hurried onwards
frantically, dropping the precious food in his agitation.
where the fire had been lit. There was still a glowing pile of
wood ashes there, but it had evidently not been tended
since his departure. The same dead silence still reigned all
round. With his fears all changed to convictions, he hurried
on. There was no living creature near the remains of the
fire: animals, man, maiden, all were gone. It was only too
clear that some sudden and terrible disaster had occurred
during his absence -- a disaster which had embraced them
all, and yet had left no traces behind it.
Bewildered and stunned by this blow, Jefferson Hope felt his
himself from falling. He was essentially a man of action,
however, and speedily recovered from his temporary
impotence. Seizing a half-consumed piece of wood from the
smouldering fire, he blew it into a flame, and proceeded
with its help to examine the little camp. The ground was all
stamped down by the feet of horses, showing that a large
party of mounted men had overtaken the fugitives, and the
direction of their tracks proved that they had afterwards
turned back to Salt Lake City. Had they carried back both of
his companions with them? Jefferson Hope had almost
persuaded himself that they must have done so, when his
eye fell upon an object which made every nerve of his body
tingle within him. A little way on one side of the camp was a
there before. There was no mistaking it for anything but a
newly-dug grave. As the young hunter approached it, he


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle


of paper stuck in the cleft fork of it. The inscription upon
the paper was brief, but to the point:
August 4th, 1860.
Jefferson Hope looked wildly round to see if there was a
second grave, but there was no sign of one. Lucy had been
carried back by their terrible pursuers to fulfil her original
destiny, by becoming one of the harem of the Elder's son. As
the young fellow realized the certainty of her fate, and his
Again, however, his active spirit shook off the lethargy which
springs from despair. If there was nothing else left to him,
he could at least devote his life to revenge. With
indomitable patience and perseverance, Jefferson Hope
possessed also a power of sustained vindictiveness, which he
may have learned from the Indians amongst whom he had
lived. As he stood by the desolate fire, he felt that the only
one thing which could assuage his grief would be thorough
and complete retribution, brought by his own hand upon his
enemies. His strong will and untiring energy should, he
determined, be devoted to that one end. With a grim, white
face, he retraced his steps to where he had dropped the
food, and having stirred up the smouldering fire, he cooked
enough to last him for a few days. This he made up into a
through the mountains upon the track of the avenging
For five days he toiled footsore and weary through the
defiles which he had already traversed on horseback. At


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

night he flung himself down among the rocks, and snatched

a few hours of sleep; but before daybreak he was always
well on his way. On the sixth day, he reached the Eagle
Canon, from which they had commenced their ill-fated
flight. Thence he could look down upon the home of the
saints. Worn and exhausted, he leaned upon his rifle and
shook his gaunt hand fiercely at the silent widespread city
beneath him. As he looked at it, he observed that there
were flags in some of the principal streets, and other signs
of festivity. He was still speculating as to what this might
mounted man riding towards him. As he approached, he
recognized him as a Mormon named Cowper, to whom he had
rendered services at different times. He therefore accosted
what Lucy Ferrier's fate had been.
"I am Jefferson Hope," he said. "You remember me."
unkempt wanderer, with ghastly white face and fierce, wild
eyes, the spruce young hunter of former days. Having,
however, at last, satisfied himself as to his identity, the
man's surprise changed to consternation.
"You are mad to come here," he cried. "It is as much as my
own life is worth to be seen talking with you. There is a
warrant against you from the Holy Four for assisting the
Ferriers away."
"I don't fear them, or their warrant," Hope said, earnestly.
"You must know something of this matter, Cowper. I conjure
you by everything you hold dear to answer a few questions.
We have always been friends. For God's sake, don't refuse to
answer me."


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"What is it?" the Mormon asked uneasily. "Be quick. The very
rocks have ears and the trees eyes."
"What has become of Lucy Ferrier?"
"She was married yesterday to young Drebber. Hold up, man,
hold up, you have no life left in you."
"Don't mind me," said Hope faintly. He was white to the very
been leaning. "Married, you say?"
"Married yesterday -- that's what those flags are for on the
Endowment House. There was some words between young
Drebber and young Stangerson as to which was to have her.
They'd both been in the party that followed them, and
Stangerson had shot her father, which seemed to give him
Drebber's party was the stronger, so the Prophet gave her
over to him. No one won't have her very long though, for I
saw death in her face yesterday. She is more like a ghost
than a woman. Are you off, then?"
"Yes, I am off," said Jefferson Hope, who had risen from his
seat. His face might have been chiselled out of marble, so
baleful light.
"Where are you going?"
"Never mind," he answered; and, slinging his weapon over his
shoulder, strode off down the gorge and so away into the
heart of the mountains to the haunts of the wild beasts.
Amongst them all there was none so fierce and so dangerous
as himself.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

The prediction of the Mormon was only too well fulfilled.

