Seventeen Steps to A Study in Scarlet

Seventeen thoughts for further ponderance of A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 

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THE HONEYMOON PERIOD
"Holmes was certainly not a difficult man to live with. He was quiet in
his ways, and his habits were regular."
Watson and Holmes were obviously in their "honeymoon" phase as room-mates -- or was Holmes really a better lodger in those days? When did Sherlock become the sort of room-mate Watson would later call "the very worst tenant in London"? Did Holmes's good behaviour last until Watson's first marriage, or was it over the minute Jefferson Hope crashed through that window? I'd be interested in hearing whether the Hounds think Holmes was putting on a show, or if he actually changed . . . and what caused that change.
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PLAYING BY EAR
Watson on Holmes's abilities with a violin: "That he could play pieces, and difficult pieces, I knew well, because at my request he has played me some of Mendelssohn's Lieder, and other favourites . . . . playing in quick succession a whole series of my favourite airs as a slight compensation for the trial upon my patience."
Now, the Smash knows darn little about musicians, but Watson's descriptions would have me believe that Holmes played by ear, and not using sheet music. Performing a rapid succession of known tunes would indicate he was doing it from memory . . . do music readers memorize a jukebox full of numbers, like Holmes seemed to? (Note: he had to be familiar with many more tunes that Watson's favorites, just to be able to select that grouping from his repetoire.)
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STARSKY AND HUTCH, GREGSON AND LESTRADE
"Gregson is the smartest of the Scotland Yarders," my friend remarked; "he and Lestrade are the pick of a bad lot. . . . There will be some fun over this case if they are both put upon the scent."
Holmes only has a note from Gregson at this point . . . why does he think that Lestrade will also be put on the case? I remember no other time that we see two Scotland Yarders working with/against each other like this; what made the Brixton Road business so important?
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THE BUSINESS CARD
Holmes tosses his card at John Rance when the constable becomes suspicious of him, along with mentioning Lestrade and Gregson. Apparently his card has some professional description on it . . . but what? Watson never tells us what Holmes had on his cards, and Holmes described his career in many different ways. Using Canonical evidence, what do you think the card said?
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THROWING IN THE TOWEL
"Holmes at once took the prisoner at his word, and loosened the towel which we had bound round his ankles."
Here's an experiment for the kids at home: try binding the ankles of an active person with a towel, especially a person whose ankles are thickened by boots. Maybe you can get the towel around those ankles, and maybe you can tie it a bit, but it's not that hard to get out of the towel is it? At least with modern towels. Any experts on Victorian towels out there?
And why a towel to begin with? An experience man-handler like Holmes, a connoisseur of handcuffs and a well-armed detective as well, doesn't stock a length of rope?
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FILLING BILLETS
Jefferson Hope, frontiersman, prospector, janitor, and cab-driver, admits to a number of careers in his travels. He also says "I was a fairly good dispenser, so I worked this alkaloid into small, soluble pills." Was this a common skill at the time, or an indication Hope did a little pharmacy work?
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YOU ARE HOLDING BACK, I PRESUME . . .
We all recall Sherlock Holmes's second sentence to Dr. Watson, "You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive." From what we learn of Holmes later, this seems remarkably spare for him in the observation department. In his brief conversation with his potential room-mate, the detective undoubtedly observed a great deal more than that one detail in Watson before he asks, "What have you to confess now?" Was this the ultimate test of the new room-mate? Had Watson not admitted to the bull pup, might the deal not have come off?
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THE CISCO KID CORRALS PONCHO
In a classic cowboy moment, the sombrero-wearing Jefferson Hope grabs Lucy Ferrier's bucking mustang Poncho and leads it out of the herd of "steaming" cattle while the normally unemotional Indians are undoubtedly still "marvelling" at her beauty. Lucy, though letting loose of the reins as her head began to swim, somehow still retains her riding whip (weapon of choice for both Sherlock Holmes and cowgirls, it would seem).
How much Western wackiness is there in the second half of this novel? Or does it seem pretty straightforward stuff to my fellow Hounds? Me, I'm still laughing at the thought of those Vulcans of the old West, the Indians, and what were surely such gentlemanly comments as "My, Red Coyote, isn't she lovely!" "Why, yes, Young Cactus, her pale complexion doth remind me of the mountain snow."
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JUST GET IT OUT OF YOUR SYSTEM
Bull pup. Bull pup. Bull pup. Say it over and over to yourself until an image comes to mind. This is what “bull pup” means to you. Now keep it to yourself -- you don’t want to spoil anyone else’s personal “bull pup” vision.
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LUCY’S OLD MAN (IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE)
This one is contributed by a former discussion leader with the initials MH/SC: “We know that old John Ferrier was not related by blood to Lucy in any way. Why didn't he marry her himself to keep her away from the likes of Drebber and Stangerson? That would have made ol' Brigham Baby happier, too. (Of course, then D&S might have plotted to bushwhack Old John so they could have a go with his widow.)”
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AND THAT’S ALL HE WROTE . . .
“I served at the fatal battle of Maiwand. There I 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 had it not been for the devotion and courage shown by Murray.”
It seems remarkable to me that a man who seemed so happy writing up his adventures in later life is so silent about such a dramatic episode. Surely he would have wanted to glorify Murrary a bit, the man who saved his life. Is this a tin dispatch box tale, or could Watson have had other reasons for not writing, such as battlefield trauma?
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WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND
Watson writes,“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 fetched and exaggerated.”
And then he cries out, "What ineffable twaddle! I never read such rubbish in my life."
In previous Hounds discussions, we’ve discussed Holmes’s comments about Watson’s writing. Looking at the above words on Holmes’s writing, I think Watson got off pretty easy!
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G-G-G-GHOSTS!
Constable Rance confesses, “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 of any real policeman looking for backup because of a possible spook infestation seems rather absurd to the modern American. But I’ve always heard that ghosts are quite common to England, and a larger share of the old country’s populace claims to have seen them. Any truth to this? Do any of the Hounds think Rance was not an uncommon specimen where ghosts versus Victorian constables are concerned? Or was Rance comic relief then as now?
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THE GAME HAS A FOOTNOTE!
In the third chapter of “The Country of the Saints,” we find something quite rare in the Canon: a footnote. The Prophet has just said, “We Elders have many heifers,” and someone felt it necessary to point out that this was an actual phrase used by an actual Mormon about his wives. With the novel’s allusions to things like mass slaughter in the process of wife-gathering, the need to footnote a simple insult seems ironic. Yet it also has a touch of Watson to it, as we all know of his respect for the fair sex. Ignoring the whole “Who wrote part two?” question, could Watson have written the footnote?
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TAKE A MEMO, LESTRADE!
In the end of the second chapter six, Lestrade is putting “the finishing touches on his shorthand account.” In 1881, would he have been trained in some system of shorthand (and still wound up as a lawman?), or was this just Watson’s way of saying Lestrade was writing an abbreviated account of Hope’s narrative. And if Lestrade was taking the notes, what are the odds that he was the writer behind “The Country of the Saints” and that he and Watson started out as a writing duo (only to have their Literary Agent say “Sorry, G.” and take Watson alone on to fame and fortune).
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KEEPING IT TO HIMSELF
“Brag and bounce!” Watson thinks to himself after a comment from Holmes in chapter two (the first chapter two). It seems a very energetic reaction for Watson to be keeping it bottle up inside. Was it just good manners or did Watson really have a problem expressing himself? As we move on through the stories, Watson often seems to say little and writes even less of his own activities. Was this a man with self-esteem problems?
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THE KEY TO 221B
“Open the door slightly. That will do. Now put the key on the inside.”
In the fifth chapter of STUD, we find Holmes and Watson getting ready for company . . . villainous company. It would seem Holmes is getting ready to lock the villain in with he and Watson. But where was the key kept normally, when not waiting in the inner keyhole? Was Mrs. Hudson locked out of 221B on occasion? And if not her, whom was normally being locked out? The tenant in 221C?
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The Seventeen Steps originally appeared on the Hounds of the Internet e-list from September 2000 to October 2001.

