Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel- piece and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle, and rolled back his left shirt-cuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy1 forearm and wrist all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. Finally he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston2, and sank back into the velvet-lined arm-chair with a long sigh of satisfaction.
Three times a day for many months I had witnessed this performance, but custom had not reconciled my mind to it. On the contrary, from day to day I had become more irritable3 at the sight, and my conscience swelled4 nightly within me at the thought that I had lacked the courage to protest. Again and again I had registered a vow5 that I should deliver my soul upon the subject, but there was that in the cool, nonchalant air of my companion which made him the last man with whom one would care to take anything approaching to a liberty. His great powers, his masterly manner, and the experience which I had had of his many extraordinary qualities, all made me diffident and backward in crossing him.
Yet upon that afternoon, whether it was the Beaune which I had taken with my lunch, or the additional exasperation6 produced by the extreme deliberation of his manner, I suddenly felt that I could hold out no longer.
"Which is it to-day?" I asked,--"morphine or cocaine7?"
He raised his eyes languidly from the old black-letter volume which he had opened. "It is cocaine," he said,--"a seven-per- cent. solution. Would you care to try it?"
"No, indeed," I answered, brusquely. "My constitution has not got over the Afghan campaign yet. I cannot afford to throw any extra strain upon it."
He smiled at my vehemence8. "Perhaps you are right, Watson," he said. "I suppose that its influence is physically9 a bad one. I find it, however, so transcendently stimulating10 and clarifying to the mind that its secondary action is a matter of small moment."
"But consider!" I said, earnestly. "Count the cost! Your brain may, as you say, be roused and excited, but it is a pathological and morbid11 process, which involves increased tissue-change and may at last leave a permanent weakness. You know, too, what a black reaction comes upon you. Surely the game is hardly worth the candle. Why should you, for a mere12 passing pleasure, risk the loss of those great powers with which you have been endowed? Remember that I speak not only as one comrade to another, but as a medical man to one for whose constitution he is to some extent answerable."
He did not seem offended. On the contrary, he put his finger- tips together and leaned his elbows on the arms of his chair, like one who has a relish13 for conversation.
"My mind," he said, "rebels at stagnation14. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse15 cryptogram16 or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense17 then with artificial stimulants18. But I abhor19 the dull routine of existence. I crave20 for mental exaltation. That is why I have chosen my own particular profession,--or rather created it, for I am the only one in the world."
"The only unofficial detective?" I said, raising my eyebrows21.
"The only unofficial consulting detective," he answered. "I am the last and highest court of appeal in detection. When Gregson or Lestrade or Athelney Jones are out of their depths--which, by the way, is their normal state--the matter is laid before me. I examine the data, as an expert, and pronounce a specialist's opinion. I claim no credit in such cases. My name figures in no newspaper. The work itself, the pleasure of finding a field for my peculiar22 powers, is my highest reward. But you have yourself had some experience of my methods of work in the Jefferson Hope case."
"Yes, indeed," said I, cordially. "I was never so struck by anything in my life. I even embodied23 it in a small brochure with the somewhat fantastic title of 'A Study in Scarlet24.'"
He shook his head sadly. "I glanced over it," said he. "Honestly, I cannot congratulate you upon it. Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science, and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner. You have attempted to tinge25 it with romanticism, which produces much the same effect as if you worked a love-story or an elopement into the fifth proposition of Euclid."
"But the romance was there," I remonstrated26. "I could not tamper27 with the facts."
"Some facts should be suppressed, or at least a just sense of proportion should be observed in treating them. The only point in the case which deserved mention was the curious analytical28 reasoning from effects to causes by which I succeeded in unraveling it."
I was annoyed at this criticism of a work which had been specially29 designed to please him. I confess, too, that I was irritated by the egotism which seemed to demand that every line of my pamphlet should be devoted30 to his own special doings. More than once during the years that I had lived with him in Baker31 Street I had observed that a small vanity underlay32 my companion's quiet and didactic manner. I made no remark, however, but sat nursing my wounded leg. I had a Jezail bullet through it some time before, and, though it did not prevent me from walking, it ached wearily at every change of the weather.
