by Hugh Ashton
“ I am to assume that the Scandinavians attempting to purchase the crutch are in some way your business rivals ? ”
“ That is correct,” he told me. “ The Swedes would give a lot to get their hands on the secrets of this alloy.”
There was still something about his story which perplexed me. “ Why have you used this alloy to make a crutch which you have given to a near-stranger ? ” I demanded. “ Surely the sample would be best kept with the formula ? ”
“ Ah, let me answer your questions,” he said. “ We had a very limited amount of this new alloy available to us, and we had no wish to increase the quantity until it had been tested outside our laboratories for durability, and resistance to the effects of the weather. A walking stick or some such would seem an ideal testing ground. But Gosling, to whom I have entrusted the repair of my boots and shoes for some time now, was in need of a crutch, and I therefore fashioned the object myself, incorporating the alloy at a critical point in its manufacture. I had always found Gosling to be completely honest and trustworthy, so I had no hesitation in providing him with the crutch, knowing that it would be in good hands.”
“ I am guessing that if I were to identify and dissuade your Swedish competitors from stealing your secrets, I would at once and the same time solve your problem, and that of Gosling.”
“ Indeed, Mr. Holmes. You have hit the nail on the head there.”
“ How do you think that the Swedes have discovered the alloy and its connection to Gosling ? ”
“ There is no guesswork involved here, Mr. Holmes,” he sighed. “ My assistant in the development of the alloy was a very capable young man from Sweden who had worked with me for a number of years. Only two months ago, he suddenly left my employ, and I heard that he had returned to his native country, ostensibly to take care of his aged mother. Though in his time here I never showed him the precise formula for the alloy, or the secret of its preparation, I am sure that he gained nearly enough knowledge from the notes in my laboratory to be able to re-create the metal for himself. Svensson was a most talented young assistant,” he sighed.
“ But you feel that he has not the knowledge to make the alloy himself without a sample of the genuine article with which to compare it ? ”
“ I would imagine that to be the case.”
“ And how would he come to know of its incorporation into the crutch ? ”
Habgood sighed once more. “ While I was constructing the crutch, I may have been careless in letting some of the pieces, not including the part composed of the alloy, of course, remain overnight on the workbench. Svensson almost certainly worked out what I was making.”
“ And the link to Gosling ? ”
“ He knew of the fact that I used Gosling’s services. Indeed, he too employed Gosling to repair his own shoes.”
“ And therefore was aware of Gosling’s disability, and your compassion for the man ? ”
“ I can only assume that to be the case.”
“ Then let us proceed on that assumption. I am willing to investigate this case, but I must advise you that I possess no official powers of arrest. Indeed, it is unlikely that any crime has been committed, from what I hear.”
“ The theft of my work is no crime ? ” he retorted.
“ It would be necessary to prove that such a theft actually took place,” I replied, “ and that could be impossible to prove in a court of law, however much you and I are convinced of the thief’s guilt.”
“ Very well. I would like you, then, to warn Svensson, or whoever it proves to be, that his attentions are not welcome. If the company for whom he is currently working wishes to obtain the secret of this alloy, it is not for sale to them.”
“ I will do my best,” I told him.
He then proceeded to extend an invitation to me to tour the “works”, which I accepted. The premises were in truth more of a laboratory than a manufactory, and which were of considerable interest to me from the point of view of chemistry.
“ Well, Mr. Holmes,” said to me as I concluded my visit, “ it has been a pleasure to make your acquaintance, and I trust that you will be able to settle this matter to our satisfaction.”
“ And to that of Gosling, of course.”
“ Of course,” he answered, shaking my hand in farewell. As I returned to London, I was forced to consider a number of possible methods by which I could solve this problem. As I had told Habgood, there were no measures open to me by which I could invoke the rule of law to stop the Swedes from acquiring the crutch and thereby the knowledge of the alloy, which, from what I had been told, appeared to be of value to our country.
On approaching my lodgings in Montague-street, I noticed a dim light through the window of one of the rooms I occupied, warning me that I had an uninvited visitor. As usual, I was unarmed, other than for a swordstick which I had purchased on a whim in my University days, and which I carried with me. I let myself into the house as silently as was possible, and crept up the stairs.
Drawing my swordstick, and holding it in the approved en garde position that I had learned from my time spent with the foils, I quietly turned the handle of the unlocked door, and sprang into the room.
I beheld two tall fair-haired men bent over the table, on which lay the crutch, now disassembled. They looked up with a start and stood still when they saw the blade in my hand.
“ We mean no harm,” one of them said to me, in a voice which was recognisable as being un-English.
“ We want to buy this,” said the other, pointing to the crutch. “ Fifty pounds.”
“ It is not mine to sell to you,” I told them, firmly. “ For any amount of money.”
“ Then we are sorry to have disturbed you,” the first speaker said. They moved as if to leave the room, but I blocked the door, with the sword’s tip pointing directly at the throat of the leader.
“ You are staying here,” I told them, and fixing my gaze on them, pulled out my police whistle. “ Two blasts on this, and my constables will come running. And you, my friends, will find yourself in prison on a charge of housebreaking.”