"The Stockbroker's Clerk" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Seventeen thoughts for further ponderance of "The Stockbroker's Clerk" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 

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IN THE PRIME OF HIS WATSONHOOD
“I had confidence,” Dr. Watson tells us, “in my own youth and energy and was convinced that in a very few years the concern would be as flourishing as ever.”
After all Watson’s earlier talk of what a weak and beaten man he has been since his return from the Afgan war, this statement is a refreshing change of pace. How young would one expect Watson to be as he stepped enthusiatically into his new practice? And how long would it have taken him to recover from the war?
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WATSON WAS EXCITED ALL RIGHT . . .
Holmes greets the long absent Watson with, “I trust that Mrs. Watson has entirely recovered from all the little excitements connected with our adventure of the Sign of Four.”
It has always struck me as odd that Watson never mentions Mary Morstan by name at any other time except during The Sign of the Four. In this tale, however, we find the statement that convinces most Sherlockians “Mary Morstan” and “Mrs. Watson” are the same person. But might there be another explanation?
What if Watson was already engaged or married at the beginning of SIGN? And what if the tale happened much as he wrote it, with the excitement of lost treasure, the excitement of a strange mini-assassin, *and* the excitement of falling in love with a pretty blonde client? There is an excitement that it might take Mrs. Watson some time to recover from, and an excitement that might drive Watson to energetically take on a new practice and distance himself from Holmes’s affairs for three months.
While we’d hate to see such a moral lapse in Watson, such a circumstance would explain much marriage (and chronological) confusion. Should we give such a thought any credence? What evidence do we have that Watson was a faithful husband other than our own high hopes?
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WHILE HOLMES CATCHES CRIMINALS, WATSON CATCHES COLD
“Summer colds are always a little trying,” observes Holmes.
"I was confined to the house by a severe chill for three days last week,” replies Watson.
What can we diagnose about Watson’s “chill”? Common cold or something more? Was he self-confined to the house, kept in by Mrs. Watson, or was his physical condition actually bad enough to keep him down for three days? And how bad off was he to require a fire in June? If he was that ill, how is he a remarkably robust-looking fellow only a week later?
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HOW WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR FEET, MEDIUM OR WELL DONE?
The soles of Watson’s slippers are described as “slightly scorched,” which he seemingly acknowledges is because he sat with his feet stuck out toward the fire. How close to a fire would one have to put one’s feet to a fire to put visible scorch-marks on the soles of one’s slippers? And what effect would that have on one’s feet? If Watson had his feet directly touching the flames, could scorching occur before the heat caused him any anguish? (Kids, don’t try this at home!)
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DETECTIVE AND CLIENT, DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR DOOR
Holmes makes a conscious decision, upon hearing Hall Pycroft’s problem, to come pick up Dr. Watson on their way to the train station. Holmes hasn’t seen Watson for three months, and he doesn’t really give a reason why he wants Watson along. Is there something particular about this case that would make Holmes think he would be better for Watson’s presence? Or is the detective so confident that he’ll succeed brilliantly that he wants to be sure and have it written up? Was he missing his old friend, just as Watson seems to be? Or was there some other reason for Holmes’s special efforts to bring Watson in on this one?
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THE BEST OF TWO MEDICAL PRACTICES
Both the medical practices of Dr. Watson and his neighbor are long-established, as old as the houses themselves. Holmes decides that Watson has the better practice because his steps are worn three inches deeper than the neighbor’s. Yet Watson has already told us that the previous resident’s practice dropped “from twelve hundred to little more than three hundred a year” due to that doctor’s condition. While it may have once been the better practice, how can Watson believe it still is? Wouldn’t all of the previous doctor’s missing patients have moved on to other doctors? And if location was the determiner of prosperity, surely Watson and the neighbor have equal chance on that scale, don’t they?
Is Holmes just making his severely flawed deduction about the worn steps just to make his friend feel good? He surely knew the steps could have just been worn by the larger size and weight of the family that lived there earlier, didn’t he? 
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SO WHAT ARE YOU SAYING, WATSON?
Watson describes Hall Pycroft as “a smart young City man, of the class who have been labelled cockneys, but who give us our crack volunteer regiments, and who turn out more fine athletes and sportsmen than any body of men in these islands.”
Was Pycroft a true cockney? Or is Watson saying that he is of a class that gets called cockneys, but are actually something else? Is “cockney” a term that describes a sort of man one would not expect to be a fine soldier or athlete? Or is it strictly geographic in nature? 
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SO WHAT ARE YOU SAYING, PYCROFT?
“I used to have a billet at Coxon & Woodhouse's, of Draper Gardens, but they were let in early in the spring through the Venezuelan loan, as no doubt you remember, and came a nasty cropper.”
Okay, the gist of this is that Hall Pycroft lost his job, but why exactly did he lose it?
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PULLING THINGS OUT OF HIS DRAWERS
Hall Pycroft observantly observes, “I stared rather straight at the two deal chairs and one little table, which with a ledger and a waste-paper basket, made up the whole furniture.” He seems very clear about it, and yet a moment later, he’s saying that Arthur Pinner “took a big red book out of a drawer.” Is this a lapse of observation on Pycroft’s part? Or is it the thread with which we can start unravelling his story like a cheap sweater?
