[Continued from yesterday’s Part 3a.]

[Continued from the previous Part 2b and Part 2a, which dealt with services and activities.]

[A previous trio, Part 1a, Part 1b, and Part 1c, covered the rules of engagement with clients.]

“What one man can invent another can discover,” said Holmes.

The Adventure of the Dancing Men

As we conclude this lengthy examination of my great friend, the Compleat housing finance consultant, we dig deeper into his character.  Some of thee elements, like his commitment to principle, I am convinced were always in his very marrow; others were consciously adopted over his thirty-three plus years as the world’s foremost affordable housing finance detective:

That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to me to be such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it.
“You appear to be astonished,” he said, smiling at my expression of surprise. “Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it.”
“To forget it!”

“You see,” he explained, “Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”
“But the Solar System!” I protested.
“What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently: “you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.”

Holmes cared not a farthing for knowledge without purpose to his work.

C8.       Is knowledgeable and erudite in service to the goal

Even as Holmes admitted total ignorance of things I would have thought essential for any adult Londoner, he knew absolutely everything about topics critical to his work, from footprints to the shape of ears, to his monographs on tobacco and typography:

“But this is my special hobby, and the differences are equally obvious. There is as much difference to my eyes between the leaded bourgeois type of a Times article and the slovenly print of an evening half-penny paper as there could be between your negro and your Esquimau. The detection of types is one of the most elementary branches of knowledge to the special expert in crime, though I confess that once when I was very young I confused the Leeds Mercury with the Western Morning News. But a Times leader is entirely distinctive, and these words could have been taken from nothing else. As it was done yesterday the strong probability was that we should find the words in yesterday’s issue.”

The Hound of the Baskervilles, Chapter 4

Not many detectives can read the paper and see first its fonts

C9.       Sees details

A consultant’s value in lightning diagnosis often arises from his ability to perceive details that others overlook, and then to correlate them with known species.  There is as much difference in the physical configuration of a Section 221d3 and a Section 221d4 as between a giant and a dwarf, yet to the average lay person the two programs sound much the same.  Just as a ceramics expert can identify and date the vase from its fragments, time and again Holmes surprised a visitor by identifying his origins or profession from the myriad small clues that we all carry with ourselves:

“The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes’ scales of a delicate pink is quite peculiar to China.”

The Red-Headed League

This was no mere parlor trick but a core element in his skills.  Evidence is fleeting, markets change, opportunities must be seized.  Give me a forty-five field strip of each asset in an affordable housing portfolio, he said more than once, and I should be able to date its vintage, value its management contracts, and provide a reasonable projection of the aggregate residual proceeds.  That speedy insight is part of what clients pay for:

“To the trained eye there is as much difference between the black ash of a Trichinopoly and the white fluff of bird’s-eye as there is between a cabbage and a potato.”
“You have an extraordinary genius for minutiae,” I remarked.
“I appreciate their importance.”

Chapter 1, The Sign of Four

To Holmes, seeing was paramount; which allowed him to see when something was absent:

“That was the curious incident.”

“Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”
“To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”
“The dog did nothing in the night-time.”
“That was the curious incident,” remarked Sherlock Holmes.

Silver Blaze

C10.     Is imaginative

Holmes never allowed himself to be permanently stymied.  He had the patient certainty of a zen mystic, that the truth was out there, waiting to be found:

“Holmes,” I cried, “this is impossible.”
“Admirable!” he said. “A most illuminating remark. It is impossible as I state it, and therefore I must in some respect have stated it wrong.”

The Adventure of The Priory School

“I must in some respect have stated it wrong.”

Imagination – what in another age will be called ‘business vision’ – is so critical in a consultant whose field is unique.  Such consultants do what has never been done before.  They create the future world by imagining how the value chain could come together, designing financial products for that world, and then growing businesses to deploy those financial products.

“See the value of imagination,” said Holmes. “It is the one quality which Gregory lacks. We imagined what might have happened, acted upon the supposition, and find ourselves justified. Let us proceed.”

Silver Blaze

“The real murderer is standing immediately behind you.” He stepped past and laid his hand upon the glossy neck of the thoroughbred.

C11.     Quick to absorb and process new information

Holmes feared subconsciously anchoring his or his client’s expectations through half-baked theorizing and prescribing.  For that reason, he sought to ascertain and enumerate the whole ecosystem of facts surrounding a particular case before making any deductions:

“You don’t seem to give much thought to the matter in hand,” I said at last, interrupting Holmes’s musical disquisition.
“No data yet,” he answered. “It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment.”

A Study in Scarlet, Part 1, Chapter 3

Voraciously he sought data:

“I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles.”

The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane

When he had the data, he would not rest until he could assemble it into a coherent theory that explained all the facts.

“Perhaps, when a man has special knowledge and special powers like my own, it rather encourages him to seek a complex explanation when a simpler one is at hand.  I trust that I shall soon have to congratulate you upon a successful conclusion. Come, Watson, I fancy that we may employ ourselves more profitably at home.”

