Greenfield Evening Republican, Greenfield, Hancock County, 4 February 1895 — Page 4

A STOP? IN SCARLET.

By A. COHAN DOYLE.

PART ONE.

I Being a reprint from the reminiscences of John II. Watson, M. IX, lute of the army medical department.)

CHAPTER I.

In tho year 1878 1 took my degreo of doctor of medicine of tho University of Loudon and proceeded to Net.ley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in tho army. Having completed my studies there. I was duly attached to tho Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as assistant surgeon. The regiment "was -stationed India at tho time, and before I could join it the second Afghan Avar had broken out. On landing at

Bombay, I learned that my corps had advanced through tho passes and was already deep in tho enemy's country. I followed, however, with many other officers who were in the same situation as myself, and succeeded in reaching Kandahar in safety, where I found my regiment and at once entered upon my new duties.

Tho campaign brought honors and promotion to many, but for mo it had nothing but misfortune and disaster. I was removed troni my brigado and attached to the Berkshires, with whom 1 served at tho fatal battle of Mai wand. There I was struck on tho shoulder by a Jezail bullet, which shattered the bono and grazed tho subclavian artery. I should have fallen into tho hands of tho murderous Uhazis had it not been for the devotion and eourago shown by Murray, •'my orderly, who threw me across a packhorse and succeeded in bringing mo safoly to the British lines.'

Worn with pain and weak from tho prolonged hardships which I had undergone, 1 was removed, with a great train •of wounded sufferers, to tho base hospital at Peshawur. Hero I rallied, and had already improved so far as to bo nhle to walk about the wards, and even to bask a little on the veranda, when I was struck down by enteric fever, that curse of our Indian possessions. For months my life was despaired of, and When at last I came to myself and became convalescent I was so weak and emaciated that a medical board determined that not a day should be lost in sending me back to England. I was dispatched accordingly in the troopship Orontes and landed a month later on .Portsmouth jetty, with my health irretrievably ruined, but with permission from a paternal government to spend the next nine months in attempting to improve it.

I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air— or as freo as an income of lis. (id. a day will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of tho entiro empire are irresistibly drained. Thero I staid for some time at a private hotel in the Strand, leading a comfortless, meaningless existence and spending such money as I had considerably moro freely than I ought. So alarming did the state of my finances become that I soon realized that 1 must either leave tho metropolis and rusticate somewhere in the country, or that I must make a complete alteration in my style of living. Choosing the latter alternative, I began by making up my mind to leave the hotel and to take up my quarters in some less pretentious and less expensive domicile.

On tho very day that I had come to this conclusion 1 was standing at the Criterion bar when some one tapped me on tho shoulder, and turning round recognized young Stamford, who had been a dresser under mo at Bart's. The sight of a friendly face in the great wilderness of London is a pleasant thing indeed to a lonely man. In old days Stamford had never been a particular crony of mino, but now 1 hailed him with enthusiasm, and he, in his turn, appeared to be delighted to see me. In the exuberance of my joy I asked him to lunch with me at tho Holborn, and we staited off together in a hansom. "Whatever have you been doing with yourself, Watson?" he asked, in undisguised wonder, as we rattled through the crowded London streets. "You are as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut.

I gave him a short sketch of my adventures and had hardly concluded it by the time that we reached our destination. "Poor devil 1" he said commiseratingly after he had listened to my misfortunes. "What are you up to now?" "Looking for lodgings," 1 answered, "trying to solve tho problem as to whether it is possible to get comfortable rooms at a reasonable price." "That's a strange thing, remarked my companion. "You are the second man today that has used that expression tome." "And who was the first?" I asked. "A fellow who is working at the chemical laboratory up at tho hospital, fie was bemoaning himself this morning because he could not get some ono to go halves with him in some nico rooms which he had found and which Were too much for his purse. "By Jove!" I cried, "if he really wants some one to share tho rooms and the expense, I am the very man for him. should prefor having a partner to being alono."

