by David Ruffle
“A temporary setback, you know our verbal sparring has only ever had one winner.”
“Only because I was too frustrated with you to argue further.”
“Be that as it may, but on the whole, of course, we never really argued or had a falling out of any serious kind. You were indeed the ideal companion.”
“Our differences complemented our characters. Had we been alike I have no doubt whatsoever that our friendship would not have lasted as it has.”
“I am sure you are right, Watson. We recognised the faults we each possessed and sought not to gain any advantage by it. There was on my part, loyalty and respect although I grant you it may not always have appeared so.”
“I did know it and in spite of the lack of emotion which I know is part of the essence of you, I saw your heart too.”
“By the look in your eyes, I can tell you are thinking of the case of the three Garridebs and our brush with the aptly named Killer Evans.”
“You are right. Tell me, if Killer Evans had ended my life, would you really have killed him in cold blood?”
“Yes, there is no doubt about that.”
“You could hardly have claimed self-defence for your actions, Holmes.”
“It would not be relevant, for I would be the only one to tell the tale and the authorities would be left in no doubt as to the sequence of events. Your life, Watson, I held in higher esteem than that of a felon and on a personal note, if Evans had succeeded in taking your life, then in my eyes he would have forfeited his own. I never had any qualms about playing judge, jury and executioner.”
“I was moved then, as I am now, Thank you, my friend.”
“And do you know something?”
“What’s that?”
“Even allowing for your Hippocratic Oath, I believe that you would have done the same for me.”
“If I had not time to ponder on such an action... then I am sure you may be right. No, I know for a fact you are right.”
Interlude
“Lucy, do you fancy going to the flicks tomorrow night?”
“What’s on?”
“It’s called Broadway Melody, I think. A musical.”
“What good is that, we haven’t got sound yet at the Rialto have we? We would have to make up the songs and sing it ourselves or listen to old Miss Cunningham play her clapped out old organ.”
“Not if we go into Bournemouth, Lucy. To the Empire, they have sound now.”
“Actually, Polly I may have a date tomorrow.”
“Oh yes? Who with?”
“That new doctor in Paediatrics, Dr Jones... he looks so dreamy.”
“Good God, Lucy. He is an old man; he’s got to be thirty five if he’s a day!”
“Just shows, all men like me... I have a certain appeal you know.”
“Perhaps I could tag along, Bill is working and I don’t want to sit in by myself.”
“Three’s a crowd and I can’t see Elwyn wanting to share.”
“Oh, Elwyn is it? You’re a fast worker.”
“Actually... he is, Polly!”
“Oh well I will have to spend the evening alone. I’ll remember that when you need company, Lucy. Don’t come crawling to me then.”
“I won’t have to. I’m never stuck for company, Polly. That sponge is wet... don’t throw it... don’t... don’t... I’ll get you for that!”
“That’ll teach you. Matron will be on the warpath if we don’t watch it, I have to see to Mr Spriggs yet again, if only we had a ten gallon bed pan it would make my job a lot easier.”
“All my lot are snoring their heads off, apart from Dr Watson who’s talking his head off. Just fancy, hardly a peep out of him for weeks then off he goes chattering away to himself like he’s demented or something, poor old boy.”
“Lucy, I dare you to move his chair back to the bed and let Matron find it, that would wind her up.”
“No chance. Although... although.”
Chapter 5
“I was fortunate not to be a member of the official force in that I could act in a way that they could never countermand. There were crimes that we looked into in which the punishment of those that the law of the land may have decreed as guilty would have served no useful purpose.”
“Such as James Ryder, the Blue Carbuncle thief?”
“Indeed, Watson. I did not feel as though I was overstepping any boundaries by allowing him to go on his snivelling way. His own fear would always stop him from turning to crime again. He was not cut out for it save for maybe the odd petty crime and sending him to prison would never have altered that. Besides, as we have said already tonight; the Countess got her stone back, John Horner was freed to be re-united with his family and Peterson collected the reward.”
“Half the reward, Holmes, you pocketed the other half.”
“All Peterson did was find the goose and hence the stone. I did all the actual work in the matter. Did Peterson deduce so much from Henry Baker’s hat? No, I did. Did he go out in the freezing night air on the trail of the goose? No, I did. Did he run the villain down? No, I did.”
“I think you have made your point, although I seem to recall my presence too!”
“Yes, yes of course. As for Captain Croker, it was you yourself who acquitted him, Watson. Vox populi, vox dei.”
“Only in a manner of speaking. You were the judge as you so expressed it and the decision to free him was yours.”
“The fellow was no cold blooded killer; he had the light of decency in his eyes and I have no doubt that the judgment we pronounced upon him was only right and proper. Besides any other course of action may have disturbed the course of true love which would have been anathema to you my dear fellow both as an observer and a chronicler.”
