October Meeting: The Priory School

We kicked off our October meeting with a rousing discussion of the new film, Enola Holmes.  Everyone agreed that we liked the movie and found it to be a lot of fun.  This led to a discussion of the books, which were highly recommended by everyone that had read them.  Kevin found the lack of Watson interesting.  Jerry argued that Mycroft and Sherlock shouldn't have been able to talk in the Diogenes Club.  And Nancy didn't recognize the Mycroft in this movie.  But all in all, recommended heartily by the Parallel Case of St. Louis members!

Howard has a new website all about Holmes on the screen: www.sherlock-holmes-on-screens.com

There was a recap of the previous weekend's Left Coast Sherlockian Symposium.  Rob was one of the speakers, along with Angela Misri, Bonnie MacBird, Mina Hoffman, and Leslie Klinger.  The social hours after the day's programming were also really well regarded.  The talks will be posted to YouTube soon.

Doyle's Rotary Coffin is hosting a short story event, Holmesoween, and everyone is welcome to join.

Heather told everyone about Sherlockathon, a month-long reading event inspired by, but not exclusively, the Sherlock Holmes stories.  It includes small reading sprints, Instagram challenges, and movie watchalongs.

Andy had a fun post last month about what a modern-day version of The Solitary Cyclist would look like.

Even if you're already following our Facebook page, take a minute to revisit to make sure our links are making it to your newsfeed.  

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Rich kicked off the story discussion with a great presentation on who would be held accountable for the crimes in this story.  There should have been more arrests and convictions at the end of this tale, according to him.

The Priory School starts with the dramatic entrance of Dr. Thorneycroft Huxtable, MA, PhD, etc..  A large, pompous man enters 221B, staggers against the table, slipped down the wall, and laid insensible on the bearskin rug.

Watson sums him up succinctly at, "The ponderous piece of wreckage."

Brandy revives the man and he asks for milk and a cookie before begging Holmes to come to Mackleton on the next train.  But Holmes refuses Dr. Huxtable, saying he is busy with the Ferrers documents and the Abergavenny murder trial.  But Huxtable says that the Duke of Holdernesse's son has been abducted.

Holmes looks up this man: "Holdernesse, Sixth duke, KG, PC, Baron Beverly, Earl of Carston, Lord Lieutenant of Hallamshire."  We discussed what some of these things meant.  Nancy told us that KG meant Knight of the Garter, one of the highest level a person could reach without being part of the royal family.  Stacey told the mythological origin of the Knights of the Garter and Elaine and Rich cited Klinger's extensive notes on all of these titles.

The Duke is offering 5,000 pounds for his son's return and another 1,000 for the person who took him.  Rob noted that if the Duke wanted to keep this disappearance a secret, offering such a reward was bound to do the opposite.  Srini said that the police were involved and there are always leaks.  

Holmes accepts the case and asks for the details.  The Priory School is a preparatory school, and Huxtable is the founder and principal.  Three weeks ago, he found out that Lord Saltire, the ten year-old son of the Duke of Holdernesse would be attending.  Lord Saltire arrived on May 1 and was not happy at home due to the separation of his parents.  His mom had gone to France, Saltire sided with her, and got sent to the Priory School after moping around Holdernesse Hall.  

The boy disappeared three days ago, on Monday.  He'd climbed out of a second floor window and down the ivy growing up the wall.  He had gotten dressed and there was no sign of resistance in the room.  It was also discovered that the German master, Heidegger, was also missing.  He had left his room partly dressed and took his bike.  As far as anyone can tell, there is no connection between the German master and the boy.  There are also not any other bikes missing.  Lord Saltire had only received one letter before his disappearance, from his father.  

That night, Huxtable, Holmes, and Watson arrive at the Priory School.  The Duke of Holdernesse and his secretary, James Wilder, were waiting for them.  Wilder says he tried to stop Huxtable from going to London for Holmes to avoid all public scandal.  Huxtable offers to send Holmes back, but Holmes is having none of that, saying he will investigate whether he is welcomed or not.  The Duke agrees to let Holmes work and says that he thinks Lord Saltire went to France to be with his mother.

Holmes studies an ordinance map, deciding that the only way the missing people could have travelled was north through the moor.  Huxtable comes in and has Lord Saltire's cap.  It was found with a band of gypsies on the moor.