Young Stamford looked rathei Strangely at mo over his wineglass. "You don't know Sherlock Holmes yet, he said. "Perhaps you would not care for him as a constant companion." "Why, what is there against him?" ft "Oh, I didn't say thero was anything against him. He is a little queer in his ideas—an enthusiast in some branches •f science. As far as I know, ho is a dooent fellow enough." "A medical student, I suppose?" 1 said. "No. I have no idea what he intends to go in for. 1 believe he is well up in Anatomy, and he is a first class chemist,

but, as far as I know, he has never taken out any systematic medical classes. His studies are very desultory and eccentric, but ho has amassed a lot of out of the way knowledge which would astonish his professors." "Did you never ask him what he was going in for?" I asked. "No. He is not. a man that it is easy to draw out, though he can be communicative enough when the fancy seizes him." "I should like to meet him, I said. "If I am to lodge with any one, I should prefer a man of studious and quiet habits. I am not strong enough yet to stand much noise or excitement. I had enough of both in Afghanistan to last mo for the remainder of my natural existence. How could 1 meet this friend of yours?" "He is suro to be at tho laboratory. Ho either avoids the placo for weeks, or else he works there from morning to night. If you like, we shall drive round together after luncheon. "Certainly, I answered, and tho conversation drifted away into other channels.

As wo made our way to tho hospital after leaving tho Holborn, Stamford gave me a few moro particulars about tho gentleman whom I proposed to take as a fellow lodger. "You mustn't blame me if you don't get on with him," ho said. "I know nothing moro of him than I have learned from meeting him occasionally in tho laboratory. You proposed this arrangement, so you must not hold me responsible. "If wo don't get on, it will bo easy to part company," I answered. "It seems to me, Stamford," I added, looking hard at my companion, "that you have some reason for washing your hands of the matter. Is this fellow's temper so formidable, or what is it? Don't be mealy mouthed about it. "It is not easy to express tho inexpressible," ho answered, with a laugh. "Holmes is a littlo too scientific for my tastes. It approaches to cold bloodedness. I could imagine his giving a friend a little pinch of the latest vegetablo alkaloid, not out of malevolence, you understand, but simply out of a spirit of inquiry in order to have an accurate idea of the effects. To do him justice, I think that ho would take it himself with the same readiness. He appears to have a passion for definite and exact knowledge.

Very right too. "Yes, but it may be pushed tocxcess. When it comes to beating the subjects in the dissecting rooms with a stick, it is certainly taking rather a bizarre shape." "Beating tho subjectsI" "Yes, to verify how far bruises may bo produced after death. I saw him at it with my own eyes. "And yet you say ho is not a medical student?" "No. Heaven knows what tho objects of his studies are! But here we are, and you must form your own impressions about him." As ho spoke wo turned down a narrow lane and passed through a small sido door, which opened into a wing of the great hospital. It was familiar ground to me, and I needed no guiding as we ascended tho bleak stone staircase and mado our way down tho long corridor with its vista of whitewashed wall and dun colored doors. Near tho farther end a low arched passago branched away from it and led to the chemical laboratory.