At this, they appeared to be properly startled and dismayed. “ There is, however,” I told them, “ a satisfactory solution which does not involve my officers. If you give me your word that you will leave this room, this city, and this country, and do not return, and you and your colleagues will make no further attempt to take or obtain what is not yours, then you may depart in peace.”
The two looked at each other, and shrugged as one.
“ Very well. I have heard things about your English prisons, and I do not want to experience them.”
I demanded their identities, which they furnished in the form of cards, whose contents I committed to memory. “ Now go,” I told them. Obediently, they left me, and I was pleased that my little deception of passing myself off as a police officer had been so successful.
The next day, I made a report to Habgood, taking the crutch with me, and he and I together returned the crutch to Gosling, assuring him that there would be no further attempts made to procure it. Habgood was as good as his word when it came to compensating me for the work I had carried out on Gosling’s behalf, as well as for the service I had rendered him, and was kind enough to allow me to use his chemical laboratories from time to time when my own resources proved insufficient.
And that is the story of the aluminium crutch. The alloy, by the way, proved too expensive to manufacture in the quantity required for armour plating naval vessels, however. Habgood nonetheless believes that a use will be found for limited quantities of a strong lightweight alloy in specialised applications, but that day is not yet upon us.
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Holmes’ Notes (Attached to
Watson’s Account)
19 April, 1879 (Sat.)
Client : Timothy Gosling, cobbler, ex-sailor. Asthmatic. One leg (claims he lost the other in Crimean War).
Explained that he had been asked on two occasions to sell to foreigners (he claimed
he identified them as Scandinavians) the unique aluminium crutch that he had acquired as a gift from an industrialist, but had refused to sell. Examined the crutch, but could see nothing unusual about it, other than the aluminium from which it had been constructed, being a somewhat unusual material to use for such an object, and the fact that it was an extraordinarily well-made piece of work.
Visited maker of the crutch (Habgood), to discover material forming crutch was unique new alloy, w/ many potential uses. Informed that Swede (ex-employee) had interest in this. Retained by maker to look into this matter.
Returned home to find two Swedes in my room examining crutch. Persuaded them to leave with threat of arrest and prosecution for housebreaking.
Recv’d from Habgood : £40 on his account and £5 on that of Gosling. Case closed.
The Case of the Abominable wife
“Even the closed door was not sufficient to mask the screeches and shouts, often accompanied by the sounds of crashes and breaking crockery.”
Editor’S Notes
A story of Holmes without Watson, but told by Watson in his own style, though Holmes is nominally the narrator. By no means Holmes’ most complex case, but one which sheds a little light on the human being behind the mask of the Great Detective. Mentioned in “ The Musgrave Ritual” as one of the cases in Holmes’ own tin box, which apparently contained a “ ...full account of Ri coletti of the club foot and his abominable wife”.
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In the years of my association with Sherlock Holmes, I was well aware that there were many adventures which had occurred before my first meeting with him. He often provided hints as to their details, but was often reluctant to discuss them with me, providing merely tantalising glimpses of the past. I have described some of them, based on his reminiscences, and frequently attempted to draw him out, as the phrase has it, regarding the others. However, it was difficult to find Sherlock Holmes in a state of mind that was conducive to extended conversation.
There was, however, one occasion when Holmes was con- strained to idleness by the circumstances. We were crossing from Newhaven to Dieppe for a short holiday, and the boat was remarkably devoid of passengers, and hence of objects of interest for Holmes.
There was one passenger, however, who caught our eye as he limped along the deck. I recognised the signs of a club- foot, which obviously afflicted the poor fellow sorely.
“ Did I ever tell you,” asked Holmes, addressing me, “ of the circumstances surrounding the club-footed Ricoletti and his abominable wife?”
“ I recall you mentioning it at the time when you told me of the case involving your college friend Musgrave, but you provided no details.”
“ Then allow me to put this period of enforced idleness to some use and give you the full story. It is an interesting one, I think, though my methods at that time were somewhat crude and unrefined as compared to those I now employ. Although it is all written in full and reposes in that tin box in Baker-street, maybe you will permit me to indulge such narrative gifts as I possess and recount the tale to you as we make our way over to la belle France.
“ I was working at the time of this case, as I think you know, from rooms in Montagu-street. The good Mrs. Hudson had yet to enter my life, and you were unknown to me. I was slowly and painstakingly building up some sort of reputation among the professionals of Scotland Yard, chiefly Hopkins and Lestrade, and had come into contact with Gregson on a few occasions. However, the majority of my work, such as it was, during this period was relatively undemanding, and I found myself with more time on my hands than was desirable.
“ I had not the resources to buy books with which to entertain myself, and the British Museum Reading Room was not wholly agreeable to me, given that smoking was prohibited there, and the limit on the number of books that might be consulted at one time I found irksome. As you know, when reading, one often finds oneself drawn to another related volume, following a skein of thought that may appear to be frivolous or illogical at first, but later proves to make perfect sense. The Museum’s rules made it impossible for me to conduct research in the way I would have liked.
