All That a Good Friend Could [DYIN]

We all think of Doctor Watson as Holmes’s reliable companion, but do we really appreciate what a good friend Watson was to Sherlock Holmes?  In the very first paragraph of “The Dying Detective,” he describes Holmes as a tenant:

“His incredible untidiness, his addiction to music at strange hours, his occasional revolver practice within doors, his weird and often malodorous scientific experiments, and the atmosphere of violence and danger which hung around him made him the very worst tenant in London.”

While the landlady was at least getting princely payments for the rooms that Holmes so greatly abused, Watson did not; in fact he was PAYING to share rooms with such a man.  And even though “The Dying Detective” takes place after Watson has moved out, we know that these two men roomed together for years.  It really shows how deep their friendship had become since A Study in Scarlet for Watson to room with such a man.

The crux of this story is that Holmes is desperately ill and Watson rushes to Baker Street.  You can hear his heart breaking as he describes his friend’s condition to the reader:

“It was that gaunt, wasted face staring at me from the bed which sent a chill to my heart.”

Even as Holmes is exceedingly mean to Watson throughout this tale, Watson’s loyalty and friendship shine through.  Watson lays clear to us what respect he has for Holmes in these pages, and we can see him wrestle with the situation.  

Holmes “bitterly hurt[s]” Watson by criticizing his qualifications as a doctor, he forces Watson to keep his distance, even though Holmes is in desperate need of medical attention, and then Holmes locks them in a room together preventing Watson from retrieving even another doctor!  

And the nonsense that Watson puts up with while locked in that room?  Holmes lets out a dreadful cry that makes his friend’s skin go cold and his hair bristle.  He has to listen to Holmes raving about oysters and how Watson should displace the coins in his pocket.  John Watson is a more patient man than I.

But once Holmes releases him to bring in a specialist, Watson promises to bring the man, even if he has to carry him to the cab.  Of course, Holmes convinces Watson to go along with a plan that isn’t explained and Watson’s loyalty shows through again.  He delivers a message to this strange “specialist,” pushing though ceremony to talk to him as he pictures Holmes lying sick and dying.  After convincing Culverton Smith, Watson rushes back to Baker Street alone, and then HIDES!

Would any of us here hide behind someone’s headboard in this situation?  Think of the contortion that would have been required to do so.  And this wasn’t just for a minute or two, Watson had to sit there and listen to Culverton Smith gloat of how he was killing his best friend.  Not only did Watson have to endure that conversation, but he then had to stay hidden as Smith sat and waited for Holmes to die.  Watson said it was all he could do to hold himself quiet in his hiding place.  This is true friendship, indeed.

(And a quick side note before we raise our glasses to the friendship of John Watson.  If Sherlock Holmes had not left his sick room for three days, would he have been able to use a water closet if the Baker Street rooms even had one?  Probably not to keep up appearances, which means a bedpan would have most likely been down by Watson this whole time.)

So let’s all take a deep breath of fresh air and appreciate the loyalty that Doctor Watson showed to his friend Sherlock Holmes.  I stink think we can all agree that he was the best friend that Holmes could have asked for.