Summary
Chapter 5
Ames recounts his version of the events of the night of Douglas's murder. He had worked for Douglas for about five years and found him a friendly employer. Douglas never seemed very restless except for the day of his murder. That night Ames did not hear the shot because he was in the pantry at the time, but he did hear the bell ringing wildly. He saw Mrs. Douglas coming down the stairs and Mr. Barker urging her to go back. She was not screaming or crying.
The housekeeper was nearer to the front of the house but only heard the bell ringing. She was hard of hearing and may not have heard the shot because of that. She saw Mr. Barker, pale and anxious, coming out of the study. He told Mrs. Allen to stay with Mrs. Douglas, and she did.
Cecil Barker speaks with the men next. He adds nothing to the account that he’d told the other detectives. He sees the bloodstain as conclusive, but does not know how the killer escaped. He speaks of Douglas next, explaining that they met when Cecil was a young man in California. Douglas emigrated there and the two became partners at a mining claim. Douglas sold his share and moved to England; when Barker moved there as well, they renewed their friendship.
It seemed to Barker than Douglas had some sort of danger hanging over him, and he wondered if some sort of secret society Douglas belonged to was after him—perhaps that was why he moved to England.
Answering the detectives’ questions, Barker states that he and Douglas knew each other for five years. The only place Douglas had mentioned was Chicago. He was not very social at the mining claim, and one time a hard-looking crowd came looking for him. They were Americans but not miners, which had seemed suspicious. Barker also tells them that Douglas was always armed.
MacDonald asks how close Barker is to Mrs. Douglas. When the detective’s questions become a bit more probing, Barker grows angry. Finally he says that Douglas’s one fault was jealousy. He was fond of Barker and his wife, but Douglas always seemed angry whenever the two of them would talk or share a look.
MacDonald asks if Barker knew the wedding ring is gone, and Barker says it seems that way. MacDonald fixates on that and asks what he means; Barker explains that yes, the ring is gone, but he does not know why. MacDonald also asks about when the candle was lit; Barker explains that he lit the lamp and blew out the candle when he came in.
Not long after this interview, the group meets Mrs. Douglas, a beautiful and elegant woman of thirty. She asks if they have found anything; Watson thinks it sounds like there is more of an undertone of fear than hope to her query.
She gives her account of hearing the shot and being sent back to her room. When asked about her background she replies that she had been married to Douglas for five years. She admits that she knew there was some sort of danger about him but he always refused to tell her anything. Her intuition and listening skills, though, helped her ascertain some of what bothered him. The words 'Valley of Fear' stuck out in her mind, and she would hear him bemoan the fact that they would never get out of this valley. When she would ask him about this, he explained nothing to her, but she figured out that the name 'Bodymaster McGinty' has something to do with this terrible place.
MacDonald asks if there is any reason she can think of that someone would take the wedding ring, especially as she professed to a lot of romance between she and her husband, and for a second Watson thinks he sees a smile on her face. She says she has no idea.
The questioning ends and Mrs. Douglas leaves. Holmes muses for a moment and asks Ames to come in. He inquires what shoes Barker was wearing the night of the murder. Ames responds that he was wearing house slippers. Holmes finds the slippers and looks on the bottom. They are covered in blood, and the mark of the window matches that of the sole of the slipper. The men are all astonished.
Chapter 6
Watson decides to let the detectives talk amongst themselves and head back to the village inn. First, though, he decides to wander about the lovely and peaceful gardens around Manor House. As he comes across a clump of yew trees with a bench, he sees Barker and Mrs. Douglas. They seem very friendly: Mrs. Douglas’s face is lit up unlike it was in the house, and the two lean in toward each other intimately.
Watson turns to leave, but the pair identifies him, and Barker calls him over. Watson is cool and says he cares not for their business. He makes to leave but they call him back. Mrs. Douglas asks if Holmes is the sort of detective who does things on his own, or if he would tell law enforcement the things he finds out. Watson is annoyed by this and moves to leave again, but the woman cries out and he is struck by the sincerity in her voice. He finally concedes that Holmes is an independent investigator, but that he has great respect for the men with whom he works. Watson walks away, and sees the two whispering to one another.
Holmes later says he wants none of their confidence. He then cheerfully says he is making progress as long as they can find the missing dumbbell, for only one was found in the study near the body. Watson is surprised and wonders what this has to do with the case. Holmes replies that no one works out with only one dumbbell.
Holmes is the picture of contentment and intellectual excitement. He lights his pipe and begins to ruminate. He notes that Mrs. Douglas and Barker are collaborating on the lie. There was no way that the murderer could have killed Douglas and left in the amount of time allotted. The assassin must have been alone with Douglas for some time before killing him. The gunshot was clearly the cause of death, but it most likely happened earlier than Barker described. In fact, the housekeeper had mentioned hearing a muffled noise like a door slamming a half hour before the gunshot was said to have gone off, and this was probably the real shot. What, he wonders, did Barker and Mrs. Douglas do in that half hour? It is a badly stage-managed affair, he observes.
