Stories / The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes · 1924
The Adventure of the Three Garridebs
An American promises fortunes to anyone named Garrideb — another absurd pretext to empty a house; Watson takes a bullet and sees behind Holmes's mask.
✅ Public domain — read, share, and adapt freely.
⚠️ Spoilers below. The analysis discusses the solution, including who did it and how it's found out.
Summary & analysis
An American, 'John Garrideb', seeks two more men of that rare surname to unlock a fantastic inheritance; the pretext lands an elderly collector, Nathan Garrideb, and Holmes smells the Red-Headed League's odour of a manufactured errand.
Holmes catches the American in small slips — English idioms in a supposed Kansan, an out-of-date address — and understands the game: the whole Garrideb fantasy exists to lure the old collector out of his rooms for an afternoon.
Beneath the collector's floor is a counterfeiter's press, hidden by the flat's previous tenant, a murderer named 'Killer' Evans. Cornered, Evans shoots Watson in the thigh — and the sight of his wounded friend shows Holmes's buried heart, the story's famous emotional peak.
Deeper reading
The absurd pretext, one last time
The Three Garridebs reruns the Red-Headed League engine — a ludicrous quest (find three men of one rare surname) invented to empty a house — and does it competently, if without surprise for readers who know the trick. The comfort is in the familiar shape well executed.
The moment that matters
The story is cherished for a single instant: when Watson is grazed by a bullet and Holmes\'s mask drops entirely, revealing the depth of feeling behind the cold façade. Watson calls that glimpse worth any wound. In two lines Doyle repays decades of the friendship\'s reticence, and it is the true reason the story endures.
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Techniques on display
Deduction & inference
Chaining evidence into conclusions on a living board.
In this story: The American's language betrays him: idioms and spellings wrong for his claimed origin expose the invented identity behind the invented inheritance.
Argument & fallacy
Untangling claims, premises, and the flaws between them.
In this story: As with Wilson and Pycroft, the absurd pretext is analysed, not dismissed: an elaborate scheme about a nobody's surname must really concern his premises — the vacancy is the point.
Practise what this story preaches: every technique above links to a tool or game built on the same method. The best way to learn the canon is to reason along with it.