His Last Bow (story)
Encyclopedia
"His Last Bow" is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes
short stories written by Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
and one of seven collected in the anthology His Last Bow
. Unlike most other Holmes stories which are written from the point of view of Dr. Watson recording Holmes' exploits for the public, this one is written in the third person.
for Flushing
in the Netherlands
, leaving only him and his elderly housekeeper. Von Bork and his diplomat friend Baron
von Herling disparage their British hosts, having judged them rather negatively. Von Herling is impressed at his friend's collection of vital British military secrets, and tells Von Bork that he will be received in Berlin as a hero. Von Bork indicates that he is waiting for one last transaction with his Irish-American informant Altamont, who will arrive shortly. The treasure will prove rich, Von Bork thinks: naval signals.
Von Herling leaves and Von Bork gets to work packing the contents of his safe
. He then hears another car arriving. It is Altamont. By this time, the old housekeeper has turned her light off and retired. Von Bork greets Altamont, and Altamont shows him the package that he has brought.
Altamont proceeds to disparage Von Bork's safe, but Von Bork proudly says that nothing can cut through the metal, and that it has a double combination lock
. He even tells Altamont the combination: “August 1914”. Altamont then insinuates that German agents get rid of their informants when they are finished with them, naming several who have ended up in prison. Von Bork is left to make excuses for these events. Altamont's mistrust of Von Bork is evident in his refusal to hand over the package before he gets his cheque. Von Bork, for his part, claims the right to examine the document before handing Altamont the cheque which he has written.
Altamont hands him the package, and upon opening it, it turns out to be a book called Practical Handbook of Bee Culture, hardly what he expected. Even less expected is the chloroform
-soaked rag that was held in his face by Altamont a moment later. Altamont, it turns out, is none other than Sherlock Holmes, and the chauffeur who brought him is, of course, Dr. Watson. Now much older than in their heyday, they have nonetheless not only caught several spies (Holmes is actually responsible for the imprisoned agents, of course) in their return from retirement, but fed the Germans some thoroughly untrustworthy intelligence. Holmes has been on this case for two years, and it has taken him to Chicago, Buffalo
, and Ireland, where he learnt to play the part of a bitter Irish-American, even gaining the credentials of a member of a secret society. He then identified the security leak through which British secrets were reaching the Germans.
The housekeeper was part of the plot, too. The light that she switched off was the signal to Holmes and Watson that the coast was clear.
They remove Von Bork and all the evidence
, and drive him to Scotland Yard
, where his welcome will not be as triumphant as the one that was awaiting him in Berlin.
After the story has concluded, it is revealed that Holmes has retired from active detective work. He spends his days beekeeping in the countryside and writing his definitive work on investigation.
The fine patriotic sentiment of the above passage have been widely quoted, and were later used in the final scene of the Basil Rathbone
film Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror
(1942), set in World War II although it is presented as if Holmes were quoting Churchill.
The entire story clearly shows where Conan Doyle stood with regard to the First World War, in its third year at the time of writing. Doyle was at the time writing a history of the war as it unfolded, and was a strong supporter of General Douglas Haig
.
" and "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans
".)
Ralph Edwards, a veteran Sherlockian critic, asked : "Why, on the eve of war, did Holmes reveal to von Bork that his military information was faulty?" In the same vein, Edwards' fellow critic Steve Clarkson followed with "Why was Von Bork not arrested for espionage? Why was he allowed to return to Germany, when it was obvious that he would alert his superiors that the information he had garnered was worthless?".
To this Rosemary Michaud added: "Even if Von Bork stayed a prisoner, wouldn't his capture itself have aroused suspicion that the information which passed through him was untrustworthy? Would there have been some other way for Holmes to get at Von Bork's papers without tipping off the Germans that the game was up?"
These critics seem to take issue both with Holmes' act of exposing himself as a British agent, and with his specific telling the German precisely which information that he had given was false and in what way ("Your admiral may find the new guns rather larger than he expects, and the cruisers perhaps a trifle faster").