"My practice has extended recently to the Continent," said Holmes, after a while, filling up his old brier-root pipe. "I was consulted last week by Francois Le Villard, who, as you probably know, has come rather to the front lately in the French detective service. He has all the Celtic power of quick intuition, but he is deficient33 in the wide range of exact knowledge which is essential to the higher developments of his art. The case was concerned with a will, and possessed34 some features of interest. I was able to refer him to two parallel cases, the one at Riga in 1857, and the other at St. Louis in 1871, which have suggested to him the true solution. Here is the letter which I had this morning acknowledging my assistance." He tossed over, as he spoke36, a crumpled37 sheet of foreign notepaper. I glanced my eyes down it, catching38 a profusion39 of notes of admiration40, with stray "magnifiques," "coup-de-maitres," and "tours-de-force," all testifying to the ardent41 admiration of the Frenchman.
"He speaks as a pupil to his master," said I.
"Oh, he rates my assistance too highly," said Sherlock Holmes, lightly. "He has considerable gifts himself. He possesses two out of the three qualities necessary for the ideal detective. He has the power of observation and that of deduction42. He is only wanting in knowledge; and that may come in time. He is now translating my small works into French."
"Your works?"
"Oh, didn't you know?" he cried, laughing. "Yes, I have been guilty of several monographs43. They are all upon technical subjects. Here, for example, is one 'Upon the Distinction between the Ashes of the Various Tobaccoes.' In it I enumerate45 a hundred and forty forms of cigar-, cigarette-, and pipe-tobacco, with colored plates illustrating46 the difference in the ash. It is a point which is continually turning up in criminal trials, and which is sometimes of supreme47 importance as a clue. If you can say definitely, for example, that some murder has been done by a man who was smoking an Indian lunkah, it obviously narrows your field of search. To the trained eye there is as much difference between the black ash of a Trichinopoly and the white fluff of bird's-eye as there is between a cabbage and a potato."
"You have an extraordinary genius for minutiae," I remarked.
"I appreciate their importance. Here is my monograph44 upon the tracing of footsteps, with some remarks upon the uses of plaster of Paris as a preserver of impresses. Here, too, is a curious little work upon the influence of a trade upon the form of the hand, with lithotypes of the hands of slaters, sailors, corkcutters, compositors, weavers48, and diamond-polishers. That is a matter of great practical interest to the scientific detective,--especially in cases of unclaimed bodies, or in discovering the antecedents of criminals. But I weary you with my hobby."
"Not at all," I answered, earnestly. "It is of the greatest interest to me, especially since I have had the opportunity of observing your practical application of it. But you spoke just now of observation and deduction. Surely the one to some extent implies the other."
"Why, hardly," he answered, leaning back luxuriously49 in his arm- chair, and sending up thick blue wreaths from his pipe. "For example, observation shows me that you have been to the Wigmore Street Post-Office this morning, but deduction lets me know that when there you dispatched a telegram."
"Right!" said I. "Right on both points! But I confess that I don't see how you arrived at it. It was a sudden impulse upon my part, and I have mentioned it to no one."
"It is simplicity50 itself," he remarked, chuckling51 at my surprise,--"so absurdly simple that an explanation is superfluous52; and yet it may serve to define the limits of observation and of deduction. Observation tells me that you have a little reddish mould adhering to your instep. Just opposite the Seymour Street Office they have taken up the pavement and thrown up some earth which lies in such a way that it is difficult to avoid treading in it in entering. The earth is of this peculiar reddish tint53 which is found, as far as I know, nowhere else in the neighborhood. So much is observation. The rest is deduction."
"How, then, did you deduce the telegram?"
"Why, of course I knew that you had not written a letter, since I sat opposite to you all morning. I see also in your open desk there that you have a sheet of stamps and a thick bundle of post- cards. What could you go into the post-office for, then, but to send a wire? Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains54 must be the truth."
"In this case it certainly is so," I replied, after a little thought. "The thing, however, is, as you say, of the simplest. Would you think me impertinent if I were to put your theories to a more severe test?"