This was a lofty chamber, lined and littered with countless bottles. Broad, low tables w?ero scattered about, which bristled with retorts, test tubes and little Bunsen lamps, with their bluo flickering flames. Thero was only one student in tho room, who was bending over a distant table absorbed in his work. At tho sound of our steps ho glanced round and sprang to his feet with a cry of pleasure. "I've found itl I'vo found it!" ho shouted to my companion, running toward us with a test tube in his hand. "I have found a reagent which is precipitated by hemoglobin, and by nothing else. Had he discovered a gold mino greater delight could not have shone upon his features. "Dr. Watscn—Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said Stamford, introducing us. "How are you?" he said cordially, gripping my hand with a strength for which I should hardly have given him credit. "You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive." "How on earth did you know that?" I asked in astonishment. "Never mind," said he, chuckling to himself. "Tho question now is about hemoglobin. No doubt you see the significance of this discovery of mine?" "It is interesting, chemically, no doubt," 1 answered, "but practically"— "Why, man, it is the most practical medico-legal discovery for years. Don't you see that it gives us an infallible test for blood stains? Come over here now!" He seized me by the coat sleeve in his eagerness and drew me over to the table at which he had been working. "Let us have some fresh blood,'' he said, digging a long bodkin into his finger and drawing off the resulting drop of blood in a chemical pipette. "Now, I add this small quantity of blood to a litor of water. You perceive that the resulting mixture has tho appearance of true water. The proportion of blood cannot be more than one in a million. I have 110 doubt, however, that wo shall be able to obtain the characteristic reaction." As he spoke he throw into the vessel a few white crystals, and then added some drops of a transparent fluid. In an instant the contents assumed a dull mahogany color, and a brownish dust was precipitated to the bottom of the glass jar. "Ha, ha!" ho cried, clapping his hands and looking as delighted as a child with a new toy. "What do you think of that?" "It seems to bo a very dolicato test," I remarked. "Beautiful, beautiful! The old guaiacum test was very clumsy and uncertain. So is the microscopio examination for blood corpuscles. The latter is valueless if the stains area few hours old. Now, this appears to act as well whether

the blood is old or new. Had this test been invented, there are hundreds of men now walking tho earth who would long ago have paid the penalty of their crimes." 'Indeed!" I murmured. 'Criminal cases are continually hinging upon that one point. A man is suspected of a crime months perhaps after it has been committed. His linen or clothes are examined and brownish stains discovered upon them Are they blood stains or mud stains or rust stains or fruit stains, or what are they? That is a question which has puzzled many an expert and why? Because there was no reliable test. Now we have the Sherlock Holmes test, and there will no longer be any difficulty."

His eyes fairly glittered as he spoke, and he put his hand over his heart and bowed as if to some applauding crowd conjured up by his imagination. "You are to bo congratulated," I remarked, considerably surprised at his enthusiasm. "There was the caso of Von Bischoff at Frankfort last year. He would certainly havisbeen hung had this test been in existence. Then there was Mason of Bradford, and tho notorious Muller and Lefevre of Montpellier, and Samson of New Orleans. I could name a scoro of cases in which it would have been decisive." "You seem to bo a walking calendar of crime," said Stamford, with a laugh. "You might start a paper on those lines. Call it The Police News of the Past." "Very interesting reading it might be made, too, remarked Sherlock Holmes, sticking a small piece of plaster over tho prick on his finger. "I have to be careful," he continued, turning to me, with a smile, "for I dabble with poisons a good deal." Ho held out his hand as ho spoke, and I noticed that it was all mottled over with similar pieces of plaster and discolored with strong acids. "Wo camo here on business," said Stamford, sitting down on a three legged stool and pushing another one in my direction with his foot. 'My friend here wants to take diggings, and as you wero complaining that you could get no ono to go halves with you I thought that I had better bring you together."

Sherlock Holmes seemed delighted at the idea of sharing his rooms with me. "I have my eye on a suit in Baker street," he said, "which would suit us down to the ground. You don't mind tho smell of strong tobacco, I hope?" "I always smoke 'ship's' myself," I answered.

That's good enough. I generally liave chemicals about and occasionally do experiments. Would that annoy you?" "By no means." "Let me see—what are my other shortcomings? I get in the dumps at times and don't open my mouth for days on end. You must not think I am sulky when I do that. Just let me alone, and I'll soon bo all right. What havo you to confess, now? It's just as well for two fellows to know tho worst of one another before they begin to live together."

I laughed at this cross examination. "I keep a bull pup," I said, "and object to rows, because my nerves aro shaken, and I get up at all sorts of ungodly hours, and I am extremely lazy. I have another set of vices when I'm well, but those are the principal ones at present." "Do you include violin playing in your category of rows?" he asked anxiously. 'It depends on the player,'' I answered. "A well played violin is a treat for the gods. A badly played one"—

Oh, that's all right," he cried, with a merry laugh. "I think wo may consider the thing as settled—that is, if the rooms are agreeable to you." "When shall we seo them?" "Call for mo here at noon tomorrow, and we'll go together and settlo everything," he answered. "All right—noon exactly," said I, shaking his hand.

