Sherlock Holmes: Adventure Of Silver Blaze, Part Two Of Two

In episode two, we follow Sherlock's reasoning as he pieces together the likely train of events and dastardly deeds that led to the famous race-horse's seeming disappearance. You might recognize, a particular phrase that Holmes uses - 'the curious incident of the dog in the night time.' This was used by contemporary writer Mark Haddon as a title for a very successful novel. Well, you heard it here first (as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle might have said!)

For more of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's legendary Sherlock stories, please search for The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor, and The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk, also narrated by me on Plus Tracks.

Transcript

Hello there it's mandy here welcome back to the world of sherlock holmes by arthur conan doyle thanks for joining me tonight i'm going to be reading you part two of the adventure of silver blaze i've mentioned before and you may already know that conan doyle tried to kill sherlock off but was obliged by public protest to restore him to life he saw holmes as a rival who had so many of the characteristics and experiences of conan doyle that he even adopted one of his creator's friends dr watson and turned him into one of the famous characters of fiction before i go ahead please feel free to make yourself really comfortable settling down into your chair or your bed relaxing your hands dropping your shoulders and softening your jaw that's great so if you're ready then i shall begin part two the sun was beginning to sink behind the stables of cableton and the long sloping plain in front of us was tinged with gold deepening into rich ruddy brown where the faded ferns and brambles caught the evening light but the glories of the landscape were all wasted upon my companion who was sunk in the deepest thought it's this way watson he said at last we may leave the question of who killed john straker for the instant and confine ourselves to finding out what has become of the horse now supposing he broke away during or after the tragedy where could he have gone to the horse is a very gregarious creature if left to himself his instincts would have been either to return to king's pylon or go over to cableton why should he run wild upon them all he would surely have been seen by now and why should travelers kidnap him these people always clear out when they hear of trouble for they do not wish to be pestered by the police they couldn't hope to sell such a horse they would run a great risk and gain nothing by taking him surely that's clear where is he then i have already said he must have gone to king's pylon or capleton he is not at king's pylon therefore he is at capleton let us take that as a working hypothesis and see what it leads to this part of the moor as the inspector remarked is very hard and dry but it falls away towards capleton and you can see from here that there is a long hollow over yonder which must have been very wet on monday night if our supposition is correct then the horse must have crossed that and there is the point we should look for his tracks we had been walking briskly during this conversation and a few more minutes brought us to the hollow in question at holmes's request i walked down the bank to the right and he to the left but i had not taken 50 paces before i heard him give me a shout and saw him waving his hand to me the track of a horse was plainly outlined in the soft earth in front of him and the shoe which he took from his pocket exactly fitted the impression see the value of imagination said holmes it is the one quality which gregory lacks we imagined what might have happened acted upon the supposition and find ourselves justified let us proceed we crossed the marshy bottom and passed over a quarter of a mile of dry hard turf again the ground sloped again we came on tracks then we lost them for half a mile only to pick them up once more quite close to capleton it was holmes who saw them first and he stood pointing with a look of triumph on his face a man's track was visible beside the horses the horse was alone before i cried quite so it was alone before halloa what is this the double track turned sharp off and took the direction of king's pie land holmes whistled and we both followed along after it his eyes were on the trail but i happened to look a little to one side and saw to my surprise the same tracks coming back again in the opposite direction one for you watson said holmes when i pointed it out you have saved us a long walk which would have brought us back on our own traces let us follow the return track we have not to go far it ended at the paving of asphalt which led up to the gates of the capleton stables as we approached a groom ran out from them we don't want any loiterers about here said he i only wish to ask a question said holmes with his finger and thumb in his waistcoat pocket should i be too early to see your master mr silas brown if i were to call at five o'clock tomorrow morning bless you sir if anyone is about he will be but he is always the first stirring but here he is sir to answer your questions for himself no sir no it's as much as my place is worth to let him see me touch your money afterwards if you like as sherlock holmes replaced the half crown which he had drawn from his pocket a fierce looking elderly man strode out from the gate with a hunting crop swinging in his hand what's this dawson he cried no gossiping go about your business and you what the devil do you want here 10 minutes talk with you my good sir said holmes in the sweetest of voices i've no time to talk to every gad about we want no strangers here be off or you may find a dog at your heels holmes leaned forward and whispered something in the trainer's ear he started violently and flushed to the temples it's a lie he shouted an infernal lie very good