Chronology part 15

Chronology of these short stories.

• VEIL - late in 1896
• THOR - Oct 4-5, 1896
• SUSS - Nov 19-21, 1896

VEIL was first published in January 1927, and, like in SPEC and FIVE, Watson spends the introduction calculating the years of Holmes's career. He says that Holmes was "in active practice for twenty-three years" while Watson was only involved in seventeen of those years. Which years does he mean? Certainly not May 1891 to April 1894, when Holmes faked his death. Holmes's first case was GLOR while he was still in university, but it's not much of a case. I think Watson only counts when Holmes moved to Montague Street and started working as a detective for money. Sherlockians typically work backward since Watson didn't give a definite date for Holmes in Montague Street. We know Holmes returned in 1894, and looking ahead to CREE, we know he retired in 1903. CREE is set in September 1903, "one of the very last cases handled by Holmes before his retirement from practice." 1903 minus 1894 is 9 years, so we just need 14 more years. 1891 minus 14 is 1877, a good date halfway between GLOR and MUSG.

Now what about Watson working with him for only 17 years? Watson certainly missed the beginning of Holmes's career before STUD, and he didn't start accompanying Holmes until March 4th with the Brixton mystery. 1891 minus 1881 is 10 years, but as I said in SPEC, Watson also missed months of 1887 and 1891 when Holmes was working abroad without him. He also missed some cases just after his marriage, before he dropped in on Holmes in SCAN; whatever year you date SIGN and Watson's marriage, you need to subtract 3 months or so for the wedding, honeymoon, and establishing the Paddington practice. Plus, I think Watson also had to establish a 2nd medical practice when he moved to Kensington in 1890; he certainly tells us in FINA that he only recorded 3 of Holmes's cases in 1890. So assuming all those gaps of a few months or so add up to 1 year of absence, we can reduce the pre-FINA years to 9 years instead of 10. Then post-Return, Watson is there from April 1894 until somewhere around 1902, which is 8 years. Watson does not specify exactly when he gets married again, but he moved out to Queen Anne Street by September 1902, per ILLU, and Holmes mentions the marriage in BLAN, saying Watson has deserted him for a wife by January 1903. My dates are still adding up to 18 years, not 17, but perhaps I'm missing some other absence. Maybe the absences in the pre-FINA years actually total 2 years or so?

Then again, in VEIL, Watson seems to not be living in Baker Street. Holmes has to send a message to him in the morning to come over and join him on the case. Has Watson started working as a doctor again and gone to a patient? Has he gone to visit a friend like Stamford or Thurston, etc? This has puzzled Sherlockians too, who either speculate that Watson moved out due to yet another wife, or maybe Holmes and Watson had a fight about his gambling addiction, and Watson moved out for 1896, before returning the next year. (It could even have been Watson growing tired of being a kept man or being angry that Holmes still won't let him publish EMPT even though plenty of people know that Holmes is alive.) Still, if Holmes could casually call Watson back with a note, that doesn't look like it prevented Watson from joining Holmes for cases. It is a three pipe problem indeed. Even more puzzling, the beginning of VEIL hints that some people are afraid of Watson destroying their reputations or dredging up private scandals; he denounces "the attempts which have been made lately to get at and to destroy these papers." Watson threatens to publish the case of "the politician, the lighthouse, and the trained cormorant" if these attempts don't stop. Due to these attacks on his papers, does Watson need to move out and hide his tin dispatch box somewhere new? I don't know. Watson hints at things, but never gives enough details.

As for the case itself, VEIL is not much of a mystery, and Watson warns us that it's just a human tragedy where Holmes does not do much. Watson says, "I have made a slight change of name and place, but otherwise the facts are as stated." So does that mean we can trust the date, though? I'm not sure. One morning late in 1896, Holmes sends him a note, so Watson comes back to Baker Street. An elderly landlady named Mrs. Merrilow is the client, and Holmes says he'll want Watson to come as a witness when they see Mrs. Ronder this afternoon. Why does Holmes invite Watson to be a passive observer again, like in CROO? It's not like they need to testify to the police about it afterward. Does he just think Watson will find it interesting?

