September 29, 2023 • 45 mins
In "A Case of Identity," Sherlock Holmes is consulted by a young woman named Mary Sutherland. She seeks Holmes' help in finding her missing fiancé, Mr. Hosmer Angel, who mysteriously disappeared shortly before their wedding.Holmes and Watson investigate the situation and discover that Mr. Angel is not who he claims to be. They uncover that "Hosmer Angel" is a ruse created by Mary's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, who wanted to keep Mary financially dependent on him. Windibank had posed as Angel through letters to Mary, manipulating her affections.Eventually, it is revealed that Windibank had orchestrated the disappearance to prevent Mary from marrying and leaving him, thereby ensuring her income would continue to support him. Holmes exposes Windibank's deceit to Mary, advising her on how to move forward.The case concludes with Mary gaining clarity about Windibank's deception, allowing her to break free from his control and move on with her life. Holmes, once again, solves the mystery and brings justice to his client.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Three of the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. This LibriVox recording
is in the public domain and is read by Mark
Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Adventure three A case of identity,
(00:25):
my dear fellow, said Sherlock Holmes, as we sat on
either side of the fire and his lodgings at Baker Street.
Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of
man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the
things which are really mere commonplaces of existence. If we
could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover
(00:47):
over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and peep
in at the queer things which are going on, the
strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross purposes, the wonderful chains
of events working through generations and leading to the most
outre results. It would make all fiction, with its conventionalities
(01:08):
and foreseeing conclusions, most stale and unprofitable. And yet I
am not convinced of it. I answered. The cases which
come to light in the papers are, as a rule,
bald enough and vulgar enough. We have in our police
reports realism pushed to its extreme limits, and yet the
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result is it must be confessed neither fascinating nor artistic.
A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing
a realistic effect. Remarked Holmes, this is wanting in the
police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps upon the
platitudes of the magistrate, than upon the details which, to
(01:53):
an observer contained the vital essence of the whole matter
depend upon it. There is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace.
I smiled and shook my head. I can quite understand
your thinking, so I said. Of course, in your position
of unofficial adviser and helper to everybody who is absolutely
(02:15):
puzzled throughout three continents, you are brought in contact with
all that is strange and bizarre. But here I picked
up the morning paper from the ground. Let us put
it to a practical test. Here is the first heading
upon which I come, A husband's cruelty to his wife.
There is half a column of print, but I know
(02:37):
without reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me.
There is, of course the other woman, the drink, the push,
the blow, the bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady, the
crudest of writers could invent nothing more crude. Indeed, your
example is an unfortunate one for your argument, said Holmes,
(03:00):
taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. This
is the Dundas separation case, and as it happens, I
was engaged in clearing up some small points in connection
with it. The husband was a teetotaler. There was no
other woman, and the conduct complained of was that he
had drifted into the habit of winding up every meal
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by taking out his false teeth and hurling them at
his wife, which you will allow is not an action
likely to occur to the imagination of the average story teller.
Take a pitch of snuff, doctor, and acknowledge that I
have scored over you in your example. He held out
his snuff box of old gold with a great amethyst
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in the center of the lid. Its splendor was in
such contrast to his homely ways and simple life that
I could not help commenting upon it. Ah said he.
I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks.
It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia
in return for my assistance in the case of the
(04:05):
Irene Adler, papers and the ring, I asked, glancing at
a remarkable brilliant which sparkled upon his finger. It was
from the reigning family of Holland. Though the matter in
which I serve them was of such delicacy that I
cannot confide it even to you, who have been good
enough to chronicle one or two of my little problems.
(04:28):
And have you aty on hand just now, I asked,
with interest, some ten or twelve, but none which present
any feature of interest. They are important, you understand, without
being interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually
in unimportant matters that there is a field for the
observation and for the quick analysis of cause and effect,
(04:51):
which gives the charm to an investigation. The larger crimes
are apt to be the simpler, for the bigger the crime,
the more obvious. As a rule is the motive. In
these cases. Save for one rather intricate matter, which has
been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing which
presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, that
(05:15):
I may have something better before very many minutes are over,
for this is one of my clients, or I am
much mistaken. He had risen from his chair, and was
standing between the parted blinds, gazing down into the dull,
neutral tinted London street. Looking over his shoulder, I saw
that on the pavement opposite there stood a large woman
(05:37):
with a heavy fur boa round her neck and a
large curling red feather, and a broad brimmed hat, which
was tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over
her ear. From under this great panoply, she peeped up
in a nervous, hesitating fashion at our windows, while her
body oscillated backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with
(06:01):
their glove buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the
swimmer who leaves the bank, she hurried across the road,
and we heard the sharp clang of the bell. I
have seen those symptoms before, said Holmes, throwing his cigarette
into the fire. Oscillation upon the pavement always means and
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a fair cool. She would like advice, but it is
not sure that the matter is not too delicate for communication.
And yet even here we may discriminate. When a woman
has been seriously wronged by a man, she no longer oscillates,
and the usual symptom is a broken bell wire. Here
we may take it that there is a love matter,
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but that the maiden is not so much angry as
perplexed or grieved. But here she comes in person to
resolve our doubts. As he spoke, there was a tap
at the door, and the boy in buttons entered to
announce miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself loomed behind
his small black figure, like a full sailed merchantman behind
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a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed her with the
easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and having closed
the door and bowed her into an arm chair, he
looked her over in the minute yet abstracted fashion which
was peculiar to him. Do you not find? He said, that,
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with your short sight, it is a little trying to
do so much typewriting. I did it first, she answered,
but now I know where the letters are without looking. Then,
suddenly realizing the full purport of his words, she gave
a violent start and looked up with fear and astonishment
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upon her broad, good humored face. You've heard about me,
mister Holmes, she cried. Else, how could you know all that?
Never mind, said Holmes, laughing it is my business to
know things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what
others overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?
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I came to you, sir, because I heard of you
from Missus Eatherich, whose husband you found so easy when
the police and everyone had given him up for dead. Oh,
mister Holmes, I wish you would do as much for me.
I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a
year in my own right, besides the little that I
(08:34):
make by the machine, and I would give it all
to know what is become of mister Hosmer Angel. Why
did you come away to consult me in such a hurry,
asked Sherlock Holmes, with his finger tips together and his
eyes to the ceiling. Again, A startled look came over
the somewhat vacuous face of miss Mary Sutherland. Yes, I
(08:58):
did bang out of the house, she said, for it
made me angry to see the easy way in which
mister Windbank, that is my father, took it all. He
would not go to the police, and he would not
go to you, And so at last, as he would
do nothing and kept on saying that there was no
harm done, it made me mad, and I just on
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with my things and came right away to you. Your father, said, Holmes,
your stepfather, surely, since the name is different, Yes, my stepfather.
I call him father, though it sounds funny too, for
he is only five years and two months older than myself.
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And your mother is alive. Oh, yes, mother is alive
and well. I wasn't best pleased mister Holmes when she
married again so soon after father's death, and a man
who is nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father was
a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left
a tidy business behind him, which mother carried on with
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mister Hardy, the foreman. But when mister Windibank came, he
made her sell the business, for he was very superior,
being a traveler in wines. They got forty seven hundred
pounds for the good will and interest, which wasn't near
as much as father could have got if he had
been alive. I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient
(10:27):
under this rambling and inconsequential narrative, But on the contrary,
he had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. Your
own little income, he asked, does it come out of
the business. Oh no, sir, it is quite separate and
was left me by my uncle ned in Auckland. It
(10:50):
is in New Zealand, stock paying four and a half percent.