Indeed, judged by the standards of later spy literature, Holmes' act would seem an inexplicable gross blunder: having spent years of time and effort to work himself into the position of a double agent
whose information is completely trusted by the Germans, Holmes for no apparent reason blows his own cover. He could have easily kept the guise of the Irish Altamont which served him so well, and arranged with Von Bork some channel through which he could go on feeding false information throughout the coming war (for example, via Holland which is mentioned briefly as a conveniently near neutral country in that war).
Some twenty years later, the real-life World War II British spymaster John Cecil Masterman
would painstakingly build an extensive network of double agents known as the Double Cross System
, and with great success provide Germany with a flood of false information throughout the war. As he repeatedly notes in his memoirs, extreme pains were taken to keep up the masquerade and avoid the smallest risk of a double agent being accidentally unmasked.
Conan Doyle, however, was working without the intimate knowledge of the business of espionage which later writers would have, either from such published memoirs or from the extensive personal spying experience of such writers as Ian Fleming
and John le Carré
. The whole genre of spy stories was just beginning, and Doyle was merely straying into it from time to time from his expert handling of the detective story.
In a detective story, the reader expects the villain to be in the end hauled off to a police cell – and in "His Last Bow" this convention was carried on into a spy story where in fact it would have been better to have the villain walk off jauntily, unaware that he and his country were being duped.
and hatred of "The Hun" were rife among the British reading public.
Conan Doyle had been involved in war propaganda already during the Boer War
or Farmer War in English in. The present story's being to a great degree a piece of war Propaganda is especially evident in the detail of Von Bork's opening his safe at the beginning of the story and boasting to the person he believes to be his star agent:
"It was four years ago [i.e., in 1910] that I had it [the safe] made, and what do you think I chose for the word and figures? I chose August for the word, and 1914 for the figures – and here we are."
This implies that the entire war was the result of German aggression, an aggression planned in detail at least four years in advance and carried out according to a strict timetable – a view which, evidently, Doyle's readership in 1917 was willing to accept uncritically.
Later in the story, the reader is invited to gloat over the continuing discomfiture and humiliation of the arrogant German, including the bald threat of his being handed over to be lynch
ed by English villagers with the event being later commemorated in a pub being named "'The Dangling Prussian".
In fact, Doyle's patriotic and propagandistic purposes could have been easily combined with letting Holmes display more of what le Carré would decades later call a spy's "tradecraft". Von Bork could have been allowed to depart unhindered, securely confident in his Irish star agent, after which Holmes and Watson would have themselves a good laugh at his stupidity – with the reader joining the fun and feeling assured that at present, in 1917, Holmes is still working hard at deceiving the enemy.
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
short stories written by Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
and one of seven collected in the anthology His Last Bow
His Last Bow
His Last Bow is a collection of seven Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as the title of the last story in that collection...
. Unlike most other Holmes stories which are written from the point of view of Dr. Watson recording Holmes' exploits for the public, this one is written in the third person.
Synopsis
On the eve of the First World War, Von Bork, a German agent, is getting ready to leave England with his vast collection of intelligence, gathered over a four-year period. His wife and household have already left HarwichHarwich
Harwich is a town in Essex, England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea to the east. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the northeast, Ipswich to the northwest, Colchester to the southwest and Clacton-on-Sea to the south...
for Flushing
Flushing, Netherlands
Vlissingen is a municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the former island of Walcheren. With its strategic location between the Scheldt river and the North Sea, Vlissingen has been an important harbour for centuries. It was granted city rights in 1315. In the 17th century...
in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, leaving only him and his elderly housekeeper. Von Bork and his diplomat friend Baron
Baron
Baron is a title of nobility. The word baron comes from Old French baron, itself from Old High German and Latin baro meaning " man, warrior"; it merged with cognate Old English beorn meaning "nobleman"...
von Herling disparage their British hosts, having judged them rather negatively. Von Herling is impressed at his friend's collection of vital British military secrets, and tells Von Bork that he will be received in Berlin as a hero. Von Bork indicates that he is waiting for one last transaction with his Irish-American informant Altamont, who will arrive shortly. The treasure will prove rich, Von Bork thinks: naval signals.