We left him working among his chemicals and walked togother toward my hotel. 'By the way,'' I asked suddenly, stopping and turning upon Stamford, "how the deuce did ho know that I had come from Afghanistan?"

My companion smiled an enigmatical smile. "That's just his littlo peculiarity," ho said. "A good many people have wanted to know how ho finds things out." "Oh! A mystery, is it?" I cried, rubbing my hands. "This is very piquant. I am much obliged to you for bringing us together. 'The proper study of mankind is man,' you know." "You must study him, then," Stamford said as he bade mo goodby. "You'll find him a knotty problem, though I'll wager he learns more about you than you about him. Goodby." "Goodby," I answered, and strolled on to my hotel, considerably interested in my new acquaintance.

[TO I?E CONTINUED. I

Coasters Collide With an Electric Car. READING, Pa., Feb. 4.—A sleldoad of coasters collided with an electric car here yesterday. Robert Wilman and Ernest Fisher, boys, had their skulls fractured and will probably die. Francis Fisher was painfully injured.

Two of Our Cruisers Sail.

SAN DIEGO, Cal., Feb. 4.—The cruisers Alert and Ranger sailed at 3 o'clock yesterday for the southern coast, the Alert having been ordered to San Jose de Guatemala, and the Ranger to Buena Yoiifcura, Colombia.

Italy's JiiirtH Still Shaking.

ROME, Feb. 4. Light earthquakes were felt yesterday at Placentia, Port Maurizu, Pavia and Genoa.

Found Dead in lied.

CHICAGO, Feb. 4.—George Brown, wealthy resident of Sarnia, Can., whe Was visiting his daughter in this city, Was found dead in bed this morning, having been asphyxiated by escaping fcas which he had failed to properly turn fcif.

Ho had faced a tnoulsand dangers,' Ho had braved tho stings of fato, And ho and fear wero strangers

Till ho took his girl to skate. ill

And the tale where

Knowledge of Literature—Ni1.

Knowledge of Philosophy—Nil

10. 11. 12.

IN SCARLET" will begin in the

Daily News.

you

Dr, A. Oonan Doyle's First Detective Story

SHERLOCK HOLMES:

Sherlock Holmes—His Limits.

Knowledge of Astronomy—Nil. ,• Knowledge of Politics—Feeble. Knowledge of Botany—Variable Well up in belladouna, opium and poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening. Knowledge of Geology—Practical, but limited. Tells at a glance different

from each other. After walks has shown me splashes on his trousers, and fgjf told rae by their color and consistence in what part of London he had received them. ts•

Knowledge of Chemistry—Profound. Knowledge of Anatomy—Accurate, but unsystematic. Knawledge of Sensational Literature—Immense. He seems to know ever detail of every horror perpetrated in the century. Plays the violin well. Is an expert single stick player, boxer and swordsman. Has a good practical knowledge of British law.

KKPUBLICAN

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Makes his first appear

A LITERARY CURIOSITY alone "A Study in Scarlet" possesses extraordinary interest at this time, when Sherlock Holmes stands as the greatest Detective in all English fiction and one of the greatest favorites ever introduced to novej readers Sherlock Holmes makes his first app( aiince in "A Study of Scar let," and the accomplishments of the great Analyst are thus analyzed in the second chapter:

EVENING REPUBLICAN

Monday, February 4.

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But the fame of "A Study in Scarlet" rests on its own merits as a novel of mystery and its popularity needs no adventitious aids It is one of the most absorbing detective stories ever written. That is why it took, England by storm when the book was first published in that country a few years ago, and that is why it is peculiarly adapted for serial publication in this country now. "A S1UD\

Study in Scarlet

Being the adventures of

Sherlock Holmes &

DETECTIVE

In unraveling a Murder Mystery

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