Anyway, Mrs. Merrilow tells them about her reclusive lodger Mrs. Ronder, who has rented her room for 7 years but always wears a veil. Mrs. Merrilow has only seen her face once, by accident; she was terribly mutilated. The landlady knows nothing about her lodger's past, only that she pays well to keep her privacy. Mrs. Merrilow is satisfied with the money and doesn't want to pry. It's just that lately Mrs. Ronder has had terrible nightmares, screaming about murder and monsters. Mrs. Merrilow suggested she go to a priest or to the police if she needs help, but Mrs. Ronder says they can't change the past. She does want to confess to someone before she dies, though, and she jumps at her landlady's suggestion of Sherlock Holmes. Mrs. Ronder knows that detective all right, and she tells Mrs. Merrilow to mention "Abbas Parva" to gain his interest.

Holmes tells Mrs. Merrilow that he wants to chat with Watson over lunch, but they'll come to the Brixton house at 3 PM today. She thanks them and leaves, apparently not recognizing the Abbas Parva reference herself. Holmes searches his commonplace books until he finds the reference. He asks if Watson recalls the case at all. Watson doesn't, but Holmes says, "and yet you were with me then" implying that Watson was in Baker Street at the time. Holmes offers to let him read the news accounts in his scrapbook, but Watson would prefer that Holmes summarize the case for him. So Holmes tells him about Ronder's wild beast show (but does not give a first name for Mrs. Ronder's husband). Seven years ago, the circus camped for the night in Abbas Parva and around midnight, Ronder got killed by the lion, who somehow escaped from the cage. His wife was tragically mutilated but rescued by the other circusfolk, who caged the lion. Holmes was never formally asked to investigate the case, but a Berkshire constable Edmunds came to him with doubts. They smoked a pipe over it, and Watson finally remembers Edmunds. The lion's behaviour didn't make sense, and Mrs. Ronder kept screaming "Coward!" even though her husband was already dead. Witnesses also said they heard a man shouting while she was being attacked. Both Holmes and Edmunds were puzzled by the case, but didn't do anything after the verdict of "death by misadventure" at the inquest.

The tragedy happened 7 years ago, so that would be 1889, when Watson was already married. But Holmes could have meant that Watson was just visiting Baker Street then. Also, Sherlockian D. Martin Dakin points out that Eugenia Ronder didn't immediately move in with Mrs. Merrilow after she was attacked. She needed 6 months to recover before the inquest was held. I think she must have sold and/or shutdown the circus too. When she became a recluse, she tried other unsatisfactory lodging places before she found Mrs. Merrilow who had no other lodgers and gave her the privacy she desired. So Dakin proposes that the Abbas Parva attack happened in 1887 when Watson was still a bachelor living with Holmes. He didn't keep notes on the mystery because Holmes wasn't hired to investigate, and Watson readily comes up with theories to explain away the weird details of the case, so he was never plagued with doubts about the solution. However, Holmes also says "seven years ago" when narrating the Abbas Parva history to Watson, so either he misspoke, or Watson made an error when he synced up Mrs. Merrilow's 7 years ago with Holmes's 7 years ago. Holmes would need to say instead 9 years ago, or however long it's actually been. Is this an editing mistake, or was Watson just visiting Holmes in 1889 when Edmunds came over to smoke a pipe? Unclear.

So anyway, Holmes and Watson have lunch, then go to Brixton that afternoon as agreed. They head inside to meet Mrs. Merrilow's lodger. Eugenia Ronder explains that Edmunds mentioned Holmes to her when he saw her after the inquest all those years ago; she lied to him back then, but now she wants to confess the truth. She had lied to protect someone else, but that guy is dead now so she's free to tell them everything. She doesn't want to tell the police, though, to protect herself. Holmes makes no promises about what he'll do if there's a crime, but she thinks she knows him well enough from the stories that she's read over the years. She'll risk it.