shall we argue about it here in public or talk it over in your parlor oh come in if you wish to holmes smiled i shall not keep you more than a few minutes watson he said now mr brown i am quite at your disposal it was quite 20 minutes and the reds had all faded into greys before holmes and the trainer reappeared never have i seen such a change as had been brought about in silas brown in that short time his face was ashy pale beads of perspiration shone upon his brow and his hands shook until his hunting crop wagged like a branch in the wind his bullying overbearing manner was all gone too and he cringed along at my companion's side like a dog with its master your instructions will all be done it shall be done said he there must be no mistake said holmes looking round at him the other winced as he read the menace in his eyes oh no there shall be no mistake it shall be there should i change it first or not holmes thought a little and then burst out laughing no don't said he i shall write to you about it no tricks now or oh you can trust me you can trust me you must see to it on the day as if it were your own you can rely upon me yes i think i can well you shall hear from me tomorrow he turned upon the heel disregarding the trembling hand which the other held out to him and we set off for king's pie land a more perfect compound of the bully coward and sneak than master silas brown i have seldom met with remarked holmes as we trudged along together he has the horse then he tried to bluster out of it but i described to him so exactly what his actions had been upon that morning that he's convinced i was watching him of course you observed the peculiarly square toes in the impressions and that his own boots exactly corresponded to them again of course no subordinate would have dared to have done such a thing i described to him how when according to his custom he was the first down he perceived a strange horse wandering over the moor how he went out to it and his astonishment at recognizing from the white forehead which has given the favorite its name that chance had put in his power the only horse which could beat the one upon which he had put his money then i described how his first impulse had been to lead it back to king's pyland and how the devil had shown him how he could hide the horse until the race was over and how he had led it back and concealed it at capleton when i told him every detail he gave it up and thought only of saving his own skin but his stables have been searched oh an old horse faker like him has many a dodge but are you not afraid to leave the horse in his power now since he has every interest in injuring it my dear fellow he will guard it as the apple of his eye he knows that his only hope of mercy is to produce it safe colonel ross did not impress me as a man who would be likely to show much mercy the matter does not rest with colonel ross i follow my own methods and tell as much or as little as i choose that is the advantage of being unofficial i don't know whether you observed it watson but the colonel's manner has been just a trifle cavalier to me i am inclined now to have a little amusement at his expense saying nothing to him about the horse certainly not without your permission and of course this is all quite a minor case compared with the question of who killed john straker and you will devote yourself to that on the contrary we both go back to london by the night train i was thunderstruck by my friend's words we had only been a few hours in devonshire and that he should give up an investigation which he had begun so brilliantly was quite incomprehensible to me not a word more could i draw from him until we were back at the trainer's house the colonel and the inspector were awaiting us in the parlor my friend and i returned to town by the midnight express said holmes we have had a charming little breath of your beautiful dartmoor air the inspector opened his eyes and the colonel's lips curled in a sneer so you despair of arresting the murderer of poor straker said he holmes shrugged his shoulders there are certainly grave difficulties in the way said he i have every hope however that your horse will start upon tuesday and i beg that you will have your jockey in readiness might i ask for a photograph of mr john straker the inspector took one from an envelope in his pocket and handed it to him my dear gregory you anticipate all my wants if i might ask you to wait here for an instant i have a question which i should like to put to the maid i must say i'm rather disappointed in our london consultant said colonel ross bluntly as my friend left the room i do not see that we're any further than when he came at least you have his assurance that your horse will run said i yes i have his assurance said the colonel with a shrug of his shoulders i should prefer to have the horse i was about to make some reply in defense of my friend when he entered the room again now gentlemen said he i am quite ready for tavistock as we stepped into the carriage one of the stable lads held the door open for us a sudden idea seemed to occur to holmes but he leaned forward and touched the lad upon the sleeve you have a few sheep in the paddock he said who attends to them i do sir have you noticed anything amiss with them of late well sir not of much account but three of them have gone lame sir i could see that holmes was extremely pleased for he chuckled and rubbed his hands together a long shot watson a very long shot said he pinching my arm gregory let me recommend to your attention this singular epidemic among the sheep drive on coachman colonel ross still wore an expression which showed the poor opinion which he had formed of my companion's ability but i saw by the inspector's face that his attention had been keenly aroused you consider that to be important he asked exceedingly so is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention to the curious incident of the dog