"On the contrary," he answered, "it would prevent me from taking a second dose of cocaine. I should be delighted to look into any problem which you might submit to me."
"I have heard you say that it is difficult for a man to have any object in daily use without leaving the impress of his individuality upon it in such a way that a trained observer might read it. Now, I have here a watch which has recently come into my possession. Would you have the kindness to let me have an opinion upon the character or habits of the late owner?"
I handed him over the watch with some slight feeling of amusement in my heart, for the test was, as I thought, an impossible one, and I intended it as a lesson against the somewhat dogmatic tone which he occasionally assumed. He balanced the watch in his hand, gazed hard at the dial, opened the back, and examined the works, first with his naked eyes and then with a powerful convex lens. I could hardly keep from smiling at his crestfallen55 face when he finally snapped the case to and handed it back.
"There are hardly any data," he remarked. "The watch has been recently cleaned, which robs me of my most suggestive facts."
"You are right," I answered. "It was cleaned before being sent to me." In my heart I accused my companion of putting forward a most lame56 and impotent excuse to cover his failure. What data could he expect from an uncleaned watch?
"Though unsatisfactory, my research has not been entirely57 barren," he observed, staring up at the ceiling with dreamy, lack-lustre eyes. "Subject to your correction, I should judge that the watch belonged to your elder brother, who inherited it from your father."
"That you gather, no doubt, from the H. W. upon the back?"
"Quite so. The W. suggests your own name. The date of the watch is nearly fifty years back, and the initials are as old as the watch: so it was made for the last generation. Jewelry58 usually descends59 to the eldest60 son, and he is most likely to have the same name as the father. Your father has, if I remember right, been dead many years. It has, therefore, been in the hands of your eldest brother."
"Right, so far," said I. "Anything else?"
"He was a man of untidy habits,--very untidy and careless. He was left with good prospects61, but he threw away his chances, lived for some time in poverty with occasional short intervals62 of prosperity, and finally, taking to drink, he died. That is all I can gather."
I sprang from my chair and limped impatiently about the room with considerable bitterness in my heart.
"This is unworthy of you, Holmes," I said. "I could not have believed that you would have descended63 to this. You have made inquires into the history of my unhappy brother, and you now pretend to deduce this knowledge in some fanciful way. You cannot expect me to believe that you have read all this from his old watch! It is unkind, and, to speak plainly, has a touch of charlatanism64 in it."
"My dear doctor," said he, kindly65, "pray accept my apologies. Viewing the matter as an abstract problem, I had forgotten how personal and painful a thing it might be to you. I assure you, however, that I never even knew that you had a brother until you handed me the watch."
"Then how in the name of all that is wonderful did you get these facts? They are absolutely correct in every particular."
"Ah, that is good luck. I could only say what was the balance of probability. I did not at all expect to be so accurate."
"But it was not mere guess-work?"
"No, no: I never guess. It is a shocking habit,--destructive to the logical faculty66. What seems strange to you is only so because you do not follow my train of thought or observe the small facts upon which large inferences may depend. For example, I began by stating that your brother was careless. When you observe the lower part of that watch-case you notice that it is not only dinted in two places, but it is cut and marked all over from the habit of keeping other hard objects, such as coins or keys, in the same pocket. Surely it is no great feat35 to assume that a man who treats a fifty-guinea watch so cavalierly must be a careless man. Neither is it a very far-fetched inference that a man who inherits one article of such value is pretty well provided for in other respects."
I nodded, to show that I followed his reasoning.
"It is very customary for pawnbrokers67 in England, when they take a watch, to scratch the number of the ticket with a pin-point upon the inside of the case. It is more handy than a label, as there is no risk of the number being lost or transposed. There are no less than four such numbers visible to my lens on the inside of this case. Inference,--that your brother was often at low water. Secondary inference,--that he had occasional bursts of prosperity, or he could not have redeemed68 the pledge. Finally, I ask you to look at the inner plate, which contains the key-hole. Look at the thousands of scratches all round the hole,--marks where the key has slipped. What sober man's key could have scored those grooves69? But you will never see a drunkard's watch without them. He winds it at night, and he leaves these traces of his unsteady hand. Where is the mystery in all this?"