“I assure you it would not have been a consideration had the circumstances been different, but the man rang true every time and impressed me very much. I did have my reservations regarding Ryder though. To me, the man deserved to be punished and in spite of what you say, sometimes punishment by incarceration is the only step to take.”
“Fortunately for Ryder, the decision regarding his fate was down to me.”
“As was that of James Wilder, the Duke of Holdernesse’s son and erstwhile secretary.”
“Ah, yes I recall we had a difference of opinion at the time, Watson in regard to my actions. I stand by the decision I took.”
“You used some very strong words to the Duke about his compounding a felony and aiding the escape of a murderer, yet surely you were just as guilty of that yourself in turning a blind eye to the crimes committed by Wilder and the Duke himself for that matter, especially as you were so adamant you would not lift a finger to help Hayes avoid the gallows for his killing of the German master, Heidegger. Wilder, by masterminding this venture was just as culpable even if he did not slay Heidegger himself.”
“Again, I have to ask you what good would have come of incarcerating young Wilder? What purpose would be served by it? Instead of which he may just have achieved something with his life out there in the colonies.”
“And he may not. Life is not always a bed of roses out there. I know that only too well”
“True, there is always that possibility, Watson.”
“When we spoke earlier of the size of the reward that the Duke of Holdernesse gave you, I did not mention that the whole transaction, if I may term it as such, left a bad taste in my mouth.”
“My answer remains the same; it was payment for services rendered.”
“I see it now as I saw it then; money given as a reward for silence. But, let’s agree not to argue the point further.”
“Yes, by all means. We do, I hope, respect each other’s point of view.”
“Yes, of course Holmes. I believe in redemption just as much as you.”
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“I daresay you believe it to a greater degree; you always had the makings of a man of the cloth I felt, Watson.”
“I once considered it way back in my youth.”
“What changed your mind?”
“One or two events, but primarily the knowledge that my faith such as it was then could never be strong enough to sustain any kind of vocation. I did not believe as much as was necessary for me to do so. And my later actions only confirmed this to me.”
“The Church had a lucky escape I feel and I, in due course was the benefactor.”
“My faith dissipated and then went altogether for one reason or another. I have seen too much suffering in this world to have any kind of belief in a loving God.”
“My parents were staunch church goers. I should qualify that by saying that my father was the prime motivator in our regular attendance at the local church. We had a box pew and every Sunday we would be sitting there as a family on show to the entire congregation. To my father, that was all that mattered, that we could be seen to be taking our place amongst the flock. He wanted people to admire us, look up to us for our supposed faith and piety. He was a man who did everything for show. To us, my mother and me particularly, he showed his true colours. At that point I did not care whether I entered another church in my life.”
“But of course you did.”
“I attended a few times when I went up to University. It was expected of us to some extent and I had little choice, but to comply occasionally. It wasn’t so much the suffering I saw in the world that caused me to question the existence of a creator, but science itself that shone a light in me. The order in what we call creation has been explained by science and evolution. Although I would not decry or deny anyone their faith, it is apparent to me that God does not exist. Mankind being mortal has to believe there is more to life than his allotted three score years and ten and so has been busy for several thousands of years cultivating the need to worship a higher being who may be able to hand to him a life eternal in return for the little matter of unconditional yet wholly undeserved love.
“Undeserved?”
“Certainly. How else can we picture the God of the Old Testament, but as undeserving of any kind of love? Innocent men, women and children slaughtered in the name of this god and we are not talking about isolated cases here. The theme of the Old Testament is not love or faith, but fear; fear of punishment, fear of retribution for the most trivial of offences. What was it Voltaire said? Oh yes, ‘If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him’. That is precisely what man did. We all have read how God is supposed to have created man in his image; nothing could be further from the truth, man created God in his image.”
“The instances from the Old Testament, Holmes? Are you perhaps thinking of Lot’s wife or the sad episode of Jepthah’s daughter?”
“Yes, amongst others. How can we equate a God of love with one who forces a man such as Jepthah to sacrifice his own daughter? For what? To prove a point? To test Jepthah’s faith? An act of cruelty, nothing more, nothing less. Add to that the wholesale destruction of peoples because they happened to worship another god and that cruelty is magnified a hundredfold.”
“But surely some of the tales are purely allegorical, morality stories that are not meant to be taken literally.”
“In effect then, you are saying that we all must decide for ourselves which sections of the Bible are actual events and further decide for ourselves where the word of God lies within these meandering, inconsistent writings. Regardless of the reality or otherwise of episodes described in the Bible, it remains the cornerstone of Christian faith and I say again, the god so described within its pages is no more deserving of one’s love than the Devil himself. God for me, Watson, remains a figure of speech only, with no more reality than your blessed Giant Rat of Sumatra!”