in the night time the dog did nothing in the night time that was the curious incident remarked sherlock holmes four days later holmes and i were again in the train bound for winchester to see the race for the wessex cup colonel ross met us by appointment outside the station and we drove in his drag to the course beyond the town his face was grave and his manner was cold in the extreme i have seen nothing of my horse said he i suppose that you would know him when you saw him asked holmes the colonel was very angry i have been on the turf for 20 years and never was asked such a question as that before said he a child would know silver blaze with his white forehead and his mottled off foreleg how is the betting well that is the curious part of it you could have got 15 to 1 yesterday but the price has become shorter and shorter until you can hardly get three to one now hmm said holmes somebody knows something that is clear as the drag drew up in the enclosure near the grandstand i glanced at the card to see the entries it ran wessex plate 50 sovereigns each with 1 000 sovereigns added for four and five-year-olds second 300 pounds third 200 pounds new course one mile and five furlongs one mr heath newton's blackie red cap cinnamon jacket two colonel wardlaw's pugilist pink cap blue and black jacket three lord blackwater's despera yellow cap and sleeves four colonel ross's silver blaze black cap red jacket five duke of balmoral's iris yellow and black stripes six lord singleford's rasper purple cap black sleeves we scratched our other one and put all hopes on your word said the colonel there are the numbers up i cried they are all six there all six there then my horse is running cried the colonel in great agitation but i don't see him my colors have not passed only five have passed this must be he as i spoke a powerful bay horse swept out from the weighing enclosure and counted past us bearing on its back the well-known black and red of the colonel but that's not my horse cried the owner that beast has not a white hair upon its body what is this you have done mr holmes well well let us see how he gets on said my friend imperturbably for a few minutes he gazed through my field glass capital an excellent start he cried suddenly there they are coming around the curve from our drag we had a superb view as they came up the straight the six horses were so close together that a carpet could have covered them but halfway up the yellow of the cableton stable showed to the front before they reached us however desperate bolt was shot and the colonel's horse coming away with a rush passed the post a good six lengths before its rival the duke of balmoral's iris making a bad third it's my race anyhow gasped the colonel passing his hand over his eyes i confess i can make neither head nor tail of it don't you think you have kept up your mystery long enough mr holmes certainly colonel you shall know everything let us all go around and have a look at the horse together here he is he continued as we made our way into the weighing enclosure where only owners and their friends find admittance you have only to wash his face and his leg in spirits of wine and you will find that he is the same old silver blaze as ever you take my breath away i found him in the hands of a faker and took the liberty of running him just as he was sent over my dear sir you have done wonders the horse looks very fit and well it never went better in its life i owe you a thousand apologies for having doubted your ability you have done me a great service by recovering my horse you would do me a greater still if you could lay your hands on the murderer of john straker i have done so said holmes quietly the colonel and i stared at him in amazement you've got him where is he then he is here here where in my company at the present moment the colonel flushed angrily i quite recognize that i'm under obligation to you mr holmes said he but i must regard what you have just said as either a very bad joke or an insult sherlock holmes laughed i assure you that i have not associated you with the crime colonel said he the real murderer is standing immediately behind you he stepped past and laid his hand upon the glossy neck of the thoroughbred the horse cried both the colonel and myself yes the horse and it may lessen his guilt if i say that it was done in self-defense and that john straker was a man who was entirely unworthy of your confidence but there goes the bell and as i stand to win a little on this next race i shall defer a more lengthy explanation until a more fitting time we have the corner of a pullman car to ourselves that evening as we whirled back to london and i fancy that the journey was a short one to colonel ross as well as to myself as we listen to our companion's narrative of the events which had occurred at the dartmoor training stables upon that monday night and the means by which he had unraveled them i confess said he that any theories which i had formed from the newspaper reports were entirely erroneous and yet there were indications there had they not been overlaid by other details which concealed their true import i went to devonshire with the conviction that fitzroy simpson was the true culprit although of course i saw that the evidence against him was by no means complete it was while i was in the carriage just as we reached the trainer's house that the immense significance of the curried mutton occurred to me you may remember that i was distracted and remained sitting after you had all alighted i was marveling in my own mind how i could possibly have overlooked so obvious a clue i confess said the colonel that even now i cannot see how it helps us it was the first link in my chain of reasoning powdered opium is by no means tasteless the flavor is not disagreeable but it is perceptible were it mixed with any ordinary dish the eater would undoubtedly detect it and would probably eat no more a curry was exactly the