A Study in Scarlet - Chapter 02 - B1-B2 Sample Page
The Science of Deduction
We took the rooms at 221B Baker Street, and I began to study my new companion. Sherlock Holmes was a strange man. He knew a great deal about some things, and nothing at all about others. He could talk for an hour about types of soil, or tobacco ash, or old crimes. But he did not know that the Earth moves around the Sun, and he did not care. He said a man’s brain is like a small empty room. A fool fills it with rubbish. A wise man keeps only the tools he needs for his work.
One morning I read a magazine article called “The Book of Life.” It said that a clever man can read a stranger’s whole story just by looking, closely and carefully. It said that from a single drop of water, a thinker could imagine a whole ocean, without ever seeing the sea. All life, it said, is a great chain. If you are shown one link, you can know the rest. I thought it was nonsense, and I said so.
“You are wrong,” said Holmes calmly. “I wrote that article myself.” I was embarrassed. Then he told me his secret. He is a consulting detective, the only one in the world. When the police cannot solve a case, they come to him. He looks at the same facts they have, and he sees what they cannot.
“You were surprised,” he said, “when I told you at our first meeting that you had come from Afghanistan. You thought it was magic. It was not. It was a chain of small observations, one leading to the next. Let us see if my new apprentices can follow the same chain.”
Every case works the same way. Learn it now.
- ObserveNotice one small thing.
- EvidenceSay what it really means. Separate fact from guess.
- ThreadExplain the conclusion, and how you reached it.
Your reward is a Scarlet Thread. But remember the one rule: you do not earn a Thread for guessing the answer. You earn a Thread only when you explain it out loud, step by step. Anyone can shout “Afghanistan!” That earns nothing. Holmes wants the reason, not the word.
Holmes will not tell you how he knew. He will only tell you what he saw. Here is what he noticed about the doctor at their first meeting. For each clue, say the Observe, the Evidence, and the Thread out loud. Earn a Scarlet Thread for each link you explain well.
- He looks like a doctor, but he stands and moves like a soldier.
- His face is tanned brown, but the skin of his wrists is pale.
- His face is thin, tired, and worn.
- He holds his left arm stiffly, as if it is hurt.
The final Thread. Now put the links together. Where in the world was there a war, in a hot country, where a British army doctor could suffer hardship and wound his arm? Say your answer, and explain the whole chain that leads to it.
Holmes nods slowly. The chain is complete. As the Book of Life said: all life is a great chain, and you have followed it, one link to the next. You have earned your first Scarlet Threads.
At that moment, a man came down the street outside. He was strong and plainly dressed, and he held a large blue envelope, looking for the right door. Holmes glanced at him and said at once, “A retired sergeant of the Marines.” I did not know how he could tell. But he was right again.
The envelope held a letter from Inspector Tobias Gregson of Scotland Yard. A man had been found dead that morning in an empty house at No. 3, Lauriston Gardens, off the Brixton Road. There was no wound on the body. Nothing had been stolen. Gregson was puzzled, and he asked for Holmes’s help.
Holmes read the letter twice. His eyes were bright. “Come, Doctor,” he said, reaching for his hat. “We are going to Brixton.”
Your first lesson is over. Now the real case begins. In the next chapter, you go to the scene of the crime.
Chapter Two · running the tutorial
- Delivery. Narrative and The Case Arrives are read aloud as Watson, or printed onto the Casebook page.
- This is the first gameplay. It teaches the engine (Observe, Evidence, Thread) and awards the group’s first Scarlet Threads.
- Expected conclusions (for your reference; do not print on the player task):
- Clue 1: an army doctor.
- Clue 2: recently in a hot country (the tropics), because the tan is not his natural skin.
- Clue 3: he has suffered hardship or illness.
- Clue 4: his arm was wounded.
- Final Thread: Afghanistan (the war).
- Award rule. Give one Scarlet Thread for each link a team explains aloud (Observe, Evidence, Thread). Do not award a Thread for naming “Afghanistan” without the chain. The tutorial is deliberately generous; it is practice.
- Staging option. If a “Watson” actor is present, teams may observe him directly (tanned face, stiff arm) instead of reading the clues from a card.
- Canon note (Golden Rule 1). The Book of Life, the consulting detective, the Afghanistan reasoning, the blue envelope, the retired sergeant of Marines, and Gregson’s summons to Lauriston Gardens are all from Doyle’s text. The fixed line “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive” was used in Chapter One.
