The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Chapter 3 — A Sovereign for the Best Man

publié le 16 juil. 2026 · 368 mots

Dr. John Watson, newly married and returned to medical practice, visits his former companion Sherlock Holmes at Baker Street after a period of estrangement. He finds the brilliant detective actively engaged in a new case. Showing off his trademark powers of observation, Holmes deduces Watson’s recent weight gain, his return to medical practice, and even a careless servant girl simply by examining Watson's boots and fingers. Holmes then shares an unsigned, undated note warning of an impending visitor of great importance. By examining the unique physical properties and watermark of the pink-tinted paper, Holmes determines that it was manufactured in Bohemia and written by a German.

Shortly thereafter, a physically imposing and opulently dressed masked man calling himself Count Von Kramm arrives at the lodgings. Although the visitor demands absolute discretion and initially asks to speak with Holmes alone, the detective insists that Watson remain. After securing a promise of secrecy, the visitor admits that he is actually Wilhelm Gottsreich Sigismond von Ormstein, the hereditary King of Bohemia. He reveals that he is being blackmailed by Irene Adler, a formidable American opera singer with whom he was once romantically entangled. Adler possesses a compromising photograph of the two of them together and threatens to send it to the family of the King’s fiancée, a highly conservative Scandinavian princess, on the day their betrothal is publicly announced. Having failed to retrieve the photograph through force and theft, the King retains Holmes to recover it, granting him unlimited funds for expenses.

The following afternoon, Watson returns to Baker Street to find Holmes disguised as an out-of-work groom. Holmes explains that he spent his morning gathering intelligence at Adler's residence, Briony Lodge. From local stable-hands, he learned that Adler leads a quiet life but is frequently visited by Godfrey Norton, a handsome lawyer. While Holmes was observing the house, Norton arrived in a flurry and rushed off to the Church of St. Monica, followed immediately by Adler. Holmes pursued them in a cab and entered the church, where he was unexpectedly dragged to the altar to serve as a legal witness for the couple's sudden marriage. In gratitude, Adler gifted Holmes a sovereign, which he vows to keep as a souvenir.