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IN CONTEXT

TYPE

Short story

FIRST PUBLICATION

US: October 1924

UK: January 1925

COLLECTION

The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes, 1927

CHARACTERS

John Garrideb American lawyer from Kansas.

Nathan Garrideb Reclusive bachelor and dedicated collector of antiquities.

Alexander Hamilton Garrideb Wealthy, elderly American man.

In his introduction to this tale, Watson states that the events it relates occurred in June 1902—he can clearly recollect the date because it was the month in which Holmes refused a knighthood “for services which may perhaps some day be described.” He speculates about whether the “adventure” that follows is a comedy or a tragedy. Certainly, the story’s ingenious plotting and flamboyant trickery incorporate some comic elements, but the consequences for the main protagonists are far from a laughing matter. For many readers, however, this is very much a story about the relationship between Holmes and Watson; in a life-threatening situation, the depth of Holmes’s affection and respect for his friend and chronicler is finally revealed.

"Well, if you can lay your hand upon a Garrideb, there’s money in it."

Sherlock Holmes

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The advertisement, which John Garrideb claims to have found in a local Birmingham newspaper, contains a number of clues which suggest to Holmes that it was written by an American.

A mysterious legacy

The story begins with a visit from John Garrideb—an alert, bright-eyed American who says he is a counselor at law from Kansas. He tells an astonishing tale that relates to his unusual surname; he claims that he encountered just one other Garrideb in his home country—Alexander Hamilton Garrideb—a wealthy, elderly man who left a curious will: if John was able to find two other men with their surname, they would each inherit a part of his substantial estate. John left his practice to conduct a search, and he has now found and met with a Nathan Garrideb in London. In fact, against John’s wishes, Nathan has already enlisted Holmes’s help, and this is the reason for John’s visit.

Holmes is deeply suspicious of this tale, and of John himself—the man implies that he is a recent arrival in London, yet his well-worn English clothes and smoothed-out American accent indicate that he has been in the country for some time. He is also defensive, quickly “ruffled” by Holmes, and clearly angry that Nathan Garrideb considered it necessary to involve the detective. Nathan is easily located in the London telephone directory, which, in Holmes’s day, would have been a relatively small volume: the first edition was only published in 1880, 22 years before this story took place, and listed only 248 names. Watson phones and makes an appointment to visit him.

Cabinets of curiosities

Nathan is a stooping, bearded man of around 60, who lives in a bachelor’s apartment in a small street off Edgware Road; Watson notes that it is very close to the former site of the Tyburn gallows, a place of public execution for many centuries—an ominous observation that stirs a sense of danger. Holmes and Watson immediately like and trust this Garrideb, finding him “amiable, though eccentric.” He is an avid collector of curiosities and antiquities, and his home is a veritable storehouse of treasures, ranging from ancient coins and fossilized bones to cases full of moths and butterflies. Studying and maintaining this eclectic personal museum is his abiding passion, and he admits that he rarely leaves the house. He is intrigued by the story of the Garrideb legacy and is so enthralled by the prospect of using his potential share—$5 million—to expand his collection, that he does not question its veracity.

At this point, John Garrideb arrives, brandishing a Birmingham newspaper in which the services of one Howard Garrideb—constructor of agricultural machinery—are advertised. John suggests that Nathan should travel by train to the city the following day, and explain the situation to the third Garrideb, who will likely be more receptive to a “Britisher”; the old man reluctantly agrees. Before leaving Nathan’s home, Holmes and Watson obtain permission to view his collection while he is away. Holmes then informs Watson that John himself had placed the advertisement as part of a ruse to get Nathan out of his apartment; although he does not yet know why.

The next day, Holmes conducts some investigations on his own, and returns in a somber mood. He warns Watson that they are up against a very hard case, and a dangerous one, too. He has paid a visit to Inspector Lestrade at Scotland Yard, and has found out that the lawyer John Garrideb is, in fact, a hardened Chicago-born criminal known as “Killer Evans.” After murdering three men in the US and then breaking out of jail, he headed to London, where he has lived for the past ten years and where, in 1895, he shot and killed a fellow American named Rodger Prescott over a game of cards. The dead man drew his gun first, so Evans served a relatively light sentence of just over five years. Since his release, he has been under police watch, but so far, he has stayed out of trouble.

And there are still more revelations: after consulting the rental agent who manages Nathan Garrideb’s apartment, Holmes learns that the previous tenant was a tall, dark, bearded man—a description that matches Rodger Prescott. The fact that the tenant disappeared suddenly lends weight to Holmes’s theory that John Garrideb and Evans are one and the same man.