Whether it was the terrible death of her father or the
effects of the hateful marriage into which she had been
away and died within a month. Her sottish husband, who had
married her principally for the sake of John Ferrier's
property, did not affect any great grief at his bereavement;
the night before the burial, as is the Mormon custom. They
were grouped round the bier in the early hours of the
morning, when, to their inexpressible fear and
astonishment, the door was flung open, and a savagelooking, weather-beaten man in tattered garments strode
into the room. Without a glance or a word to the cowering
women, he walked up to the white silent figure which had
once contained the pure soul of Lucy Ferrier. Stooping over
her finger. "She shall not be buried in that," he cried with a
fierce snarl, and before an alarm could be raised sprang
down the stairs and was gone. So strange and so brief was
the episode, that the watchers might have found it hard to
believe it themselves or persuade other people of it, had it
not been for the undeniable fact that the circlet of gold
which marked her as having been a bride had disappeared.
For some months Jefferson Hope lingered among the
mountains, leading a strange wild life, and nursing in his
heart the fierce desire for vengeance which possessed him.
Tales were told in the City of the weird figure which was
seen prowling about the suburbs, and which haunted the
lonely mountain gorges. Once a bullet whistled through
Stangerson's window and flattened itself upon the wall
within a foot of him. On another occasion, as Drebber passed
only escaped a terrible death by throwing himself upon his
face. The two young Mormons were not long in discovering
the reason of these attempts upon their lives, and led


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

repeated expeditions into the mountains in the hope of

capturing or killing their enemy, but always without success.
Then they adopted the precaution of never going out alone
or after nightfall, and of having their houses guarded. After
a time they were able to relax these measures, for nothing
was either heard or seen of their opponent, and they hoped
that time had cooled his vindictiveness.
Far from doing so, it had, if anything, augmented it. The
hunter's mind was of a hard, unyielding nature, and the
predominant idea of revenge had taken such complete
possession of it that there was no room for any other
emotion. He was, however, above all things practical. He
soon realized that even his iron constitution could not stand
the incessant strain which he was putting upon it. Exposure
and want of wholesome food were wearing him out. If he
died like a dog among the mountains, what was to become
of his revenge then? And yet such a death was sure to
overtake him if he persisted. He felt that that was to play
his enemy's game, so he reluctantly returned to the old
Nevada mines, there to recruit his health and to amass
money enough to allow him to pursue his object without
a combination of unforeseen circumstances prevented his
leaving the mines for nearly five. At the end of that time,
however, his memory of his wrongs and his craving for
revenge were quite as keen as on that memorable night
when he had stood by John Ferrier's grave. Disguised, and
under an assumed name, he returned to Salt Lake City,
what he knew to be justice. There he found evil tidings
awaiting him. There had been a schism among the Chosen
People a few months before, some of the younger members
of the Church having rebelled against the authority of the
Elders, and the result had been the secession of a certain
number of the malcontents, who had left Utah and become


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

Gentiles. Among these had been Drebber and Stangerson;

and no one knew whither they had gone. Rumour reported
that Drebber had managed to convert a large part of his
property into money, and that he had departed a wealthy
man, while his companion, Stangerson, was comparatively
poor. There was no clue at all, however, as to their
Many a man, however vindictive, would have abandoned all
thought of revenge in the face of such a difficulty, but
Jefferson Hope never faltered for a moment. With the small
competence he possessed, eked out by such employment as
he could pick up, he travelled from town to town through
the United States in quest of his enemies. Year passed into
year, his black hair turned grizzled, but still he wandered
one object upon which he had devoted his life. At last his
perseverance was rewarded. It was but a glance of a face in
a window, but that one glance told him that Cleveland in
Ohio possessed the men whom he was in pursuit of. He
returned to his miserable lodgings with his plan of
vengeance all arranged. It chanced, however, that Drebber,
looking from his window, had recognized the vagrant in the
street, and had read murder in his eyes. He hurried before a
justice of the peace, accompanied by Stangerson, who had
become his private secretary, and represented to him that
they were in danger of their lives from the jealousy and
hatred of an old rival. That evening Jefferson Hope was
detained for some weeks. When at last he was liberated, it
was only to find that Drebber's house was deserted, and that
he and his secretary had departed for Europe.
Again the avenger had been foiled, and again his
concentrated hatred urged him to continue the pursuit.
return to work, saving every dollar for his approaching
journey. At last, having collected enough to keep life in him,


