adventure i a scandal in bohemia i to sherlock holmes she is always the woman i have seldom heard him mention her under any other name in his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex it was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for irene adler all emotions and that one particularly were abhorrent to his cold precise but admirably balanced mind he was i take it the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position he never spoke of the softer passions save with a gibe and a sneer they were admirable things for the observer excellent for drawing the veil from men s motives and actions but for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results grit in a sensitive instrument or a crack in one of his own high power lenses would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his and yet there was but one woman to him and that woman was the late irene adler of dubious and questionable memory i had seen little of holmes lately my marriage had drifted us away from each other my own complete happiness and the home centred interests which rise up around the man who first finds himself master of his own establishment were sufficient to absorb all my attention while holmes who loathed every form of society with his whole bohemian soul remained in our lodgings in baker street buried among his old books and alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition the drowsiness of the drug and the fierce energy of his own keen nature he was still as ever deeply attracted by the study of crime and occupied his immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in following out those clues and clearing up those mysteries which had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police from time to time i heard some vague account of his doings of his summons to odessa in the case of the trepoff murder of his clearing up of the singular tragedy of the atkinson brothers at trincomalee and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so delicately and successfully for the reigning family of holland beyond these signs of his activity however which i merely shared with all the readers of the daily press i knew little of my former friend and companion one night it was on the twentieth of march i was returning from a journey to a patient for i had now returned to civil practice when my way led me through baker street as i passed the well remembered door which must always be associated in my mind with my wooing and with the dark incidents of the study in scarlet i was seized with a keen desire to see holmes again and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers his rooms were brilliantly lit and even as i looked up i saw his tall spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against the blind he was pacing the room swiftly eagerly with his head sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him to me who knew his every mood and habit his attitude and manner told their own story he was at work again he had risen out of his drug created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new problem i rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which had formerly been in part my own his manner was not effusive it seldom was but he was glad i think to see me with hardly a word spoken but with a kindly eye he waved me to an armchair threw across his case of cigars and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner then he stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular introspective fashion wedlock suits you he remarked i think watson that you have put on seven and a half pounds since i saw you seven i answered indeed i should have thought a little more just a trifle more i fancy watson and in practice again i observe you did not tell me that you intended to go into harness then how do you know i see it i deduce it how do i know that you have been getting yourself very wet lately and that you have a most clumsy and careless servant girl my dear holmes said i this is too much you would certainly have been burned had you lived a few centuries ago it is true that i had a country walk on thursday and came home in a dreadful mess but as i have changed my clothes i can t imagine how you deduce it as to mary jane she is incorrigible and my wife has given her notice but there again i fail to see how you work it out he chuckled to himself and rubbed his long nervous hands together it is simplicity itself said he my eyes tell me that on the inside of your left shoe just where the firelight strikes it the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts obviously they have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it hence you see my double deduction that you had been out in vile weather and that you had a particularly malignant boot slitting specimen of the london slavey as to your practice if a gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform with a black mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger and a bulge on the right side of his top hat to show where he has secreted his stethoscope i must be dull indeed if i do not pronounce him to be an active member of the medical profession i could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his process of deduction when i hear you give your reasons i remarked the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously simple that i could easily do it myself though at each successive instance of your reasoning i am baffled until you explain your process and yet i believe that my eyes are as good as yours quite so he answered lighting a cigarette and throwing himself down into an armchair you see but you do not observe the distinction is clear for example you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room frequently how often well some hundreds of times then how many are there how many i don t know quite so you have not observed and yet you have seen that is just my point now i know that there are seventeen steps because i have both seen and observed by the way since you are interested in these little problems and since you are good enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences you may be interested in this he threw over a sheet of thick pink tinted notepaper which had been lying open upon the table it came by the last post said he read it aloud the note was undated and without either signature or address there will call upon you to night at a quarter to eight o clock it said a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a matter of the very deepest moment your recent services to one of the royal houses of europe have shown that you are one who may safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which can hardly be exaggerated this account of you we have from all quarters received be in your chamber then at that hour and do not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask this is indeed a mystery i remarked what do you imagine that it means i have no data yet it is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts but the note itself what do you deduce from it i carefully examined the writing and the paper upon which it was written the man who wrote it was presumably well to do i remarked endeavouring to imitate my companion s processes such paper could not be bought under half a crown a packet it is peculiarly strong and stiff peculiar that is the very word said holmes it is not an english paper at all hold it up to the light i did so and saw a large e with a small g a p and a large g with a small t woven into the texture of the paper what do you make of that asked holmes the name of the maker no doubt or his monogram rather not at all the g with the small t stands for gesellschaft which is the german for company it is a customary contraction like our co p of course stands for papier now for the eg let us glance at our continental gazetteer he took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves eglow eglonitz here we are egria it is in a german speaking country in bohemia not far from carlsbad remarkable as being the scene of the death of wallenstein and for its numerous glass factories and paper mills ha ha my boy what do you make of that his eyes sparkled and he sent up a great blue triumphant cloud from his cigarette the paper was made in bohemia i said precisely and the man who wrote the note is a german do you note the peculiar construction of the sentence this account of you we have from all quarters received a frenchman or russian could not have written that it is the german who is so uncourteous to his verbs it only remains therefore to discover what is wanted by this german who writes upon bohemian paper and prefers wearing a mask to showing his face and here he comes if i am not mistaken to resolve all our doubts as he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses hoofs and grating wheels