This led to a discussion of gypsies of the time.  Doyle often used them as red herrings (SILV & SCAN).  Stacey agreed that they were very easy scapegoats historically and Vince called them "the pariahs of the Victorian world."  Srini said that they are still blamed for plenty of things in Europe today.  Elaine said there used to be a group in Southern Illinois.  Stacey and Adam cited their targeting by the Nazis.

Doyle's view on gypsies was brought up.  Was he feeding into the zeitgeist or did he truly have negative feelings towards them?  Steve wondered how Holmes would work with them if they actually appeared in a story instead of being a red herring, and Heather said that Holmes and Mary Russell travelled with them in one of the Laurie King novels.

Kevin and Srini discussed the origin of the word "gypsy" and if Egypt was related to it or not.  Vince made the connection to the outsider families in Southern Illinois, and it being called "Little Egypt."  Nancy cited Phillip Pullman novels and the family there that were called gyptians.

The next day, Holmes and Watson search the moor, but early on just find sheep and cow tracks.  Rob wondered how Watson was so confident that these were cow tracks.  Wasn't he a city boy?  Holmes and Watson eventually find bike tracks, but it's a different bike than the one missing from school.  Holmes states that he is "familiar with 42 different impression left by tyres."

Vince, Randy, and Steve waded into the debate on whether or not Holmes would have been able to tell the direction a bike was riding based off of its tracks.  Heather wanted to know why this story had so much information about bike tires, but not our last story, The Solitary Cyclist.  Kevin posited that if Holmes were working today, he would probably be an expert in car tires.  Michael thought this discussion was tiresome. (groan)

They eventually come across the German's path and find blood along the trail by more cow tracks.  Watson spots a bike hidden in a bush a way's off and they also find the German master's body, dead from a crushing blow to his skull.  Holmes is torn.  He feels like he must continue the search but should also report the death.  There is CONVENIENTLY someone off on the distance who can take the message to the village.  

Holmes concludes that Saltire chose to leave his room.  The German master saw this from his room and quickly followed.  It would be natural to run after a boy, but he got on a bike instead.  He was killed five miles away by a heavy blow.  That wasn't from the kid.  Saltire had a companion and they were moving rapidly somehow.  But all there is on the ground are cow tracks!

"It is impossible as I state it, and therefore I must in some respect have stated it wrong."  Rob said this line sums him up every time he loses his car keys.

Holmes and Watson follow the trail of the other bike, and it eventually leads them to a village and the local inn.  Holmes "sprains" his ankle right in front of the innkeeper, Reuben Hayes.  Hayes is far from the model of customer service.  After a bluff, telling Hayes that Lord Saltire has been spotted in Liverpool, they spend some time at Hayes's inn eating disgusting soup and investigating the horses in the smithy: old shoes but new nails!

Something has clicked into place for Holmes.  Holmes notes that not many cows walk, canter, and gallop like the tracks on the moor show.  "What a blind beetle I have been."  Rob wondered if this statement wasn't specifically about hoofprints.  If Holmes had been raised on a country estate, he would've been familiar with the different kinds of droppings made by different livestock.  He should've quickly been able to tell the difference between cows and horses while trailing them.  Michael said the plop was thickening, but Rich said he was pooh-poohing the conversation.

They are chased away from the inn, and hide on the side of the road just in time to see a cyclist speeding toward it.  Holmes and Watson sneak back, see James Wilder there, and Holmes peeks into an upstairs window before they head back.  Holmes sends a telegram, and they console Huxtable over the news of his German teacher.

The next day, they visit Holdernesse Hall and blow off Wilder when he said the Duke wasn't able to meet with them.  The Duke is taken aback when Holmes asks for his reward, but Holmes tells him what he knows.  The Duke doubled the reward from 6 to 12,000.  Rob wondered if that was 6 for Holmes and 6 for Watson.  Heather said it was blackmail money and Michael said Holmes probably got more than 12, but didn't tell Watson about it.

Holdernesse reveals that James Wilder is his illegitimate son, surprising Holmes.  Wilder has always been jealous of Saltire and the fact that he would inherit everything.  He'd slipped a note  into the Duke's letter asking to meet him about the boy's mom.  When Saltire came out, Reuben Hayes then imprisoned him at the inn.  Wilder said he would release Saltire if the Duke left him his estate.  But when he learned of the German master's death, he confessed everything to his father.