A Study in Scarlet - Chapter 02 - B2-C1 Sample Page
The Science of Deduction
We took possession of the rooms at 221B Baker Street, and I set about studying my companion. Holmes was a man of strange and uneven knowledge. He could discourse for an hour on the varieties of tobacco ash, or the tracing of footprints, yet he was frankly ignorant of matters every schoolboy knew. He had never troubled to learn, he told me plainly, that the Earth travels round the Sun, and saw no reason to remember it. A man’s brain, he said, is like an empty attic: the fool crams it with lumber, while the skilled workman stocks it only with the tools he needs.
One morning I took up a magazine and found an article, marked in pencil, under the ambitious title “The Book of Life.” It argued that a trained observer might read a stranger’s whole history at a glance, from a fingernail, a coat sleeve, a boot, the callus on a finger. “From a drop of water,” it declared, “a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara.” All life, it said, is a great chain, whose nature is known whenever we are shown a single link of it. I thought it ingenious nonsense, and said so.
“You would lose your money,” said Holmes calmly. “I wrote that article myself.” He was, he explained, a consulting detective, the only one of his kind. When the official police lost their way, they laid their evidence before him, and he set them straight. He could often unravel from his armchair what others could not solve upon the scene.
“You were astonished,” he went on, “when at our first meeting I told you that you had come from Afghanistan. You supposed I had been told. I had not. I read it, link by link, in less than a second. Let us see whether these apprentices of mine can follow the same chain.”
Every case in this series runs on a single engine. Master it now.
- ObserveSingle out one concrete detail.
- EvidenceState precisely what that detail proves, separating fact from assumption.
- ThreadArticulate the conclusion it forces, and the reasoning that gets you there.
You are rewarded in Scarlet Threads, but only for reasoning made aloud. Naming the conclusion earns nothing. The word “Afghanistan,” shouted without its chain, is worthless. Holmes pays for the how, never the what.
Holmes will not tell you how he knew. He will tell you only what he observed in the doctor at their first meeting. Working together, convert each observation into evidence, and then into a thread, out loud. A Scarlet Thread is awarded for each link you can justify.
- A man of medical type, yet bearing himself like a soldier.
- A face burned dark, yet wrists still fair.
- A countenance haggard and drawn.
- A left arm held stiffly, and unnaturally.
The final thread. Combine the links into a single conclusion, and defend it. Where in the tropics could an English army doctor have met such hardship, and come by such a wound?
“Here is a gentleman of a medical type, but with the air of a military man. Clearly an army doctor, then. He has just come from the tropics, for his face is dark, and that is not the natural tint of his skin, for his wrists are fair. He has undergone hardship and sickness, as his haggard face says clearly. His left arm has been injured. He holds it in a stiff and unnatural manner. Where in the tropics could an English army doctor have seen much hardship and got his arm wounded? Clearly in Afghanistan.”
As the Book of Life promised, all life is a great chain, and you have followed it, link by link. You have earned your first Scarlet Threads.
As Holmes spoke, a stalwart, plainly dressed man came down the far side of the street, a large blue envelope in his hand, peering at the door numbers. “You mean the retired sergeant of Marines,” Holmes remarked, before I had even framed my question, and, absurd as it seemed, he was right once more.
The envelope carried a letter from Inspector Tobias Gregson of Scotland Yard. A gentleman had been found dead that morning in an empty house at No. 3, Lauriston Gardens, off the Brixton Road. There was no wound upon him, and nothing had been stolen. Gregson confessed himself baffled, and begged Holmes’s opinion.
Holmes read it through, a light of interest kindling in his eyes. “Come, Doctor,” he said, reaching for his hat. “We are going to Brixton.”
Your instruction is finished. The case itself begins at the scene.
Chapter Two · running the tutorial
- Delivery. Narrative and The Case Arrives are read aloud as Watson, or printed onto the Casebook page.
- This is the first gameplay. It teaches the engine (Observe, Evidence, Thread) and awards the group’s first Scarlet Threads.
- Expected conclusions (for your reference; do not print on the player task):
- Clue 1: an army doctor.
- Clue 2: recently returned from the tropics; the tan is not his natural colouring.
- Clue 3: he has undergone hardship or sickness.
- Clue 4: his arm was wounded.
- Final thread: Afghanistan (the war).
- Award rule. Give one Scarlet Thread for each link a team justifies aloud. Do not award a Thread for naming “Afghanistan” without the chain. The tutorial is deliberately generous; it is practice.
- The reveal. Holmes’s words above are verbatim canon. Read them only after the teams have tried, as the reward and the model answer.
- Staging option. If a “Watson” actor is present, teams may observe him directly instead of reading the clues from a card.
- Canon note (Golden Rule 1). The Book of Life, the consulting detective, the Afghanistan reasoning, the blue envelope, the retired sergeant of Marines, and Gregson’s summons to Lauriston Gardens are all from Doyle’s text. The fixed line “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive” was used in Chapter One.