Holmes is now sure that “Killer Evans” invented the Garrideb story as an elaborate diversion, in order to gain access to the former home of the man he murdered—but to what end he has no idea. There is, he says, a guilty secret in the room, and this makes their imminent visit to Nathan’s museum of curiosities a much riskier undertaking. Evans is known to carry a gun, so Holmes ensures that he and Watson are both fully armed. As always, the doctor accepts the dangers he may face with equanimity. He is determined to stand by, and support, his friend.

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This ITV adaptation, “The Mazarin Stone” (1994), combined that case with “The Three Garridebs” and starred Gavan O’Herlihy and Richard Caldicott.

"You’re not hurt, Watson? For God’s sake, say that you are not hurt!"

Sherlock Holmes

A close confrontation

The pair make their way to the empty apartment and conceal themselves in a closet in the main room, where they wait. As predicted, Evans arrives and breaks into the house. He makes a beeline for a table in the middle of the room, which he moves to reveal a trapdoor. Once he has descended through it, Holmes and Watson begin to creep stealthily toward the opening. A creaking floorboard alerts Evans to their presence, who emerges to find himself confronted by two pistols. Initially he is both bewildered and furious, but then he appears to give himself up: “I guess you have been one too many for me, Mr. Holmes. Saw through my game, I suppose, and played me for a sucker from the first.” But this is just another diversionary tactic—moving quickly, Evans manages to fire two shots from his revolver, one of which grazes Watson’s leg, before Holmes brings his gun crashing down on the man’s head.

Evans’s elaborate plot is then revealed. The man is a criminal. Beneath the trapdoor is a hidden room that contains a printing press, and Evans explains that the late Rodger Prescott was an expert counterfeiter—the most accomplished in London. Evans’s quarry was the £200,000 in forged notes concealed in the hidden room. His story of the Garrideb inheritance is as counterfeit as the forged notes that lie beneath their feet. He had woven an elaborate web of lies so he could distract the gullible and preoccupied collector, whom he dismisses as a “crazy boob of a bug-hunter,” and claim the wealth that lay just beneath his floorboards. Desperate to secure his freedom, Evans offers Holmes a share of the counterfeit booty, but the detective laughs in his face. Holmes hands the villain over to the police, and Evans finds himself back in jail for attempted murder.

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Oxford University’s Pitt Rivers Museum, founded in 1884, holds more than 500,000 objects gathered by Victorian collector General Pitt Rivers.

Truth, lies, and loyalty

Nathan Garrideb’s museum-style collection is a reflection of his single-minded passion for the past, and his desire to understand it. His treasures—the reader is led to believe—are authentic, acquired from London’s fine art auctioneers Sotheby’s and Christies, and nothing gives him greater pleasure than studying and cataloging them. In contrast, “John Garrideb” is nothing but a fake—just a violent, greedy man who has utilized his intelligence for mere criminal gain. It seems strangely symbolic that underneath the lovingly assembled collection of an authentic seeker of knowledge lies the equipment of a criminal counterfeiter. Sadly, the news that his fabulous inheritance is mere fantasy sends Nathan Garrideb into a shock from which he never recovers, and he ultimately ends up living in a nursing home.

With its examination of truth and lies, authenticity and fakery, this story is also a tribute to the enduring friendship between Holmes and Watson. For all the banter and teasing, it is quite clear that Holmes feels genuine love for Watson and great respect for the unquestioning loyalty and bravery that his friend has displayed during their years together. His panic about the potential severity of Watson’s injury, and his heartfelt concern for his friend, is very touching, and there is a rare moment of open emotion from the normally taciturn and cool detective when he turns furiously to Evans and declares, “If you had killed Watson you would not have got out of this room alive.”

Watson, for his part, is clearly moved by Holmes’s capacity for friendship here, saying, “It was worth a wound—it was worth many wounds—to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask… For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation.”

VICTORIAN COLLECTORS

When Nathan Garrideb says he wants to become “the Hans Sloane of my age,” he is referring to British physician Hans Sloane (1660–1753; pictured), whose passion for collecting was ignited when he visited Jamaica and brought back some 800 species of plants and animals. Sloane’s “cabinet of curiosities” grew over the years, and embraced objects from fields as diverse as botany, archaeology, ethnography, natural history, and geology. By the time of his death, Sloane had acquired around 71,000 items, which he bequeathed to the nation. They became the foundation of the British Museum, which opened to the public in 1759. By the Victorian era, many of those who traveled to the farthest corners of the British Empire were also dedicated collectors, helping to stock the galleries of newly founded institutions such as London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. However, the appetite for curiosities inevitably led to clever forgeries, and many amateur collectors were fooled by “authentic” treasures that had in fact been manufactured in Birmingham or Manchester.

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