The Adventure of the Red Circle

By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Mrs. Warren, a landlady, comes to 221B Baker Street with some questions about her lodger. A heavily bearded man, who spoke good but accented eng came to her and offered double her usual rent on the condition that he get the room on his own terms. He went out the first night that he was there, and came back after midnight when the rest of the household had gone to bed. Since then, neither Mrs. Warren, her husband, or their servant girl have seen him. The lodger insisted on having the Daily Gazette every morning, and sometimes requested other things. All requests were printed on a slip of paper left on a chair outside the room where meals were also left. Mrs. Warren has brought some spent matches and a cigarette end from her lodger, hoping that Holmes can read something from them. It is clear that the cigarette has been smoked without a holder, which is quite unusual for a man with whiskers. He also eats very little, and never receives visitors or messages…
(Excerpt from Wikipedia)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Otbebookpublishing
• Release date: Dec 27, 2015
• ISBN: 9783956760716

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1859. Before starting his writing career, Doyle attended medical school, where he met the professor who would later inspire his most famous creation, Sherlock Holmes. A Study in Scarlet was Doyle's first novel; he would go on to write more than sixty stories featuring Sherlock Holmes. He died in England in 1930.

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The Adventure of the Red Circle

By

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Adventure of the Red Circle

PART I

Well, Mrs. Warren, I cannot see that you have any particular cause for uneasiness, nor do I understand why I, whose time is of some value, should interfere in the matter. I really have other things to engage me. So spoke Sherlock Holmes and turned back to the great scrapbook in which he was arranging and indexing some of his recent material.

But the landlady had the pertinacity and also the cunning of her sex. She held her ground firmly.

You arranged an affair for a lodger of mine last year, she said--Mr. Fairdale Hobbs.

Ah, yes--a simple matter.

But he would never cease talking of it--your kindness, sir, and the way in which you brought light into the darkness. I remembered his words when I was in doubt and darkness myself. I know you could if you only would.

Holmes was accessible upon the side of flattery, and also, to do him justice, upon the side of kindliness. The two forces made him lay down his gum-brush with a sigh of resignation and push back his chair.

Well, well, Mrs. Warren, let us hear about it, then. You don't object to tobacco, I take it? Thank you, Watson--the matches! You are uneasy, as I understand, because your new lodger remains in his rooms and you cannot see him. Why, bless you, Mrs. Warren, if I were your lodger you often would not see me for weeks on end.

"No doubt, sir; but this is different. It frightens me, Mr. Holmes. I can't sleep for fright. To hear his quick step moving here and moving there from early morning to late at night, and yet never to catch so much as a glimpse of him--it's more than I can stand. My husband is as nervous over it as I am, but he is out at his work all day, while I get no rest from it. What is he hiding for? What has he done? Except for the girl, I am all

Reviews for The Adventure of the Red Circle

[cbl_tn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A landlady with a mysterious lodger consults with Sherlock Holmes when she cannot bear the lodger’s strange behavior any longer. The lodger offered her twice her usual rate but only as long as she adhered strictly to his terms. He was to have a key to the house and was not to be interfered with at all. She had not seen the lodger since the day he arrived, but heard him endlessly pacing in his rooms. What could it mean?Holmes takes a slender thread and follows it to a matter of international intrigue involving three nationalities, yet he travels no more than a couple of miles from his Baker Street home. I’ve read enough of the Holmes stories to compare myself favorably with Watson, who missed several clues that both Holmes and I spotted. However, Holmes’s powers of deduction still far exceed my own.