Holmes had no sympathy, saying the Duke condoned this behavior, tried to let a murderer escape, and probably inadvertently supplied him with money for his escape.  But above all, he left his son in danger at the inn for three days.

Holmes insists that Saltire be retrieved immediately and Wilder must leave the household.  The Duke says that Wilder is on his way to Australia.  How much of a punishment was that?  Some of us thought that Wilder would have to work for his own money and deal with the convict population.  While others thought that he would be able to use his father's reputation to set himself up fairly comfortably.

Why would Reuben Hayes keep quiet once he was arrested?  Why wouldn't he implicate James Wilder?  Nancy and Srini thought it had to do with the importance of Holdernesse.  Stacey pointed out that Holdernesse could influence Hayes to stay quiet.  Steve offered that Holdernesse's money could have kept him quiet.  A really good discussion followed, talking about Holmes's opinion on nobility and punishment.

Rob found it interesting that Holmes would deign to give marital advice to the Duke.

The story ends with Holmes finding out that the cow tracks were made by special horseshoes from the Holdernesse museum.  But he is ultimately more interested in his reward money.  Nancy pointed out that a 6,000 pound payment would be equivalent to $200,000 today.

We all agreed that Wilder was the absolute worst and Elaine bet he wouldn't have even been a good secretary!

Vince noted that this story is one of the few stories that has an agreement between chronologists on its date.

Our next meeting is just a few weeks away!  We will meet again on November 14 to discuss The Adventure of Black Peter.  RSVP on our Facebook event page and join us for some of the best Sherlockian discussions on the web.  Zoom at once if convenient!

Scriptor Subpono: The Solitary Cyclist by Andrew Basford

The Scriptor Subpono series is an ongoing collection written by Andrew Basford. Not only is Andrew a member of the Parallel Case of St. Louis, but also the Pilot Whale of the Harpooners of the Sea Unicorn in St. Charles, MO. He always brings a fun take to Sherlockiana, and since our last meeting was on The Solitary Cyclist, he graciously allowed us to share his take on it here on our blog:

Scriptor Subpono: The Ghost Writer Series

Vol. 9-- "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist"

As always with this Scriptor Subpono series of writings, I attempt to take another look at how the story we observe in any given month may have differently been handled had another author tried to create the story (this month, "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist") or some other means by which it might have been approached.

This month, come with me into the future: the year is 2025 and BBC is coming out with Season 5 of Sherlock. And the first story from the Canon that they tackle?  “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist.”

The particulars on the plot: 

Miss Violet Jones and her mother have come upon hard times of late with the recent passing of her father.  Despite all the welfare and other programs throughout the British Empire to help families in such a situation, there doesn’t seem to be much help for them.  But one day, she receives an email from Messrs Carruthers and Woodley, recently returned from Nigeria, wishing to speak to her about a “business proposal”. She laughs it off, only mildly surprised that they didn’t claim to be princes or barristers.  However, she is surprised to see them waiting for her one day when she returns from job- and assistance-hunting.  They and her mother have been discussing the business proposal and they bring her into the discussion.

It turns out that they were associated with her Uncle Ralph Jones who died almost penniless (something Violet and her mother knew nothing about as they never heard from him since he had left for Nigeria 25 years earlier!), but his last request on his deathbed was that the survivors of his late brother’s family should be taken care of somehow.  So Mr. Carruthers makes a proposal to Miss Jones to teach music to his daughter for £100 per day on weekdays.  Considering this is pretty much an hour per day, and the going rate from the UK Musicians’ Union is a THIRD of that, this is a golden opportunity.  However, she is limited to her own transportation (a second hand DB50QT-11 Chinese scooter), which would require her to live on their premises.  But, since it’s only weekdays, she could use it to drive to the train station to go home to her mother on the weekends.  With that, she accepts the offer.

This arrangement seems to be working well for a while until one time when Mr Woodley comes to stay for a week.  He’s rather creepy to begin with, but appears to be even worse during this time when he makes several awkward and despicable romantic advances toward her, promising that he could make her rich beyond her wildest dreams if she gives him her hand in marriage[!].  At one point, he grabs her, demanding a kiss, which brings Mr. Carruthers in to pull him off of her, almost decking him, and kicking him out of the house [thankfully, she has never seen him since].