Von Herling leaves and Von Bork gets to work packing the contents of his safe
Safe
A safe is a secure lockable box used for securing valuable objects against theft or damage. A safe is usually a hollow cuboid or cylinder, with one face removable or hinged to form a door. The body and door may be cast from metal or formed out of plastic through blow molding...
. He then hears another car arriving. It is Altamont. By this time, the old housekeeper has turned her light off and retired. Von Bork greets Altamont, and Altamont shows him the package that he has brought.
Altamont proceeds to disparage Von Bork's safe, but Von Bork proudly says that nothing can cut through the metal, and that it has a double combination lock
Combination lock
A combination lock is a type of lock in which a sequence of numbers or symbols is used to open the lock. The sequence may be entered using a single rotating dial which interacts with several discs or cams, by using a set of several rotating discs with inscribed numerals which directly interact with...
. He even tells Altamont the combination: “August 1914”. Altamont then insinuates that German agents get rid of their informants when they are finished with them, naming several who have ended up in prison. Von Bork is left to make excuses for these events. Altamont's mistrust of Von Bork is evident in his refusal to hand over the package before he gets his cheque. Von Bork, for his part, claims the right to examine the document before handing Altamont the cheque which he has written.
Altamont hands him the package, and upon opening it, it turns out to be a book called Practical Handbook of Bee Culture, hardly what he expected. Even less expected is the chloroform
Chloroform
Chloroform is an organic compound with formula CHCl3. It is one of the four chloromethanes. The colorless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid is a trihalomethane, and is considered somewhat hazardous...
-soaked rag that was held in his face by Altamont a moment later. Altamont, it turns out, is none other than Sherlock Holmes, and the chauffeur who brought him is, of course, Dr. Watson. Now much older than in their heyday, they have nonetheless not only caught several spies (Holmes is actually responsible for the imprisoned agents, of course) in their return from retirement, but fed the Germans some thoroughly untrustworthy intelligence. Holmes has been on this case for two years, and it has taken him to Chicago, Buffalo
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, and Ireland, where he learnt to play the part of a bitter Irish-American, even gaining the credentials of a member of a secret society. He then identified the security leak through which British secrets were reaching the Germans.
The housekeeper was part of the plot, too. The light that she switched off was the signal to Holmes and Watson that the coast was clear.
They remove Von Bork and all the evidence
Evidence
Evidence in its broadest sense includes everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion. Giving or procuring evidence is the process of using those things that are either presumed to be true, or were themselves proven via evidence, to demonstrate an assertion's truth...
, and drive him to Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
, where his welcome will not be as triumphant as the one that was awaiting him in Berlin.
After the story has concluded, it is revealed that Holmes has retired from active detective work. He spends his days beekeeping in the countryside and writing his definitive work on investigation.
Opinions of critics
The story is the last chronological instalment of the series, though yet another collection (The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes), set before the story, was published four years later. In reference to the impending World War I, Holmes concludes,- "There's an east wind coming, Watson."
- "I think not, Holmes. It is very warm."
- "Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age. There's an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many of us may wither before its blast. But it's God's own wind none the less, and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared."
The fine patriotic sentiment of the above passage have been widely quoted, and were later used in the final scene of the Basil Rathbone
Basil Rathbone
Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
film Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror
Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror
Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror is the third film in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes movies. Made in 1942, the film combines elements of the Arthur Conan Doyle story "His Last Bow" and loosely parallels the real-life activities of Lord Haw-haw...
(1942), set in World War II although it is presented as if Holmes were quoting Churchill.
The entire story clearly shows where Conan Doyle stood with regard to the First World War, in its third year at the time of writing. Doyle was at the time writing a history of the war as it unfolded, and was a strong supporter of General Douglas Haig
Douglas Haig
Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig was a British soldier and senior commander during World War I.Douglas Haig may also refer to:* Club Atlético Douglas Haig, a football club from Argentina* Douglas Haig , American actor...