against the curb followed by a sharp pull at the bell holmes whistled a pair by the sound said he yes he continued glancing out of the window a nice little brougham and a pair of beauties a hundred and fifty guineas apiece there s money in this case watson if there is nothing else i think that i had better go holmes not a bit doctor stay where you are i am lost without my boswell and this promises to be interesting it would be a pity to miss it but your client never mind him i may want your help and so may he here he comes sit down in that armchair doctor and give us your best attention a slow and heavy step which had been heard upon the stairs and in the passage paused immediately outside the door then there was a loud and authoritative tap come in said holmes a man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six inches in height with the chest and limbs of a hercules his dress was rich with a richness which would in england be looked upon as akin to bad taste heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed across the sleeves and fronts of his double breasted coat while the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined with flame coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch which consisted of a single flaming beryl boots which extended halfway up his calves and which were trimmed at the tops with rich brown fur completed the impression of barbaric opulence which was suggested by his whole appearance he carried a broad brimmed hat in his hand while he wore across the upper part of his face extending down past the cheekbones a black vizard mask which he had apparently adjusted that very moment for his hand was still raised to it as he entered from the lower part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character with a thick hanging lip and a long straight chin suggestive of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy you had my note he asked with a deep harsh voice and a strongly marked german accent i told you that i would call he looked from one to the other of us as if uncertain which to address pray take a seat said holmes this is my friend and colleague dr watson who is occasionally good enough to help me in my cases whom have i the honour to address you may address me as the count von kramm a bohemian nobleman i understand that this gentleman your friend is a man of honour and discretion whom i may trust with a matter of the most extreme importance if not i should much prefer to communicate with you alone i rose to go but holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me back into my chair it is both or none said he you may say before this gentleman anything which you may say to me the count shrugged his broad shoulders then i must begin said he by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years at the end of that time the matter will be of no importance at present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it may have an influence upon european history i promise said holmes and i you will excuse this mask continued our strange visitor the august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to you and i may confess at once that the title by which i have just called myself is not exactly my own i was aware of it said holmes dryly the circumstances are of great delicacy and every precaution has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of europe to speak plainly the matter implicates the great house of ormstein hereditary kings of bohemia i was also aware of that murmured holmes settling himself down in his armchair and closing his eyes our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in europe holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his gigantic client if your majesty would condescend to state your case he remarked i should be better able to advise you the man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in uncontrollable agitation then with a gesture of desperation he tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground you are right he cried i am the king why should i attempt to conceal it why indeed murmured holmes your majesty had not spoken before i was aware that i was addressing wilhelm gottsreich sigismond von ormstein grand duke of cassel felstein and hereditary king of bohemia but you can understand said our strange visitor sitting down once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead you can understand that i am not accustomed to doing such business in my own person yet the matter was so delicate that i could not confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power i have come incognito from prague for the purpose of consulting you then pray consult said holmes shutting his eyes once more the facts are briefly these some five years ago during a lengthy visit to warsaw i made the acquaintance of the well known adventuress irene adler the name is no doubt familiar to you kindly look her up in my index doctor murmured holmes without opening his eyes for many years he had adopted a system of docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things so that it was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not at once furnish information in this case i found her biography sandwiched in between that of a hebrew rabbi and that of a staff commander who had written a monograph upon the deep sea fishes let me see said holmes hum born in new jersey in the year contralto hum la scala hum prima donna imperial opera of warsaw yes retired from operatic stage ha living in london quite so your majesty as i understand became entangled with this young person wrote her some compromising letters and is now desirous of getting those letters back precisely so but how was there a secret marriage none no legal papers or certificates none then i fail to follow your majesty if this young person should produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes how is she to prove their authenticity there is the writing pooh pooh forgery my private note paper stolen my own seal imitated my photograph bought we were both in the photograph oh dear that is very bad your majesty has indeed committed an indiscretion i was mad insane you have compromised yourself seriously i was only crown prince then i was young i am but thirty now it must be recovered we have tried and failed your majesty must pay it must be bought she will not sell stolen then five attempts have been made twice burglars in my pay ransacked her house once we diverted her luggage when she travelled twice she has been waylaid there has been no result no sign of it absolutely none holmes laughed it is quite a pretty little problem said he but a very serious one to me returned the king reproachfully very indeed and what does she propose to do with the photograph to ruin me but how i am about to be married so i have heard to clotilde lothman von saxe meningen second daughter of the king of scandinavia you may know the strict principles of her family she is herself the very soul of delicacy a shadow of a doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end and irene adler threatens to send them the photograph and she will do it i know that she will do it you do not know her but she has a soul of steel she has the face of the most beautiful of women and the mind of the most resolute of men rather than i should marry another woman there are no lengths to which she would not go none you are sure that she has not sent it yet i am sure and why because she has said that she would send it on the day when the betrothal was publicly proclaimed that will be next monday oh then we have three days yet said holmes with a yawn that is very fortunate as i have one or two matters of importance to look into just at present your majesty will of course stay in london for the present certainly you will find me at the langham under the name of the count von kramm then i shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress pray do so i shall be all anxiety then as to money you have carte blanche absolutely i tell you that i would give one of the provinces of my kingdom to have that photograph and for present expenses the king took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak and laid it on the table there are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in notes he said holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note book and handed it to him and mademoiselle s address he asked is briony lodge serpentine avenue st john s wood holmes took a note of it one other question said he was the photograph a cabinet it was then good night your majesty and i trust that we shall soon have some good news for you and good night watson he added as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street if you will be good enough to call to morrow afternoon at three o clock i should like to chat this little matter over with you