Sherlock holmes the ulti.., p.1
Sherlock Holmes: The Ultimate Collection,
p.1
Sherlock Holmes: The Ultimate Collection
By
Arthur Conan Doyle
Table of Contents
Title Page
Sherlock Holmes: The Ultimate Collection
A STUDY IN SCARLET
PART I
CHAPTER I. MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES.
CHAPTER II. THE SCIENCE OF DEDUCTION.
CHAPTER III. THE LAURISTON GARDEN MYSTERY.
CHAPTER IV. WHAT JOHN RANCE HAD TO TELL.
CHAPTER V. OUR ADVERTISEMENT BRINGS A VISITOR.
CHAPTER VI. TOBIAS GREGSON SHOWS WHAT HE CAN DO.
CHAPTER VII. LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS.
PART II | THE COUNTRY OF THE SAINTS
CHAPTER I. ON THE GREAT ALKALI PLAIN.
CHAPTER II. THE FLOWER OF UTAH.
CHAPTER III. JOHN FERRIER TALKS WITH THE PROPHET.
CHAPTER IV. A FLIGHT FOR LIFE.
CHAPTER V. THE AVENGING ANGELS.
CHAPTER VI. A CONTINUATION OF THE REMINISCENCES OF JOHN WATSON, M.D.
CHAPTER VII. THE CONCLUSION.
THE SIGN OF THE FOUR
Chapter I | The Science of Deduction
Chapter II | The Statement of the Case
Chapter III | In Quest of a Solution
Chapter IV | The Story of the Bald-Headed Man
Chapter V | The Tragedy of Pondicherry Lodge
Chapter VI | Sherlock Holmes Gives a Demonstration
Chapter VII | The Episode of the Barrel
Chapter VIII | The Baker Street Irregulars
Chapter IX | A Break in the Chain
Chapter X - The End of the Islander
Chapter XI - The Great Agra Treasure
Chapter XII - The Strange Story of Jonathan Small
THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES | By Arthur Conan Doyle
Chapter 1 | Mr. Sherlock Holmes
Chapter 2 | The Curse of the Baskervilles
Chapter 3 | The Problem
Chapter 4 | Sir Henry Baskerville
Chapter 5 | Three Broken Threads
Chapter 6 | Baskerville Hall
Chapter 7 | The Stapletons of Merripit House
Chapter 8 | First Report of Dr. Watson
Chapter 9 | The Light upon the Moor [Second Report of Dr. Watson]
Chapter 10 | Extract from the Diary of Dr. Watson
Chapter 11 | The Man on the Tor
Chapter 12 | Death on the Moor
Chapter 13 | Fixing the Nets
Chapter 14 | The Hound of the Baskervilles
Chapter 15 | A Retrospection
THE VALLEY OF FEAR
PART 1 | The Tragedy of Birlstone
Chapter 1 - The Warning
Chapter 2 - Sherlock Holmes Discourses
Chapter 3 - The Tragedy of Birlstone
Chapter 4 - Darkness
Chapter 5 - The People Of the Drama
Chapter 6 - A Dawning Light
Chapter 7 - The Solution
PART 2 | The Scowrers
Chapter 1 - The Man
Chapter 2 - The Bodymaster
Chapter 3 - Lodge 341, Vermissa
Chapter 4 - The Valley of Fear
Chapter 5 - The Darkest Hour
Chapter 6 - Danger
Chapter 7 - The Trapping of Birdy Edwards
Epilogue
THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES | By Arthur Conan Doyle
ADVENTURE I | A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA | I.
II.
III.
ADVENTURE II | THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE
ADVENTURE III | A CASE OF IDENTITY
ADVENTURE IV | THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY
ADVENTURE V | THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS
ADVENTURE VI | THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP
ADVENTURE VII | THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE
ADVENTURE VIII | THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND
ADVENTURE IX | THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER’S THUMB
ADVENTURE X | THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR
ADVENTURE XI | THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET
ADVENTURE XII | THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES
THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES | By Arthur Conan Doyle
Adventure I. Silver Blaze
Adventure II. The Yellow Face
Adventure III. The Stock-Broker's Clerk
Adventure IV. The "Gloria Scott"
Adventure V. The Musgrave Ritual
Adventure VI. The Reigate Puzzle
Adventure VII. The Crooked Man
Adventure VIII. The Resident Patient
Adventure IX. The Greek Interpreter
Adventure X. The Naval Treaty
Adventure XI. The Final Problem
THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES | By Arthur Conan Doyle
THE ADVENTURE OF THE EMPTY HOUSE
THE ADVENTURE OF THE NORWOOD BUILDER
THE ADVENTURE OF THE DANCING MEN
THE ADVENTURE OF THE SOLITARY CYCLIST
THE ADVENTURE OF THE PRIORY SCHOOL
THE ADVENTURE OF BLACK PETER
THE ADVENTURE OF CHARLES AUGUSTUS MILVERTON
THE ADVENTURE OF THE SIX NAPOLEONS
THE ADVENTURE OF THE THREE STUDENTS
THE ADVENTURE OF THE GOLDEN PINCE-NEZ
THE ADVENTURE OF THE MISSING THREE-QUARTER
THE ADVENTURE OF THE ABBEY GRANGE
THE ADVENTURE OF THE SECOND STAIN
HIS LAST BOW | Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes
The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge | 1. The Singular Experience of Mr. John Scott Eccles
2. The Tiger of San Pedro
The Adventure of the Cardboard Box
The Adventure of the Red Circle | PART I
PART II
The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans
The Adventure of the Dying Detective
The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax
The Adventure of the Devil's Foot
His Last Bow – An Epilogue of Sherlock Holmes
IMAGE GALLERY
Further Reading: The Revenant: Some Incidents in the Life of Hugh Glass, a Hunter of the Missouri River
Sherlock Holmes: The Ultimate Collection
Novels
A Study In Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle. First published in 1887.