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PARLEZ-VOUS FRANCAIS, MONSIEUR?
This big red book (big, yet small enough to fit in a drawer that was apparently attached to a small table or a deal chair) that Pinner says is a directory of Paris. He then tells Pycroft that his job is to go through it and mark off all the hardware sellers from the trades listed after the names of the people therein. Wouldn’t a directory of Paris trades be in French? Would a man of Pycroft’s career and background be expected to know French?
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DEFINE “HARDWARE” . . .
After first telling Hall Pycroft to find all hardware sellers in Paris for the Franco-Midland *Hardware* Company, Pinner tells Pycroft that he “will eventually manage the great depot in Paris, which will pour a flood of English crockery into the shops of a hundred and thirty-four agents in France.”
Did “hardware” have a different definition back then? Or is this swerve from hardware to crockery a glitch in Pinner’s tale that Pycroft should have seen through? Or was a hardware company selling crockery the same sort of sideline as the Paris furniture shops had (according to Pinner) selling crockery?
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THE WELL-KNOWN NAME OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
While we’re used to cases being brought to Holmes by Scotland Yard and referred by past clients, here we find a client who, when preplexed by the strange circumstance of two brothers sharing the same tooth, recognizes it as the kind of thing Sherlock Holmes handles. Does this mean that Pycroft had read A Study in Scarlet? Or did he know Holmes from some local reputation, being a city man before he headed to Birmingham? Is there some other possibility for how Pycroft knew of Sherlock?
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THE POINT OF REALIZATION
In this case, we can almost pinpoint the moment Sherlock Holmes realizes what’s going on, as he says to Pycroft:
“What qualities have you, my friend, which would make your services so valuable? Or is it possible that-- --" He then begins begins biting his fingernails and gazing blankly out the window. Is Holmes’s nervous nail-biting due to the fact he knows deviltry is afoot at Mawson & Williams and he’s trapped on a train heading toward Birmingham? If so, why doesn’t he send a telegram back to London the minute they arrive in Birmingham?
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RUSH HOUR IN BIRMINGHAM
At seven o’clock in the evening, Holmes, Watson, and Pycroft are walking along Corporation Street in Birmingham when they see Pinner cross the street to buy a paper:
“As we watched him he looked across at a boy who was bawling out the latest edition of the evening paper, and, running over among the cabs and busses, he bought one from him.”
Why were there so many cabs and busses running through Corporation Street at seven p.m.? Were people just heading home from work at that hour? Just what was the average working day back then?
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THE SKYSCRAPER AT 126B CORPORATION STREET
The offices of the Franco-Midland Hardware Company are located at 126B
Corporation Street, which unlike 221B Baker Street, does not seem to mean “on the second floor of 126 Corporation Street.” In fact, the offices of the FMHC are five flights up, at the very top of a winding stone staircase at the end of a passageway between two large shops. Was there a five story stone building in Birmingham located behind two shops? Were the shops and the offices part of the same building? How many five-story buildings were there in Birminham at that time, and did stone staircases run that high?
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A RARE EMOTION COMES OVER PINNER
Watson writes, of his first encounter with Pinner: “... as he looked up at us it seemed to me that I had never looked upon a face which bore such marks of grief, and of something beyond grief--of a horror such as comes to few men in a lifetime.”
We later learn that Pinner is reacting to the death of his brother -- yet many men lose brothers, parents, wives, and children during their lifetimes. Why is Pinner’s horror “such as comes to few men in a lifetime”? Did he lose more than a family member with his brother’s capture? Was it something other than his brother’s capture, like a fear of returning to prison? Or was it just the sort of intensity of emotion that would drive one to suicide that Watson speaks of as being so rare?
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THE HARD-WORKING STAFF OF THE EVENING STANDARD
Now the Smash knows something of the newspaper business, and what it takes to get news from the keyboard to the press and out to the readers, and the work of London’s Evening Standard in the case of the Mawson & Wiliam’s robbery is simply amazing. The discovery of the crime occurs at 1:20 in the afternoon. At that point, the police still have to catch the criminal, drag him to jail, the Standard’s reporters have to find out about it, and get the story back to the paper’s offices. There it must be set in type, run off the press, bundled and distributed. As we saw earlier in the story, the train from London to Birmingham takes at least seventy minutes, at which point the papers have to get from the train to that paperboy who drags them out to Corporation Street and starts to sell them, putting one in Pinner’s hands at seven-o’clock.
While this chain of events might seem very possible if the Mawson & Williams robbery were the only story the newspaper was dealing with, and had no set deadlines nor train schedules to adhere to, the addition of those factors, plus all the other little human delays involved in such a process, make this turnaround something of a wonder.
Was such a turnaround even possible? How many people’s hands did the robbery news pass through between the arresting officer and the newsboy on Corporation street? What would the news cut-off deadline have been for the Evening Standard’s early edition? Would this “gigantic” robbery have rated special treatment?
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The Seventeen Steps originally appeared on the Hounds of the Internet e-list from September 2000 to October 2001.