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

he departed for Europe, and tracked his enemies from city

overtaking the fugitives. When he reached St. Petersburg
they had departed for Paris; and when he followed them
there he learned that they had just set off for Copenhagen.
had journeyed on to London, where he at last succeeded in
running them to earth. As to what occurred there, we
cannot do better than quote the old hunter's own account,
as duly recorded in Dr. Watson's Journal, to which we are
already under such obligations.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

Chapter 6 - A Continuation of the Reminiscences

of John Watson, M.D

OUR prisoner's furious resistance did not apparently indicate

any ferocity in his disposition towards ourselves, for on
finding himself powerless, he smiled in an affable manner,
scuffle. "I guess you're going to take me to the policestation," he remarked to Sherlock Holmes. "My cab's at the
door. If you'll loose my legs I'll walk down to it. I'm not so
light to lift as I used to be."
Gregson and Lestrade exchanged glances as if they thought
this proposition rather a bold one; but Holmes at once took
the prisoner at his word, and loosened the towel which we
had bound round his ancles. {23} He rose and stretched his
legs, as though to assure himself that they were free once
more. I remember that I thought to myself, as I eyed him,
that I had seldom seen a more powerfully built man; and his
dark sunburned face bore an expression of determination
and energy which was as formidable as his personal strength.
"If there's a vacant place for a chief of the police, I reckon
you are the man for it," he said, gazing with undisguised
admiration at my fellow-lodger. "The way you kept on my
trail was a caution."
"You had better come with me," said Holmes to the two
"I can drive you," said Lestrade.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"Good! and Gregson can come inside with me. You too,
Doctor, you have taken an interest in the case and may as
well stick to us."
I assented gladly, and we all descended together. Our
prisoner made no attempt at escape, but stepped calmly
Lestrade mounted the box, whipped up the horse, and
brought us in a very short time to our destination. We were
ushered into a small chamber where a police Inspector noted
down our prisoner's name and the names of the men with
whose murder he had been charged. The official was a
white-faced unemotional man, who went through his duties
in a dull mechanical way. "The prisoner will be put before
the magistrates in the course of the week," he said; "in the
mean time, Mr. Jefferson Hope, have you anything that you
wish to say? I must warn you that your words will be taken
down, and may be used against you."
"I've got a good deal to say," our prisoner said slowly. "I want
to tell you gentlemen all about it."
"Hadn't you better reserve that for your trial?" asked the
"I may never be tried," he answered. "You needn't look
startled. It isn't suicide I am thinking of. Are you a Doctor?"
"Yes; I am," I answered.
"Then put your hand here," he said, with a smile, motioning
with his manacled wrists towards his chest.
I did so; and became at once conscious of an extraordinary
throbbing and commotion which was going on inside. The


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

walls of his chest seemed to thrill and quiver as a frail

building would do inside when some powerful engine was at
work. In the silence of the room I could hear a dull humming
and buzzing noise which proceeded from the same source.
"Why," I cried, "you have an aortic aneurism!"
"That's what they call it," he said, placidly. "I went to a
Doctor last week about it, and he told me that it is bound to
burst before many days passed. It has been getting worse for
years. I got it from over-exposure and under-feeding among
the Salt Lake Mountains. I've done my work now, and I don't
care how soon I go, but I should like to leave some account
of the business behind me. I don't want to be remembered
as a common cut-throat."
The Inspector and the two detectives had a hurried
discussion as to the advisability of allowing him to tell his
"Do you consider, Doctor, that there is immediate danger?"
the former asked, {24}
"Most certainly there is," I answered.
"In that case it is clearly our duty, in the interests of justice,
to take his statement," said the Inspector. "You are at liberty,
taken down."
"I'll sit down, with your leave," the prisoner said, suiting the
action to the word. "This aneurism of mine makes me easily
mended matters. I'm on the brink of the grave, and I am not
likely to lie to you. Every word I say is the absolute truth,
and how you use it is a matter of no consequence to me."