Watson asks if he thinks the two of them murdered Douglas; Holmes prefers not to answer that directly, though he indicates that they were certainly involved somehow. Everyone questioned told him that the Douglases seemed very much in love. There is also the issue of the “Valley of Fear,” and association of danger with Douglas. Watson is skeptical of this, and Holmes humors him. He says yes, perhaps they made all that up to cover their tracks, but the choice of the shotgun as weapon makes no sense. It is also absurd that they would take the dead man’s wedding ring; this practically advertised their putative affair.
Holmes continues, suggesting that it seems likely that an outsider connected to Douglas who was desirous of seeking some sort of vengeance came and killed the man. Barker and Mrs. Douglas arrived, Holmes speculates, and the assassin spoke to them and convinced them that if they said anything he would reveal a scandalous secret about Douglas. The man then escaped and decided to go on foot and left his bicycle. Barker and Mrs. Douglas set up the scene.
Watson is a bit more convinced, but still wary. Holmes announces he needs a night alone in the study to think about this. He says he needs only an umbrella, which Watson points out is a useless weapon.
That evening, MacDonald and Mason return. MacDonald is pleased because he was able to trace the bicycle to a man named Hargrave. This man, clearly an American but carrying a British suitcase and the bicycle, checked into a hotel two days ago. There is no more information about his background, and no knowledge of what he did after he left yesterday with his bicycle. MacDonald reads the description of the man, which is quite curious because it sounds like Douglas, the murdered man.
MacDonald offers a theory as to what happened. Hargrave carried the shotgun in his valise and set off for Manor House. He hid his bicycle and waited for Douglas. He intended to use the gun outside where it would have attracted no undue notice. Douglas never came outside, so Hargrave snuck into the house, shot Douglas, and escaped.
Holmes nods in appreciation, and tells them bluntly Barker and Mrs. Douglas are in a conspiracy together. Mason sighs and says that the woman has never been to America, and thus this is all very strange. Holmes tells them his plan to stay in the study and figure out why there is only one dumbbell.
Watson retires to bed. Holmes wakes him in the middle of the night and asks if Watson would be afraid to sleep in the same room as a lunatic or an idiot. Watson is surprised and says no, and Holmes replies that that is a good thing.
Analysis
The mystery deepens in these few chapters, with the suspicions regarding Cecil Barker and Mrs. Douglas seemingly better founded than before. Douglas’s background also offers fodder for thought. The words “Valley of Fear” and “Bodymaster McGinty” will loom large in the tale for the time, as they are rather inscrutable and hint at something extremely ominous.
One of the most salient characteristics of the Holmes tales narrated by Watson is the very fact that readers are kept at arm's length from the detective and his thoughts. We are only able to see what Watson sees; we cannot hear Holmes’s thoughts or follow to where those thoughts are leading. When Holmes muses, vanishes, and alludes without explanation, we are left waiting and wondering just like Watson and, in this tale, Mason and MacDonald. MacDonald’s frustration resonates because it is indeed difficult to imagine that Holmes knows the answer to the mystery but is not yet willing to share with the officials on the case. A cynical take on this posits that Holmes does not want to be proven wrong and thus holds off until his accuracy is proven, but it is more likely that Holmes knows that involving more people in his speculation would make it more likely that something would go wrong.
Another characteristic of Watson’s narration is that readers actually find out very little about Watson himself. He comes across as enthusiastic, supportive, laudatory of Holmes, and possessive of a strong moral compass and intellect himself. He is referred to as a historian, and is also an able participant in the solving of the mystery, but occasionally extracts himself from the work of the detectives knowing he is not actually one of them. He possesses good intuition and an ability to detect sincerity and authenticity within people. He has his own speculations and feels free to challenge Holmes in the detective’s conclusions, but ultimately he allows rationality, probability, logic, and evidence to rule the day. He does not zealously guard positions when they no longer seem tenable.
These positive characteristics no doubt stem from and reinforce the fact that Watson is a general practitioner. As a medical man, he no doubt needs to possess a clearheaded, logical, and pragmatic mentality. Holmes scholar Craig Hilton said of Watson in a talk, “When it comes to the end of things, Doctor Watson was a man you could trust. He was as honest as he was dedicated, and if he didn't spend his whole working years solidly behind a GP's desk it was only because he didn't let his one profession dominate his life. We his readers could not have known Holmes in the way we do, had not his zealotry been viewed through Watson's stability, his cold analysis through Watson's empathy, and his specialisation through Watson's well-rounded comprehensivity.”
Some readers may want to know more about Dr. John Watson, especially if this is one of their first forays into the world of Sherlock Holmes. To begin, there have been many speculations as to whom Watson was based on (if he was indeed based on a real person). In 2014 a BBC article explained the usual attributions, and also posed a new hypothesis. A man named Cuthbert Smith stated in 1938 that his father, William Smith, who had a practice in Dundee in the early 20th century, was the man on whom Watson was based. Members of the Scottish Osteopathy Society who were looking at old newspapers discovered this newspaper article penned by Cuthbert Smith. Dr. Smith met Dr. Joseph Bell while he was studying in Edinburgh; Bell was the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes. Cuthbert Smith wrote that Doyle and his father marveled at Dr. Bell, and that Doyle asked to create a character based on him. Other suggestions for Watson’s inspiration include Dr. James Watson, a Southsea doctor and acquaintance of Doyle’s, and Surgeon-Major Alexander Francis Preston, who served in the Afghan war.