Seventeen Steps to "The Speckled Band"

Seventeen thoughts for further ponderance of "The Speckled Band" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 

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DR. ROYLOTT, MEDICINE MAN
Upon getting his medical degree, Grimesby Roylott seems to have immediately left the country to seek his fortune, going to Calcutta, where we are told “by his professional skill and his force of character, he established a large practice.”
We’ve heard of Englishmen leaving the country to go to war, to hunt for gold, to find a bride, but to establish a medical practice? Was there money to be made as a doctor in India? Or was this career direction a direct reflection of Roylott’s medical skills? 
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EIGHT YEARS WORKING ON HIS DETECTIVE DEGREE
Once again in SPEC, we get a reference to Watson as Holmes’s student, with mention of his notes and studying Holmes’s methods. But what was Watson’s goal in these studies? Did the doctor have hopes of becoming a detective himself, the first franchise of the Holmes consulting detective agency? Or might the doctor have had some other plan in his studies, other than the prose results that finally came of them?
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HOW TERRIBLE CAN TERRIBLE BE?
Watson writes, “I have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even more terrible than the truth.” What could be more terrible than a backfired attempt to kill one’s step-daughter with a deadly viper? Do these terrible rumors have anything to do with the death of that step-daughter, which apparently freed Watson from his promise of secrecy? Was the local gossip pointing fingers Violet’s way? And how would Watson know of rumors in Surrey?
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THE DISPOSITION OF THE ANCESTRAL HOME
The Roylotts, one of the oldest Saxon families in England, held on to Stoke Moran right up to the last gasp of their boy Grimesby. But what then? Would the estate go to Grimesby’s step-daughter? And after her apparent death, what then? To her husband? Her child, if she died in childbirth?
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GRIMESBY’S LOVE INTEREST?
Despite all the other odd parts of life with a bad-tempered step-father, the Stoner girls were allowed short visits to their mother’s maiden sister, Miss Honoria Westphail. Might this indicate a certain fondness on the part of Grimesby for his wife’s sister? It wouldn’t be the first occasion in those days, that a man took an interest in the sister of his late wife. And would this tend to show that Grimesby married Mrs. Stoner for love rather than money?
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THE VANISHING HALF-PAY MAJOR
You’ve met a wonderful person. You become engaged. Two weeks before your wedding day, your lover drops dead of “fright.” What do you do? What can you do? Is it expected that Julia Stoner’s fiance should drop quietly off the map, or is this another crime we can lay at the feet of Grimesby Roylott?
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HAND ME A MINT JULEP, GRIMESBY!
Though Stoke Moran is described as an old house and a few acres of land, we later get a reference to “those wretched gypsies in the plantation.” Is this use of the word the same as we’ve come to expect of the plantations of India or the Southern U.S.? Could one have a plantation on “a few acres”?
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GATHER THE TORCHES AND STORM THE MANOR!
As if there weren’t enough horror overtones in this tale, we get echoes of Frankenstein in the words, “he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the villagers almost as much as their master.” Why would the locals tolerate free-roaming dangerous animals? Could Grimesby hope to keep a cheetah fenced in on a country estate? How long would it be before one of Grimesby’s monsters found a little girl picking flowers by a nearby pond?
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HELEN STONER’S NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
“I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in your sleep?” Helen’s sister Julia asks her. Snoring, we know; talking in one’s sleep, most of us have run into; but sleep-whistling? Does such a thing exist?
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NO WONDER THEY WENT TO HARROW FOR CHRISTMAS
Apparently that old Scrooge Grimesby didn’t want his girls to get visited by any man, even old St. Nick, as Julia’s “chimney is wide, but is barred up by four large staples.” How effective was this sort of chimney-barring and against what? Burglars, certainly, but would four staples in a wide chimney stop squirrels, birds, or other ordinary chimney pests?
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A BIT MORE DAINTY THAN DARK GLASSES
We are treated to the nearly racey passage “Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee” just before we are shocked by the exposure of Roylott’s abuse. How would black lace fringe a lady’s hand in that period? From the sleeve or the gloves? A handkerchief up the sleeve perhaps?
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HOW BIG WAS THE BIG GUY?
“So tall was he that his hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway . . .” we are told of Grimesby Roylott. Any estimates of the size of top hats and door cross bars, so that we can calculate the height of this brute?
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THE RIGHT TOOLS FOR THE JOB
“An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush are, I think, all that we need.”
Two questions: First, does the famous “Eley’s No. 2” have the stopping power to argue with a raging giant like good ol’ Grim? And second, Watson’s got a gun, Holmes has a toothbrush. What are the offensive capabilities of a toothbrush in the hands of a creative sort like Holmes?
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HIS OWN INTERIOR DECORATOR
Behold the lair of the beast: “Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his stepdaughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things which met the eye.”
What deductions can we make of Roylott from his room and its furnishings? What branch of technical was “technical”? Why the camp-bed for such a large fellow? Where did his wife sleep before her death?
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HOW GOOD IS A BAD DOCTOR?
Holmes tells Watson, “When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession.” Is Holmes right? Were Palmer and Pritchard successful doctors, so much so they could be considered at the head of their profession? Are there any other examples in the history of crime of good doctors who were good criminals?
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BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CAT WHIP AND THE MONKEY WHIP?
Holmes finds a “dog whip” in Roylott’s room. The modern reader might first think that this is an accessory for the ever-popular dog-cart, but is it really? Or is this an actual whip for use on man’s best friend, something fairly unthinkable in the modern era? Why single out dogs for the small whip, when hogs, goats, and other animals closer at hand than cart-to-horse range were equally controllable by the same size of whip?
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ASSASSINATION SCHOOLS OF THE FAR EAST?
“The idea of using a form of poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless man who had had an Eastern training.”
We know Roylott had experience in the East, but wasn’t his medical training all back in Britain? What training did he receive in India?
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The Seventeen Steps originally appeared on the Hounds of the Internet e-list from September 2000 to October 2001.

Seventeen Steps to "The Solitary Cyclist"

Seventeen thoughts for further ponderance of "The Solitary Cyclist" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 

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PREVIEWS OF COMING ATTRACTIONS -- OR NOT
“For this reason I will now lay before the reader the facts connected with Miss Violet Smith, the solitary cyclist of Charlington, and the curious sequel of our investigation, which culminated in unexpected tragedy.”
