I tried to sort out in my head the events of the day. How had that poor man been murdered? Why all that blood? How did it all tie in to the manager and Moriarty and the ferret-face? But it was beyond me. I knew I had to wait till the morrow for an answer.
That night I had frightening dreams.
1. Probably the Reuter’s despatch that appeared in all English papers on 7 May 1881, mentioned by Dr Watson in The Empty House.
2. A near identical thumb-nail biography of Prof. Moriarty is provided by Holmes to Dr Watson in The Final Problem and The Valley of Fear.
3. One of Dr Watson’s less celebrated gaffes as a reporter is cleared up here. In The Empty House Watson records Holmes as crediting his defeat of Moriarty to his knowledge of … ‘baritsu or the Japanese system of wrestling …’ In point of fact the word baritsu does not exist in the Japanese language. The actual term used by Holmes and cor-recdy reported by Hurree is bujitsu, the generic Japanese word for the martial arts, which includes the Japanese system of wrestling {jujitsu) in addition to fencing, archery, etc. The Japanese statesman-scholar, Count Makino, also offered a similar explanation to account for Watson’s error, in a paper read at the founding meeting of the Baritsu chapter of the Baker Street Irregulars in Tokyo, on 12 October 1948. (See Foreign Devil: Thirty Years of Reporting in the Far East, Richard Hughes, Andre Deutsch, Great Britain, 1972.)
4. Very similar to a sacrifice throw in Judo called Tomoe-nage.
5. This was his brother Mycroft, as Sherlock Holmes was to later inform Dr Watson when he returned to London (see The Empty House). Holmes had also previously confided to Watson, though in a somewhat roundabout way, that Mycroft was actually the chief of British Intelligence. In The Greek Interpreter Holmes remarks that Mycroft occupied ‘some small office under the British Government’ though he was in truth ‘the most indispensable man in the country.’ In The Bruce Partington Plans Sherlock Holmes further confides to Watson that Mycroft’s unique governmental position was that of a ‘central exchange for incoming data’ and that ‘Again and again his word has decided the national policy.’
4
Flora and Fauna
Despite a somewhat restless night, I made my way early next morning to the hotel. Once again I was subjected to the hostile glare of the Sikh commissionaire, but I managed to avoid the manager and the desk clerk in the hall and quickly made my way up to Sherlock Holmes’s room.
‘Come in, come in,’ a sharp voice cried out, as I knocked on the door of Room 289.
The room was full of dense tobacco smoke, but a single open curtain permitted a little of the early morning sun to shine into the room. He sat with legs crossed like a native rajah, on a kind of Eastern divan that he had constructed on the floor with all the pillows from his bed and cushions from the sofa and armchair. The effect of oriental splendour was heightened by the resplendent rococo purple dressing gown he wore and the opulent hookah that was laid out in front of him — the long satin-covered tube ending with a delicate amber stem that he held pensively between his thin long fingers. His eyes werefixed vacantiy up at the corner of the ceiling. The blue smoke rose languidly from the hookah-bowl, while he remained silent, motionless, a shaft of sunlight shining on his strong aquiline features.
‘Good morning, Mr Holmes. I perceive that you favour the native pipe today.’
‘It has its virtues,’ he replied languidly, ‘especially during such sedentary moments. It is a recent discovery of mine that the balsamic odour of the native tobacco is peculiarly conducive to the maintenance of prolonged periods of meditation.’
He puffed thoughtfully. The smoke bubbled merrily through the rosewater.
‘You have not slept, Sir?’ I enquired solicitously.
‘No. No. I have been turning over our littie problem in my mind — besides a few other things.
That night I had frightening dreams.
1. Probably the Reuter’s despatch that appeared in all English papers on 7 May 1881, mentioned by Dr Watson in The Empty House.
2. A near identical thumb-nail biography of Prof. Moriarty is provided by Holmes to Dr Watson in The Final Problem and The Valley of Fear.
3. One of Dr Watson’s less celebrated gaffes as a reporter is cleared up here. In The Empty House Watson records Holmes as crediting his defeat of Moriarty to his knowledge of … ‘baritsu or the Japanese system of wrestling …’ In point of fact the word baritsu does not exist in the Japanese language. The actual term used by Holmes and cor-recdy reported by Hurree is bujitsu, the generic Japanese word for the martial arts, which includes the Japanese system of wrestling {jujitsu) in addition to fencing, archery, etc. The Japanese statesman-scholar, Count Makino, also offered a similar explanation to account for Watson’s error, in a paper read at the founding meeting of the Baritsu chapter of the Baker Street Irregulars in Tokyo, on 12 October 1948. (See Foreign Devil: Thirty Years of Reporting in the Far East, Richard Hughes, Andre Deutsch, Great Britain, 1972.)
4. Very similar to a sacrifice throw in Judo called Tomoe-nage.
5. This was his brother Mycroft, as Sherlock Holmes was to later inform Dr Watson when he returned to London (see The Empty House). Holmes had also previously confided to Watson, though in a somewhat roundabout way, that Mycroft was actually the chief of British Intelligence. In The Greek Interpreter Holmes remarks that Mycroft occupied ‘some small office under the British Government’ though he was in truth ‘the most indispensable man in the country.’ In The Bruce Partington Plans Sherlock Holmes further confides to Watson that Mycroft’s unique governmental position was that of a ‘central exchange for incoming data’ and that ‘Again and again his word has decided the national policy.’
4
Flora and Fauna
Despite a somewhat restless night, I made my way early next morning to the hotel. Once again I was subjected to the hostile glare of the Sikh commissionaire, but I managed to avoid the manager and the desk clerk in the hall and quickly made my way up to Sherlock Holmes’s room.
‘Come in, come in,’ a sharp voice cried out, as I knocked on the door of Room 289.
The room was full of dense tobacco smoke, but a single open curtain permitted a little of the early morning sun to shine into the room. He sat with legs crossed like a native rajah, on a kind of Eastern divan that he had constructed on the floor with all the pillows from his bed and cushions from the sofa and armchair. The effect of oriental splendour was heightened by the resplendent rococo purple dressing gown he wore and the opulent hookah that was laid out in front of him — the long satin-covered tube ending with a delicate amber stem that he held pensively between his thin long fingers. His eyes werefixed vacantiy up at the corner of the ceiling. The blue smoke rose languidly from the hookah-bowl, while he remained silent, motionless, a shaft of sunlight shining on his strong aquiline features.
‘Good morning, Mr Holmes. I perceive that you favour the native pipe today.’
‘It has its virtues,’ he replied languidly, ‘especially during such sedentary moments. It is a recent discovery of mine that the balsamic odour of the native tobacco is peculiarly conducive to the maintenance of prolonged periods of meditation.’
He puffed thoughtfully. The smoke bubbled merrily through the rosewater.
‘You have not slept, Sir?’ I enquired solicitously.
‘No. No. I have been turning over our littie problem in my mind — besides a few other things.
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