“ It was also at this time, I confess, that I discovered some of the joys of morphine and cocaine.”
“ I am glad that those days are behind us,” I remarked. “ I too,” he confessed, “ thanks to your friendship and care for me. Even while I knew the habit to be destructive, it was nonetheless a source of exquisite pleasure. But I am eternally grateful to you for assisting me in my cessation of the habit. If you had never done me any other service, what you performed in this regard would rank you as one of those in this world to whom I owe most.”
I was touched that Holmes would regard my actions in this regard in so favourable a light, and told him so.
“ No, no, Watson, you did more than your duty as a doc- tor, a friend, and as a human being. If you had not done this for me, I do not know what my current state of health or mental capacity might be.
“ In any event, I am, as I think you know from experience, a wretched cook.” I smiled to myself, remembering some particularly inedible messes that that been the fruits of Holmes’ labours in the kitchen. “ I do, however, appreciate good food when it is available, and I was lucky enough to be living almost directly above a little restaurant that provided some of the finest examples of the cuisine of Southern Italy, notably Naples, that it has been my good fortune to encounter. Furthermore, and this was much more to the point at the time I am describing, the bill of fare was well within the range of my purse. The owner of the restaurant, who also acted as the sole waiter in the establishment, was one Signor Ricoletti.
“ The poor man suffered from a club-foot, but the deformity did not seem to worry him unduly as he hurried about his business of serving the customers in his establishment, though these were few enough, Heaven knows.
“ For my part, I found the food to be particularly to my taste, and at one point I found myself taking my evening meal there almost every night. Accordingly, Ricoletti and I struck up a friendship of sorts, and on those all too frequent nights when the flow of custom was not strong‚ he would often join me at my table after I had finished my meal, and we would talk.”
“ In what language did you speak?” I asked Sherlock Holmes, knowing him to have a good knowledge of the Italian language.
“ Why, that was one of the principal subjects of our converse. His English was not of a degree of fluency that would allow him to express himself with any degree of confidence, and I had a fancy to better my Italian in order to read the works of Tasso. Accordingly, we tutored each other in our respective native tongues. There, was, however, one fly in this ointment of our friendship, if I may term it so.”
“ The wife whom you termed ‘abominable’?”
“ Precisely. The term is not too strong to describe her. Usually, I would hesitate to apply such an epithet to a fellow human being, but there really are very few other words – at least in polite usage,” he chuckled, “ that fully convey her character.
“ She was the cook who produced the meals that I en- joyed night after night, and it was a source of wonder to me that a woman of such a nature could be an artist of such a high order. Many is that time that Ricoletti and I would be talking, when I would hear her harsh voice from the kitchen calling to her unfortunate husband. Muttering an apology to me that his wife was calling him away, he would hurriedly rise and make his way to the kitchen, shutting the door behind him. Even the closed door was not sufficient to mask the screeches and shouts, often accompanied by the sounds of crashes and breaking crockery.”
“ What was she saying or shouting to him?”
Holmes smiled. “ My knowledge of the Italian language was not at the stage where I was able to make out the meaning. In any event, the language spoken appeared to be some sort of rustic dialect, and Ricoletti, bless the man’s memory, was attempting to teach me a purer form of the language. When these events occurred, I typically waited for between five and ten minutes. If
Ricoletti emerged from the kitchen within that time, we would resume our conversation, by mutual unspoken consent not mentioning the events immediately preceding. If, as sometimes occurred, the altercation was extended, I would leave the money owing for my meal on the table, with a sizeable gratuity added, and quietly make my escape.”
“ Did you ever catch sight of this virago?”
“ Certainly, on a number of occasions. Before I had first seen her, I confess that I had pictured her as one of those Italian signoras where middle age has resulted in a certain broadness of beam, and of generally unattractive appearance. Imagine my surprise when I beheld a young slender woman of considerable beauty. I have seen actresses on the stage with less appeal than this woman.
“ Indeed, her youth and her appearance led me at first to believe that she was Ricoletti’s daughter or some other relative that he had never mentioned. However, this was dispelled immediately she opened her mouth. The accents and the tone were enough to convince me immediately that this was the termagant who summoned her husband so frequently. The voice, and the character that was evident from the merest glance at her face, were at odds with the general beauty of her appearance. I have seldom, if ever, experienced such a discrepancy.”
“ What was her attitude towards you?”
“ Towards me, she displayed a certain amount of coquetry, which was far from being to my taste, I can tell you. Quite apart from any other matters, she was the wife of a man whom I had come to regard as a friend, and I found her frequent pawings at my sleeve, and the unnecessary proximity when conversing with me to be in poor taste, to say the least. I need hardly add that I found her person and character unappealing.”
“ What was the husband’s reaction to this flirtation?”
“ I fear the poor man had seen something of this before. He gazed upon these scenes with what I can only describe as a pitying half-smile. I hasten to add that I gave the woman no encouragement on any occasion whatsoever, least of all in front of him.”