Two thousand, five hundred pounds was the amount. But I
can only touch the interest. You interest me extremely, said Holmes.
And since you draw so large a sum as a
hundred a year with what you earn into the bargain,
you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in
(11:12):
every way. I believe that a single lady can get
on very nicely upon an income of about sixty pounds.
I could do with much less than that, mister Holmes.
But you understand that as long as I live at home,
I don't wish to be a burden to them, and
so they have the use of the money just while
I am staying with them. Of course, that is only
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just for the time. Mister Windibank draws my interest every
quarter and pays it over to mother. And I find
that I can do pretty well with what I earn
it typewriting. It brings me topens a sheet, and I
can often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day.
You have made your position very clear to me, said Holmes,
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this is my friend doctor Watson, before whom you can
speak as freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now
all about your connection with mister Hosmer. Angel A flush
stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked nervously at
the fringe of her jacket. I met him first at
(12:17):
the gas fitter's ball. She said. They used to send
Father tickets when he was alive, and then afterwards they
remembered us and sent them to mother. Mister Windibank did
not wish us to go. He never did wish us
to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I
wanted so much as to join a Sunday school treat.
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But this time I was set on going, and I
would go. For what right had he to prevent? He
said the folk were not fit for us to know
when all father's friends were to be there. And he
said that I had nothing fit to wear when I
had my purple plush, that I had never so much
as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing
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else would do, he went off to France upon the
business of the firm. But we went, Mother and I
with mister Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and
it was there I met mister Hosmer Angel. I suppose,
said Holmes that when mister Windebank came back from France,
he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball.
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Oh well, he was very good about it. He left,
I remember, and shrugged his shoulders and said there was
no use denying anything to a woman, for she would
have her way. I see, then, at the Gaessfetter's ball,
you met, as I understand, a gentleman called mister Hosmer Angel. Yes, sir,
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I met him that night, and he called next day
to ask if we had got home all safe. And
after that we met him, that is to say, mister Holmes,
I met him twice for walks. But after that Father
came back again, and mister Hosmer Angel could not come
to the house any more. No, well, you know Father
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didn't like anything of the sort. He wouldn't have any
visitors if he could help it. And he used to
say that a woman should be happy in her own
family circle. But then, as I used to say to mother,
a woman wants her own circle to begin with. And
I had not got mine yet. But how about mister
Hosmer Angel. Did he make no attempt to see you? Well,
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Father was going off to France again in a week,
and Hosmer wrote and said that it would be safer
him better not to see each other until he had gone.
We could write in the meantime, and he used to
write every day. I took the letters in the morning,
so there was no need for father to know. Were
you engaged to the gentleman at this time? Oh, yes,
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mister Holmes, we were engaged after the first walk that
we took, Hosmer. Mister Angel was a cashier in an
office in Leadenhall Street. And what office? That's the worst
of it, mister Holmes. I don't know where did he live?
Then he slept on the premises, and you don't know
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his address, no, except that it was Leadenhall Street. Where
did you address your letters? Then to the leaden Hall
Street post office to be left till called for. He
said that if they were sent to the office he
would be chaffed by all the other clerks about having
letters from a lady. So I offered to typewrite them
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like he did his, but he wouldn't have that, for
he said that when I wrote them, they seemed to
come from me, But when they were typewritten, he always
felt that the machine had come between us. That will
just show you how fond he was of me, mister Holmes,
and the little things that he would think of It
was most suggestive, said Holmes. It has long been an
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axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the
most important. Can you remember any other little things about
mister hosmer Angel. He was a very shy man, mister Holmes.
He would rather walk with me in the evening than
in the daylight, for he said that he hated to
be conspicuous, very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his
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voice was gentle. He'd had the quincy and swollen glands
when he was young, he told me, and it had
left him with a weak throat and a hesitating, whispering
fashion of speech. He was always well dressed, very neat
and plain, but his eyes were weak, just as mine are,
and he wore tinted glasses against the glare. Well, and
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what happened when mister Windebeck, your stepfather, returned to France.
Mister hosmer Ate came to the house again and proposed
that we should marry. Before father came back. He was
in dreadful earnest and made me swear with my hands
on the testament that whatever happened, I would always be
true to him. Mother said he was quite right to
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make me swear, and that it was a sign of
his passion. Mother was all in his favor from the
first and was even fonder of him than I was. Then,
when they talked of marrying within the week, I began
to ask about father, but they both said never to
mind about Father, but just to tell him afterwards, and
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Mother said she would make it all right with him.
I didn't quite like that, mister Holmes. It seemed funny
that I should ask his leave, as he was only
a few years older than me. But I didn't want
to do anything on the sly, so I wrote to
Father at Bordeaux, where the company has its French offices.
But the letter came back to me on the very
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morning of the wedding. Missed him then, yes, sir, for
he had started to England just before it arrived. Huh,
that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged then for the Friday.
Was it to be in church, yes, sir, but very
quietly it was to be at Sun Savior's near King's Cross,
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and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the Saint
Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but
as there were two of us, he put us both
into it and stepped himself into a four wheeler, which
happened to be the only other cab in the street.
We got to the church first, and when the four
wheeler drove up, we waited for him to step out,
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but he never did, and when the cabman got down
from the box and looked, there was no one there.
The cabman said that he could not imagine what had
become of him, for he had seen him get in
with his own eyes. That was last Friday, mister Holmes,
and I I have neither seen nor heard anything since
then to throw any light upon what has become of him.
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It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated,
said Holmes. Oh no, sir, he was too good and
kind to leave me. So why all the morning he
was saying to me that whatever happened, I was to
be true, and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred
to separate us, I was always to remember that I
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was pledged to him, and that he would claim his
pledge sooner or later. It seemed strange talk for a
wedding morning, But what has happened since gives a meaning
to it? Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is
then that some unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him, Yes, sir,
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I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he
would not have talked so. And then I think that
what he foresaw happened, But you have no notion as
to what it could have been. None. One more question,
how did your mother take the matter? She was angry
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and said that I was never to speak of the
matter again. And your father did you tell him? Yes?
And he seemed to think with me that something had happened,
and that I should hear of Hosmer again, As he said,
what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the
doors of the church and then leaving me? Now, if
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he had borrowed my money, or if he had married
me and got my money settled on him, there might
be some reason. But Hosmer was very independent about money,
and never would look at a shilling of mine. And
yet what could have happened? And why could he not
write Oh, it drives me half mad to think of it,
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and I can't sleep a wink at night. She pulled
a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to
sob heavily into it. I shall glance into the case
for you, said Holmes, rising, and I have no doubt
that we shall reach some definite result. Let the weight
of the matter rest upon me now, and do not
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let your mind dwell upon it. Further, above all, try
to let mister Hosmer Angel vanish from your memory as
he has done from your life. Then you don't think
I'll see him again? I fear not. Then what has
happened to him? You will leave that question in my hands.