But the strange recurring incident that transpires afterward (which bring her to seek the services of Sherlock) is that, during her weekend trips to and from the train station, she’s being followed from afar by somebody on a Suzuki GSX-R1000.  He wears a helmet with heavily tinted glass disguising his face and making him pretty much unrecognizable (although he has enough beard hanging out from underneath).

As has been done previously to tweak ANY of these turn-of-the-20th-century tales to fit with more recent times, the title would have to be adjusted.  This has mostly been done by modifying at least one of the words in the original title; some are quite blatant (“A Study in Pink”, “A Scandal in Belgravia”, “The Sign of Three”, and “The Six Thatchers”), others a little more subtle (“The Hounds of Baskerville” [switching plurals], “The Empty Hearse” [a somewhat close phonetic relationship with “The Empty House”], “His Last Vow” [ditto with “His Last Bow”], and “The Lying Detective” [rhymes with “The Dying Detective”]).  So what could we make of this month’s story (and what details might change, even from what has been originally introduced here)?:

• The Salutatory Cyclist - as the mystery man on the Suzuki follows Miss Jones, whenever she looks back to see what he’s doing, he lifts his hand up as if to simply say, “Hi!”

• The Salutary Cyclist - “Salutary” is defined as being favorable to or promoting health.  So the guy on the Suzuki who is trailing Miss Jones looks like a bearded version of Richard Simmons!

• The Sanitary Cyclist - Miss Jones takes a rowboat from Mr Carruthers’ island home.  Whenever she gets to the jetty leading to the pier where she disembarks to the train station, she is followed in a motor boat (or perhaps a Suzuki Jet Ski?) by somebody who looks like a bearded version of the Ty-D-Bol Man!

• The Sanatory Cyclist - considering that “sanatory” is defined as “favorable for health; curative; healing”, how would YOU redefine this one…?

• The Salivary Cyclist - although the helmet is concealing the face of the guy tailing her, she can see through his beard that he has a major drooling problem!

• The Saltatory Cyclist - [saltatory: proceeding by abrupt movements; pertaining to or adapted for saltation; saltation: a dancing, hopping, or leaping movement; and abrupt movement or transition] the dude tailing Miss Jones is following her on a dirt bike and, although the road they are traversing is level and smooth, he looks to be flying from hill to hill in some less-than-level way(?).

• The Salty Cyclist - Miss Jones’ mysterious benefactor cusses a lot to tell her to mind her own business and keep looking forward.

• The Saltier Cyclist - said benefactor cusses like a sailor to tell her to mind her own business (could still be looking like the bearded Ty-D-Bol man).

• The Salto Cyclist - the Suzuki being ridden by the mystery man is littered with emblems of the city of Salto, Uruguay; perhaps it’s even a constabulary vehicle. 

• The Saltirewise Cyclist - [“SAL - ter - wize”; rhymes with “gal”] the Suzuki is riddled with decorations related to the flag of Scotland (and perhaps the dude ON the bike is wearing a kilt [actually, that would NOT be a good idea as it would be very immodest; remember what they say: when a REAL MAN wears a kilt, the only thing between the kilt and the floor MIGHT be socks and shoes; if he wears underwear, he’s gone from wearing a kilt to donning a skirt]).

• The Solitary Cyclone - the dude follows her on the open road in a fully restored 1968 Mercury Cyclone.

• The Sultry Cyclist - when Sherlock and John confront the cyclist near the end of the story, they find out it was Mother Jones all along (...and she’s kind of a hotty in that motorcycle outfit[!]).

• The Solitarily Cyclised (SIGH - klized) - “Cyclization” is defined as “the formation of a ring or rings”.  This would describe the person on the Suzuki who has disguised himself as a bearded version of the Michelin Man!

• The Solitary Cyclops - the guy’s helmet has NO glass whatsoever, just a very small camera on the front to show him where he’s going from the viewscreen inside (?)

• The Solitary Recycler - in a particular section she drives by, there is always some bearded dude out on the side of the road picking up and bagging aluminum cans.

To be honest, Sherlock was a fun series from BBC (although granted, I am in the minority it seems as one who still liked it in seasons 3 and 4, though taken aback by their huge deviation from canon), but I TRULY HOPE that they DO NOT go here with “The Solitary Cyclist”.

----(Definitions gathered from dictionary.com)----