Chronology part 13

Chronology of these short stories

• WIST - mid June 1894 to be near a different quarter-day.
• NORW - August 1894. Watson mentions having sold his Kensington practice to move back to Baker Street.
• GOLD - November 1894

WIST has an impossible date. Watson claims that the case happened at the end of March 1892, but Watson thought Holmes was dead from May 1891 to April 1894. He must have changed the date out of discretion, but not realised his mistake; he didn't proofread, and as always, he never corrects mistakes once they're published. We have to at least find a new year for the case, and there's a hint in NORW that the case takes place in 1894. NORW mentions "the case of the papers of ex-President Murillo," and WIST features Juan Murillo as a villainous dictator from a Central American country. "Don" is his title, not his name. Actually there are no presidential papers mentioned in the case, but the reference is similar to how Holmes sometimes refers to SCAN by talking about papers, instead of the photograph that the King of Bohemia wished to retreive. NORW was actually published in October 1903, and WIST wasn't published until August 1908. So it's a case of Doyle having an idea for a story, but changing the details when he actually writes the story later. In that way, it's similar to the 3 versions of SECO.

So we might think that the case takes place in March 1894, except again, Holmes was fake dead until April 1894 according to EMPT. That's why D. Martin Dakin pushed EMPT to February 1894 so that WIST could take place in March 1894, right after it. Other chronologists keep March but choose a different post-Return year, while ignoring NORW's mention of WIST. Why try to preserve March instead of thinking that the month was a mistake? (Watson has notorious month problems in SIGN and REDH, for example.) Sherlockians want to keep March in this story because of the client's comment, "It is late in March, so quarter-day is at hand." In England, rent was traditionally due on the quarter days: March 25th, June 24th, September 29th, and December 25th. These quarter days are based on Christian festivals, such as Christmas. They're also close to the equinoxes and the solstices.

Why is that relevant in WIST? Well, the client John Scott Eccles visits his new friend Aloysius Garcia at Wisteria Lodge, and the next morning he wakes up to find the house empty; his host and all the servants disappeared overnight. Outraged, Eccles thinks that it's a rude prank on him at first; later he thinks it might be an attempt by Garcia to skip out on rent with the landlord. So he goes to see the house agents, but he's wrong, because the rent has been paid in advance. Thus, by the afternoon, Eccles decides to consult Holmes to explain the mystery. I have chosen to move the case near the June quarter-day instead, so I can avoid the conflict with EMPT. Moving WIST to June also makes it closer to NORW, which takes place in August. There are other references to the March weather but I dismiss those references as Watson trying to disguise the date. Holmes also pretends to be interested in digging up plants in the area, but that is just a pretense while he furtively investigates the case.

Anyway, it's a "bleak and windy day," when Holmes and Watson receive a telegram during lunch at about 1 PM. Holmes is eager for a case, no matter how trivial. At 2:15 PM, Eccles arrives and starts to tell them his "grotesque" experience at Wisteria Lodge. But the police interrupt them, having traced Eccles from his telegram to Holmes. Inspector Gregson arrives with Inspector Baynes from Surrey; they want to question Eccles about the murder of Garcia. Eccles is shocked and protests his innocence. The police believe him, but at least want to hear his version of last night. Eccles tells them all about Garcia's weird behaviour during dinner, and how Garcia woke him up at 1 AM before he fell asleep again. However, this contradicts the evidence from Garcia's body; the police say that he died at 1 AM, about a mile away from Wisteria Lodge. His body was found with the head smashed in.

Eccles is confused about the impossible crime, and Gregson tells him to come to Scotland Yard to give a formal written statement. Inspector Baynes leaves with them but invites Holmes to come investigate the murder in Surrey. We never see Gregson or Eccles again in the story. It's like part 1 of the case is unimportant now that we have Garcia's murder, and Eccles is not seriously suspected.