Eugenia explains how her husband Ronder was a drunken abusive man, and that she fell in love with Leonardo the strongman. They made a plan and a device to kill Ronder, intending to frame the lion. But things went wrong when the lion attacked Eugenia. She screamed that Leonardo was a coward to abandon her. He shouted and ran off with the club, only coming back later when the rest of the circusfolk came to help. Despite her admitting to a murder plot, Holmes is all sympathy to her. (Doyle frequently ranted against unfair divorce laws, and wrote about women being abused by their husbands, so he's on her side.) Maybe he views the mutilation as punishment enough for her sin.

Eugenia tells them that Leonardo died last month when he drowned at Margate. She guesses that he might have tossed the murder weapon into a chalk-pit with a pool. The case is closed, and then they start to go, but Holmes somehow senses her suicidal feelings. He tells her "your life is not our own." She protests and shows them her unveiled face. They are horrified, but say nothing and go. Two days later, Watson visits Baker Street again and learns that Eugenia Ronder sent Holmes her the poison bottle that she had intended to use. Holmes is happy she won't kill herself and calls her brave. So that's it, the whole case. No detecting. Holmes and Watson just listen to her confession and give her advice. Watson clearly just wants to depict the human tragedy and show her "patient suffering" as a life lesson to readers. Not that it's important, but Leonardo's death while swimming suggests that the month is more like autumn, not that late in the year. Some suggest that he died in September and today is October something. It's vague.

THOR was published from February to March 1922, and Watson teases us with numerous unpublished cases, all in his tin-dispatch box at the Cox and Co. bank. He also alludes to stories in which he played so small a part that he'd have to present them in third person, a hint of stories to come. Finally Watson begins the current story on a wild morning in October, as the wind strips the last leaves off the tree in the backyard. He is clearly living in Baker Street, so maybe his absence in VEIL was just temporary. Holmes is cheerful at breakfast because he finally has a case after "a month of trivialities and stagnation." He probably does not consider VEIL a triviality, but he could certainly consider it stagnation since he didn't detect anything, and it was a long ago murder rather than anything current.

Meanwhile, Holmes complains about their new cook being distracted by a romance story in the Family Herald magazine, which results in badly cooked eggs. That's a real magazine that published on Saturdays only. (Brad Keefauver claims that it's published on Wednesdays, but I don't know where he's getting that from. All the editions that I can find are Saturday dates.) Since Holmes saw the magazine on the hall-table yesterday, that means today is Sunday. Maybe Mrs. Hudson allowed the cook to buy the magazine, but not to read it until Sunday morning. Why is there a new cook? I guess Mrs. Hudson decided to retire from cooking their meals, since Holmes pays her a princely rent, and she can afford to hire staff. Even if she liked cooking for her lodgers, I'm sure that Holmes's irregular appetite often frustrated her. Let someone else deal with his skipped meals.

After breakfast, Holmes tells Watson about his client Neil Gibson, an American millionaire who has lived in England for 5 years. His wife recently died, and the case has been in the news. Gibson sent a letter yesterday on October 3rd, imploring Holmes to defend the accused killer, Grace Dunbar. (So today is Sunday October 4th, which matches 1896.) Holmes thinks the facts look grim against her, and isn't sure what he can do for the governess. He sums up the case for Watson, saying that Mrs. Gibson was "past her prime," resulting in a love triangle with her husband and the governess. The wife was found shot dead at the bridge after dinner. She had a note in her hand showing that Dunbar was going to meet her there at 9 PM. They also found the murder weapon in Dunbar's room. The evidence seems damning.

Billy the page shows in Marlow Bates, manager of Gibson's estate. He wants to warn them before Gibson arrives at 11 AM. He says Gibson is a villain who was frequently cruel to his Brazilian wife. (Later he'll clarify that he hasn't seen physical abuse, just verbal abuse.) Bates says that Gibson is cunning and not to be trusted. He has already quit, but he still leaves abruptly to not be caught by Gibson. When the American tycoon finally arrives, he tries to motivate Holmes with money and fame, but Holmes is not interested in those. He asks Gibson to explain his exact relationship to Dunbar, and he replies that it's just a business relationship. Holmes dismisses him as a liar. The Gold King takes offense and Watson springs up to defend Holmes. Gibson threatens that he's broken stronger men than Holmes, and he storms out.

