Without My Boswell: Five Early Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (From the Dispatch Box of John H Watson, MD) by Hugh Ashton

Author:Hugh Ashton [Ashton, Hugh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Inknbeans Press
Published: 2014-02-11T00:00:00+00:00

The Singular Affair of the Aluminium Crutch

“I had just closed up my shop, and I was walking towards my home nearby, when almost the same thing happened again. This time, it was three men, rather than two.”

Editor’s NoteS

As always, the dispatch-box continues to intrigue and to mystify. In “ The Musgrave Ritual”, as mentioned earlier in this volume, Sherlock Holmes shows Watson a large tin box containing a number of mysteries, “ a third full of bundles of paper tied up with red tape into separate packages”.

“ These were all done prematurely ; before my biographer came along to glorify me,” he explains to Watson, and proceeds to give a list, well known to those who study the life and work of Sherlock Holmes. Among these, a few have excited interest, partly on account of Holmes’ rather fanciful description of them that he provided to Watson, and one of these is “ the singular affair of the aluminium crutch”.

So, when I came across a bundle of paper in the envelope marked “ Before My Time”, done up with red tape, and entitled “ Alum. Crutch” in the handwriting that I have learned to recognise as that of Sherlock Holmes, you may imagine my excitement. Here was the case that even Watson was not allowed to see, presented for my interest and inspection.

When I opened the papers, though, I discovered that John Watson had been ahead of me. Though the case was undoubtedly and unmistakably the one referred to by Sherlock Holmes, and contained a sheet of the original brief notes in the detective’s writing, it was clear that Watson had conversed with Holmes on this subject, and had expanded the notes, though leaving the story as one told by Holmes. As always, we cannot assume the dialogue as reported by Watson to be a faithful representation of the actual words spoken at the time, or even the words as reported by Holmes.

It must be admitted that the narrative is much diminished by the absence of John Watson. He has faithfully recorded some of Holmes’ introspections, as presumably recounted to him, but the voice of common-sense seems to be missing, as is the more human touch he brings to the adventures of his famous friend.

The case, such as it is, does not provide Holmes with much opportunity to display his powers of deduction or observation, but as he himself remarks, these were not necessarily as developed as they were later in his career. It remains, nonetheless, as an interesting addition to the chronicles of Sherlock Holmes.

-o-

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