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I should like an accurate description of him, and any
letters of his which you can spare. I advertise for
him in last Saturday's chronicle, said she. Here is the slip,
and here are four letters from him. Thank you, and
your address number thirty one Lion Place, Camberwell, mister Angel's
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address you never had, I understand. Where is your father's
place of business? He travels for Westhouse and Marbank, the
Great Claret importers of Fenchurch Street. Thank you. You have
made your statement very clearly, you will leave the papers here,
and remember the advice which I have given you. Let
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the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not
allow it to affect your life. You are very kind,
mister Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be
true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he
comes back. For all the preposterous had and the vacuous face,
there was something noble in the simple faith of our
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visitor which compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle
of papers upon the table and went her way, with
a promise to come again whenever she might be summoned.
Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes, with his
finger tips still pressed together, his legs stretched out in
front of him, and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling.
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Then he took down from the rack the old and
oily clay pipe, which was to him as a counselor,
and having lit it, he leaned back in his chair,
with the thick blue cloud wreaths spinning up from him,
and a look of infinite languor in his face. Quite
an interesting study that maiden, he observed. I found her
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more interesting than her little problem, which by the way,
is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases
if you consult my index in andover in seventy seven.
And there was something of the sort at the Hague
last year old, as is the idea. However, there were
one or two details which were new to me. But
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the maiden herself was most instructive. You appeared to read
a good deal upon her, which was quite invisible to me,
I remarked, not invisible but unnoticed. Watson, you did not
know where to look, and so you missed all that
was important. I can never bring you to realize the
importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of thumbnails, or the great
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issues that may hang from a boot lace. Now what
did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe it well?
She had a slate colored, broad brimmed straw hat with
a feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black,
with black beads sewn upon it and a fringe of
(24:35):
little black jet ornaments. Her dress was brown, rather darker
than coffee color, with a little purple plush at the
neck and sleeves. Her gloves were grayish and were worn
through at the right forefinger. Her boots. I didn't observe.
She had small, round, hanging gold earrings, and a general
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air of being fairly well to do in a vulgar, comfortable,
easy going way. Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together
and chuckled. Upon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully.
You have really done very well. Indeed, it is true
that you have missed everything of importance, but you have
(25:16):
hit upon the method, and you have a quick eye
for color. Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but
concentrate yourself upon details. My first glance is always at
a woman's sleeve. In a man, it is perhaps better
first to take the knee of the trouser. As you observe.
This woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a
(25:37):
most useful material for showing traces. The double line a
little above the wrist, where the typewriters presses against the
table was beautifully defined. The sewing machine of the hand
type leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm,
and on the side of it farthest from the thumb,
instead of being right across the broadest part. As this
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was us. I then glanced at her face and observing
the dint of a pince nez at either side of
her nose, I ventured to remark upon short sight in typewriting,
which seemed to surprise her. It surprised me, but surely
it was obvious. I was then much surprised and interested
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on glancing down to observe that, though the boots which
she was wearing were not unlike each other, there were
really odd ones, the one having a slightly decorated toe
cap and the other a plain one. One was buttoned
only in the two lower buttons out of five, and
the other at the first, third and fifth. Now, when
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you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly dressed has
come away from home with odd boots half buttoned, it
is no great deduction to say that she came away
in a hurry. And what else? I asked, keenly interested
as I always was, by my friend's incisive reasoning, I
(27:03):
noted in passing that she had written a note before
leaving home. But after being fully dressed, you observed that
her right glove was torn at the forefinger, But you
did not apparently see that both glove and finger were
stained with violet ink. She had written in a hurry
and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been
(27:24):
this morning or the mark would not remain clear upon
the finger. All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but
I must go back to business. Watson, would you mind
reading me the advertised description of mister Hosmer Angel. I
held the little printed slip to the light, missing it said,
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on the morning of the fourteenth a gentleman named Hosmer Angel,
about five feet seven inches in height, strongly built, sallow complexion,
black hair, a little bald in the center bush. She
black side, whiskers and mustache, tinted glasses, slight infirmity of speech.
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Was dressed when last seen in black frock coat, faced
with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert chain and gray Harris
tweed trousers with brown gaiters over elastic sided boots. Known
to have been employed in an office in Leadenhall Street.
Anybody bringing that will do, said Holmes. As to the letters,
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he continued, glancing over them. They are very commonplace. Absolutely
no clue in them to mister Angel, save that he
quotes Balzac wants. There is one remarkable point, however, which
will no doubt strike you. They are typewritten. I remarked.
Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at
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the neat little Hosmer Angel at the bottom. There is
a date you see, but no superscript except Lettenhall Street,
which is rather vague. The point about the signature is
very suggestive. In fact, we may call it conclusive of what,
my dear fellow. Is it possible you do not see
(29:16):
how strongly it bears upon the case. I cannot say
that I do unless it were that he wished to
be able to deny his signature if an action for
breach of promise were instituted. No, that was not the point. However,
I shall write two letters which should settle the matter.
One is to affirm in the city. The other is
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to the young lady's stepfather, mister Windebank, asking him whether
he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow evening.
It is just as well that we should do business
with the male relatives, and now, doctor, we can do
nothing until the answers to those letters come, so we
may put our little problem upon the shelf for the interim.
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I had had so many reasons to believe in my
friend's subtle powers of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action
that I felt that he must have some solid grounds
for the assured and easy demeanor with which he treated
the singular mystery which he had been called upon to fathom. Once.
Only had I known him to fail in the case
(30:20):
of the King of Bohemia and the Irene Adler photograph.
But when I looked back to the weird business of
the Sign of four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with
the study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be
a strange tangle, indeed, which he could not unravel. I
left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe,
(30:42):
with the conviction that when I came again on the
next evening, I would find that he held in his
hands all the clues which would lead up to the
identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary Sutherland. A
professional case of great gravity was engaging my own attention
at the time, and the whole of next day I
was busy at the bedside of the sufferer. It was
(31:05):
not until close upon six o'clock that I found myself
free and was able to spring into a hansom and
drive to Baker Street. Half afraid that I might be
too late to assist. At the denoument of the little mystery,
I found Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long,
thin form curled up in the recesses of his arm chair,
(31:27):
a formidable array of bottles and test tubes with the pungent,
cleanly smell of hydrochloric acid. Told me that he had
spent his day in the chemical work which was so
dear to him. Well, have you solved it, I asked
as I entered. Yes, it was the bisulfate of Barta. No, no,
(31:48):
the mystery, I cried, Oh that I thought of the
salt that I had been working upon. There was never
any mystery in the matter. No, as I said yesterday,
some of the details are of interest. The only drawback
is that there is no law I fear that can
touch the scoundrel. Who was he then? And what was
(32:09):
his object in deserting miss Sutherland? The question was hardly
out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet opened
his lips to reply when we heard a heavy footfall
in the passage and a tap at the door. This
is the girl's stepfather, mister James Windibeck, said Holmes. He
has written to me to say that he would be
(32:30):
here at six come in. The man who entered was
a sturdy, middle sized fellow, some thirty years of age,
clean shaven and sallow skinned, with a bland insinuating manner,
and a pair of wonderfully sharp and penetrating gray eyes.
He shot a questioning glance at each of us, placed
(32:52):
his shiny top hat upon the sideboard, and with a
slight bow, sidled down into the nearest chair. Goodying mister
James Windibeg said Holmes, I think that this typewritten letter
is from you, in which you have made an appointment
with me for six o'clock. Yes, sir, I am afraid
(33:12):
that I am a little late, but I am not
quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that
Miss Sutherland has troubled you about this little matter, for
I think it is far better not to wash linen
of the sort in public. It was quite against my
wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable,
(33:33):
impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is
not easily controlled when she has made up her mind.