Holmes admits to Watson that he was just bluffing, but Gibson was too emotionally concerned about Dunbar to view her merely as an employee. Gibson comes back, humbled a little, and willing to tell Holmes the truth. He says he loved his wife twenty years ago when she was Maria Pinto, but he's since fallen out of love because they have nothing in common. He became brutal to Maria, trying to get her to hate him, but it didn't work. Then Gibson fell in love with Grace Dunbar but couldn't marry her, so he propositioned the governess instead. Holmes scolds him for trying to "ruin a defenceless girl who was under your roof. Some of you rich men have to be taught that all the world cannot be bribed into condoning your offences."

Gibson says that Dunbar almost left the job, but she agreed to stay once he promised to not molest her. She also tried to influence his actions in business deals, so he'd be less of a grasping robber baron. Gibson doesn't know how Maria died. He only knows that Maria was bitterly jealous and hated Grace. His theory is that maybe Maria threatened Grace with a gun, and there was a scuffle, but Grace denies this. Holmes says he'll go down to Winchester to interview Grace.

However, there's some problem in getting a permit to see Dunbar in jail. (I think this delay supports the idea that today is Sunday.) Instead, Holmes and Watson go to Gibson's estate, where a local sergeant takes them to the crime scene. He mentions that the murder weapon was one of a pair, but the other gun is missing. At the bridge, Holmes discovers the chip in the parapet and tries to reproduce it without sucess. They look at the guns in the house, then Holmes discusses theories with Watson. They still can't get a pass for the jail, so they stay the night in Winchester.

The next morning (Monday the 5th), Dunbar's barrister Joyce Cummings escorts them to see her in jail. She's thankful for Holmes's help, for things look bleak. Grace says that Maria was crazy with jealousy, and spouts other stereotypes about her hotheaded tropical nature. But she regrets staying in the house and enraging Gibson's wife. Grace reveals that Maria made the appointment with her first and told her to reply with the note. Grace doesn't have Maria's note because she was told to burn it, so she has no proof. That night at the bridge, Maria just cursed and screamed furiously at her, so she ran back to the house and does not know what happened.

Holmes is suddenly inspired, vibrating with nervous energy and leaving with Watson urgently. On the train, he's impish too, putting both his hands on Watson's knees as he asks for his gun. Then he gets further supplies from Sergeant Coventry, and they return to Thor Bridge, where Holmes conducts the experiment, to prove that Maria committed suicide, but staged it as a murder to frame Grace. Afterward, he asks Coventry to fish Watson's gun out of the lake, and to look for the gun that Maria weighted with a rock. He and Watson will stay the night at the inn, then talk to Gibson and Cummings about Dunbar's innocence in the morning.

SUSS was published in January 1924. It begins with a letter from a law firm named Morrison, Morrison, and Dodd, saying that they are referring their client Robert Ferguson to Holmes, since they don't know about vampires. The letter is dated November 19th, and it mentions some previous case involving Matilda Briggs. Holmes explains to Watson that the Briggs was a ship associated with the giant rat of Sumatra. He doesn't explain how the law firm came into it, or any other details.

Holmes looks up vampires in his index and calls it rubbish. But then, if you thought the subject was rubbish, then why did you put it in your index at all? Did somebody talk to you about vampires, and you thought you needed to paste info in case they brought it up again? Does this mean that Watson read Bram Stoker's Dracula and wouldn't stop talking about it? Then why didn't he volunteer information right away? Confusing. At least Holmes asserts his opposition to superstition with "This agency stands flat-footed upon the ground, and there it must remain. The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply." (Many Sherlockians were relieved to know that Doyle wasn't going to inject Spiritualism into Holmes.)