medium which would disguise this taste by no possible supposition could this stranger fitzroy simpson have caused curry to be served in the trainer's family that night and it is surely too monstrous a coincidence to suppose that he happened to come along with powdered opium upon the very night when a dish happened to be served which would disguise the flavor that is unthinkable therefore simpson becomes eliminated from the case and our attention centers upon straker and his wife the only two people who could have chosen curried mutton for supper that night the opium was added after the dish was set aside for the stable boy for the others had the same for supper with no ill effects which of them then had access to that dish without the maid seeing them before deciding that question i had grasped the significance of the silence of the dog for one true inference invariably suggests others the simpson incident had shown me that a dog was kept in the stables and yet though someone had been in and had fetched out a horse he had not barked enough to arouse the two lads in the loft obviously the midnight visitor was someone the dog knew well i was already convinced or almost convinced that john straker went down to the stables in the dead of night and took out silver blaze for what purpose for a dishonest one obviously or why should he drug his own stable boy and yet i was at a loss to know why there have been cases before now where trainers have made sure of great sums of money by laying against their own horses through agents and then prevented them from winning by fraud sometimes it is a pulling jockey sometimes it is some surer and subtler means what was it here i hope that the contents of his pockets might help me to form a conclusion and so they did you cannot have forgotten the singular knife which was found in the dead man's hand a knife which certainly no sane man would choose for a weapon it was as dr watson told us a form of knife which is used for the most delicate operations known in surgery and it was to be used for a delicate operation that night you must know with your wide experience of turf matters colonel ross that it is possible to make a slight nick upon the tendons of a horse's hand and to do it subcutaneously so as to leave absolutely no trace a horse so treated would develop a slight lameness which would be put down to a strain in exercise or a touch of rheumatism but never to foul play villain scoundrel cried the colonel we have here the explanation of why john straker wished to take the horse out on the moor so spirited a creature would have certainly roused the soundest of sleepers when it felt the prick of the knife it was absolutely necessary to do it in the open air i have been blind cried the colonel of course that was why he needed the candle and struck the match undoubtedly but in examining his belongings i was fortunate to discover not only the method of the crime but even its motives as a man of the world colonel you know that men do not carry other people's bills around in their pockets we have most of us quite enough to do to settle our own i at once concluded that straker was leading a double life and keeping a second establishment the nature of the bill showed that there was a lady in the case and one who had expensive tastes liberal as you are with your servants one hardly expects that they can buy 20 guinea walking dresses for their women i questioned mrs straker as to the dress without her knowing it and having satisfied myself that it had never reached her i made a note of the milliner's address and felt that by calling there with straker's photograph i could easily dispose of the mythical darbyshire from that time on all was plain straker had led out the horse to a hollow where his light would be invisible simpson in his flight had dropped his cravat and straker had picked it up with some idea perhaps that he might use it in securing the horse's leg once in the hollow he had got behind the horse and had struck a light but the creature frightened at the sudden glare and with the strange instinct of animals feeling that some mischief was intended had lashed out and the steel shoe had struck straker full on the forehead he had already in spite of the rain taken off his overcoat in order to do his delicate task and so as he fell his knife gashed his thigh do i make it clear wonderful cried the colonel wonderful you might have been there my final shot was i confess a very long one it struck me that so astute a man as straker would not undertake this delicate tendon licking without a little practice what could he practice my eyes fell upon the sheep and i asked a question which rather to my surprise showed that my surmise was correct you have made it perfectly clear mr holmes when i returned to london i called upon the milliner who at once recognized straker as an excellent customer of the name of darbyshire who had a very dashing wife with a strong partiality for expensive dresses i have no doubt that this woman had plunged him over head and ears in debt and so led him into this miserable plot you have explained all but one thing cried the colonel where was the horse ah it bolted and was cared for by one of your neighbours we must have an in that direction i think this is slapham junction if i'm not mistaken and we should be in victoria in less than 10 minutes if you care to smoke a cigar in our rooms colonel i shall be happy to give you any other details which might interest you

Reviews

I let this loop overnight and finally just heard all of it!😹 fascinating, as all of his stories are… thank you!✨🙏🏼✨

Whoa (no pun intended!)! Who saw that conclusion coming. Very clever, and a mystery rivetingly presented, thank you Mandy. This first put me to sleep but I had to come back to hear what happened to Silver Blaze! 🙏❤️

That Holmes! He does it again! Solves a complex mystery with the greatest of ease! Thank you, Mandy for your excellent reading 🙏🏻📖❤️😊