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

With these words, Jefferson Hope leaned back in his chair

and began the following remarkable statement. He spoke in
a calm and methodical manner, as though the events which
he narrated were commonplace enough. I can vouch for the
accuracy of the subjoined account, for I have had access to
Lestrade's note-book, in which the prisoner's words were
taken down exactly as they were uttered.
"It don't much matter to you why I hated these men," he
said; "it's enough that they were guilty of the death of two
human beings -- a father and a daughter -- and that they
had, therefore, forfeited their own lives. After the lapse of
time that has passed since their crime, it was impossible for
me to secure a conviction against them in any court. I knew
of their guilt though, and I determined that I should be
judge, jury, and executioner all rolled into one. You'd have
been in my place.
"That girl that I spoke of was to have married me twenty
years ago. She was forced into marrying that same Drebber,
and broke her heart over it. I took the marriage ring from
the crime for which he was punished. I have carried it about
with me, and have followed him and his accomplice over
two continents until I caught them. They thought to tire me
out, but they could not do it. If I die to-morrow, as is likely
and well done. They have perished, and by my hand. There
"They were rich and I was poor, so that it was no easy matter
for me to follow them. When I got to London my pocket was
something for my living. Driving and riding are as natural to
me as walking, so I applied at a cabowner's office, and soon
got employment. I was to bring a certain sum a week to the


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

There was seldom much over, but I managed to scrape along
somehow. The hardest job was to learn my way about, for I
reckon that of all the mazes that ever were contrived, this
city is the most confusing. I had a map beside me though,
and when once I had spotted the principal hotels and
stations, I got on pretty well.
"It was some time before I found out where my two
gentlemen were living; but I inquired and inquired until at
last I dropped across them. They were at a boarding-house
at Camberwell, over on the other side of the river. When
once I found them out I knew that I had them at my mercy. I
had grown my beard, and there was no chance of their
recognizing me. I would dog them and follow them until I
saw my opportunity. I was determined that they should not
escape me again.
"They were very near doing it for all that. Go where they
would about London, I was always at their heels. Sometimes
me. It was only early in the morning or late at night that I
could earn anything, so that I began to get behind hand with
my employer. I did not mind that, however, as long as I could
lay my hand upon the men I wanted.
"They were very cunning, though. They must have thought
that there was some chance of their being followed, for they
would never go out alone, and never after nightfall. During
two weeks I drove behind them every day, and never once
saw them separate. Drebber himself was drunk half the
time, but Stangerson was not to be caught napping. I
chance; but I was not discouraged, for something told me
that the hour had almost come. My only fear was that this
work undone.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"At last, one evening I was driving up and down Torquay

Terrace, as the street was called in which they boarded,
when I saw a cab drive up to their door. Presently some
luggage was brought out, and after a time Drebber and
Stangerson followed it, and drove off. I whipped up my horse
feared that they were going to shift their quarters. At Euston
followed them on to the platform. I heard them ask for the
Liverpool train, and the guard answer that one had just gone
and there would not be another for some hours. Stangerson
seemed to be put out at that, but Drebber was rather
pleased than otherwise. I got so close to them in the bustle
that I could hear every word that passed between them.
and that if the other would wait for him he would soon
rejoin him. His companion remonstrated with him, and
reminded him that they had resolved to stick together.
Drebber answered that the matter was a delicate one, and
that he must go alone. I could not catch what Stangerson
him that he was nothing more than his paid servant, and
that he must not presume to dictate to him. On that the
Secretary gave it up as a bad job, and simply bargained with
Halliday's Private Hotel; to which Drebber answered that he
would be back on the platform before eleven, and made his
way out of the station.
"The moment for which I had waited so long had at last
come. I had my enemies within my power. Together they
I did not act, however, with undue precipitation. My plans
were already formed. There is no satisfaction in vengeance
unless the offender has time to realize who it is that strikes
him, and why retribution has come upon him. I had my plans
arranged by which I should have the opportunity of making
the man who had wronged me understand that his old sin


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

had found him out. It chanced that some days before a

gentleman who had been engaged in looking over some
houses in the Brixton Road had dropped the key of one of
them in my carriage. It was claimed that same evening, and
and had a duplicate constructed. By means of this I had
rely upon being free from interruption. How to get Drebber
to that house was the difficult problem which I had now to
"He walked down the road and went into one or two liquor
shops, staying for nearly half-an-hour in the last of them.
When he came out he staggered in his walk, and was
evidently pretty well on. There was a hansom just in front of
me, and he hailed it. I followed it so close that the nose of
my horse was within a yard of his driver the whole way. We
rattled across Waterloo Bridge and through miles of streets,
until, to my astonishment, we found ourselves back in the
Terrace in which he had boarded. I could not imagine what
his intention was in returning there; but I went on and
pulled up my cab a hundred yards or so from the house. He
entered it, and his hansom drove away. Give me a glass of
water, if you please. My mouth gets dry with the talking."
I handed him the glass, and he drank it down.
"That's better," he said. "Well, I waited for a quarter of an
struggling inside the house. Next moment the door was flung
the other was a young chap whom I had never seen before.
This fellow had Drebber by the collar, and when they came
which sent him half across the road. `You hound,' he cried,
shaking his stick at him; `I'll teach you to insult an honest
girl!' He was so hot that I think he would have thrashed
Drebber with his cudgel, only that the cur staggered away