Then they read a letter from Ferguson himself, who mentions that he knows Watson from rugby years ago. Watson remembers the match with Big Bob Ferguson, and he naively believes Bob's letter about "a friend" who has a problem with his wife acting like a vampire. But Holmes knows that Bob himself is the friend with the vampire problem. Similarly to Gibson in THOR, Ferguson married a Peruvian wife 5 years ago, but his feelings have cooled lately and he regrets the marriage. But she still loves him devotedly, and they have a new baby son together. Frustratingly, Watson never gives us the first name of the Peruvian wife. She's just Mrs. Ferguson throughout. The baby also goes unnamed. Bob has a 15-year-old son Jacky from his first marriage. The first wife must have died at least 5 years ago. Bob is upset that his second wife has attacked her stepson, seemingly for no reason.

Holmes makes an appointment to meet Ferguson tomorrow at 10 AM. So on November 20th, they greet their client in Baker Street, and Watson ponders the change in himself and in Bob over the years. Bob says that his wife would not speak to him or explain the bloodsucking incident at all. She locked herself in her room and only allowed her maid Dolores to bring food to her. Mrs. Mason the nurse is watching over the baby now. Holmes questions Ferguson about his family and household, and they decide to take the train to the house in Sussex.

Holmes and Watson arrive on a foggy November evening, and leave their bags at the Chequers Inn before going on to Ferguson's house. (They also stay at a Chequers in CREE, so it may be a chain hotel. Holmes seems to particularly like that inn, complimenting their port and linen.) Anyway, they investigate the house and notice the semi-paralyzed spaniel Carlo. There's also South American relics on the walls, including weapons. Bob is upset and near hysterical for Holmes to solve his mystery.

Dolores tells them that Mrs. Ferguson is very ill and refusing food. They should get a doctor for her. So Watson volunteers to see her, and Dolores worries that she will die. The patient has a high fever, and rambles about how Bob doesn't trust her, and doesn't realize the sacrifice she makes out of love for him. Watson doesn't understand, thinking that she's ranting deliriously. She refuses to see Bob but demands to see her baby, so Watson goes to tell Bob downstairs. Bob is too afraid for the baby's safety. Then Jacky comes in and acts like a little boy rather than a 15-year-old, and it's creepy. Holmes asks to see the baby too, so they send for Mrs. Mason. Bob cuddles the baby, and Holmes stares intently at something before examining the wound on the baby's neck. Holmes talks privately with the nurse, then she takes the baby away.

Holmes suggests going upstairs and has Watson deliver a note to Mrs. Ferguson. She agrees to let them all in the bedroom. Holmes then explains what he has deduced. There is no such thing as vampires of course. Jacky hates his stepbrother and has tried to poison him repeatedly. His stepmother has caught him and beat him to punish him, but she has never explained the situation to Bob, for fear of hurting his feelings. She has sucked the baby's blood only to draw out the poison and save his life. Jacky has practiced his poison attack on the dog Carlo, using the South American arrows dipped in curare. Bob is shocked, but Holmes assures him that he saw a look of maniacal hatred and jealousy on Jacky's face when Bob was holding the baby. Mrs. Ferguson confirms this story and reconciles with her husband. Holmes suggests a year at sea to punish Jacky, but perhaps he realizes that it's not his business, and soon leaves with Watson. Hopefully they got to enjoy a night at the Chequers Inn.

We don't know what happens to the Fergusons after this revelation. Mrs. Ferguson is stereotyped as a fiery tropical woman like Maria Gibson in THOR, but this time the South American wife is not the one guilty of crazy jealousy, so I guess Doyle was using her heritage for misdirection.

The story ends with Holmes's reply to the law firm, dated November 21st. So both November 19th and November 21st have to be days when mail is delivered. That is, neither day can be a Sunday. I'm following previous Sherlockians who chose 1896 for the year, though I don't quite understand their process of elimination. Bob Ferguson should be near the same age as Watson, and we need to allow him enough years to be married twice and have a 15-year-old son. Let's say that they played their rugby match in the mid-1870s, before Watson took his M.D. degree in 1878. Let's say Ferguson married much earlier that Watson did too. 1896 minus 1875 is 21 years, so that seems like enough time to have Jacky and to be married a 2nd time. November 19, 1896 is a Thursday. Some might argue that we should make the date later, so that it can be after Bram Stoker's Dracula is published in 1897, but I don't think it's that important, as vampire legends preceded that book.