Moving on to dating other Holmes stories:
- REIG - April 1887. The Lyons telegram is the 14th, but the Reigate case starts on the 25th.
- SILV - July 7-12, 1887
REIG has had multiple titles over the years: "Reigate Squire", "Reigate Squires", and "Reigate Puzzle." It depends on what collection or edition you have, what the title will be. This case also relies on the images of the scrap of paper and the handwriting for Holmes to solve the case; it is hard to convey those details in an audiobook or radio adaptation.
This story has one of the more interesting beginnings, because Watson mentions a great international case, concerning the Netherland-Sumatra Company and the colossal schemes of Baron Maupertuis, which Holmes investigated in France. He was apparently there for two months, working 15 hour days, for four days at a stretch.
Yet Watson was not with him, and we are given no explanation for why. It could be that Watson got a medical job and couldn't go to France for that long. (I'm thinking of locum work, filling in for other doctors, rather than a practice of his own.)
Brad Keefauver thinks that Watson was romancing a new wife and that Holmes wanted to get away starting in February. But I don't subscribe to theories about Watson constantly getting married, let alone the idea that they were all fake marriages. It could be that Holmes asked Watson not to come, that he secretly planned to use cocaine to sustain that crazy pace, and he knew that Watson would object to the drug.
Whatever the reason, Holmes solves the case, and someone, maybe the police or the client, sends Watson a telegram on April 14th, a Thursday. So he promptly goes to the hotel in Lyons within 24 hours, but is relieved to find that there's "nothing formidable in his symptoms." It's odd that Watson somehow claims that Holmes is really sick, and yet not that sick.
In any case, "Europe is ringing with his name," and the floor is covered in congratulatory telegrams. This proves that Holmes is internationally famous in the spring of 1887, long before Watson's stories are published. Is Watson also famous, since the client or whoever knows to telegram him as Holmes's doctor and flatmate?
Or did Holmes specifically ask for Watson instead of allowing any local French doctor to attend to him? Holmes does sometimes see doctors other than Watson, such as Dr. Moore Agar in DEVI and Sir Leslie Oakshott in ILLU. Often I picture that Holmes fainted and was unconscious when the telegram was sent; otherwise he would have sent one of his characteristic summons himself, like "come if convenient. If inconvenient, come all the same."
Whatever Holmes's condition, Watson stays with him at the hotel for 3 days before he takes him home to Baker Street. (Does that mean they stayed through Sunday April 17th, or that they stayed through the 18th? It depends on whether "within 24 hours" means that Watson arrived on the 14th.)
Then he delicately negotiates to get Holmes to Colonel Hayter's house in Surrey a week after that. (Colonel Hayter is a former patient from Watson's army service.) Watson certainly sounds like a bachelor, free to come and go with Holmes. The evening that they arrive in Reigate, Colonel Hayter mentions a recent local burglary on Monday, but Watson warns Holmes not to take a case.
However, the next morning there's a murder, and Inspector Forrester comes to consult Holmes, so Watson gives up. William Kirwin, the coachman for the Cunninghams, has been shot dead, and they think it must have been by the burglar from Monday. Going to the crime scene, Holmes specifically asks Watson to stay behind, though he directs his statement to Colonel Hayter, possibly to avoid Watson objecting again.
Holmes's behavior becomes so erratic that others doubt him. After an hour and a half, Inspector Forrester says with a shrug, "Between ourselves, I think Mr. Holmes has not quite got over his illness yet. He’s been behaving very queerly, and he is very much excited."
Watson isn't that concerned, saying there's usually a method to his madness. But I did think, when has Holmes not behaved "queerly" in his life? He's queer in every sense.
So Hayter and Watson join the investigation outside, where Holmes is pacing in the field. They discuss the clue of the ripped note in the victim's hand. It makes an appointment for 12 o'clock, so it's obviously important. The murderer lured William Kirwin out to his death and then grabbed the note from him, not realising that there was a scrap left behind.