.
As a spy story
More than one critic questioned "His Last Bow"'s merits as a spy story, which is clearly what it is (like earlier Holmes stories such as "The Adventure of the Naval TreatyThe Adventure of the Naval Treaty
"The Adventure of the Naval Treaty", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 12 stories in the cycle collected as The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Doyle ranked "The Adventure of the Naval Treaty" nineteenth in a list of his nineteen...
" and "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans
The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans
"The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is one of eight stories in the cycle collected as His Last Bow...
".)
Ralph Edwards, a veteran Sherlockian critic, asked : "Why, on the eve of war, did Holmes reveal to von Bork that his military information was faulty?" In the same vein, Edwards' fellow critic Steve Clarkson followed with "Why was Von Bork not arrested for espionage? Why was he allowed to return to Germany, when it was obvious that he would alert his superiors that the information he had garnered was worthless?".
To this Rosemary Michaud added: "Even if Von Bork stayed a prisoner, wouldn't his capture itself have aroused suspicion that the information which passed through him was untrustworthy? Would there have been some other way for Holmes to get at Von Bork's papers without tipping off the Germans that the game was up?"
These critics seem to take issue both with Holmes' act of exposing himself as a British agent, and with his specific telling the German precisely which information that he had given was false and in what way ("Your admiral may find the new guns rather larger than he expects, and the cruisers perhaps a trifle faster").
Indeed, judged by the standards of later spy literature, Holmes' act would seem an inexplicable gross blunder: having spent years of time and effort to work himself into the position of a double agent
Double agent
A double agent, commonly abbreviated referral of double secret agent, is a counterintelligence term used to designate an employee of a secret service or organization, whose primary aim is to spy on the target organization, but who in fact is a member of that same target organization oneself. They...
whose information is completely trusted by the Germans, Holmes for no apparent reason blows his own cover. He could have easily kept the guise of the Irish Altamont which served him so well, and arranged with Von Bork some channel through which he could go on feeding false information throughout the coming war (for example, via Holland which is mentioned briefly as a conveniently near neutral country in that war).
Some twenty years later, the real-life World War II British spymaster John Cecil Masterman
John Cecil Masterman
Sir John Cecil Masterman was a noted academic, sportsman and author. However, he was best known as chairman of the Twenty Committee, which during World War II ran the Double Cross System, the scheme that controlled double agents in Britain.-Academic background:Masterman was educated at the Royal...
would painstakingly build an extensive network of double agents known as the Double Cross System
Double Cross System
The Double Cross System, or XX System, was a World War II anti-espionage and deception operation of the British military intelligence arm, MI5. Nazi agents in Britain - real and false - were captured, turned themselves in or simply announced themselves and were then used by the British to broadcast...
, and with great success provide Germany with a flood of false information throughout the war. As he repeatedly notes in his memoirs, extreme pains were taken to keep up the masquerade and avoid the smallest risk of a double agent being accidentally unmasked.
Conan Doyle, however, was working without the intimate knowledge of the business of espionage which later writers would have, either from such published memoirs or from the extensive personal spying experience of such writers as Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
and John le Carré
John le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell , who writes under the name John le Carré, is an author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for MI5 and MI6, and began writing novels under the pseudonym "John le Carré"...
. The whole genre of spy stories was just beginning, and Doyle was merely straying into it from time to time from his expert handling of the detective story.
In a detective story, the reader expects the villain to be in the end hauled off to a police cell – and in "His Last Bow" this convention was carried on into a spy story where in fact it would have been better to have the villain walk off jauntily, unaware that he and his country were being duped.
Propaganda context
Over and above all that, the story as it stands cannot be divorced from the situation at the time of its writing – 1917, the third year of a terrible war, when jingoismJingoism
Jingoism is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy. In practice, it is a country's advocation of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests...
and hatred of "The Hun" were rife among the British reading public.