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

down the road as fast as his legs would carry him. He ran as
far as the corner, and then, seeing my cab, he hailed me and
jumped in. `Drive me to Halliday's Private Hotel,' said he.
"When I had him fairly inside my cab, my heart jumped so
with joy that I feared lest at this last moment my aneurism
might go wrong. I drove along slowly, weighing in my own
mind what it was best to do. I might take him right out into
the country, and there in some deserted lane have my last
interview with him. I had almost decided upon this, when he
solved the problem for me. The craze for drink had seized
palace. He went in, leaving word that I should wait for him.
There he remained until closing time, and when he came out
"Don't imagine that I intended to kill him in cold blood. It
could not bring myself to do it. I had long determined that
advantage of it. Among the many billets which I have filled
in America during my wandering life, I was once janitor and
sweeper out of the laboratory at York College. One day the
professor was lecturing on poisions, {25} and he showed his
students some alkaloid, as he called it, which he had
extracted from some South American arrow poison, and
which was so powerful that the least grain meant instant
death. I spotted the bottle in which this preparation was
little of it. I was a fairly good dispenser, so I worked this
with a similar pill made without the poison. I determined at
the time that when I had my chance, my gentlemen should
pill that remained. It would be quite as deadly, and a good
deal less noisy than firing across a handkerchief. From that


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

had now come when I was to use them.
"It was nearer one than twelve, and a wild, bleak night,
blowing hard and raining in torrents. Dismal as it was
outside, I was glad within -- so glad that I could have
shouted out from pure exultation. If any of you gentlemen
long years, and then suddenly found it within your reach,
you would understand my feelings. I lit a cigar, and puffed at
it to steady my nerves, but my hands were trembling, and
my temples throbbing with excitement. As I drove, I could
this room. All the way they were ahead of me, one on each
side of the horse until I pulled up at the house in the Brixton
"There was not a soul to be seen, nor a sound to be heard,
except the dripping of the rain. When I looked in at the
window, I found Drebber all huddled together in a drunken
sleep. I shook him by the arm, `It's time to get out,' I said.
"`All right, cabby,' said he.
"I suppose he thought we had come to the hotel that he had
mentioned, for he got out without another word, and
followed me down the garden. I had to walk beside him to
keep him steady, for he was still a little top-heavy. When we
room. I give you my word that all the way, the father and
the daughter were walking in front of us.
"`It's infernally dark,' said he, stamping about.
"`We'll soon have a light,' I said, striking a match and putting
it to a wax candle which I had brought with me. `Now,


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

Enoch Drebber,' I continued, turning to him, and holding the

light to my own face, `who am I?'
"He gazed at me with bleared, drunken eyes for a moment,
whole features, which showed me that he knew me. He
staggered back with a livid face, and I saw the perspiration
break out upon his brow, while his teeth chattered in his
head. At the sight, I leaned my back against the door and
laughed loud and long. I had always known that vengeance
would be sweet, but I had never hoped for the contentment
of soul which now possessed me.
"`You dog!' I said; `I have hunted you from Salt Lake City to
St. Petersburg, and you have always escaped me. Now, at
I shall never see to-morrow's sun rise.' He shrunk still further
was mad. So I was for the time. The pulses in my temples
and relieved me.
"`What do you think of Lucy Ferrier now?' I cried, locking the
door, and shaking the key in his face. `Punishment has been
slow in coming, but it has overtaken you at last.' I saw his
coward lips tremble as I spoke. He would have begged for his
life, but he knew well that it was useless.
"`Would you murder me?' he stammered.
"`There is no murder,' I answered. `Who talks of murdering a
mad dog? What mercy had you upon my poor darling, when
you dragged her from her slaughtered father, and bore her
away to your accursed and shameless harem.'
"`It was not I who killed her father,' he cried.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