Once again, Watson gives us an exciting teaser that doesn’t exactly line up with the tale that follows ... or is “the curious sequel” something that happened after the tale was over? Or is the wounding of a criminal a tragic thing to Watson’s mind? Was there a part of this tale he’s not telling?
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THE WATSONIAN CASE RECORD SYSTEM
The good author writes: “there were some points about the case which made it stand out in those long records of crime from which I gather the material for these little narratives.”
Watson is referring to his notes as something a little more substantial in this case. In fact, this time around Watson almost makes it seem like the published stories are a subset of some more substantial chronicles. All this occurs at a time when Holmes had prohibited from Watson from further publishing, too. Were the “long records” Watson’s contribution to the criminological partnership that began after Holmes’s return? How much of the records were Holmes’s work, and how much Watson’s?
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ANOTHER BRILLIANT DEDUCTION, BUT ...
Holmes gives Violet Smith a once over and announces that she’s a bicyclist. We then find that Violet “glanced down in surprise at her own feet, and I observed the slight roughening of the side of the sole caused by the friction of the edge of the pedal.”
Was Holmes becoming less discreet in his old age? Did Violet seeing him staring at her shoes, and then followed his gaze? Or was it the shoes he was staring at -- could even an eagle-eyed fellow like Holmes make out the differences a toned lower body would make beneath all that Victorian cloth?
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WAS THAT FROM SEARS OR MONTGOMERY WARDS?
“He had ordered a horse and trap .... The horse and trap were to have come this week, but for some reason they were not delivered.”
Mr. Carruthers has supposedly ordered some decent transport for Violet Smith, and whether or not her really did, Violet seems to think it’s a reasonable order. Where would one order a trap complete with horse, that took over a week to deliver? A mail order catalog? The local livery stable?
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SOME ACCOMPANIMENTS WITH DINNER?
“I play his accompaniments in the evening,” Miss Smith says of Mr. Carruthers. Accepting that a nice young woman like Miss Smith was NOT making the sort of suggestive remark some members of our list are reading that as, what would Carruthers most likely be accompanied in doing? Would he have been singing? Playing an instrument? Or just enjoying a pleasant dinner?
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THE TRANSPORTATION SITUATION AT CHILTERN GRANGE
Six miles from the station, no horse, but apparently a piano and some other accoutrements of a well-kept house. Did Mrs. Dixon and her employer walk to town for all their needs? Could they get deliveries of their heavier supplies? They couldn’t have been using a bicycle, or else Carruthers would have been quickly suspected by his employee. And while Miss Smith refers to “my bicycle,” is there any indication that she had a bicycle before her new job? Did she take it on the train with her, or leave it at the station?
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THE JUNIOR PARTNER IS ON THE CASE
“No, my dear fellow, you will go down,” Holmes tells Watson. “This may be some trifling intrigue, and I cannot break my other important research for the sake of it.”
As Holmes’s business increased in the 1890’s, having Watson pre-screen the less dangerous cases seems a smart move. Was this an exceptional case, or did Watson do this on a regular basis? Or a better question: Could Watson do such a thing on a regular basis under Holmes’s critical eye without ruining the friendship?
*******************
WATSON MAY HAVE BEEN BETTER OFF WRONG
"What should I have done?" Watson cries after Holmes criticizes his work.
"Gone to the nearest public-house,” Holmes replies.
Well, Sherlock Holmes followed his own advice, and we saw what happened. What would have been the result had Dr. Watson done the same and wound up going up against Roaring Jack Woodley? Would Watson have fared any better than Carruthers or come to “very ignominious grief”?
*******************
PARTNERSHIP OR BOSS-EMPLOYEE?
Holmes gives Watson a thorough dressing-down in this case, stating Watson’s results and asking: “Who's the better for that? Well, well, my dear sir, don't look so depressed. We can do little more until next Saturday, and in the meantime I may make one or two inquiries myself.”
Does that sound like a friend or a boss? Was Holmes actually Watson’s employer, rather than partner, at this point in their relationship?
*******************
DID CARRUTHERS HAVE A CHANCE?
Violet Smith writes, regarding her employer: “I am convinced that his feelings are most deep and most honourable. At the same time, my promise is of course given.”
Does that mean that if she didn’t already have Cyril, she might have married Carruthers? How much of that decision might have been romantic and how much economic?
*******************
THE MAKE-UP OF THE COUNTRY PUB
While Holmes is in the bar of the local pub, Woodley comes in from the tap-room. Was the bar for distilled beverages, while the tap-room was for beer or ale? Was this a pub of fairly decent size to have separate rooms for separate beverages, or was this the common state of pubs?
*******************
THE HANDIWORK OF HOLMES
Violet Smith describes the beaten Jack Woodley: “He was always hideous, but he looks more awful than ever now, for he appears to have had an accident, and he is much disfigured.”
Is Miss Smith reacting to minor abrasions due to her delicate nature, or did Holmes do serious damage to Woodley’s face? What sort of disfigurements would we expect from Holmes’s straight left?
*******************
LIVING THE LIFE OF WATSON
Watson tells us, “we hastened onward at such a pace that my sedentary life began to tell upon me, and I was compelled to fall behind.”
What *is* Watson doing with himself these days? Writing? Studying criminology? Lounging around until Thurston is ready to play pool? Is he really sitting all the time, or does he just mean that he’s not involved in active physical exercise? What about “the whirl of our incessant activity” he writes of later?
*******************
THAT DOESN’T SOUND HEALTHY
“As he spoke, a woman's shrill scream--a scream which vibrated with a frenzy of horror--burst from the thick, green clump of bushes in front of us. It ended suddenly on its highest note with a choke and a gurgle.”
Miss Smith is soon found with a handkerchief in her mouth. But what did they do to her to end her scream with a choke and a “gurgle”? Wouldn’t that latter imply something awful like blood in the lungs or something equally deadly? Might Woodley have poured whiskey down her throat, or some other liquor in an attempt to calm her?
*******************
HOLMES’S FAME PRECEDES HIM
"Who are you, then?" asks Bob Carruthers.
"My name is Sherlock Holmes."
"Good Lord!"
While Carruthers may have heard of Sherlock Holmes, the consulting detective, why does Holmes rate a “Good Lord!” Do criminals fear him that much? Did Carruthers think he was dead? Or what Carruthers’s reaction just a general “Good Lord!” in the sense of “What else could go wrong?”
*******************
THE VIRGIN EARS OF WATSON
When Carruthers shoots Woodley, Williamson erupts in “such a string of foul oaths” as Watson never heard before. Considering Watson had been in the Afghan War, among cursing military men, might Williamson have been swearing oaths he picked up in South Africa that were new to Watson? Might they have involved jungle creatures or African tribal deities?
*******************
HOW WIDE WAS WOODLEY’S SWATH?
Roaring Jack Woodley was “the greatest brute and bully in South Africa--a man whose name is a holy terror from Kimberley to Johannesburg.” Quite a reputation for a man so young ... given the cities mentioned, how big an area was Woodley the greatest brute in? Was it all of South Africa? 
*******************
The Seventeen Steps originally appeared on the Hounds of the Internet e-list from September 2000 to October 2001.