"It is as clear as daylight," I answered. "I regret the injustice70 which I did you. I should have had more faith in your marvellous faculty. May I ask whether you have any professional inquiry71 on foot at present?"
"None. Hence the cocaine. I cannot live without brain-work. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window here. Was ever such a dreary72, dismal73, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls74 down the street and drifts across the dun- colored houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic75 and material? What is the use of having powers, doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them? Crime is commonplace, existence is commonplace, and no qualities save those which are commonplace have any function upon earth."
I had opened my mouth to reply to this tirade76, when with a crisp knock our landlady77 entered, bearing a card upon the brass78 salver.
"A young lady for you, sir," she said, addressing my companion.
"Miss Mary Morstan," he read. "Hum! I have no recollection of the name. Ask the young lady to step up, Mrs. Hudson. Don't go, doctor. I should prefer that you remain."
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sinewy
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| adj.多腱的，强壮有力的 | |
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piston
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| n.活塞 | |
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irritable
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| adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的 | |
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swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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vow
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| n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓 | |
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exasperation
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| n.愤慨 | |
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cocaine
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| n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂） | |
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vehemence
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| n.热切；激烈；愤怒 | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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stimulating
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| adj.有启发性的，能激发人思考的 | |
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morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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stagnation
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| n. 停滞 | |
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abstruse
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| adj.深奥的，难解的 | |
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cryptogram
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| n.密码 | |
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dispense
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| vt.分配，分发；配(药)，发(药)；实施 | |
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stimulants
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| n.兴奋剂( stimulant的名词复数 )；含兴奋剂的饮料；刺激物；激励物 | |
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abhor
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| v.憎恶；痛恨 | |
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crave
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| vt.渴望得到，迫切需要，恳求，请求 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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embodied
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| v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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tinge
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| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
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remonstrated
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| v.抗议( remonstrate的过去式和过去分词 )；告诫 | |
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tamper
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| v.干预，玩弄，贿赂，窜改，削弱，损害 | |
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analytical
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| adj.分析的；用分析法的 | |
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specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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baker
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| n.面包师 | |
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underlay
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| v.位于或存在于（某物）之下( underlie的过去式 )；构成…的基础（或起因），引起n.衬垫物 | |
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deficient
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| adj.不足的，不充份的，有缺陷的 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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crumpled
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| adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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profusion
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| n.挥霍；丰富 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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deduction
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| n.减除，扣除，减除额；推论，推理，演绎 | |
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monographs
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| n.专著，专论( monograph的名词复数 ) | |
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monograph
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| n.专题文章，专题著作 | |
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enumerate
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| v.列举，计算，枚举，数 | |
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illustrating
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| 给…加插图( illustrate的现在分词 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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weavers
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| 织工，编织者( weaver的名词复数 ) | |
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luxuriously
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| adv.奢侈地，豪华地 | |
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simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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chuckling
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 ) | |
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superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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53
tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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crestfallen
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| adj. 挫败的，失望的，沮丧的 | |
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lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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jewelry
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| n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝 | |
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descends
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| v.下来( descend的第三人称单数 )；下去；下降；下斜 | |
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eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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charlatanism
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| n.庸医术，庸医的行为 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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pawnbrokers
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| n.当铺老板( pawnbroker的名词复数 ) | |
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68
redeemed
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| adj. 可赎回的，可救赎的 动词redeem的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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69
grooves
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| n.沟( groove的名词复数 )；槽；老一套；（某种）音乐节奏v.沟( groove的第三人称单数 )；槽；老一套；（某种）音乐节奏 | |
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70
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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71
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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72
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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73
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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74
swirls
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| n.旋转( swirl的名词复数 )；卷状物；漩涡；尘旋v.旋转，打旋( swirl的第三人称单数 ) | |
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75
prosaic
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| adj.单调的，无趣的 | |
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76
tirade
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| n.冗长的攻击性演说 | |
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77
landlady
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| n.女房东，女地主 | |
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78
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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