On a point of course, I did not mind you
so much as you are not connected with the official police.
But it is not pleasant to have a family misfortune
like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless expense,
(33:55):
for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel. On
the contrary, said Holmes quietly, I have every reason to
believe that I will succeed in discovering mister Hosmer Angel.
Mister Windebank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves.
I am delighted to hear it, he said. It is
(34:19):
a curious thing, remarked Holmes, that a typewriter has really
quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting, unless they
are quite new. No two of them write exactly alike.
Some letters get more worn than others, and somewhere only
on one side. Now you remark in this note of yours,
(34:40):
mister Windebank, that in every case there is some little
slurring over of the E and a slight defect in
the tale of the R. There are fourteen other characteristics,
but those are the more obvious. We do all our
correspondence with this machine at the office, and no doubt
it is a little worn, Our visitor answered, glancing keenly
(35:02):
at Holmes with his bright little eyes. And now I
will show you what is really a very interesting study,
mister Windebank. Holmes continued, I think of writing another little
monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its
relation to crime. It is a subject to which I
have devoted some little attention. I have here four letters
(35:24):
which purport to come from the missing man. They are
all type written. In each case. Not only are the
ease slurred and the r's talus. But you will observe,
if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the
fourteen other characteristics to which I have alluded are there
as well. Mister Windebank sprang out of his chair and
(35:47):
picked up his hat. I cannot waste time over this
sort of fantastic talk, mister Holmes, he said, If you
can catch the man, catch him and let me know
when you have done it. Certainly, said Holmes, stepping over
and turning the key in the door. I let you
know then that I have caught him. What where? Shouted
(36:11):
mister Windebank, turning white to his lips and glancing about
him like a rat in a trap. Oh it won't do, really,
it won't, said Holmes, suavely. There is no possible getting
out of it. Mister Windebank, it is quite too transparent,
and it was a very bad compliment when you said
that it was impossible for me to solve so simple
(36:33):
a question. That's right, Sit down and let us talk
it over. Our visitor collapsed into a chair with a
ghastly face and a glitter of moisture on his brow.
It's it's not actionable, he stammered. I am very much
afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, Windebank, it
(36:56):
was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in
a petty way, as ever came before me. Now let
me just run over the course of events, and you
will contradict me if I go wrong. The man sat
huddled up in his chair with his head sunk upon
his breast, like one who was utterly crushed. Holmes stuck
(37:17):
his feet up on the corner of the mantelpiece, and,
leaning back, with his hands in his pockets, began talking
rather to himself, as it seemed, than to us. The
man married a woman very much older than himself for
her money, said he, and he enjoyed the use of
the money of the daughter as long as she lived
with them. It was a considerable sum for people in
(37:40):
their position, and the loss of it would have made
a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it.
The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate
and warm hearted in her ways, so that it was
evident that, with her fair personal advantages and her little income,
she would not be allowed to remain single long. Now
(38:04):
her marriage would mean, of course, the loss of a
hundred a year. So what does her stepfather do to
prevent it? He takes the obvious course of keeping her
at home and forbidding her to seek the company of
people of her own age. But soon he found that
that would not answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon
(38:25):
her rights, and finally announced her positive intention of going
to a certain ball. What does her clever stepfather do, then,
he conceives an idea more creditable to his head than
to his heart. With the connivance and assistance of his wife,
he disguised himself, covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses,
(38:47):
masked the face with a mustache, and a pair of
bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice into an insinuating whisper,
and doubly secure on account of the girl's short sight.
He appears as mister Hosmer Angel and keeps off other
lovers by making love himself. It was only a joke
(39:08):
at first, groaned our visitor. We never thought that she
would have been so carried away. Very likely not, however,
that may be. The young lady was very decidedly carried away,
and having quite made up her mind that her stepfather
was in France, the suspicion of treachery never for an
(39:29):
instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the gentleman's attentions,
and the effect was increased by the loudly expressed admiration
of her mother. Then mister Angel began to call for
It was obvious that the matter should be pushed as
far as it would go if a real effect were
to be produced. There were meetings and an engagement which
(39:51):
would finally secure the girl's affections from turning towards any
one else. But the deception could not be kept up forever.
These pretended journeys to France were rather cumbrous. The thing
to do was clearly to bring the business to an
end in such a dramatic manner that it would leave
a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and prevent
(40:14):
her from looking upon any other suitor for some time
to come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a testament,
and hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening.
On the very morning of the wedding. James Windybank wished
Miss Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel and
(40:35):
so uncertain as to his fate, that for ten years
to come, at any rate, she would not listen to
another man. As far as the church door he brought her,
and then as he could go no farther he convenedly
vanished away by the old trick of stepping in at
one door of a four wheeler and out at the other.
(40:56):
I think that was the chain of events, mister Windybank,
our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes
had been talking, and he rose from his chair now
with a cold sneer upon his pale face. It may
be so, or it may not, mister Holmes, said he.
But if you are so very sharp, you ought to
(41:18):
be sharp enough to know that it is you who
are breaking the law now and not me. I have
done nothing actionable from the first. But as long as
you keep that door locked, you lay yourself open to
an action for assault and illegal constraint. The law cannot,
as you say, touch you, said Holmes, unlocking and throwing
(41:40):
open the door. Yet there never was a man who
deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother
or a friend, he ought to lay a whip across
your shoulders. By jove, he continued, flushing up at the
sight of the bitter sneer upon the man's face. It
is not part of my duties to my client, But
(42:00):
here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall
just treat myself to He took two swift steps to
the whip, but before he could grasp it, there was
a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs. The heavy
haul door banged, and from the window we could see
mister James Windybank running at the top of his speed
down the road. There's a cold blooded scoundrel, said Holmes,
(42:25):
laughing as he threw himself down into his chair once more.
That fellow will rise from crime to crime until he
does something very bad and ends on a gallows. The
case has in some respects been not entirely devoid of interest.
I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning,
(42:46):
I remarked, well, of course, it was obvious from the
first that this mister hosmer Angel must have some strong
object for his curious conduct, and it was equally clear
that the only man who really profited by the incident,
as far as we could see, was the stepfather. Then,
the fact that the two men were never together, but
(43:07):
that the one always appeared when the other was away,
was suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice,
which both hit it at a disguise, as did the
bushy whiskers. My suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar
action in typewriting his signature, which of course inferred that
(43:27):
his handwriting was so familiar to her that she would
recognize even the smallest sample of it. You see, all
these isolated facts, together with many minor ones, all pointed
in the same direction, And how did you verify them?
Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration.
(43:50):
I knew the firm for which this man worked. Having
taken the printed description, I eliminated everything from it which
could be the result of a disguise, the whiskers, the glasses,
the voice, and I sent it to the firm with
a request that they would inform me whether it answered
to the description of any of their travelers. I had
(44:11):
already noticed the peculiarities of the typewriter, and I wrote
to the man himself at his business address, asking him
if he would come here as I expected. His reply
was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but characteristic defects.
The same post brought me a letter from Westhouse and
Marbank of Fenchurch Street, to say that the description tallied
(44:35):
in every respect with that of their employee, James Wintibeck.
Voila tout and Miss Sutherland, if I tell her, she
will not believe me. You may remember the old Persians
saying there is danger for him who taketh the tiger cub,
and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.