"`But it was you who broke her innocent heart,' I shrieked,

thrusting the box before him. `Let the high God judge
between us. Choose and eat. There is death in one and life
in the other. I shall take what you leave. Let us see if there
is justice upon the earth, or if we are ruled by chance.'
"He cowered away with wild cries and prayers for mercy, but
me. Then I swallowed the other, and we stood facing one
another in silence for a minute or more, waiting to see
which was to live and which was to die. Shall I ever forget
the look which came over his face when the first warning
pangs told him that the poison was in his system? I laughed
rapid. A spasm of pain contorted his features; he threw his
hoarse cry, fell heavily upon the floor. I turned him over with
my foot, and placed my hand upon his heart. There was no
movement. He was dead!
"The blood had been streaming from my nose, but I had
taken no notice of it. I don't know what it was that put it
into my head to write upon the wall with it. Perhaps it was
some mischievous idea of setting the police upon a wrong
track, for I felt light-hearted and cheerful. I remembered a
German being found in New York with RACHE written up
that the secret societies must have done it. I guessed that
what puzzled the New Yorkers would puzzle the Londoners,
convenient place on the wall. Then I walked down to my cab
and found that there was nobody about, and that the night
was still very wild. I had driven some distance when I put my
found that it was not there. I was thunderstruck at this, for
it was the only memento that I had of her. Thinking that I
might have dropped it when I stooped over Drebber's body, I


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle


boldly up to the house -- for I was ready to dare anything
rather than lose the ring. When I arrived there, I walked
and only managed to disarm his suspicions by pretending to
be hopelessly drunk.
"That was how Enoch Drebber came to his end. All I had to
John Ferrier's debt. I knew that he was staying at Halliday's
out. {26} fancy that he suspected something when Drebber
failed to put in an appearance. He was cunning, was
Stangerson, and always on his guard. If he thought he could
keep me off by staying indoors he was very much mistaken. I
soon found out which was the window of his bedroom, and
early next morning I took advantage of some ladders which
into his room in the grey of the dawn. I woke him up and
the life he had taken so long before. I described Drebber's
poisoned pills. Instead of grasping at the chance of safety
my throat. In self-defence I stabbed him to the heart. It
would have been the same in any case, for Providence would
never have allowed his guilty hand to pick out anything but
the poison.
"I have little more to say, and it's as well, for I am about
done up. I went on cabbing it for a day or so, intending to
America. I was standing in the yard when a ragged youngster
asked if there was a cabby there called Jefferson Hope, and
Street. I went round, suspecting no harm, and the next thing
and as neatly snackled {27} as ever I saw in my life. That's


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

the whole of my story, gentlemen. You may consider me to

of justice as you are."
So thrilling had the man's narrative been, and his manner
was so impressive that we had sat silent and absorbed. Even
the professional detectives, _blase_ {28} as they were in
every detail of crime, appeared to be keenly interested in
the man's story. When he finished we sat for some minutes in
a stillness which was only broken by the scratching of
Lestrade's pencil as he gave the finishing touches to his
shorthand account.
"There is only one point on which I should like a little more
information," Sherlock Holmes said at last. "Who was your
accomplice who came for the ring which I advertised?"
The prisoner winked at my friend jocosely. "I can tell my own
secrets," he said, "but I don't get other people into trouble. I
or it might be the ring which I wanted. My friend
volunteered to go and see. I think you'll own he did it
"Not a doubt of that," said Holmes heartily.
"Now, gentlemen," the Inspector remarked gravely, "the
forms of the law must be complied with. On Thursday the
prisoner will be brought before the magistrates, and your
attendance will be required. Until then I will be responsible
for him." He rang the bell as he spoke, and Jefferson Hope
made our way out of the Station and took a cab back to
Baker Street.


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

Chapter 7 - The Conclusion

WE had all been warned to appear before the magistrates

upon the Thursday; but when the Thursday came there was
no occasion for our testimony. A higher Judge had taken the
matter in hand, and Jefferson Hope had been summoned
before a tribunal where strict justice would be meted out to
him. On the very night after his capture the aneurism burst,
and he was found in the morning stretched upon the floor of
been able in his dying moments to look back upon a useful
life, and on work well done.
"Gregson and Lestrade will be wild about his death," Holmes
remarked, as we chatted it over next evening. "Where will
their grand advertisement be now?"
"I don't see that they had very much to do with his capture,"
I answered.
"What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence,"
returned my companion, bitterly. "The question is, what can
you make people believe that you have done. Never mind,"
he continued, more brightly, after a pause. "I would not have
missed the investigation for anything. There has been no
better case within my recollection. Simple as it was, there
were several most instructive points about it."
"Simple!" I ejaculated.
"Well, really, it can hardly be described as otherwise," said
Sherlock Holmes, smiling at my surprise. "The proof of its
intrinsic simplicity is, that without any help save a few very


