The Adventure of the Red Circle

Mrs. Warren, a landlady, comes to 221B Baker Street with some questions about her lodger. A youngish, heavily bearded man, who spoke good but accented English who came to her and offered double her usual rent on the condition that he get the room on his own terms. He went out the first night that he was there, and came back after midnight when the rest of the household had gone to bed. Since then, neither Mrs. Warren, her husband, nor their servant girl has seen him. The lodger insisted on having the Daily Gazette every morning, and sometimes requested other things. All requests were printed on a slip of paper left on a chair outside the room where meals were also left.

Mrs. Warren has brought some spent matches and a cigarette end from her lodger, hoping that Holmes can read something from them. It is clear that the cigarette has been smoked without a holder, which is quite unusual for a man with whiskers. He also eats very little, and never receives visitors or messages.

After the landlady leaves, Holmes remarks to Dr. Watson that it seems likely that the person in Mrs. Warren's house is not the bearded man who made the arrangements. The evidence lies not only in the cigarette, but in the fact that the lodger's knowledge of English is not as good as the bearded man's (he wrote MATCH as one of his requests, for instance, not MATCHES). His "return" on the first night was very late so that no-one would see him and he has taken great pains to ensure no-one has seen him since.

Holmes suspects that messages are being sent to the lodger, perhaps in the Daily Gazette's agony column. He finds them: "Will find some sure means of communication. Meanwhile, this column. G." (posted only two days after the lodger's arrival), "Am making successful arrangements. Patience and prudence. The clouds will pass. G." (three days later), and "The path is clearing. If I find chance signal message remember code agreed–one A, two B, and so on. You will hear soon. G." (yesterday). Holmes needs only wait one day for a very useful message: "High red house with white stone facings. Third floor. Second window left. After dusk. G." Holmes decides that it is time to reconnoitre Mrs. Warren's neighbourhood.

Just then, Mrs. Warren arrives complaining that her husband was kidnapped that morning and taken by cab to Hampstead Heath where he was unceremoniously cast onto the roadway. He never got a clear look at his kidnappers or their cab. Holmes realizes that the ruffians mistook Mr. Warren for the lodger, and dumped him after they realized their mistake.

Holmes and Watson go to Mrs. Warren's house just before lunchtime, hoping to catch a glimpse of the lodger as he takes his lunch from the chair. Before going in, Holmes observes that the lodger's window commands a good view down Howe Street, and at the other end is a house matching the one mentioned in the agony column.

In Mrs. Warren's house, Holmes and Watson hide in a boxroom. By using a mirror they see the lodger retrieve the lunch tray from the hall, discovering that the lodger is a comely-featured young woman with a dark complexion. They realize that she has been carefully printing (rather than writing in common handwriting) her requests to hide her gender. It is equally clear that she and her bearded confederate, likely a lover or husband, are in some kind of danger and seeking refuge. From the lodger's horror at suspecting a trick at lunchtime, and the exceptional precautions that have been taken to ensure secrecy, it must be a matter of life and death.

That evening, Holmes and Watson are on hand to see the lodger's confederate's lantern-signals, sent by a waving candle. The first message says "Attenta, attenta, attenta!" (Beware, beware, beware!). It becomes clear that they are Italian, and from the "-a" ending that the message is meant for a woman. The signaller then flashes "Pericolo" ("Danger") and then "Peri-".

Realizing that the signaller has been interrupted, Holmes and Watson rush to the house and are surprised to meet Inspector Gregson and a Pinkerton detective from the United States named Leverton (described by Holmes as "the hero of the Long Island cave mystery"). They are lying in wait for Giuseppe Gorgiano, a vicious killer of whose infamy Holmes is well aware. The house has only one door and they know that he is inside. Gregson and Leverton have been unaware of the signalled messages. Gregson says that three men have come out of the house, but none was Gorgiano, who is a giant. One, however, matched the description of the man who made the arrangements at Mrs. Warren's.

Going into the house and to the room where the signalling came from, Holmes, Watson, Gregson, and Leverton discover a grisly scene. The giant Gorgiano lies on the floor in a pool of blood from having been impaled with a large knife, apparently in a fight. The bearded man is undoubtedly the killer. The lady's arriving at the door shortly afterward is a surprise to everyone but Holmes, who had impersonated the lady's confederate by re-lighting the same candle that her confederate had used, and signalling in Italian for her to come.

Her name is Emilia Lucca, and her confederate is Gennaro, her husband. The men are rather taken aback by her obvious joy at this ghastly sight. She confirms that the Luccas were seeking refuge from the dangerous Giuseppe Gorgiano, who was out to kill Gennaro for betraying the Red Circle, a secret criminal organization that Gennaro had become involved in as a heatedly-resentful young man who was furious at world injustices. Gennaro had never actually participated in any of the society's crimes, however, and he'd eventually decided to leave the organization in spite of the threatened consequences. He and his wife fled Italy and went to New York to escape the Red Circle, but Gorgiano, another member, discovered Gennaro there, and contrived to oblige him to murder a good friend, a man who had gotten Gennaro started in legitimate business in the US.

Gennaro had no intention of doing such a thing, and even warned his friend of the Red Circle's orders. The police were also informed. The Luccas then fled to England where Gorgiano tracked Gennaro down, intending to kill Gennaro and abduct the lovely Emilia, to whom he had developed a lustful attraction. Gorgiano died in the ensuing fight, however.

Gregson feels compelled to take Emilia down to the police station, and the same fate probably awaits Gennaro, but as their actions had been purely in self-defense, it seems likely that there will be no charges.

"The Adventure of the Red Circle" was first published in the UK in The Strand Magazine in March–April 1911, and in the United States in the US edition of the Strand in April–May 1911.[1] The story was published with three illustrations by H. M. Brock and one by Joseph Simpson in The Strand Magazine, and with the same illustrations in the US edition of the Strand.[2] It was included in the short story collection His Last Bow,[2] which was published in the UK and the US in October 1917.[3]

This is the last appearance of Inspector Tobias Gregson in Doyle's work. Explanations for this have been a matter of debate for readers. Although Gregson's meeting with Holmes is coincidental, he is swift to grasp the implications of getting his help and claims to have been grateful for his work with the Yard in the past.

The Pinkerton detective Leverton is called "the hero of the Long Island cave mystery" by Holmes. But there is no explanation of what the Long Island cave mystery entailed. This is considered by some to be one of untold cases of the Holmesian canon, though it doesn't seem to have involved Holmes. This mystery seems paradoxical because there are no real caves on Long Island, New York, but there are caves on Long Island, in the Bahamas.

Howe Street is a creation of Conan Doyle, overlooking Orme Street, which is commonly known as Great Ormond Street located in Central London, northeast from the British Museum. Watson describes Orme as a "narrow thoroughfare" and Howe in possession of "more pretentious houses."

Notes

Sources

• Cawthorne, Nigel (2011). A Brief History of Sherlock Holmes. Running Press. ISBN 978-0762444083.
• Dickerson, Ian (2019). Sherlock Holmes and His Adventures on American Radio. BearManor Media. ISBN 978-1629335087.
• Smith, Daniel (2014) [2009]. The Sherlock Holmes Companion: An Elementary Guide (Updated ed.). Aurum Press. ISBN 978-1-78131-404-3.

• Works related to The Adventure of the Red Circle at Wikisource
• Media related to The Adventure of the Red Circle at Wikimedia Commons
• "The Adventure of the Red Circle" at Project Gutenberg
• The Adventure of the Red Circle at IMDb produced by Granada Television (1994)