(44:58):
There is as much sense in Hafi as in Horace,
and as much knowledge of the world. End of Adventure
three
Three of the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. This LibriVox recording
is in the public domain and is read by Mark
Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Adventure three A case of identity,
(00:25):
my dear fellow, said Sherlock Holmes, as we sat on
either side of the fire and his lodgings at Baker Street.
Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of
man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the
things which are really mere commonplaces of existence. If we
could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover
(00:47):
over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and peep
in at the queer things which are going on, the
strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross purposes, the wonderful chains
of events working through generations and leading to the most
outre results. It would make all fiction, with its conventionalities
(01:08):
and foreseeing conclusions, most stale and unprofitable. And yet I
am not convinced of it. I answered. The cases which
come to light in the papers are, as a rule,
bald enough and vulgar enough. We have in our police
reports realism pushed to its extreme limits, and yet the
(01:30):
result is it must be confessed neither fascinating nor artistic.
A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing
a realistic effect. Remarked Holmes, this is wanting in the
police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps upon the
platitudes of the magistrate, than upon the details which, to
(01:53):
an observer contained the vital essence of the whole matter
depend upon it. There is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace.
I smiled and shook my head. I can quite understand
your thinking, so I said. Of course, in your position
of unofficial adviser and helper to everybody who is absolutely
(02:15):
puzzled throughout three continents, you are brought in contact with
all that is strange and bizarre. But here I picked
up the morning paper from the ground. Let us put
it to a practical test. Here is the first heading
upon which I come, A husband's cruelty to his wife.
There is half a column of print, but I know
(02:37):
without reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me.
There is, of course the other woman, the drink, the push,
the blow, the bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady, the
crudest of writers could invent nothing more crude. Indeed, your
example is an unfortunate one for your argument, said Holmes,
(03:00):
taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. This
is the Dundas separation case, and as it happens, I
was engaged in clearing up some small points in connection
with it. The husband was a teetotaler. There was no
other woman, and the conduct complained of was that he
had drifted into the habit of winding up every meal
(03:22):
by taking out his false teeth and hurling them at
his wife, which you will allow is not an action
likely to occur to the imagination of the average story teller.
Take a pitch of snuff, doctor, and acknowledge that I
have scored over you in your example. He held out
his snuff box of old gold with a great amethyst
(03:44):
in the center of the lid. Its splendor was in
such contrast to his homely ways and simple life that
I could not help commenting upon it. Ah said he.
I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks.
It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia
in return for my assistance in the case of the
(04:05):
Irene Adler, papers and the ring, I asked, glancing at
a remarkable brilliant which sparkled upon his finger. It was
from the reigning family of Holland. Though the matter in
which I serve them was of such delicacy that I
cannot confide it even to you, who have been good
enough to chronicle one or two of my little problems.
(04:28):
And have you aty on hand just now, I asked,
with interest, some ten or twelve, but none which present
any feature of interest. They are important, you understand, without
being interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually
in unimportant matters that there is a field for the
observation and for the quick analysis of cause and effect,
(04:51):
which gives the charm to an investigation. The larger crimes
are apt to be the simpler, for the bigger the crime,
the more obvious. As a rule is the motive. In
these cases. Save for one rather intricate matter, which has
been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing which
presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, that
(05:15):
I may have something better before very many minutes are over,
for this is one of my clients, or I am
much mistaken. He had risen from his chair, and was
standing between the parted blinds, gazing down into the dull,
neutral tinted London street. Looking over his shoulder, I saw
that on the pavement opposite there stood a large woman
(05:37):
with a heavy fur boa round her neck and a
large curling red feather, and a broad brimmed hat, which
was tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over
her ear. From under this great panoply, she peeped up
in a nervous, hesitating fashion at our windows, while her
body oscillated backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with
(06:01):
their glove buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the
swimmer who leaves the bank, she hurried across the road,
and we heard the sharp clang of the bell. I
have seen those symptoms before, said Holmes, throwing his cigarette
into the fire. Oscillation upon the pavement always means and
(06:22):
a fair cool. She would like advice, but it is
not sure that the matter is not too delicate for communication.
And yet even here we may discriminate. When a woman
has been seriously wronged by a man, she no longer oscillates,
and the usual symptom is a broken bell wire. Here
we may take it that there is a love matter,
(06:44):
but that the maiden is not so much angry as
perplexed or grieved. But here she comes in person to
resolve our doubts. As he spoke, there was a tap
at the door, and the boy in buttons entered to
announce miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself loomed behind
his small black figure, like a full sailed merchantman behind
(07:08):
a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed her with the
easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and having closed
the door and bowed her into an arm chair, he
looked her over in the minute yet abstracted fashion which
was peculiar to him. Do you not find? He said, that,
(07:29):
with your short sight, it is a little trying to
do so much typewriting. I did it first, she answered,
but now I know where the letters are without looking. Then,
suddenly realizing the full purport of his words, she gave
a violent start and looked up with fear and astonishment
(07:50):
upon her broad, good humored face. You've heard about me,
mister Holmes, she cried. Else, how could you know all that?
Never mind, said Holmes, laughing it is my business to
know things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what
others overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?
(08:14):
I came to you, sir, because I heard of you
from Missus Eatherich, whose husband you found so easy when
the police and everyone had given him up for dead. Oh,
mister Holmes, I wish you would do as much for me.
I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a
year in my own right, besides the little that I
(08:34):
make by the machine, and I would give it all
to know what is become of mister Hosmer Angel. Why
did you come away to consult me in such a hurry,
asked Sherlock Holmes, with his finger tips together and his
eyes to the ceiling. Again, A startled look came over
the somewhat vacuous face of miss Mary Sutherland. Yes, I
(08:58):
did bang out of the house, she said, for it
made me angry to see the easy way in which
mister Windbank, that is my father, took it all. He
would not go to the police, and he would not
go to you, And so at last, as he would
do nothing and kept on saying that there was no
harm done, it made me mad, and I just on
(09:22):
with my things and came right away to you. Your father, said, Holmes,
your stepfather, surely, since the name is different, Yes, my stepfather.
I call him father, though it sounds funny too, for
he is only five years and two months older than myself.
(09:42):
And your mother is alive. Oh, yes, mother is alive
and well. I wasn't best pleased mister Holmes when she
married again so soon after father's death, and a man
who is nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father was
a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left
a tidy business behind him, which mother carried on with
(10:05):
mister Hardy, the foreman. But when mister Windibank came, he
made her sell the business, for he was very superior,
being a traveler in wines. They got forty seven hundred
pounds for the good will and interest, which wasn't near
as much as father could have got if he had
been alive. I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient
(10:27):
under this rambling and inconsequential narrative, But on the contrary,
he had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. Your
own little income, he asked, does it come out of
the business. Oh no, sir, it is quite separate and
was left me by my uncle ned in Auckland. It
(10:50):
is in New Zealand, stock paying four and a half percent.
Two thousand, five hundred pounds was the amount. But I
can only touch the interest. You interest me extremely, said Holmes.
And since you draw so large a sum as a
hundred a year with what you earn into the bargain,
you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in
(11:12):
every way. I believe that a single lady can get
on very nicely upon an income of about sixty pounds.
I could do with much less than that, mister Holmes.
