The Adventure of the Retired Colourman

Synopsis:

The short story “The Adventure of the Retired Colourman” by Arthur Conan Doyle is one of the stories of the Case Book of Sherlock Holmes. One of the characters named Sherlock Holmes in this story is investigating on a missing case. He is hired by an old retired man, Josiah Amberley, to investigate about his wife’s missing with a neighbor, Dr. Ray Ernest. Mr. Josiah also claims that two people are missing along with his cash and securities and therefore he wants to catch both of them. Holmes gives this case to Dr. Watson to handle and find as much as evidences for this case. Holmes gives this case to Dr. Watson because he is busy with other cases and therefore he does not have enough time to take care of this case. Dr. Watson goes to Lewisham as Holmes directed him to go with Mr. Amberley. Dr. Watson observes many things such as Amberely painting his house even in his grief; he also observes Mr. Amberely’s wife’s ticket that was not used and the ticket number. He hears a story form Mr. Amberely that Mrs. Amberely and Dr.Ernest eloped when Mr. Amberely went to watch the movies at the theater. Mr. Amberely also tells him that Mrs. Amberely made an excuse to not go to the movies because she had a headache. From the story of Mr. Amberley, he noticed that Mr. Amberely and Dr. Ernest played chess together. Chess being a hobby of Mr. Amberely. Dr. Watson noticed the strong room that has iron door and shutter doors. Mr. Amberely mentioned that his wife took his seven thousands pounds worth of cash and securities from this room, it seemed like she had a duplicate keys to this room.

During his visits with Mr. Amberely to Lewisham, he noticed a man was following him. He later found out that Dr. Ernest family hired him to investigate about the case of missing. From the story it also shows that Mr. Amberely is a chess player and Dr. Ernest is a chess player as well and this is how they got together, it also shows that Mr. Amberely is an eccentric and a jealous man who tore up his wife’s photo in anger. And one thing about Mr. Amberely is that he has a tricky mind as well. Holmes sends Dr. Watson and Mr. Amberely to purlington and while they are at the village, he breaks in to Mr. Amberely’s house for further investigation. He finds Mr. Barker, who is hired by Dr. Ernest’s family to investigate and they both decides to work together on this case.

After Holmes and Mr. Barker investigate enough evidence for this case, they come to a conclusion that Mr. Amberely himself is guilty of murdering his wife and Dr. Ernest. After this situation Holmes and Mr. Barker takes away Mr. Amberely and he comes with a police inspector named MacKinnon. He explains to police inspector how he came to conclusion. He tells him that the strong smell of painting was one of the clues to

hide the smell of gas, the both ticket to the theater were not used which was an evidence from the theater, the connection of a gas pipe to the strong room, the bold letters to the strong room which signifies death and the last one is the victims wrote on the wall to delivered a message that the they were murdered. The victims wrote on the wall “We we-- --вЂ™Ð²Ð‚™ which holes suspected that meant, “We were murdered.” At the end of the story, Holmes receives a weekly North Survey Observer. He observes that under the headline it began with the “вЂ?the haven horror’ ended with вЂ?Brilliant police investigationвЂ™Ð²Ð‚Ñœ. Haven is the name of Mr. Amberely’s house. The police inspector gets a credit for the case. The story ends with Holmes saying with easygoing smile, “you can file it in our archives, Watson. Some day the true story maybe told.”

Characters:

There are seven characters in the story. The seven characters are Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, Josiah Amberely, Mrs. Amberely, Dr. Ernest, Mr. Barker, inspector MacKinnon. Sherlock Holmes is a detective. Dr. Watson is a helper in the story who helps Holmes gathers evidences. Josiah Amberely is the client of Sherlock Holmes who hires him to investigate about his wife and Dr. Ernest missing. Mrs. Amberely is a victim and also the perpetrator of the story. Dr. Ernest is a victim of the story as well. Mr. Barker is another investigator who is hired by Dr. Ernest’s family to investigate on a missing case. Inspector MacKinnon is a police officer who comes in to play at the end of the story and gets credit for the investigation.

Credibility and Authority:

Among the all the characters Sherlock Holmes, Inspector MacKinnon and Mr. Barker has credibility. Credibility is a capable of being believed; believable; a credible statement. Sherlock Holmes’ credulity is his experiences of investigating and well known by majority of people. "He took me into his dingy sanctum, and we had a long chat. Of course, he was disappointed that you had not come yourself. 'I hardly expected,' he said, 'that so humble an individual as myself, especially after my heavy financial loss, could obtain the complete attention of so famous a man as Mr. Sherlock Holmes.' Another person who had a credibility among others is inspector MacKinnon. The remarkable acumen by which Inspector MacKinnon deduced from the smell of paint that some other smell, that of gas, for example, might be concealed; the bold deduction that the strong-room might also be the death-chamber, and the subsequent inquiry which led to the discovery of the bodies in a disused well, cleverly concealed by a dog-kennel, should live in the history of crime as a standing example of the intelligence of our professional detectives. Even though Holmes and Dr. Watson mostly investigated the case, the police inspector takes a credit of solving the case because he has credibility and because of that, he will be believed by people whatever he said. Mr. Barker who is a competent of Holmes has credibility as well. He is hired by Dr. Ernest’s family to investigate on this case and he also has few cases to his credit as well. "I've left Barker to look after the formalities," said Holmes. "You had not met Barker, Watson. He is my hated rival upon the Surrey shore. When you said a tall dark man, it was not difficult for me to complete the picture. He has several good cases to his credit, has he not, Inspector?" "He has certainly interfered several times," the inspector answered with reserve. "His methods are irregular, no doubt, like my own. The irregulars are useful sometimes, you know. You, for example, with your compulsory warning about whatever he said being used against him,