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

ordinary deductions I was able to lay my hand upon the

criminal within three days."
"That is true," said I.
"I have already explained to you that what is out of the
common is usually a guide rather than a hindrance. In
to reason backwards. That is a very useful accomplishment,
fifty who can reason synthetically for one who can reason
"I confess," said I, "that I do not quite follow you."
"I hardly expected that you would. Let me see if I can make
it clearer. Most people, if you describe a train of events to
those events together in their minds, and argue from them
that something will come to pass. There are few people,
evolve from their own inner consciousness what the steps
when I talk of reasoning backwards, or analytically."
"I understand," said I.
had to find everything else for yourself. Now let me
endeavour to show you the different steps in my reasoning.
impressions. I naturally began by examining the roadway,


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

have been there during the night. I satisfied myself that it

the wheels. The ordinary London growler is considerably less
wide than a gentleman's brougham.
"This was the first point gained. I then walked slowly down
the garden path, which happened to be composed of a clay
soil, peculiarly suitable for taking impressions. No doubt it
my trained eyes every mark upon its surface had a meaning.
There is no branch of detective science which is so
important and so much neglected as the art of tracing
footsteps. Happily, I have always laid great stress upon it,
and much practice has made it second nature to me. I saw
the heavy footmarks of the constables, but I saw also the
track of the two men who had first passed through the
garden. It was easy to tell that they had been before the
others, because in places their marks had been entirely
obliterated by the others coming upon the top of them. In
nocturnal visitors were two in number, one remarkable for
his height (as I calculated from the length of his stride), and
the other fashionably dressed, to judge from the small and
elegant impression left by his boots.
"On entering the house this last inference was confirmed. My
well-booted man lay before me. The tall one, then, had
done the murder, if murder there was. There was no wound
upon the dead man's person, but the agitated expression
upon his face assured me that he had foreseen his fate
before it came upon him. Men who die from heart disease,
or any sudden natural cause, never by any chance exhibit
agitation upon their features. Having sniffed the dead man's
lips I detected a slightly sour smell, and I came to the
conclusion that he had had poison forced upon him. Again, I
argued that it had been forced upon him from the hatred
and fear expressed upon his face. By the method of
exclusion, I had arrived at this result, for no other


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

hypothesis would meet the facts. Do not imagine that it was

a very unheard of idea. The forcible administration of poison
is by no means a new thing in criminal annals. The cases of
once to any toxicologist.
"And now came the great question as to the reason why.
Robbery had not been the object of the murder, for nothing
was taken. Was it politics, then, or was it a woman? That
was the question which confronted me. I was inclined from
the first to the latter supposition. Political assassins are only
too glad to do their work and to fly. This murder had, on the
contrary, been done most deliberately, and the perpetrator
been there all the time. It must have been a private wrong,
and not a political one, which called for such a methodical
revenge. When the inscription was discovered upon the wall
I was more inclined than ever to my opinion. The thing was
too evidently a blind. When the ring was found, however, it
settled the question. Clearly the murderer had used it to
remind his victim of some dead or absent woman. It was at
this point that I asked Gregson whether he had enquired in
his telegram to Cleveland as to any particular point in Mr.
Drebber's former career. He answered, you remember, in the
"I then proceeded to make a careful examination of the
room, which confirmed me in my opinion as to the
murderer's height, and furnished me with the additional
details as to the Trichinopoly cigar and the length of his
nails. I had already come to the conclusion, since there were
had burst from the murderer's nose in his excitement. I
could perceive that the track of blood coincided with the
track of his feet. It is seldom that any man, unless he is very
hazarded the opinion that the criminal was probably a


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

robust and ruddy-faced man. Events proved that I had

judged correctly.
"Having left the house, I proceeded to do what Gregson had
neglected. I telegraphed to the head of the police at
Cleveland, limiting my enquiry to the circumstances
connected with the marriage of Enoch Drebber. The answer
was conclusive. It told me that Drebber had already applied
named Jefferson Hope, and that this same Hope was at
present in Europe. I knew now that I held the clue to the
"I had already determined in my own mind that the man who
had walked into the house with Drebber, was none other
than the man who had driven the cab. The marks in the road
showed me that the horse had wandered on in a way which
would have been impossible had there been anyone in
charge of it. Where, then, could the driver be, unless he
were inside the house? Again, it is absurd to suppose that
any sane man would carry out a deliberate crime under the
betray him. Lastly, supposing one man wished to dog another
through London, what better means could he adopt than to
turn cabdriver. All these considerations led me to the
irresistible conclusion that Jefferson Hope was to be found
among the jarveys of the Metropolis.
"If he had been one there was no reason to believe that he
had ceased to be. On the contrary, from his point of view,
any sudden chance would be likely to draw attention to
himself. He would, probably, for a time at least, continue to
perform his duties. There was no reason to suppose that he
was going under an assumed name. Why should he change
his name in a country where no one knew his original one? I
therefore organized my Street Arab detective corps, and
sent them systematically to every cab proprietor in London


