(*First published in a serialized fashion by The Strand Magazine August 1901 - April 1902. SPOILERS AHEAD)
"A dull and foggy day," is nothing at all as badly penned purple prose as Bulwer-Lytton's infamous, "It was a dark and stormy night." Still, they are hard to separate in my mind, as one conjures up the other. Then we get another instance of 'melancholy' and it dawns on me that a fun drinking game would be to take a swig for each time the word is used. This time, the mood is a bit heavier toward 'impending danger', and something of a flashback sequence or at the least a repeating of events reiterates why we should feel that way. It plays here a bit like Doyle is selling quite hard and heavy-handedly.
After that and Watson deciding not to cue the oddly-overly traumatized Sir Henry in on his plans of nabbing the Black Tor Batman: enter Barrymore. A thought before we do. I like how over-the-top nerve-wracked Henry appears. It's not a wobbly character-build as I'll mention with others. He begins here to border on becoming as fearfully over-wrought as Sir Charles Baskerville. There is a struggle there and a quite palpable one. Nevertheless, Barrymore is ticked-off because Eliza spilled the beans on her criminal brother, and with that info, W and H went to bring in Selden. "The poor fellow has enough to fight against without me putting more upon his track." Oh, and the butler is seen as pale and not so handsome again.
The three men dicker and bicker as to the right and wrong of it all and arrive at letting Selden be because soon he'll head off to South America and England will be safe--screw S. Americans and their safety, apparently. Regardless, ol' JB is so happy to have his brother-in-law off the hook that he offers-up a bit of previously withheld information which also is the crux of this chapter, 'Extract from the Diary of Dr Watson', which is really not an extract but more a series of 'recollections.' I digress... I think... anyway, we learn of L.L. The feminine initials on a letter written to Charles that led to him standing at the moor gate late that fateful night, smoking a cigar and dropping those ashes.
A brief interlude: "I thought of the convict out upon the bleak, cold, shelterless moor. Poor fellow!" Why are we suddenly being sympathetic to this dangerously brutal and apparently remorseless fellow who'd stick at nothing? It is said 'he has suffered something to atone for them,' them being his sins, although his sins surely at first seemed quite larger than camping out for a few or even many nights might well balance-out. A bit inconsistent here. Wobbly.
But just who is this mysterious L.L? Dr Mortimer has the answer, and here he is in his dog cart now! He gives Watson a lift and shares that his little spaniel dog is lost. W tries to tell him he's probably totally fine but thinks to himself that, for some reason, the Gripen Mire done did definitely got him. Feels like a forced reminder of drowning ponies to me. Still, who is this L.L? Mortimer tells Watson it's probably Frankland's daughter, Laura Lyons. Frankland has a kid??? Wait, why is that so shocking? I mean, I agree it's shocking, but why? In any event, she's been mainly cut loose by her vastly estranged kook father, and the local residents all chipped in to set her up some small-ish way.
This is a hot lead, indeed. Let's check it out. Ju-uuu-st not quite yet. First Mortimer talks skulls as Watson dances around more important chatting, thanking his time spent with Holmes for aiding in his skirting the issue prowesses. And get ready to raise a glass, "I have only one other incident to record upon this tempestuous and melancholy day." I begin to feel now as though Doyle might've better laid off some telling to lend more sight to his showing; for there is no shortage of the latter but it does get fogged-over some by overt and copious instances of the former.
That one other incident, it's to do between Barrymore and Watson conversationally and leaves W a 'strong card' to hold in his hand. That strong card reference comes a mere less than 20 words before a game of Ecarte is mentioned as being played twixt Mortimer and Sir H. Can a story be too tightly-spun? Sure, but it's not here--barely. During their play, the butler brings W a cup of coffee. Not tea, coffee. I seldom recommend decaf but might here for the good doctor who's already begun on cigarettes in the previous chapter. The jitters never helped anyone, after all. Lord, how he wishes Holmes was there with him.
That said, it's John Barrymore who's on edge maybe the most (although again everyone is, really). W looks for trouble by asking after Selden's whereabouts and it's wished that he was off to S. America already but it doesn't quite yet seem to be the case. The last delivery of food out into the moor was gone, "unless it was the other man that took it." That's right, Barrymore knows that The Batman doth prowl. Selden told him... so there is direct contact. B doesn't like any of this, none of it at all, and he expounds upon why not within the confines of yet another mini-recap of events. He's had it, the poor butler, and simply cannot wait to be relieved of his burdensome duties by a new staff.
I feel like Barrymore and Watson are much in the same boat.
A lot happens here all told, but it's done rigidly-tight and delivered like a fastball under the chin with a little something extra on it. A chapter to keep you honest, then. A fun chapter too, albeit a tick imbalanced insofar as the cited wobbly characters. But also with just the right dose of development and more than enough but not too much rapid exposition. Plus, a new character! My main (I suppose) gripe is again, the pounding and piling-on of mood, or how it's done--in a quite simple short-cut of a manner. But hey, it works and I am well-hooked and on the hook.
ADDITIONAL HOUN
Thoughts on Chapter 9
Thoughts on Chapter 11
You might also wish to read my article: Card Games in Sherlock Holmes Canon & Premium Tobacco Pairings Vol. 2 Ecarte.
::: very :::