Chapter 8

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Chapter 8: The Baker Street Irregulars

Holmes recalls that Toby had hesitated in selecting a scent to follow and had simply chosen the wrong one. They decide to go back and follow the other trail. Toby then leads him to the river.

Boat hire

Holmes deduces that Jonathan Small and his accomplice must have boarded a boat on the river.
He determines that they hired a boat from Mordecai Smith.
Mrs Smith, Mordecai’s wife, tells Holmes that she is worried about her husband, who has been out since the day before, having been hired by a one-legged man, to sail his steamboat.

Newspaper report

Holmes sends a wire to the Baker Street Irregulars, asking them to meet them.
They return to Baker Street to freshen up and wait.
- Watson continues to dwell on his desire for Mary.
- Holmes passes Watson a newspaper story, in which Inspector Jones is praised for arresting Thaddeus Sholto, the housekeeper, and the Indian butler at Pondicherry Lodge in connection with Bartholomew’s murder. In the article, Jones is said to be the one who has solved the case.

Holmes pays the urchins

The doorbell rings and the Baker Street Irregulars appear (loudly). The group is comprised of a group of street urchins, all bedraggled.
Holmes pays the street urchins to go out and search for the steamboat owned by Mordecai Smith. Holmes gives each boy a shilling and offers a whole guinea to the one who finds the boat.

Identity of the accomplice

Holmes finally reveals the identity of Jonathan Small’s accomplice to Watson.
- He had small feet without shoes.
- He had a stone mace.
- He was small and agile.
- He had poisoned darts.
He was a pygmy from the Andaman Islands in the Bay or Bengal (India).

Attitudes towards cultures

Through their discussion of the accomplice, Holmes displays Victorian attitudes towards other cultures once more: ‘They are naturally hideous, having large, misshapen heads, small, fierce eyes, and distorted features… They have always been a terror to shipwrecked crews, braining the survivors with their stone-headed clubs, or shooting them with their poisoned arrows. These massacres are invariably concluded by a cannibal feast’.
Watson goes to sleep and dreams about Mary Morstan.

Key Quotations from Chapter 8

Here are two key quotations from Chapter 8:

Mental challenges

‘No… I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness exhausts me completely’ (Sherlock Holmes).
- Despite investigating for twenty-four hours without a break, Holmes thrives on mental challenge.
- He struggles when his brain is unstimulated but loves the thrill of mental stimulation.
- You could argue he is the ideal detective here because he lives for his work and finds it hard to function when he has no work to do. He also thrives on finding accurate results.

Savage on the loose

‘They are naturally hideous, having large, misshapen heads, small, fierce eyes, and distorted features… These massacres are invariably concluded by a cannibal feast' (Sherlock Holmes).
- We cannot argue that Holmes’ attitudes are especially racist here – he is voicing Victorian attitudes towards other cultures, which were generally very racist.
- This description is used to terrify the reader – there is a small, sneaky man on the loose, who is from a fierce culture and who apparently engages in ‘cannibal feasts’.