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

until they ferreted out the man that I wanted. How well
still fresh in your recollection. The murder of Stangerson was
an incident which was entirely unexpected, but which could
hardly in any case have been prevented. Through it, as you
which I had already surmised. You see the whole thing is a
chain of logical sequences without a break or flaw."
"It is wonderful!" I cried. "Your merits should be publicly
recognized. You should publish an account of the case. If you
won't, I will for you."
"You may do what you like, Doctor," he answered. "See here!"
he continued, handing a paper over to me, "look at this!"
It was the _Echo_ for the day, and the paragraph to which he
pointed was devoted to the case in question.
"The public," it said, "have lost a sensational treat through
the sudden death of the man Hope, who was suspected of
the murder of Mr. Enoch Drebber and of Mr. Joseph
Stangerson. The details of the case will probably be never
known now, though we are informed upon good authority
that the crime was the result of an old standing and
romantic feud, in which love and Mormonism bore a part. It
seems that both the victims belonged, in their younger days,
hails also from Salt Lake City. If the case has had no other
the efficiency of our detective police force, and will serve as
a lesson to all foreigners that they will do wisely to settle
It is an open secret that the credit of this smart capture
belongs entirely to the well-known Scotland Yard officials,
Messrs. Lestrade and Gregson. The man was apprehended, it
appears, in the rooms of a certain Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

has himself, as an amateur, shown some talent in the

time to attain to some degree of their skill. It is expected
that a testimonial of some sort will be presented to the two
officers as a fitting recognition of their services."
"Didn't I tell you so when we started?" cried Sherlock Holmes
with a laugh. "That's the result of all our Study in Scarlet: to
get them a testimonial!"
"Never mind," I answered, "I have all the facts in my journal,
and the public shall know them. In the meantime you must
make yourself contented by the consciousness of success,
like the Roman miser -"`Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo Ipse domi simul ac
nummos contemplar in arca.'"
------------- * Heber C. Kemball, in one of his sermons,
alludes to his hundred wives under this endearing epithet.

{Frontispiece, with the caption:
"He examined with his glass
the word upon the wall, going
over every letter of it with
the most minute exactness."
(_Page_ 23.)}
{"JOHN H. WATSON, M.D.": the
initial letters in the name are


A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

capitalized, the other letters in

small caps. All chapter
titles are in small caps.
initial words of chapters are
in small caps with first letter
{"lodgings.": the period should be
a comma, as in later editions.}
haemoglobin. The o&e are concatenated.}
{"221B": the B is in small caps}
the table-of-contents lists
this chapter as "...GARDENS
MYSTERY" -- plural, and probably
more correct.}
{"brought."": the text has an
extra double-quote mark}
{"individual --": illustration
this page, with the caption:
"As he spoke, his nimble fingers
were flying here, there,
and everywhere."}
{"manoeuvres": the o&e are
{"Patent leathers": the hyphen is
{"Boheme": the first "e" has a
backward accent (\) above it.}
{"wages.": ending quote is
{"the first.": ending quote is

A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

{"make much of...": Other editions
complete this sentence with
an "it." But there is a gap in
the text at this point, and,
given the context, it may have
actually been an interjection,
a dash.
The gap is just the
right size for the characters
"it." and the start of a new
sentence, or for a "----"}
{"tho cushion": "tho" should be
{"_outre_": the e has a forward
accent (/) above it.}
{"canons": the first n has a tilde
above it, as do all other
occurrences of this word.}
{"shoving": later editions have
"showing". The original is
clearly superior.}
{"stared about...": illustration,
with the caption: "One of them
seized the little girl, and
hoisted her upon his shoulder."}
{"upon the": illustration, with
the caption: "As he watched
it he saw it writhe along the
{"FORMERLY...": F,S,L,C in caps,
other letters in this line
in small caps.}
{"ancles": ankles.}
{"asked,": should be "asked."}
{"poisions": should be "poisons"}
{"...fancy": should be "I fancy".
There is a gap in the text.}

A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

{"snackled": "shackled" in later
{"_blase_": the e has a forward
accent (/) above it.}