Then they meet Alec Cunningham and his elderly father, the justice of the peace. (Like in GLOR, Doyle doesn't think he needs to give a first name for the old JP; I don't know if that means we are to assume that the old patriarch is named Alec Cunningham, senior.) Father and son ask about the progress of the case, and before Forrester can mention the vital clue, Holmes suddenly faints.
Watson is definitely upset, and everyone carries Holmes into the house, where he recovers on a kitchen chair. Old Cunningham offers to give him a ride back to Colonel Hayter's house but Holmes wants to talk about the case some more. He tricks Cunningham into giving him a handwriting sample, then suggests that they search the house, in case the burglar stole anything.
Holmes insists on going upstairs too, saying that he needs to check the view out of the bedroom windows. Alec gets more impatient and insolent as they go along. When they enter his father's bedroom, Holmes deliberately knocks over a bowl of oranges and a carafe of water as a distraction. Watson is confused, but accepts the blame as they stoop to clean up the mess.
Thus Holmes disappears back to Alec's room, but soon enough, Alec and his father go after him angrily. Inspector Forrester worries about Holmes's illness again, until they hear Holmes screaming for help. So they rush back to Alec's room to find Holmes being strangled. Holmes tells the Forrester to arrest them, and he reveals that he found the rest of the incriminating note. It was in the pocket of Alec's dressing gown.
After the arrest, Holmes again asks Watson to wait with Hayter for an hour. I don't know why they patiently obey his commands. In any case, Holmes leaves with the inspector and the Cunninghams to resolve the murder case.
Then he comes back to Hayter's at lunch time, and he brings along Mr. Acton, the victim of the first robbery on Monday. Holmes explains the murder case, with his deductions about the Cunninghams' guilt. He also reveals his various tricks like fainting and messing up the reward document on purpose. Everyone was fooled by Holmes's malingering in this case, so we can hardly blame Watson for being fooled too. Expounding on handwriting analysis, Holmes shows them what the completed note says, but does not explain the reference to Annie Morrisson. Forrester can resolve that loose thread.
Then he cheerfully announces that he's all better now and would like to go home to London tomorrow, even though it hasn't been a whole week yet. I wonder what was Watson's reaction to this. Maybe Watson tried to strangle him after lunch.
Now onto "Silver Blaze" the famous case of the missing horse, and the dog that did nothing in the nighttime. The story begins with Holmes announcing at breakfast that he needs to go to King's Pyland, and Watson is not surprised. The mystery has been dominating recent newspapers, and Watson witnessed Holmes brooding on it for days, so clearly they live together.
An hour or so later, they're on the train to Dartmoor, so I think they did stay long enough to eat breakfast. As they discuss the news accounts of the case, Holmes reveals that he had received telegrams on Tuesday evening, and Watson says today is Thursday. Monday night into Tuesday morning is when the horse went missing, and Holmes says the upcoming race is next Tuesday.
I did previously discuss the problems of dating the story based on the "Wessex Cup/Plate" in Winchester. I ultimately decided to go with the 1887 date over 1888, because I could not get a hold of any Zeisler book to learn his sources. I could, of course, ignore the race by saying that it wasn't in Winchester, but somewhere else, and then I could pick any date. But that just gives me too many options, especially as I have no knowledge of horseracing seasons. Besides, 1887 is before Watson's marriage, so he's still a bachelor free to travel at a moment's notice.
Anyway, the City of Winchester article is dated August 1990, and it refers to the Hampshire Chronicle dated on July 16th, 1887, which was a Saturday looking back at the recent race. So looking back to the Tuesday, the race would be on July 12th, and the mysterious Monday would have been July 4th. As said previously, Holmes and Watson did not go to Dartmoor until Thursday morning July 7th, then they returned home the same day, but they came out to Winchester on Tuesday for the race.
Watson puzzlingly says "four days later," which is off by one day. But maybe the night train Holmes spoke of was an overnight train, and they didn't get home until Friday morning. Also the 1887 article does refer to the "first day" of the race, and an objection about Jockey Club rules, so possibly something happened on Monday, and pushed the race to Tuesday. Was the race always set for Monday, and Watson retroactively changed the reference to Tuesday? I'm not sure.
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