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sherlock60This week we are reading The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb. It carries the theme of illegal activities.
Watson begins the tale by relaying that this is only one of two cases he has presented to Holmes which the detective took up -- a quick note further the story leads one to think that Holmes took up this case to solve another mystery from the previous year. Digressing here. Onward. Watson is established in his own home with his practice and the police remember him so much so that one is a regular visitor who brings patients to Waton for medical help. One such patient is an engineer who had arrived by morning train with a missing thumb.
As he bandages him up, Watson learns that the man needs some help from the police and advises him instead to seek out Holmes since he has so few clues to go on. A quick breakfast and the facts are laid out. The engineer had set up a practice that hadn't earned him much, but he finally was called upon for 50 guineas for an hour's work -- in the middle of the night. The customer says that they are mining fuller's-earth and compress it to keep the mining quiet; the compression is done by hydaulic, but the pressure has been off. The engineer is a bit suspicious of the customer, but the money was too good and so he went by train to Reading. There a carriage waited for him and they drove for about an hour before arriving at the location. There, he's warned off by a woman in the household, but he remains firm to stay.
In short order, he's shown to the hydraulic machine and learns it's only a cracked seal. While examining the machine however because the story seems too wild to be true, he finds metal shavings -- which prove his undoing. He's shut inside the machine, but just as he's about to be compressed, he manages to get through an opening. He rushes to a window, but the customer who engaged his services follows with a cleaver. When the engineer thought himself clear, he realizes that he lost his thumb in his escape. He looses consciousness except for a brief memory of being carried and when he awakes, he goes to the station and so we come full circle to the start of our case.
Once Holmes points out that the case links to another, they with a policeman go off to Reading to discover more details; on the journey, Holmes points out that the engineer didn't actually travel far -- the horse that picked him up was fresh and if the carriage drives six miles out and then back, it would have seemed to have been a long journey. Further, Holmes and the police propose that it's actually fromThat on their minds, they arrive at the town, but when they arrive at the station, there's a house fire -- the same Holmes proposes that was for the operation, likely from the fallen lamp when the engineer was escaping the press.
Reports eventually trickle in for a group of three running out of town with several trunks and as for the house, not only was the thumb found, but boxes of metal for coins, securing the theory that it was actually a counterfeit operation. As the for the group of three, being the people who hired the engineer and had likely murdered the one from the previous year, they are never found.
This felt like a fast case -- over and done with. It's about the same length as many others, but it moved quickly. Watson had a fair share and the clues revealed and resolved themselves fairly quickly.
Thoughts?
Watson begins the tale by relaying that this is only one of two cases he has presented to Holmes which the detective took up -- a quick note further the story leads one to think that Holmes took up this case to solve another mystery from the previous year. Digressing here. Onward. Watson is established in his own home with his practice and the police remember him so much so that one is a regular visitor who brings patients to Waton for medical help. One such patient is an engineer who had arrived by morning train with a missing thumb.
As he bandages him up, Watson learns that the man needs some help from the police and advises him instead to seek out Holmes since he has so few clues to go on. A quick breakfast and the facts are laid out. The engineer had set up a practice that hadn't earned him much, but he finally was called upon for 50 guineas for an hour's work -- in the middle of the night. The customer says that they are mining fuller's-earth and compress it to keep the mining quiet; the compression is done by hydaulic, but the pressure has been off. The engineer is a bit suspicious of the customer, but the money was too good and so he went by train to Reading. There a carriage waited for him and they drove for about an hour before arriving at the location. There, he's warned off by a woman in the household, but he remains firm to stay.
In short order, he's shown to the hydraulic machine and learns it's only a cracked seal. While examining the machine however because the story seems too wild to be true, he finds metal shavings -- which prove his undoing. He's shut inside the machine, but just as he's about to be compressed, he manages to get through an opening. He rushes to a window, but the customer who engaged his services follows with a cleaver. When the engineer thought himself clear, he realizes that he lost his thumb in his escape. He looses consciousness except for a brief memory of being carried and when he awakes, he goes to the station and so we come full circle to the start of our case.
Once Holmes points out that the case links to another, they with a policeman go off to Reading to discover more details; on the journey, Holmes points out that the engineer didn't actually travel far -- the horse that picked him up was fresh and if the carriage drives six miles out and then back, it would have seemed to have been a long journey. Further, Holmes and the police propose that it's actually fromThat on their minds, they arrive at the town, but when they arrive at the station, there's a house fire -- the same Holmes proposes that was for the operation, likely from the fallen lamp when the engineer was escaping the press.
Reports eventually trickle in for a group of three running out of town with several trunks and as for the house, not only was the thumb found, but boxes of metal for coins, securing the theory that it was actually a counterfeit operation. As the for the group of three, being the people who hired the engineer and had likely murdered the one from the previous year, they are never found.
This felt like a fast case -- over and done with. It's about the same length as many others, but it moved quickly. Watson had a fair share and the clues revealed and resolved themselves fairly quickly.
Thoughts?