Seventeen Steps to "The Six Napoleons"

Seventeen thoughts for further ponderance of "The Six Napoleons" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 

*******************
A FRIEND ENJOYING THE COMFORTS OF 221B
There’s something special about the beginning of this tale, a feeling that the friendly association of Holmes and Watson was not something they restricted to their own circle of two. We begin this visit to 221B with the words:
“It was no very unusual thing for Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, to look in upon us of an evening, and his visits were welcome to Sherlock Holmes . . . On this particular evening, Lestrade had spoken of the weather and the newspapers. Then he had fallen silent, puffing thoughtfully at his cigar.”
The fact that Lestrade was welcome enough at 221B to sit around and chit-chat says a lot for his relationship with Holmes. But when we first met Lestrade back in “A Study in Scarlet,” he and Inspector Gregson were rivals and seeming equals in the investigation. What was it about Gregson that he never became as friendly with Holmes as Lestrade did? Why does Holmes get along with Lestrade so well?
*******************
SHERLOCK HOLMES -- HIS LIMITS: EVER CHANGING
"That's no business of mine," Holmes says when Lestrade first speaks of anti-Napoleon madness.
"Exactly. That's what I said. But then, when the man commits burglary in order to break images which are not his own, that brings it away from the doctor and on to the policeman."
"Burglary! This is more interesting.”
What happened to the Holmes of the 1880s who remarked upon how many of his cases were without any crime whatsoever? Wouldn’t finding the cause of a man breaking Napoleon busts intrigue Holmes as much as a man breaking into a house? Or was this just a pose he put on for Lestrade, who had perhaps spoken a bit *too* much of the weather and the newspapers?
*******************
THE SUCCESSFUL DOCTOR BRANCHES OUT
Dr. Barnicot, we are told, “has one of the largest practices upon the south side of the Thames. His residence and principal consulting-room is at Kennington Road, but he has a branch surgery and dispensary at Lower Brixton Road, two miles away.”
Apparently, Dr. Barnicot’s branch surgery was for the convenience of patients nearer Lower Brixton Road than his Kennington Road consulting room. But was this just another office for his use only, or would he have had some staff working there full time? Would a doctor’s large practice be of a size that he would use other, junior doctors to help him maintain it, even though it would still be considered “his” practice? 
*******************
THE CANONICAL PROTOTYPE FOR A SHERLOCKIAN
“This Dr. Barnicot is an enthusiastic admirer of Napoleon, and his house is full of books, pictures, and relics of the French Emperor.” 
Barnicot’s house sounds like many a Sherlockian’s house, with Napoleon filling in for Holmes. (Ironically, both men are now known to the general public as much for their hats as anything else.) But wasn’t it odd for an Englishman to have such high esteem for the French emperor? Wouldn’t this be a bit like having a Hitler collection?
*******************
THE HOUNDS FINALLY GET DIAGNOSED
Watson remarks, “There are no limits to the possibilities of monomania. There is the condition which the modern French psychologists have called the 'idee fixe,' which may be trifling in character, and accompanied by complete sanity in every other way.” 
Complete sanity in every other way? Couldn’t Dr. Barnicot be considered a monomaniac by such a definition? And what of people with a fixation on Sherlock Holmes who are completely sane in every other way?
Was “idee fixe” a legitimate mental disorder of the time, and what were the symptoms of a typical case? Were its sufferers truly sane in every other way, leading otherwise normal lives?
*******************
TIME TO HAUL OUT THE BUTTER AGAIN
“The affair seems absurdly trifling, and yet I dare call nothing trivial when I reflect that some of my most classic cases have had the least promising commencement. You will remember, Watson, how the dreadful business of the Abernetty family was first brought to my notice by the depth which the parsley had sunk into the butter upon a hot day.”
The parsley/butter problem has been long discussed and researched by Sherlockians, and done to death on this list a few times as well. But aside from the dinner table clue, why would Watson have never written up a case that Holmes considered one of his “most classic”? How dreadful was the business of the Abernetty family if it only got noticed because the parsley was sinking into the butter? (Just play along for the moment, and pretend that parsley sinks into butter.)
*******************
THE BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS
Watson apparently dresses before breakfast, as Holmes tells him, “There's coffee on the table, Watson, and I have a cab at the door.” But coffee seems to be the only breakfast Watson will be getting. In an arrangement like the one Holmes and Watson had with Mrs. Hudson, was she expected prepare (or have the cook prepare) breakfast for them every day, or just as requested? At what point might Mrs. Hudson’s preparations have been at as Holmes and Watson go racing out the door in this case?
*******************
THE CORPSE AT HARKER’S HOUSE
There are a few odd points about the man found murdered at Horace Harker’s Pitt Street home. First, Harker heard a horrible scream, apparently the dying cry, of a man whose throat was cut. Wouldn’t the “great gash” in his neck limit his vocalizing abilities? Might it have been his attacker screaming? And we are told that he lay on his back with his knees drawn up ...isn’t that a little bit odd position for a man who apparently died of blood loss? Wouldn’t his legs relax and extend a bit as he died?
*******************
THE MANY THEORIES OF MORSE HUDSON
No doubt the picture and statuary business was quite dull, since Morse Hudson turns to Nihilists, anarchists, and “red republicans” just to explain the destruction of one fifteen-shilling bust. (After he was probably the original person to report capital “H” Hooliganism, as well.) Is there any logical basis for Morse Hudson’s ravings? Would any of these groups have a reason for busting Napoleon’s head in, while leaving the rest of the shop untouched?
*******************
PASSING THROUGH LONDON’S MANY FACES
“In rapid succession we passed through the fringe of fashionable London, hotel London, theatrical London, literary London, commercial London, and, finally, maritime London, till we came to a riverside city of a hundred thousand souls, where the tenement houses swelter and reek with the outcasts of Europe.”
Did each of these districts (described by Watson as one would describe a Barbie doll) have a name? Were Holmes and Watson travelling a straight path from Kensnington Road to Stepney?
*******************
PRIVACY ISSUES OF THE VICTORIAN ERA
The manager at Harding Brothers is a very helpful fellow: “Yes, we have the entries here. One to Mr. Harker you see, and one to Mr. Josiah Brown, of Laburnum Lodge, Laburnum Vale, Chiswick, and one to Mr. Sandeford, of Lower Grove Road, Reading.”
Was it necessary to give your name and address to a shopkeeper when you just want to buy a plaster bust for a few shillings? Why did the shopkeeper need it? A wholesaler keeping records of his regular customers makes some sense, but a shopkeeper dealing in fairly inexpensive knick-knacks? At what price level did one not worry about such details?
*******************
IT’S ALWAYS POLITICS, ISN’T IT?
“His name is Pietro Venucci, from Naples, and he is one of the greatest cut-throats in London. He is connected with the Mafia, which, as you know, is a secret political society, enforcing its decrees by murder.”
Was the Mafia ever anything but a criminal society? Even when associated with the government, it’s goals were never political, were they? Lestrade showing his ignorance of foreign crime with the above statement, or a deeper understanding than most?
*******************
THE LUMBER-ROOM OF HIS LUMBER-ROOM
“Holmes spent the evening in rummaging among the files of the old daily papers with which one of our lumber-rooms was packed.”
First, the simple question: where in 221 Baker Street were the lumber-rooms? Second, how could Holmes possible endeavor to keep files of all London’s daily papers? Wasn’t he cutting out bits for his scrapbook in any case, leaving most of them in not-exactly-archival shape?
*******************
JOSIAH BROWN, THE POLICEMAN’S FRIEND
Holmes, Watson, and Lestrade catch a murderer on the grounds of Josiah Brown’s house. They’ve barely got him in cuffs when Brown comes outside and jovially says, “Well, I'm very glad to see that you have got the rascal. I hope, gentlemen, that you will come in and have some refreshment.”
Seems a bit odd behaviour as the three men are still holding the murderer. Wouldn’t Brown want him out of there as quickly as possible? Would Brown have been so friendly to the neighborhood beat cop? Or is Josiah Brown a fan of The Strand Magazine who’s seizing the opportunity to get the celebrated Sherlock Holmes in his house for drinks?
*******************
COULD BEPPO BE THE MOST UNLUCKY MAN ALIVE?
First, he’s born with a monkey face. Second, he manages to kill a man with a photograph of him in his pocket. And third, and worst of all, with five out of six chances at finding the Borgia pearl in the busts he smashed, he still comes up empty! Was there anything he could have done to improve his odds, or was God just against this guy from square one?
*******************
SHERLOCK HOLMES DAY AT SCOTLAND YARD
“We're not jealous of you at Scotland Yard. No, sir, we are very proud of you, and if you come down to-morrow, there's not a man, from the oldest inspector to the youngest constable, who wouldn't be glad to shake you by the hand."
Did Lestrade mean that as a sincere invitation? Was it Holmes’s fame in The Strand that had the Yard proud of him, or the Borgia pearl case, which most of them hadn’t heard of yet? Did Lestrade expect Holmes to bring the pearl with him? (And a postscript: this one puzzled me enough that I couldn’t stop thinking about it until I found my own answer, which is coming in Monday’s Chronology Corner.)
*******************
AND WAITING ON THE BACK-BURNER ...
“"Put the pearl in the safe, Watson," Holmes instructs, when it’s all done, "and get out the papers of the Conk-Singleton forgery case.”
Was the Conk-Singleton case still going on, but so uninteresting that Holmes left it alone to pursue the pearl? Or was Holmes just going to clean up the documentation on the case, with Watson’s help? What papers was Watson responsible for regarding the cases?
*******************
The Seventeen Steps originally appeared on the Hounds of the Internet e-list from September 2000 to October 2001.