The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle. First published in 1890.
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. First published in 1902.
The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle. First published in 1915.
Short Story Collections
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. First published in 1892.
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. First published in 1894.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. First published in 1905.
His Last Bow - Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. First published in 1917.
Sherlock Holmes: The Ultimate Collection. Published 2016 by Enhanced Media.
A STUDY IN SCARLET
By Arthur Conan Doyle
PART I
Being a reprint from the reminiscences of JOHN H. WATSON, M.D., late of the Army Medical Department.
CHAPTER I. MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES.
IN the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army. Having completed my studies there, I was duly attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as Assistant Surgeon. The regiment was stationed in India at the time, and before I could join it, the second Afghan war had broken out. On landing at Bombay, I learned that my corps had advanced through the passes, and was already deep in the enemy's country. I followed, however, with many other officers who were in the same situation as myself, and succeeded in reaching Candahar in safety, where I found my regiment, and at once entered upon my new duties.
The campaign brought honours and promotion to many, but for me it had nothing but misfortune and disaster. I was removed from my brigade and attached to the Berkshires, with whom I served at the fatal battle of Maiwand. There I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery. I should have fallen into the hands of the murderous Ghazis had it not been for the devotion and courage shown by Murray, my orderly, who threw me across a pack-horse, and succeeded in bringing me safely to the British lines.
Worn with pain, and weak from the prolonged hardships which I had undergone, I was removed, with a great train of wounded sufferers, to the base hospital at Peshawar. Here I rallied, and had already improved so far as to be able to walk about the wards, and even to bask a little upon the verandah, when I was struck down by enteric fever, that curse of our Indian possessions. For months my life was despaired of, and when at last I came to myself and became convalescent, I was so weak and emaciated that a medical board determined that not a day should be lost in sending me back to England. I was dispatched, accordingly, in the troopship "Orontes," and landed a month later on Portsmouth jetty, with my health irretrievably ruined, but with permission from a paternal government to spend the next nine months in attempting to improve it.
I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air—or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the
On the very day that I had come to this conclusion, I was standing at the Criterion Bar, when some one tapped me on the shoulder, and turning round I recognized young Stamford, who had been a dresser under me at Barts. The sight of a friendly face in the great wilderness of London is a pleasant thing indeed to a lonely man. In old days Stamford had never been a particular crony of mine, but now I hailed him with enthusiasm, and he, in his turn, appeared to be delighted to see me. In the exuberance of my joy, I asked him to lunch with me at the Holborn, and we started off together in a hansom.
"Whatever have you been doing with yourself, Watson?" he asked in undisguised wonder, as we rattled through the crowded London streets. "You are as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut."
I gave him a short sketch of my adventures, and had hardly concluded it by the time that we reached our destination.
"Poor devil!" he said, commiseratingly, after he had listened to my misfortunes. "What are you up to now?"
"Looking for lodgings." I answered. "Trying to solve the problem as to whether it is possible to get comfortable rooms at a reasonable price."
"That's a strange thing," remarked my companion; "you are the second man to-day that has used that expression to me."
"And who was the first?" I asked.
"A fellow who is working at the chemical laboratory up at the hospital. He was bemoaning himself this morning because he could not get someone to go halves with him in some nice rooms which he had found, and which were too much for his purse."
"By Jove!" I cried, "if he really wants someone to share the rooms and the expense, I am the very man for him. I should prefer having a partner to being alone."
Young Stamford looked rather strangely at me over his wine-glass. "You don't know Sherlock Holmes yet," he said; "perhaps you would not care for him as a constant companion."
"Why, what is there against him?"
"Oh, I didn't say there was anything against him. He is a little queer in his ideas—an enthusiast in some branches of science. As far as I know he is a decent fellow enough."
"A medical student, I suppose?" said I.
"No—I have no idea what he intends to go in for. I believe he is well up in anatomy, and he is a first-class chemist; but, as far as I know, he has never taken out any systematic medical classes. His studies are very desultory and eccentric, but he has amassed a lot of out-of-the way knowledge which would astonish his professors."