Holmes sends a telegram and then discusses the case alone with Watson. He says that there's "something unnatural about this strange and sudden friendship" between young diplomat Garcia and old fuddy-duddy Eccles. He theorizes that Garcia pursued Eccles because he is a thoroughly respectable gentleman; Garcia wanted Eccles to be an unimpeachable witness for him. He lied when he woke up Eccles last night; it was not actually 1 AM but probably midnight instead. Garcia intended to be out committing a crime at 1 AM and was going to use Eccles to create a false alibi for the police. (Incidentally, some Sherlockians read sexual innuendo in Garcia's "queer household" and his pursuit of Eccles; there was a controversial theory that they were gay. I wrote about that and other things back when I was on the Hounds of the Internet mailing list.) Anyway, Holmes explains that all the Wisteria Lodge servants disappeared when Garcia didn't return last night; they worried that they were in danger too. Holmes and Watson also discuss the cryptic note that Baynes found at the house, giving colours and directions to somewhere. Holmes receives the answer to his telegram and explains to Watson that the cryptic note gave directions to Garcia about which room to go to inside a large house. So Holmes inquired with the house agents to find out who has big country estates in the area.

So onto part 2 of WIST, called "The Tiger of San Pedro." At about 6 PM, Holmes and Watson accompany Inspector Baynes to Surrey so they can investigate the murder of Aloysius Garcia. They check into the local Bull Inn, then Baynes takes them to Wisteria Lodge. The constable on duty at the house says he saw a huge monster lurking at the windows. (It's a racist description of Garcia's biracial cook; no name is given for him.) There's also spooky voodoo stuff in the kitchen. Holmes admires Baynes's thorough detective work, and they agree to investigate the case separately. Baynes doesn't want Holmes's help because he wants to prove that he can solve it on his own.

Holmes and Watson go back to the Bull Inn, and apparently they stay in town for about 5 days. Watson is disappointed that Holmes won't explain his investigation. He just goes about the neighbourhood digging up plants and listening to gossip in the area. When Baynes arrests the mulatto cook, Holmes tries to warn the inspector that he's on the wrong track, but Baynes says to let him work independently as they agreed. Holmes decides he needs to burgle the house of Mr. Henderson, and he finally explains to Watson that his digging was an excuse to watch the Henderson house. He suspects that the British governess Miss Burnet is the one who wrote Garcia the cryptic note, and she has disappeared lately. Holmes found this out from gossip from Henderson's ex-gardener John Warner.

Before Holmes and Watson can rescue the governess, the villains flee on a train and Warner rescues her instead. He takes her to Holmes and Watson at the inn. Watson treats her while Holmes summons Baynes, who isn't an idiot after all. Henderson is really the ex-dictator Murillo from San Pedro, and his secretary Lucas is really his henchman. Baynes arrested the cook to make Henderson & co think it was safe to leave Surrey. As she recovers from being drugged, Miss Burnet fills in details about how Murillo's many victims conspired to find and assassinate him; she became governess to his kids so she could spy on him and give instructions to Garcia. Holmes is impressed that Baynes was smart and competent after all. They hope that the police will capture Murillo, but instead the villains escape England. At least they get killed six months later in Madrid, but we don't hear what happened to the kids. So another story about exotic foreigners who get delayed justice, like GREE. The cook and the voodoo stuff were just red herrings, like the gypsies in SPEC.

Onto NORW, which is set in 1894, "some months" after Holmes returned in EMPT. Holmes misses Professor Moriarty and complains that crime is uninteresting without him. Watson protests, so Holmes admits that he must not be selfish; it's good for society that Moriarty is dead. To the reader, Watson states that they've had plenty of cases lately, including WIST and an unrecorded case on "the Dutch steamship Friesland" which endangered their lives. But Watson doesn't explain how all these clients know that Holmes is alive; he didn't publish EMPT until 1903, so where are these 1894 cases coming from? Perhaps word leaked from all the Scotland Yard men who captured Moran in EMPT. Or perhaps when Holmes returned to Baker Street, there were news reports that he was seen alive in London. And then word of mouth spread.