Seventeen Steps to "Silver Blaze"

Seventeen thoughts for further ponderance of "Silver Blaze" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 

*******************
HIS OWN PERSONAL CNN
“Fresh editions of every paper had been sent up by our news agent,” Watson writes.
We all know London had a lot of papers in those days, but did everyone have a newsagent to deal with their newsprint needs? Or did most folks get by with a paperboy or two?
*******************
VERY EXCELLENT FOR WHAT?
Holmes asks Watson to bring his “very excellent field glass” to King’s Pyland with him, but never makes use of it. What would Holmes have expected to do with it? Scan the moors for the missing horse? While Holmes does use the glass four days later at the big race, it never seems to come into play during that first trip. Was Holmes just planning ahead, or was there an earlier purpose for taking it?
*******************
FLYING ALONG TO EXETER FIRST CLASS
As the classic Paget illustration for this tale so beautifully shows, Holmes and Watson had window seats in a first class carriage on the train to Dartmoor. What exactly were the amenities to be expected in first class rail transport of that era? Was anything but privacy included for the price?
*******************
HOLMES’S BLUNDER
If ever we wondered whether Holmes was more devoted to the “art” of detection or the actual cause of justice, this tale has some pretty heavy evidence for the former. Both Silver Blaze’s owner and Inspector Gregory ask Holmes on Tuesday to investigate the trainer’s murder and the horse’s theft. Holmes, however, expects the matter to take care of himself, and waits until Thursday to head to the scene of the crime. When Scotland Yard asks for help with a murder, isn’t it the perogative of every red-blooded, patriotic, justice-loving son of England to answer the call? What’s with Holmes’s prima donna act?
*******************
NOTHING SINISTER ABOUT SHERLOCK
“Holmes, leaning forward, with his long, thin forefinger checking off the points upon the palm of his left hand.”
Can we therefore assume Holmes is right-handed?
*******************
HADN’T STRAKER HEARD OF WEIGHT WATCHERS?
After only five years of being a jockey, John Straker is forced to retire because he’s become too heavy. Couldn’t this guy say “no” to second helpings, even if his career depended on it? Did anyone go on diets back then? How much did Straker’s age have to do with his weight?
*******************
THE INVALID SUBDIVISION NEXT DOOR
“About half a mile to the north there is a small cluster of villas which have been built by a Tavistock contractor for the use of invalids and others who may wish to enjoy the pure Dartmoor air.”
The term “villa” has implications of elegance and upscale living. Were there enough wealthy invalids who wanted to live in Dartmoor to make such a business venture viable? Was the pure Dartmoor air noted for healthful benefits, or was the London reek so bad that any countryside would have been equally healthful to city folk?
*******************
THE OTHER MISSING HORSE
“You've two horses in for the Wessex Cup--Silver Blaze and Bayard,” the tout tells the stable-boy. Yet when we look down the card on the day of the race, Bayard is nowhere to be found. What happened? With Silver Blaze’s whereabouts unknown, wouldn’t Colonel Ross have left Bayard in for the Wessex Cup?
*******************
KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE TOUT’S HAND
The visiting tout takes a piece of white paper folded up” out of his pocket. Later, Edith Baxter notices “the corner of the little paper packet protruding from his closed hand.” So what was it? Folded paper, as a note would be, or a packet, as would contain opium or money? Or was the owrd “packet” just a terminology red herring dropped in by Watson or his literary agent?”
*******************
VICTORIAN FORENSIC CHEMISTRY
“Finally, an analysis has shown that the remains of his supper left by the stable-lad contained an appreciable quantity of powdered opium ...”
How would the stableboy’s dinner have been tested for opium in that period? An actual chemical test or something as simple as feeding it to a dog?
*******************
THE LION OF SCOTLAND YARD
While poor Lestrade is always compared to smaller creatures like rats and bulldogs, Inspector Gregory is said to have “lion-like” hair and beard. What exactly does that mean? Lion-like in color, style, or what?
*******************
IT DOESN’T GET ANY MORE CIRCUMSTANTIAL THAN THIS
We are told of Silas Brown and his stable: “As Desborough, their horse, was second in the betting, they had an interest in the disappearance of the favourite. Silas Brown, the trainer, is known to have had large bets upon the event, and he was no friend to poor Straker.”
Add the posession of the stolen horse to those facts, and you come up with quite a case against Silas Brown. Had Scotland Yard been the ones who discovered Silver Blaze at Mapleton, there is little doubt the trainer would have been behind bars and found guilty of murder and horse theft. Wouldn’t Brown have taken this into consideration upon finding Silver Blaze on the moor?
Holmes’s manipulation of the events surrounding the Straker murder are so heavy-handed that one might even wonder if he was helping the true murderer escape by pointing the finger at Silver Blaze, who can’t defend himself or tell where he’s been held. Was Brown another Leon Sterndale, whom Holmes let escape the consequences of his crime? What motive might Holmes have had for helping Brown get away with murder? 
*******************
EXIT, STAGE LEFT!
When the carriage leaves King’s Pyland, who is in it? If only Holmes and Watson, we are treated to a failed dramatic moment as Holmes says:
"Gregory, let me recommend to your attention this singular epidemic among the sheep. Drive on, coachman!"
The coachman then ignores Holmes, and the carriage stays put. Instead of dropping his vague exit-line and being whisked away, Holmes is left sitting in front of an audience that wants more. Colonel Ross just looks disgusted at this ploy, and Inspector Gregory gets a chance to ask more questions.
Holmes recovers quickly in one of the most memorable exchanges in the Canon, but was it his original attempt to leave matters with the line above? If Colonel Ross and Inpspector Gregory are also in the carriage, and the coachman did obey Holmes and was driving the lot of them away as Gregory asks his questions, why was Holmes commanding Ross’s driver?
*******************
SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE GARDEN PARTY
"Surely I met you in Plymouth at a garden-party some little time ago, Mrs. Straker?" Holmes asks the victim’s widow. We know he’s lying of course, especially as a garden-party was most certainly one of those “unwelcome social summonses which call upon a man to either be bored or to lie.”
Time for the more socially enlightened Hounds to fill us in on this thing called the garden-party. What makes a garden party? Is it merely a cocktail party with flowers and sunlight? Would Sherlock Holmes have ever attended one for real? Of what social standing would we expect the attendees of a garden party to be? Would a horse trainer’s wife be included, or was Holmes flattering Mrs. Straker?
*******************
THE TOUT WHO CARRIED A PURSE
“He says that it was a ten-pound note. One was found in his purse.”
Purses appear in male possession several times in the Canon, and I’ve always assumed that these were something like a large clasp coin purse. Where did men carry their purses back then? Trouser pockets? Coat pockets? Did the purse contain anything besides money?
*******************
THE MILLINER’S BILL AND THAT FANCY DRESS
William Derbyshire’s bill from Madame Lesurier of Bond Street is made out for thirty-seven pounds fifteen. We’re told of a twenty-two guinea dress, which accounts for about twenty-three pounds of that bill, but that leaves fourteen pounds of unknown merchandise. Was it another dress? Or accessories for that dove-colored, ostrich-feathered monstrosity? What sort of added items of clothing might Straker’s mistress have made him buy her at Madame Lesurier’s to go with the dress? Would said dress have been bought for attending a special occasion, or just as an impressive gift?
*******************
THE LATEST THING IN DRIVEWAY PAVING
Watson writes of “the paving of asphalt which led up to the gates of the Mapleton stables.” We don’t usually think of asphalt driveways in association with Holmes’s era, but there you have it. How common was asphalt paving in those days, and was it an indication of wealth or progressive thinking?
*******************
The Seventeen Steps originally appeared on the Hounds of the Internet e-list from September 2000 to October 2001.