“For the most part I cannot argue with your reasoning, but all the same, when I observe order in the world I tend to ascribe it to a creator for how else would that perfect order and symmetry come about?”
“Mankind is conditioned to see such order because it is he himself who has brought order into the world. All manner of natural wonders seem to have a certain order to them, purely because we, as, constructors and designers believe there must be method in what we see, just as there is in the inventions that we have brought into being. We perforce look at it from our viewpoint so haphazardness becomes method, randomness becomes design.”
“Could you not say, however, that man’s willingness to see design in everything is because it was created within us and around us?”
“I must confess, Watson, I do not see it that way. Science has rendered the darkness we oft lived in to a state of bright illumination; many more discoveries still to come will answer any remaining questions about our origins. That of course will have the result of many questioning their faith, but I can only see that as a positive boon.”
“For some, faith is all they have, perhaps they may not care to have all their questions answered to the detriment of that faith.”
“Equally for some, no matter what logic may be brought to bear and what proofs positive abound regarding our coming into being and the beginnings of the universe, they will always seek to use their faith as a crutch to bolster their own lives. Men of science will always have their detractors and even persecutors. Religion will continue to be divisive and will forever cause bloodshed when differing factions clash. Were your parents of a religious bent?”
“They were staunch Presbyterians and never, ever wavered in their convictions. However, they were more enlightened than most in that they allowed my brother, Henry and me to exercise our own free will in whether we wished to conform to and embrace their beliefs. We both veered away from that form of religion, well, from all organised religion really, but we were fortunate that having such enlightened parents, it did not cause any kind of rift between us.”
“You do not feel your childhood suffered in any way because of your mother and father’s religious ways?”
“Not in the slightest, Holmes. My brother and I had a very happy upbringing, being in a religious household had no detrimental effect on us at all.”
“I envy you. Do you know, in many ways I have always envied you, Watson. You always looked at the world with a freshness that betrayed itself in every facet of your life. I, for my part, regarded the world with jaded eyes. I think of how you enjoyed the countryside, the moors, and the heath land and revelled in nature with a rare wonder whereas I would only dwell on that impunity with which crimes may be committed there. Committed and hidden from view. The profession I carved out for myself precluded such enjoyment of the simpler things such as pastoral delights and many other delights.”
“Yet, you often found yourself enraptured by music. I remember being astounded by your total delight in a concert given by Sarasate, particularly as it was in the midst of our looking into the Red-Headed League puzzle. Your ability to detach yourself from current cases often amazed me. My point is that you can hardly be said to have denied yourself all pleasures.”
“You are very astute my friend and you are right of course. I was generalising too much maybe.”
“Perhaps this position of consulting detective that you created for yourself was not the only course of action open to you. Your life and enjoyment of it may have been totally different had you chosen an alternative form of employment.”
“From your reading of my character all those years ago, my choices would have been somewhat limited. Astronomy would certainly have been denied to me! I believe I was destined to be what I became, the fates had conspired against me.”
“Not that you ever believed in fate, Holmes, of course.”
“Assuredly not, but whichever way you look at it, it had to be, and I would not wish it any other way.”
“Many villains would wish it so!”
“What complaints could they have? Those who live by the sword are apt to perish by the sword.”
Interlude
“Nurse Pollett... Nurse Pollett!”
“You’re in trouble, Lucy.”
“I’m always in trouble. God knows what I have done this time, left a thermometer in too long?”
“Ah, there you are. Nurse Harrison, there is no need for you to stay, I’m sure you can find something to do if you really try.”
“Yes, Matron.”
“I have just looked in on Dr Watson and once more I found his chair moved. Did I not have cause to reprimand you about that just a short while ago? Well?”
“Yes, but honestly Matron, I haven’t touched it.”
“I would mind it less, Nurse Pollett, if you could only bring yourself to be honest with me. Who are you blaming now; Mrs Drew on another nocturnal visit? The polished floors? An earthquake in the tropics?”
“Honest, I have not touched the bloody chair!”
“We will have no swearing in this hospital, Nurse. Please get on with your duties for the remainder of the night and while you do so perhaps you would like to consider your position here. That’s all, Nurse.”
***
“Lucy, I didn’t really think you would go through with it. You must have the devil in you tonight.”
“But, that’s just it, Polly, I didn’t.”
“Didn’t? But you must have done.”
“I swear...”
“Yes I heard!”
“No, listen to me Pol, when I went in there Dr Watson was still chatting away to himself and I just looked at him and left. I did not touch the chair.”
“Where was it?”
“I didn’t notice, but it must have been by the wall because that’s where the old witch put it. It’s a bit spooky, what with his condition and all.”
“Glad he’s on your round not mine!”
“Thanks, Polly, you’re all heart.”