But you understand that as long as I live at home,
I don't wish to be a burden to them, and
so they have the use of the money just while
I am staying with them. Of course, that is only
(11:34):
just for the time. Mister Windibank draws my interest every
quarter and pays it over to mother. And I find
that I can do pretty well with what I earn
it typewriting. It brings me topens a sheet, and I
can often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day.
You have made your position very clear to me, said Holmes,
(11:57):
this is my friend doctor Watson, before whom you can
speak as freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now
all about your connection with mister Hosmer. Angel A flush
stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked nervously at
the fringe of her jacket. I met him first at
(12:17):
the gas fitter's ball. She said. They used to send
Father tickets when he was alive, and then afterwards they
remembered us and sent them to mother. Mister Windibank did
not wish us to go. He never did wish us
to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I
wanted so much as to join a Sunday school treat.
(12:39):
But this time I was set on going, and I
would go. For what right had he to prevent? He
said the folk were not fit for us to know
when all father's friends were to be there. And he
said that I had nothing fit to wear when I
had my purple plush, that I had never so much
as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing
(13:00):
else would do, he went off to France upon the
business of the firm. But we went, Mother and I
with mister Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and
it was there I met mister Hosmer Angel. I suppose,
said Holmes that when mister Windebank came back from France,
he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball.
(13:24):
Oh well, he was very good about it. He left,
I remember, and shrugged his shoulders and said there was
no use denying anything to a woman, for she would
have her way. I see, then, at the Gaessfetter's ball,
you met, as I understand, a gentleman called mister Hosmer Angel. Yes, sir,
(13:46):
I met him that night, and he called next day
to ask if we had got home all safe. And
after that we met him, that is to say, mister Holmes,
I met him twice for walks. But after that Father
came back again, and mister Hosmer Angel could not come
to the house any more. No, well, you know Father
(14:07):
didn't like anything of the sort. He wouldn't have any
visitors if he could help it. And he used to
say that a woman should be happy in her own
family circle. But then, as I used to say to mother,
a woman wants her own circle to begin with. And
I had not got mine yet. But how about mister
Hosmer Angel. Did he make no attempt to see you? Well,
(14:31):
Father was going off to France again in a week,
and Hosmer wrote and said that it would be safer
him better not to see each other until he had gone.
We could write in the meantime, and he used to
write every day. I took the letters in the morning,
so there was no need for father to know. Were
you engaged to the gentleman at this time? Oh, yes,
(14:55):
mister Holmes, we were engaged after the first walk that
we took, Hosmer. Mister Angel was a cashier in an
office in Leadenhall Street. And what office? That's the worst
of it, mister Holmes. I don't know where did he live?
Then he slept on the premises, and you don't know
(15:19):
his address, no, except that it was Leadenhall Street. Where
did you address your letters? Then to the leaden Hall
Street post office to be left till called for. He
said that if they were sent to the office he
would be chaffed by all the other clerks about having
letters from a lady. So I offered to typewrite them
(15:41):
like he did his, but he wouldn't have that, for
he said that when I wrote them, they seemed to
come from me, But when they were typewritten, he always
felt that the machine had come between us. That will
just show you how fond he was of me, mister Holmes,
and the little things that he would think of It
was most suggestive, said Holmes. It has long been an
(16:05):
axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the
most important. Can you remember any other little things about
mister hosmer Angel. He was a very shy man, mister Holmes.
He would rather walk with me in the evening than
in the daylight, for he said that he hated to
be conspicuous, very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his
(16:29):
voice was gentle. He'd had the quincy and swollen glands
when he was young, he told me, and it had
left him with a weak throat and a hesitating, whispering
fashion of speech. He was always well dressed, very neat
and plain, but his eyes were weak, just as mine are,
and he wore tinted glasses against the glare. Well, and
(16:53):
what happened when mister Windebeck, your stepfather, returned to France.
Mister hosmer Ate came to the house again and proposed
that we should marry. Before father came back. He was
in dreadful earnest and made me swear with my hands
on the testament that whatever happened, I would always be
true to him. Mother said he was quite right to
(17:16):
make me swear, and that it was a sign of
his passion. Mother was all in his favor from the
first and was even fonder of him than I was. Then,
when they talked of marrying within the week, I began
to ask about father, but they both said never to
mind about Father, but just to tell him afterwards, and
(17:36):
Mother said she would make it all right with him.
I didn't quite like that, mister Holmes. It seemed funny
that I should ask his leave, as he was only
a few years older than me. But I didn't want
to do anything on the sly, so I wrote to
Father at Bordeaux, where the company has its French offices.
But the letter came back to me on the very
(17:57):
morning of the wedding. Missed him then, yes, sir, for
he had started to England just before it arrived. Huh,
that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged then for the Friday.
Was it to be in church, yes, sir, but very
quietly it was to be at Sun Savior's near King's Cross,
(18:21):
and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the Saint
Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but
as there were two of us, he put us both
into it and stepped himself into a four wheeler, which
happened to be the only other cab in the street.
We got to the church first, and when the four
wheeler drove up, we waited for him to step out,
(18:43):
but he never did, and when the cabman got down
from the box and looked, there was no one there.
The cabman said that he could not imagine what had
become of him, for he had seen him get in
with his own eyes. That was last Friday, mister Holmes,
and I I have neither seen nor heard anything since
then to throw any light upon what has become of him.
(19:07):
It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated,
said Holmes. Oh no, sir, he was too good and
kind to leave me. So why all the morning he
was saying to me that whatever happened, I was to
be true, and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred
to separate us, I was always to remember that I
(19:30):
was pledged to him, and that he would claim his
pledge sooner or later. It seemed strange talk for a
wedding morning, But what has happened since gives a meaning
to it? Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is
then that some unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him, Yes, sir,
(19:52):
I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he
would not have talked so. And then I think that
what he foresaw happened, But you have no notion as
to what it could have been. None. One more question,
how did your mother take the matter? She was angry
(20:12):
and said that I was never to speak of the
matter again. And your father did you tell him? Yes?
And he seemed to think with me that something had happened,
and that I should hear of Hosmer again, As he said,
what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the
doors of the church and then leaving me? Now, if
(20:36):
he had borrowed my money, or if he had married
me and got my money settled on him, there might
be some reason. But Hosmer was very independent about money,
and never would look at a shilling of mine. And
yet what could have happened? And why could he not
write Oh, it drives me half mad to think of it,
(20:56):
and I can't sleep a wink at night. She pulled
a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to
sob heavily into it. I shall glance into the case
for you, said Holmes, rising, and I have no doubt
that we shall reach some definite result. Let the weight
of the matter rest upon me now, and do not
(21:17):
let your mind dwell upon it. Further, above all, try
to let mister Hosmer Angel vanish from your memory as
he has done from your life. Then you don't think
I'll see him again? I fear not. Then what has
happened to him? You will leave that question in my hands.
(21:38):
I should like an accurate description of him, and any
letters of his which you can spare. I advertise for
him in last Saturday's chronicle, said she. Here is the slip,
and here are four letters from him. Thank you, and
your address number thirty one Lion Place, Camberwell, mister Angel's
(22:01):
address you never had, I understand. Where is your father's
place of business? He travels for Westhouse and Marbank, the
Great Claret importers of Fenchurch Street. Thank you. You have
made your statement very clearly, you will leave the papers here,
and remember the advice which I have given you. Let
(22:23):
the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not
allow it to affect your life. You are very kind,
mister Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be
true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he
comes back. For all the preposterous had and the vacuous face,
there was something noble in the simple faith of our
(22:45):
visitor which compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle
of papers upon the table and went her way, with
a promise to come again whenever she might be summoned.
Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes, with his
finger tips still pressed together, his legs stretched out in
front of him, and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling.
(23:07):
Then he took down from the rack the old and
oily clay pipe, which was to him as a counselor,
and having lit it, he leaned back in his chair,
with the thick blue cloud wreaths spinning up from him,
and a look of infinite languor in his face. Quite
an interesting study that maiden, he observed. I found her
(23:29):
more interesting than her little problem, which by the way,
is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases
if you consult my index in andover in seventy seven.
And there was something of the sort at the Hague
last year old, as is the idea. However, there were
one or two details which were new to me. But
(23:50):
the maiden herself was most instructive. You appeared to read
a good deal upon her, which was quite invisible to me,
I remarked, not invisible but unnoticed. Watson, you did not
know where to look, and so you missed all that
was important. I can never bring you to realize the
importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of thumbnails, or the great
(24:15):
issues that may hang from a boot lace. Now what
did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe it well?
She had a slate colored, broad brimmed straw hat with
a feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black,
with black beads sewn upon it and a fringe of
(24:35):
little black jet ornaments. Her dress was brown, rather darker
than coffee color, with a little purple plush at the
neck and sleeves. Her gloves were grayish and were worn
through at the right forefinger. Her boots. I didn't observe.
She had small, round, hanging gold earrings, and a general
(24:55):
air of being fairly well to do in a vulgar, comfortable,
easy going way. Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together
and chuckled. Upon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully.
You have really done very well. Indeed, it is true
that you have missed everything of importance, but you have
(25:16):
hit upon the method, and you have a quick eye
for color. Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but
concentrate yourself upon details. My first glance is always at
a woman's sleeve. In a man, it is perhaps better
first to take the knee of the trouser. As you observe.
This woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a
(25:37):
most useful material for showing traces. The double line a
little above the wrist, where the typewriters presses against the
table was beautifully defined. The sewing machine of the hand
type leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm,
and on the side of it farthest from the thumb,
instead of being right across the broadest part. As this
(25:59):
was us. I then glanced at her face and observing
the dint of a pince nez at either side of
her nose, I ventured to remark upon short sight in typewriting,
which seemed to surprise her. It surprised me, but surely
it was obvious. I was then much surprised and interested
(26:21):
on glancing down to observe that, though the boots which
she was wearing were not unlike each other, there were
really odd ones, the one having a slightly decorated toe
cap and the other a plain one. One was buttoned
only in the two lower buttons out of five, and
the other at the first, third and fifth. Now, when
(26:43):
you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly dressed has
come away from home with odd boots half buttoned, it
is no great deduction to say that she came away
in a hurry. And what else? I asked, keenly interested
as I always was, by my friend's incisive reasoning, I
(27:03):
noted in passing that she had written a note before
leaving home. But after being fully dressed, you observed that
her right glove was torn at the forefinger, But you
did not apparently see that both glove and finger were
stained with violet ink. She had written in a hurry
and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been
(27:24):
this morning or the mark would not remain clear upon
the finger. All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but
I must go back to business. Watson, would you mind
reading me the advertised description of mister Hosmer Angel. I
held the little printed slip to the light, missing it said,
(27:45):
on the morning of the fourteenth a gentleman named Hosmer Angel,
about five feet seven inches in height, strongly built, sallow complexion,
black hair, a little bald in the center bush. She
black side, whiskers and mustache, tinted glasses, slight infirmity of speech.
(28:07):
Was dressed when last seen in black frock coat, faced
with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert chain and gray Harris
tweed trousers with brown gaiters over elastic sided boots. Known
to have been employed in an office in Leadenhall Street.
Anybody bringing that will do, said Holmes. As to the letters,
(28:30):
he continued, glancing over them. They are very commonplace. Absolutely
no clue in them to mister Angel, save that he
quotes Balzac wants. There is one remarkable point, however, which
will no doubt strike you. They are typewritten. I remarked.
Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at
(28:54):
the neat little Hosmer Angel at the bottom. There is
a date you see, but no superscript except Lettenhall Street,
which is rather vague. The point about the signature is
very suggestive. In fact, we may call it conclusive of what,
my dear fellow. Is it possible you do not see
(29:16):
how strongly it bears upon the case. I cannot say
that I do unless it were that he wished to
be able to deny his signature if an action for
breach of promise were instituted. No, that was not the point. However,
I shall write two letters which should settle the matter.
One is to affirm in the city. The other is
(29:38):
to the young lady's stepfather, mister Windebank, asking him whether
he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow evening.
It is just as well that we should do business
with the male relatives, and now, doctor, we can do
nothing until the answers to those letters come, so we
may put our little problem upon the shelf for the interim.
(30:00):
I had had so many reasons to believe in my
friend's subtle powers of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action
that I felt that he must have some solid grounds
for the assured and easy demeanor with which he treated
the singular mystery which he had been called upon to fathom. Once.
Only had I known him to fail in the case
(30:20):
of the King of Bohemia and the Irene Adler photograph.
But when I looked back to the weird business of
the Sign of four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with
the study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be
a strange tangle, indeed, which he could not unravel. I
left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe,
(30:42):
with the conviction that when I came again on the
next evening, I would find that he held in his
hands all the clues which would lead up to the
identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary Sutherland. A
professional case of great gravity was engaging my own attention
at the time, and the whole of next day I
was busy at the bedside of the sufferer. It was
(31:05):
not until close upon six o'clock that I found myself
free and was able to spring into a hansom and
drive to Baker Street. Half afraid that I might be
too late to assist. At the denoument of the little mystery,
I found Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long,
thin form curled up in the recesses of his arm chair,
(31:27):
a formidable array of bottles and test tubes with the pungent,
cleanly smell of hydrochloric acid. Told me that he had
spent his day in the chemical work which was so
dear to him. Well, have you solved it, I asked
as I entered. Yes, it was the bisulfate of Barta. No, no,
(31:48):
the mystery, I cried, Oh that I thought of the
salt that I had been working upon. There was never
any mystery in the matter. No, as I said yesterday,
some of the details are of interest. The only drawback
is that there is no law I fear that can
touch the scoundrel. Who was he then? And what was
(32:09):
his object in deserting miss Sutherland? The question was hardly
out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet opened
his lips to reply when we heard a heavy footfall
in the passage and a tap at the door. This
is the girl's stepfather, mister James Windibeck, said Holmes. He
has written to me to say that he would be
(32:30):
here at six come in. The man who entered was
a sturdy, middle sized fellow, some thirty years of age,
clean shaven and sallow skinned, with a bland insinuating manner,
and a pair of wonderfully sharp and penetrating gray eyes.
He shot a questioning glance at each of us, placed
(32:52):
his shiny top hat upon the sideboard, and with a
slight bow, sidled down into the nearest chair. Goodying mister
James Windibeg said Holmes, I think that this typewritten letter
is from you, in which you have made an appointment
with me for six o'clock. Yes, sir, I am afraid
(33:12):
that I am a little late, but I am not
quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that
Miss Sutherland has troubled you about this little matter, for
I think it is far better not to wash linen
of the sort in public. It was quite against my
wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable,
(33:33):
impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is
not easily controlled when she has made up her mind.
