Jedothek

We know that Homes gives his profession as consulting detective, saying that it is the exceptional case that requires him to go out and see things for himself. At the moment i can't think of an adventure where he does that -- that is, does his job merely by talking to a client. This is probably just amnesia on my part. Can anyone name such an adventure?

Thank you for your response!

Ah! I see it now! the dictionary will not do because Holmes is interpreting the message as referring to a single column of a book, where in fact the dictionary might exhibit a paucity of subject matter. but i would still be interested in people's thoughts.

at the beginning of the Valley of Fear , Holmes and Watson are trying to deduce/guess the proper book to use in decoding Porlock's message. Holmes reasons, "The vocabulary of Bradshaw is nervous and terse, but limited. The selection of words would hardly lend itself to the sending of general messages. We will eliminate Bradshaw. The dictionary is, I fear, inadmissible for the same reason. " This is the reverse of the truth. The dictionary, is beyond comparison, the book richest in vocabulary. I suggest that what Doyle meant was that, as with the bible, there are too many dictionaries with different paginations; and Doyle mistakenly lumped in the dictionary with Bradshaw. Thoughts?