Conan Doyle had been involved in war propaganda already during the Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
or Farmer War in English in. The present story's being to a great degree a piece of war Propaganda is especially evident in the detail of Von Bork's opening his safe at the beginning of the story and boasting to the person he believes to be his star agent:
"It was four years ago [i.e., in 1910] that I had it [the safe] made, and what do you think I chose for the word and figures? I chose August for the word, and 1914 for the figures – and here we are."
This implies that the entire war was the result of German aggression, an aggression planned in detail at least four years in advance and carried out according to a strict timetable – a view which, evidently, Doyle's readership in 1917 was willing to accept uncritically.
Later in the story, the reader is invited to gloat over the continuing discomfiture and humiliation of the arrogant German, including the bald threat of his being handed over to be lynch
Lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
ed by English villagers with the event being later commemorated in a pub being named "'The Dangling Prussian".
In fact, Doyle's patriotic and propagandistic purposes could have been easily combined with letting Holmes display more of what le Carré would decades later call a spy's "tradecraft". Von Bork could have been allowed to depart unhindered, securely confident in his Irish star agent, after which Holmes and Watson would have themselves a good laugh at his stupidity – with the reader joining the fun and feeling assured that at present, in 1917, Holmes is still working hard at deceiving the enemy.
- The aforementioned Rosemary Michaud, as well as Sonia Fetherston also took issue with the story as presenting a negative image of the Irish. It was written shortly after the Easter Uprising in 1916 Dublin, and an Irishman as a German agent seemed plausible – though at the time of writing, there were also thousands of Irish soldiers bravely fighting and sacrificing their lives in the British service.
Trivia
- Sherlock Holmes' undercover name, Altamont, is also the middle name of Sir Arthur Conan DoyleArthur Conan DoyleSir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
's father, Charles Altamont DoyleCharles Altamont DoyleCharles Altamont Doyle was a Victorian artist. He was the brother of the artist Richard Doyle, and the son of the artist John Doyle. Although the family was Irish, Doyle was born and raised in England....
. - The events leading up to and beyond this story were described in Sherlock Holmes and the Railway ManiacSherlock Holmes and the Railway ManiacSherlock Holmes and the Railway Maniac is a non-canonical Sherlock Holmes pastiche novel by Barrie Roberts which pits Sherlock Holmes against an anarchist who is bombing trains.The story involves real life incidents such as the Siege of Sidney Street....
(1994, ISBN 978-0-74-900546-7), by Barrie RobertsBarrie RobertsBarrie Roberts was an author, folk singer, freelance journalist, and criminal lawyer.-Biography:Born in Hampshire in 1939, Roberts was educated at Churcher's College....
. Holmes, in retirement, is asked by some railway companies to investigate two terrible derailmentDerailmentA derailment is an accident on a railway or tramway in which a rail vehicle, or part or all of a train, leaves the tracks on which it is travelling, with consequent damage and in many cases injury and/or death....
s. It transpires the crashes and later bombings were assassination attempts by a bomber acting under instructions from Von Bork. It takes Holmes years to get close to Von Bork, to capture him, then interrogate him to get closer to the bomber. - The end of Nicholas MeyerNicholas MeyerNicholas Meyer is an American screenwriter, producer, director and novelist, known best for his best-selling novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, and for directing the films Time After Time, two of the Star Trek feature film series, and the 1983 television movie The Day After.Meyer graduated from...
's 1993 novel The Canary TrainerThe Canary TrainerThe Canary Trainer: From the Memoirs of John H. Watson is a 1993 Sherlock Holmes pastiche by Nicholas Meyer. Like The Seven Percent Solution and The West End Horror, The Canary Trainer was published as a "lost manuscript" of the late Dr. John H. Watson...
tie into "His Last Bow", with Edward GreyEdward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of FallodonEdward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon KG, PC, FZL, DL , better known as Sir Edward Grey, Bt, was a British Liberal statesman. He served as Foreign Secretary from 1905 to 1916, the longest continuous tenure of any person in that office...
and H. H. AsquithH. H. AsquithHerbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, KG, PC, KC served as the Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916...
approaching Holmes to request he come out of retirement to investigate a man named Von Bork.