On a point of course, I did not mind you
so much as you are not connected with the official police.
But it is not pleasant to have a family misfortune
like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless expense,
(33:55):
for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel. On
the contrary, said Holmes quietly, I have every reason to
believe that I will succeed in discovering mister Hosmer Angel.
Mister Windebank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves.
I am delighted to hear it, he said. It is
(34:19):
a curious thing, remarked Holmes, that a typewriter has really
quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting, unless they
are quite new. No two of them write exactly alike.
Some letters get more worn than others, and somewhere only
on one side. Now you remark in this note of yours,
(34:40):
mister Windebank, that in every case there is some little
slurring over of the E and a slight defect in
the tale of the R. There are fourteen other characteristics,
but those are the more obvious. We do all our
correspondence with this machine at the office, and no doubt
it is a little worn, Our visitor answered, glancing keenly
(35:02):
at Holmes with his bright little eyes. And now I
will show you what is really a very interesting study,
mister Windebank. Holmes continued, I think of writing another little
monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its
relation to crime. It is a subject to which I
have devoted some little attention. I have here four letters
(35:24):
which purport to come from the missing man. They are
all type written. In each case. Not only are the
ease slurred and the r's talus. But you will observe,
if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the
fourteen other characteristics to which I have alluded are there
as well. Mister Windebank sprang out of his chair and
(35:47):
picked up his hat. I cannot waste time over this
sort of fantastic talk, mister Holmes, he said, If you
can catch the man, catch him and let me know
when you have done it. Certainly, said Holmes, stepping over
and turning the key in the door. I let you
know then that I have caught him. What where? Shouted
(36:11):
mister Windebank, turning white to his lips and glancing about
him like a rat in a trap. Oh it won't do, really,
it won't, said Holmes, suavely. There is no possible getting
out of it. Mister Windebank, it is quite too transparent,
and it was a very bad compliment when you said
that it was impossible for me to solve so simple
(36:33):
a question. That's right, Sit down and let us talk
it over. Our visitor collapsed into a chair with a
ghastly face and a glitter of moisture on his brow.
It's it's not actionable, he stammered. I am very much
afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, Windebank, it
(36:56):
was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in
a petty way, as ever came before me. Now let
me just run over the course of events, and you
will contradict me if I go wrong. The man sat
huddled up in his chair with his head sunk upon
his breast, like one who was utterly crushed. Holmes stuck
(37:17):
his feet up on the corner of the mantelpiece, and,
leaning back, with his hands in his pockets, began talking
rather to himself, as it seemed, than to us. The
man married a woman very much older than himself for
her money, said he, and he enjoyed the use of
the money of the daughter as long as she lived
with them. It was a considerable sum for people in
(37:40):
their position, and the loss of it would have made
a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it.
The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate
and warm hearted in her ways, so that it was
evident that, with her fair personal advantages and her little income,
she would not be allowed to remain single long. Now
(38:04):
her marriage would mean, of course, the loss of a
hundred a year. So what does her stepfather do to
prevent it? He takes the obvious course of keeping her
at home and forbidding her to seek the company of
people of her own age. But soon he found that
that would not answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon
(38:25):
her rights, and finally announced her positive intention of going
to a certain ball. What does her clever stepfather do, then,
he conceives an idea more creditable to his head than
to his heart. With the connivance and assistance of his wife,
he disguised himself, covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses,
(38:47):
masked the face with a mustache, and a pair of
bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice into an insinuating whisper,
and doubly secure on account of the girl's short sight.
He appears as mister Hosmer Angel and keeps off other
lovers by making love himself. It was only a joke
(39:08):
at first, groaned our visitor. We never thought that she
would have been so carried away. Very likely not, however,
that may be. The young lady was very decidedly carried away,
and having quite made up her mind that her stepfather
was in France, the suspicion of treachery never for an
(39:29):
instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the gentleman's attentions,
and the effect was increased by the loudly expressed admiration
of her mother. Then mister Angel began to call for
It was obvious that the matter should be pushed as
far as it would go if a real effect were
to be produced. There were meetings and an engagement which
(39:51):
would finally secure the girl's affections from turning towards any
one else. But the deception could not be kept up forever.
These pretended journeys to France were rather cumbrous. The thing
to do was clearly to bring the business to an
end in such a dramatic manner that it would leave
a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and prevent
(40:14):
her from looking upon any other suitor for some time
to come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a testament,
and hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening.
On the very morning of the wedding. James Windybank wished
Miss Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel and
(40:35):
so uncertain as to his fate, that for ten years
to come, at any rate, she would not listen to
another man. As far as the church door he brought her,
and then as he could go no farther he convenedly
vanished away by the old trick of stepping in at
one door of a four wheeler and out at the other.
(40:56):
I think that was the chain of events, mister Windybank,
our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes
had been talking, and he rose from his chair now
with a cold sneer upon his pale face. It may
be so, or it may not, mister Holmes, said he.
But if you are so very sharp, you ought to
(41:18):
be sharp enough to know that it is you who
are breaking the law now and not me. I have
done nothing actionable from the first. But as long as
you keep that door locked, you lay yourself open to
an action for assault and illegal constraint. The law cannot,
as you say, touch you, said Holmes, unlocking and throwing
(41:40):
open the door. Yet there never was a man who
deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother
or a friend, he ought to lay a whip across
your shoulders. By jove, he continued, flushing up at the
sight of the bitter sneer upon the man's face. It
is not part of my duties to my client, But
(42:00):
here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall
just treat myself to He took two swift steps to
the whip, but before he could grasp it, there was
a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs. The heavy
haul door banged, and from the window we could see
mister James Windybank running at the top of his speed
down the road. There's a cold blooded scoundrel, said Holmes,
(42:25):
laughing as he threw himself down into his chair once more.
That fellow will rise from crime to crime until he
does something very bad and ends on a gallows. The
case has in some respects been not entirely devoid of interest.
I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning,
(42:46):
I remarked, well, of course, it was obvious from the
first that this mister hosmer Angel must have some strong
object for his curious conduct, and it was equally clear
that the only man who really profited by the incident,
as far as we could see, was the stepfather. Then,
the fact that the two men were never together, but
(43:07):
that the one always appeared when the other was away,
was suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice,
which both hit it at a disguise, as did the
bushy whiskers. My suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar
action in typewriting his signature, which of course inferred that
(43:27):
his handwriting was so familiar to her that she would
recognize even the smallest sample of it. You see, all
these isolated facts, together with many minor ones, all pointed
in the same direction, And how did you verify them?
Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration.
(43:50):
I knew the firm for which this man worked. Having
taken the printed description, I eliminated everything from it which
could be the result of a disguise, the whiskers, the glasses,
the voice, and I sent it to the firm with
a request that they would inform me whether it answered
to the description of any of their travelers. I had
(44:11):
already noticed the peculiarities of the typewriter, and I wrote
to the man himself at his business address, asking him
if he would come here as I expected. His reply
was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but characteristic defects.
The same post brought me a letter from Westhouse and
Marbank of Fenchurch Street, to say that the description tallied
(44:35):
in every respect with that of their employee, James Wintibeck.
Voila tout and Miss Sutherland, if I tell her, she
will not believe me. You may remember the old Persians
saying there is danger for him who taketh the tiger cub,
and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.
(44:58):
There is as much sense in Hafi as in Horace,
and as much knowledge of the world. End of Adventure
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