Mrs. Lucca reads her husband in the same way Watson reads Holmes—even expressions are the same: “I who knew him so well”, “with a face which told me”, etc. The Red Circle society punishes people by hurting not only their persons, but those they love as well—I think Moriarty’s organisation operated in a similar way.

And lastly, it’s one of those cases which finishes with a date at the opera. For the record, it is speculated that Wagner’s operas have special appeal for homosexual men.

In the period Wagner’s greatest popularity—from the 1880s to World War I—he served as a gay icon [...]. Essentially, if someone asked in the right tone, in the right place, “Do you enjoy Wagner’s music?” that was a code for asking if the person was gay. (source)

For the week of  October 3rd - 9th, we will be tackling

The Adventure of the Red Circle (#REDC ACD)

This week we’re reading The Adventure the Red Circle, which was first published in The Strand in March and April 1911. It comes in at almost 7500 words.

So, uh, "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" and " The Adventure of the Red Circle" are in a lot of ways the same case

but that's neither here nor there. What I REALLY want to talk about is this:

In both of these cases there are messages being passed between two people in code. DANC is an actual cipher being used; in REDC they are communicating in Italian with flashes of light. In both cases Holmes works out what they are doing and uses the method of communication to send a message himself: "Come." In DANC he sends the message "Come here at once" and in REDC it's just the word, "Vieni"

Both times it works because - get this- the person he is messaging is in love with the person they were receiving the coded messages from (in REDC it's a husband and wife), and Holmes understands that a simple message of Come here at once, presumably from the object of one's affections, will be enough to make the person drop everything and rush there.

"I knew that I had only to flash 'Vieni' and you would certainly come." Holmes says in REDC.

(I think you probably know where I'm going with this)

Now let's look at the beginning of The Adventure of the Creeping Man:

" It was one Sunday evening early in September of the year 1903 that I received one of Holmes's laconic messages:

Come at once if convenient- if inconvenient come all the same.

---S.H. "

And of course, Watson does. When Holmes reveals he's thinking about why someone was attacked by their own dog, Watson is initially a little put out - "Was it for so trivial a question as this that I had been summoned from my work?" he thinks. So he was busy, working, he just - dropped everything and rushed to Holmes' side.

Like Holmes knew he would.