"Did you never ask him what he was going in for?" I asked.
"No; he is not a man that it is easy to draw out, though he can be communicative enough when the fancy seizes him."
"I should like to meet him," I said. "If I am to lodge with anyone, I should prefer a man of studious and quiet habits. I am not strong enough yet to stand much noise or excitement. I had enough of both in Afghanistan to last me for the remainder of my natural existence. How could I meet this friend of yours?"
"He is sure to be at the laboratory," returned my companion. "He either avoids the place for weeks, or else he works there from morning to night. If you like, we shall drive round together after luncheon."
"Certainly," I answered, and the conversation drifted away into other channels.
As we made our way to the hospital after leaving the Holborn, Stamford gave me a few more particulars about the gentleman whom I proposed to take as a fellow-lodger.
"You mustn't blame me if you don't get on with him," he said; "I know nothing more of him than I have learned from meeting him occasionally in the laboratory. You proposed this arrangement, so you must not hold me responsible."
"If we don't get on it will be easy to part company," I answered. "It seems to me, Stamford," I added, looking hard at my companion, "that you have some reason for washing your hands of the matter. Is this fellow's temper so formidable, or what is it? Don't be mealy-mouthed about it."
"It is not easy to express the inexpressible," he answered with a laugh. "Holmes is a little too scientific for my tastes—it approaches to cold-bloodedness. I could imagine his giving a friend a little pinch of the latest vegetable alkaloid, not out of malevolence, you understand, but simply out of a spirit of inquiry in order to have an accurate idea of the effects. To do him justice, I think that he would take it himself with the same readiness. He appears to have a passion for definite and exact knowledge."
"Very right too."
"Yes, but it may be pushed to excess. When it comes to beating the subjects in the dissecting-rooms with a stick, it is certainly taking rather a bizarre shape."
"Beating the subjects!"
"Yes, to verify how far bruises may be produced after death. I saw him at it with my own eyes."
"And yet you say he is not a medical student?"
"No. Heaven knows what the objects of his studies are. But here we are, and you must form your own impressions about him." As he spoke, we turned down a narrow lane and passed through a small side-door, which opened into a wing of the great hospital. It was familiar ground to me, and I needed no guiding as we ascended the bleak stone staircase and made our way down the long corridor with its vista of whitewashed wall and dun-coloured doors. Near the further end a low arched passage branched away from it and led to the chemical laboratory.
This was a lofty chamber, lined and littered with countless bottles. Broad, low tables were scattered about, which bristled with retorts, test-tubes, and little Bunsen lamps, with their blue flickering flames. There was only one student in the room, who was bending over a distant table absorbed in his work. At the sound of our steps he glanced round and sprang to his feet with a cry of pleasure. "I've found it! I've found it," he shouted to my companion, running towards us with a test-tube in his hand. "I have found a re-agent which is precipitated by hoemoglobin, 4 and by nothing else." Had he discovered a gold mine, greater delight could not have shone upon his features.
"Dr. Watson, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said Stamford, introducing us.
"How are you?" he said cordially, gripping my hand with a strength for which I should hardly have given him credit. "You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive."
"How on earth did you know that?" I asked in astonishment.
"Never mind," said he, chuckling to himself. "The question now is about hoemoglobin. No doubt you see the significance of this discovery of mine?"
"It is interesting, chemically, no doubt," I answered, "but practically——"
"Why, man, it is the most practical medico-legal discovery for years. Don't you see that it gives us an infallible test for blood stains. Come over here now!" He seized me by the coat-sleeve in his eagerness, and drew me over to the table at which he had been working. "Let us have some fresh blood," he said, digging a long bodkin into his finger, and drawing off the resulting drop of blood in a chemical pipette. "Now, I add this small quantity of blood to a litre of water. You perceive that the resulting mixture has the appearance of pure water. The proportion of blood cannot be more than one in a million. I have no doubt, however, that we shall be able to obtain the characteristic reaction." As he spoke, he threw into the vessel a few white crystals, and then added some drops of a transparent fluid. In an instant the contents assumed a dull mahogany colour, and a brownish dust was precipitated to the bottom of the glass jar.
"Ha! ha!" he cried, clapping his hands, and looking as delighted as a child with a new toy. "What do you think of that?"
"It seems to be a very delicate test," I remarked.
"Beautiful! beautiful! The old Guiacum test was very clumsy and uncertain. So is the microscopic examination for blood corpuscles. The latter is valueless if the stains are a few hours old. Now, this appears to act as well whether the blood is old or new. Had this test been invented, there are hundreds of men now walking the earth who would long ago have paid the penalty of their crimes."
"Indeed!" I murmured.
"Criminal cases are continually hinging upon that one point. A man is suspected of a crime months perhaps after it has been committed. His linen or clothes are examined, and brownish stains discovered upon them. Are they blood stains, or mud stains, or rust stains, or fruit stains, or what are they? That is a question which has puzzled many an expert, and why? Because there was no reliable test. Now we have the Sherlock Holmes' test, and there will no longer be any difficulty."