Anyway, Watson explains that he's not living at Kensington anymore: "I at his request had sold my practice and returned to share the old quarters in Baker Street." A young Dr Verner bought it for a high price, but Watson didn't know until "some years later" that Verner was merely a front for Holmes to buy Watson out. NORW was published in 1903, so sometime between 1894 and 1903, Watson found out that Verner was related to Holmes. Does this gesture seem grand and romantic, or stalkerish and manipulative? It depends on how I view Victorian homosexual repression at the moment. But it certainly seems to be proof that Holmes/Watson is not a one-sided relationship. Holmes actively seeks Watson's company. Some parodies portray Watson as a hopelessly devoted lap dog that irritates Holmes, but here we see that Holmes is devoted to Watson too. This is more than ordinary friendship.

Meanwhile, they are still at breakfast when new client John Hector McFarlane bursts into the room and expects them to know his name already from the morning newspapers. Holmes is delighted by the possibility of his arrest for murder, and Watson reads out the news account. McFarlane starts to tell his story too, and then Lestrade arrives, so it's like WIST, except that Lestrade does want to arrest the young man. Holmes persuades Lestrade to let them hear the full story before the arrest. McFarlane tells of Jonas Oldacre, a former acquaintance of his parents, who suddenly wanted a will made, leaving everything to McFarlane himself. Last night, the young lawyer visited Oldacre's house in Norwood and stayed late. He spent the night at an inn, then saw the murder headlines the next morning and rushed to see Holmes. Constables take McFarlane away while Lestrade and Holmes argue over the case.

Holmes initially investigates without Watson, but without success. McFarlane's mother tells him that Oldacre was her ex-fiancé who was vengeful when she married someone else. While at the Norwood house, Holmes mentions a drought and the "August sun" on his back. He searches the safe and speaks to the housekeeper, but fails to exonerate his client. Back at Baker Street, he's depressed and sleepless, but the next day, Lestrade telegrams them about a fresh clue. Holmes has learned his lesson, and he brings Watson with him this time to Norwood. There Holmes sees the bloody thumbprint, and he knows it's wrong and fabricated. Holmes does a false fire trick reminiscent of SCAN and so discovers Oldacre alive. He framed McFarlane and intended to start a new life under the name Cornelius. Holmes lets Lestrade take the credit, so I wonder again how people heard that Holmes was alive and working at 221B.

Finally, GOLD was published in July 1904, and Watson tells us that 1894 was a very busy year. Holmes even received the Legion of Honour from France. If that award is publicly announced like knighthoods are, that may explain why people know Holmes is alive and returned to London.

On a windy and rainy night "towards the close of November," Inspector Hopkins arrives at midnight. Holmes asks Watson to let him in, as presumably Mrs. Hudson and the servants have gone to bed. In the sitting-room, Hopkins tell them of the mysterious death of Willoughby Smith at Yoxley Old Place in Kent; the murder took place around noon, and Hopkins has only just returned on the late train. Young Smith served as a secretary to Professor Coram, an invalid who never leaves home. Hopkins describes the house and even provides a diagram. Hearing a scream, the maid Susan Tarlton found Smith in the study and heard his dying words, "The professor--it was she."

After examining the pince-nez that was found in Smith's grasp, Holmes composes an advertisement for the newspapers, but they can't put it in until tomorrow. (In fact, they won't need it after all.) Holmes and Watson let Hopkins spend the night on the couch, and the next day, they all take a 6 AM train to Yoxley Old Place. Holmes solves the case by smoking a ton of cigarettes and, at 2 PM, checking to see that the ash was disturbed during lunch. The murderer is Coram's estranged wife Anna who has been hiding in a secret room behind the bookcase. She confesses a sad tale of betrayal and wrongful imprisonment in Russia, and says she was just trying to steal documents from the bureau when Smith interrupted her. She panicked and accidentally killed him. As she was running away without her glasses, she stumbled into Coram's bedroom, and he agreed to shield her. Anna begs them to help free Alexis from Siberia, then dies from poison that she already took. Holmes explains his deductions to Watson on the way home, and they go to the Russian Embassy to deliver the exonerating papers for Alexis.