Punishment:None“I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It would break her heart—it will break her heart when she hears that I am arrested.” “It may not come to that,” said Holmes.“I am a dying man,” said old Turner. “I have had diabetes for years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a month.”“Just tell us the truth, I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall not use it unless it is absolutely needed.”“Farewell, then,” said the old man, solemnly. “Your own death-beds, when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace which you have given to mine.”
Official Police:Inspector Lestrade. “We have got to the deductions and the inferences,” said Lestrade, winking at me.“I find it hard enough to tackle the facts, Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies.”“You are right,” said Holmes, demurely; “you do find it very hard to tackle the facts.”
Characters:James McCarthy, 18 years old, “he is not a very quick-witted youth, though comely to look at, and I should think, sound at heart.”Daughter, Miss Turner, 18 years old, “violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her cheeks.”William Crowder, gameskeeper for Mr. Turner.Patience Moran, 14 years old, daughter of lodge-keeper.Maid, Hatherley Farm, showed us the boots of her master.
Others Mentioned:Anstruther, doctor who filled in for Watson while he was with Holmes.McCarthy’s maid.John Cobb, groom.Dr. Willows, Turner’s doctor.George Meredith, English poet and novelist who Holmes wanted to talk about.
Locations:Reading, along train route, Holmes had stayed silent until they passed.Ross, past Stroud ValleyHereford, where James McCarthy was being held in jailHatherley Farm, McCarthy home, given him rent-free by Turner. Widespread, comfortable-looking building, two-storied, slate roofed, with great yellow blotches of lichen upon the grey walls.
Locations Mentioned:Afghanistan, referring to Watson’s ability to promptly ready for travel.Australia, where John Turner & Charles McCarthy first met.Regent-Street, where in London Turner & McCarthy met again.Bristol, where young McCarthy had been for three days before the murder.Swindon, where Holmes & Watson planned to lunch.Victoria, where Turner & McCarthy met working gold mines.Bermuda Docks, where young Turner’s first wife’s real husband worked.Rotterdam, where Turner’s cigars are rolled.A gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne.
Evidence & Clues:informing him that he was a prisoner he remarked that he was not surprised to hear it and that it was no more than he deserved—it was followed by a protestation of innocence.McCarthy’s dying reference to a rat.The three days James was away before his father’s murder, he spent in Bristol with his bigamist barmaid wife.“I would call your attention very particularly to two points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with someone at the Pool, and that someone could not have been his son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry, ‘Cooee!’ before he knew that his son had returned. Those are crucial points upon which the case depends.”Holmes’ request, “showed us the boots which her master wore at the time of his death and also a pair of the son’s,” not the pair he had then had. Having measured these very carefully from seven or eight different points.“twice he was walking, and once he ran swiftly so that the soles are deeply marked, and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his story.”Marks in the ground, the butt end of the gun as the son stood listening.“What have we here? Tip-toes! Tip-toes! Square, too quite unusual boots! They come they go, they come again—of course that was for the cloak.”“A jagged stone was lying among the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained.”“The murder was done with it.” (jagged stone) “How do you know?” “The grass was growing under it.”
Motive:“There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more afraid of her knowing my past than the police. Whatever he wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing which I could not give. He asked for Alice.” (To marry his son James)
Timeline:Early 1860s Turner meets McCarthy at the gold diggings in Australia. “His grip has been me these twenty years.”The previous three days, young McCarthy was in Bristol.Morning, young McCarthy returns to Boscombe Valley from Bristol.3:00 p.m. Monday last, June 3, McCarthy leaves his house at Hatherley and walks about a quarter of a mile down to Boscombe Pool.That morning young McCarthy returns from three days in Bristol.June 4, Tuesday, an inquest is held and a verdict of Wilful Murder is returned on McCarthy.June 5, Wednesday, he is brought before the magistrates at Ross.1st Day11:15 a.m. Holmes & Watson take the train from Paddington Station for Boscombe Valley.Watson, “But if I am to go I must pack at once, for I only have a half an hour.”4:00 p.m., Holmes & Watson arrive at the pretty little town of Ross.It is late before Sherlock Holmes returns from seeing McCarthy in jail at Hereford.2nd Day9:00 a.m., “Lestrade called for us with a carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe Pool.”Leaving Lestrade and Boscombe Pool, Holmes and Watson return to their hotel for lunch.Mr. John Turner visits Holmes & Watson in their hotel sitting-room. Confesses that it was he who murdered McCarthy and signs a confession. Knowing Turner is dying Holmes promises not to use it unless it is absolutely necessary.Evening train, Holmes and Watson return to London.Seven months later, Mr. John Turner dies.
Story Conclusion:“James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes, on the strength of a number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes, and submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily together, in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their past.”
Weather:1st day, “at Boscombe Valley, 29 barometric pressure, no wind, and not a cloud in the sky.”“It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able to go over the ground.”
Payment:None Mentioned.
Quotes:“I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy.”“I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It would break her heart—it will break her heart when she hears that I am arrested.” “It may not come to that,” said Holmes.“I never hear of such a case as this that I do not think of Baxter’s words, and say ‘There but for the grace of God goes Sherlock Holmes.’”Crime and Deduction“It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those simple cases which are so extremely difficult.”“Singularity is almost invariably a clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more difficult is it to bring home.”“Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing, it may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something entirely different.”“My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness which characterizes you. You shave every morning, and in this season you shave by the sunlight, but since your shaving is less and less complete as we get further back on the left side, until it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less well illuminated than the other.”“I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and inference. Therein