Seventeen Steps to The Sign of the Four

Seventeen thoughts for further ponderance of The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 

*******************
WATSON'S FLAW
The Sign of the Four begins by showing us a major flaw in our hero's character, his cocaine usage. Watson, it would seem, does not make it through the tale without showing a flaw of his own: "I could have struck the man across the face, so hot was I at this callous and offhand reference to so delicate a matter."
Why is violence Watson's immediate reaction? True, he does not act upon the impulse this time, but were there other times he was not so restrained? Had he previously struck anyone across the face for a remark that offended him? This could give credence for the "bad temper" school of though on his "bull pup."
************************
THE DOC FROM DOWN UNDER
If Watson did have bad habits like smacking mouthy fellows across the face, it might indicate a childhood in some less civilized land, and SIGN gives us some handy evidence of that in his words: "I have seen something of the sort on the side of a hill near Ballarat, where the prospectors had been at work."
Watson's Australian past is often overlooked by Sherlockians, and it is especially fascinating that he encounters some fellow citizens of good old Ballarat in "Reigate Squires." Did Watson's family wind up coming to England in much the same way that Turner and McCarthy did? Might there even be a connection?
************************
GOSSIP TIME:
Mrs. Bernstone, the housekeeper at Pondicherry Lodge, says: I have seen Mr. Bartholomew Sholto in joy and in sorrow for ten long years, but I never saw him with such a face on him as that."
Was the housekeeper having a romantic relationship with Bartholomew Sholto? Somehow it seems like she's seen a lot of emotion out of her employer.
*************************
ONE MORE PAYING CUSTOMER
"Don't trouble yourself about it, Mr. Sholto," said Holmes; "I think that
I can engage to clear you of the charge."
Was Holmes going to charge Sholto? Was his full meaning "I can be engaged for a reasonable fee"? Long before the ambulance-chasing lawyer, was Sherlock the Scotland Yard-chasing detective? It would seem that Athelney Jones alone could have made him quite a bit of money.
************************
JUST WONDERING . . .
"I shall bring him then," said I. "It is one now. I ought to be back
before three if I can get a fresh horse."
Fresh horse? From where?
************************
TONGA'S DEATH WARRANT
"I have my stick."
"It is just possible that we may need something of the sort if we get to
their lair. Jonathan I shall leave to you, but if the other turns nasty I
shall shoot him dead."
Holmes is very definite about his plans for Tonga. Would he have felt the same about a normal Briton criminal, or was the fact that he was dealing with a "wild" pygmy frightening him into thinking of Tonga as a mad dog, less than human? Is Holmes intending self-defense or an excuse for premeditated capital punishment?
************************
UP, UP, AND AWAY!
"What the deuce is the matter with the dog?" growled Holmes. "They
surely would not take a cab or go off in a balloon."
Balloon travel at time of SIGN . . . just how common was it? Holmes almost makes it sound as common as cabbing in that line . . . or is he just "eliminating the impossible."
************************
BRIBE THE RASCALS
"I'd like two shillin' better," the prodigy answered after some thought.
"Here you are, then! Catch!--A fine child, Mrs. Smith!"
"Lor' bless you, sir, he is that, and forward.
At this point in his life, we've only seen Sherlock Holmes deal with children one way: throw money at them. Were shillings hard to come by around the Holmes household when he was a child? Or was money just the best calling card for anyone in the lower classes at the time?
************************
ROWBOAT FOR HIRE
"There is a boatman here with a wherry, Watson. We shall take it and
cross the river." 
While we all remember the steamboat chase in SIGN, this little rowboat trip across the Thames often gets missed. Were small boat ferrymen as common as cabs on the river? Would you yourself cross the Thames in a rowboat?
************************
SLEEP, GIVE ME SLEEP!
At "between eight and nine o'clock" in the morning after running around all night, Watson describes himself as "limp and weary, befogged in mind and fatigued in body." He has already protested earlier in the story that he still hasn't recovered from Afghanistan.But he takes a bath, changes clothes, comes down for breakfast and seems ready to go some more.
Now, be honest. At this point wouldn't you be going, "You're the detective, I'm going to bed!"? What did Watson hope to contribute/accomplish? And when Holmes does lull him into napping, Watson doesn't even go to his nearby bed . . . just sacking out on the couch. Oh, my aching back/war wound!
************************
RUN FOR IT, WATSON!
"I think that we have had a close shave ourselves of being arrested for the crime."
"So do I. I wouldn't answer for our safety now if he should happen to have another of his attacks of energy."
At this moment there was a loud ring at the bell, and I could hear Mrs. Hudson, our landlady, raising her voice in a wail of expostulation and dismay.
"By heavens, Holmes," I said, half rising, "I believe that they are really after us."
What was Watson about to do? Make a break for it?
***********************
WITHOUT A MICROWAVE!
"Only that I insist upon your dining with us. It will be ready in half
an hour. I have oysters and a brace of grouse, with something a little choice
in white wines.--Watson, you have never yet recognized my merits as a
housekeeper." 
Perhaps one of our more grouse and oyster savvy Hounds can help me on this one: I have problems whipping hot dogs and steamed veggies together in a half an hour, how can Holmes can cook oysters and grouse in that time?
***********************
IT'S IN THE OTHER SOUTH AMERICA
"We told him nothing; but we paid him well, and he was to get something handsome if we reached our vessel, the Esmeralda, at Gravesend, outward bound for the Brazils."
Someone aid my confusion on this one: was there more than one Brazil in the 1880s??
***********************
SHOW ME THE MONEY!
"Pray sit down and tell me all about it, Dr. Watson," said she. 
Um, excuse me, Mary, but the man just brought a treasure chest in for you. Polite, I can understand, but I have to ask my fellow Hounds: Isn't she taking polite a bit far here? Wouldn't you want to see what's in the box and THEN hear the story? Ah, but they were better folk then, weren't they?
************************
AND I HAVEN'T EVEN TOUCHED MINE
"I must borrow Mrs. Forrester's poker." 
Fireplace pokers get a lot of use in the Canon. Watson opens a strongbox with one here, and later prepares to bash Steve Dixie with one. As a murder weapon or a contest of strength, the simple poker gets a lot of mileage in the Canon. Any thoughts on why?
************************
YOU CAN'T BRIBE THESE GUYS
"There goes the reward!" the nameless inspector says. "Where there is no money there is no pay. This night's work would have been worth a tenner each to Sam Brown and me if the treasure had been there."
Scotland Yard working on commission? Along with Lestrade being "retained" in "Boscombe Valley Mystery," this is one of the more puzzling aspects of the London police force. How easily hired were they?
************************
UNBELIEVABLE SMALL
Jonathan Small scatters the Agra treasure over "five miles or so" of Thames riverbed. He says he was "half mad" when he did it, but five miles is a long time for temporary insanity. Can you picture any criminal giving up that kind of money, when there was the slightest chance he might have been able to get it back somehow? 
An added note: with Holmes's eye for detail and memory for location, might he not have been out the next day with a boatload of Irregulars for a little urban pearl-diving?
*******************
The Seventeen Steps originally appeared on the Hounds of the Internet e-list from September 2000 to October 2001.