Holmes could not shake off his disquiet over the third glass.

During our return journey, I could see by Holmes’s face that he was much puzzled by something which he had observed.

The Adventure of the Abbey Grange

C12.     Mutable; suits his demeanor to the situation

A good consultant uses his emotions and his behavior as tools to a solution.  If negotiation is required, he will be talkative, comforting, and reasonable.  If confrontation is called for, then the consultant’s face will be as stone.  If resolution is required, an implacable silence can be best.  Or when facing an irate enemy, best is to be lighthearted:

“Ha! You put me off, do you?” said our new visitor, taking a step forward and shaking his hunting-crop. “I know you, you scoundrel! I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler.”

My friend smiled.
“Holmes, the busybody!”

His smile broadened.
“Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!”

Holmes, in fact, was stronger than he looked.

Holmes chuckled heartily. “Your conversation is most entertaining,” said he. “When you go out close the door, for there is a decided draught.”
The Adventure of the Speckled Band

I’ve also seen him try to close a trap:

Holmes sprang from his chair.
“Get behind him, Watson! Don’t let him out! Now, sir, let us see the contents of that notebook.”
Milverton had glided as quick as a rat to the side of the room and stood with his back against the wall.

The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton

Milverton escaped Holmes then, but he could not escape the hand of fate.

C13.     Never does anything that violates his personal code of character

Jobs are uniforms we don and doff, Holmes once told me.  Character is bred in the bone.

“The matter does not rest with Colonel Ross. I follow my own methods and tell as much or as little as I choose. That is the advantage of being unofficial. ”

Silver Blaze

Holmes was true to his character, even if that meant taking risks to trap a criminal whom the law could not touch:

“My dear fellow, I suppose that you will admit that the action is morally justifiable, though technically criminal. To burgle his house is no more than to forcibly take his pocketbook–an action in which you were prepared to aid me.”
I turned it over in my mind.
“Yes,” I said, “it is morally justifiable so long as our object is to take no articles save those which are used for an illegal purpose.”
“Exactly. Since it is morally justifiable, I have only to consider the question of personal risk. Surely a gentleman should not lay much stress upon this, when a lady is in most desperate need of his help?”
“You will be in such a false position.”

The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton

Our first goal was to be undetected; our second, to be unrecognizable.  Who would expect Sherlock Holmes to burgle a flat?

A consultant should never do that which he believes to be wrong, no matter how earnest the client nor how high the fee.

C14.     Is constantly learning

 “Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last.”

The Red Circle

So is a blog.

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[Continued from the previous Part 2b and Part 2a, which dealt with services and activities.]

[A previous trio, Part 1a, Part 1b, and Part 1c, covered the rules of engagement with clients.]

Now we come to the most interesting part of my narrative.  Not all those who are clever are cut out to be consultants.  One may learn the skills, but one does not spend thirty-three plus years in affordable housing finance, as the Compleat housing finance consultant, without being temperamentally suited to the role.  That my friend was, sometimes to my exasperation:

But with me there is a limit, and when I find a man who keeps his cigars in the coal-scuttle, his tobacco in the toe end of a Persian slipper, and his unanswered correspondence transfixed by a jack-knife into the very centre of his wooden mantelpiece, then I begin to give myself virtuous airs. I have always held, too, that pistol practice should be distinctly an open-air pastime; and when Holmes, in one of his queer humours, would sit in an armchair with his hair-trigger and a hundred Boxer cartridges and proceed to adorn the opposite wall with a patriotic V. R. done in bullet-pocks, I felt strongly that neither the atmosphere nor the appearance of our room was improved by it.

The Musgrave Ritual

He never threw anything out …

C.        Attributes

Naturally, Holmes was an introvert:

He was the only friend I made during the two years I was at college. I was never a very sociable fellow, Watson, always rather fond of moping in my rooms and working out my own little methods of thought, so that I never mixed much with the men of my year. Bar fencing and boxing I had few athletic tastes, and then my line of study was quite distinct from that of the other fellows, so that we had no points of contact at all. Trevor was the only man I knew, and that only through the accident of his bull terrier freezing on to my ankle one morning as I went down to chapel.

He never threw anything out …

“It was a prosaic way of forming a friendship, but it was effective. I was laid by the heels for ten days, and Trevor used to come in to inquire after me.

The “Gloria Scott”

But that is the superficial trait.  A good consultant has personality and character bred in the bone, as Holmes showed time and again.

            C1.       Loves his work

When unchallenged, Holmes lapsed into ennui and had recourse to his one weakness, the cocaine bottle.  Yet given the slightest new puzzle, he was up at the scent, ready to throw aside all other considerations in pursuit of those stimuli without which life to him was gray:

He looked from one to the other of us, and under our gaze of inquiry he became conscious that some apology was needed for this unceremonious entry.

Holmes would always interrupt his breakfast for the thrill of a new problem

“I’m sorry, Mr. Holmes,” he cried. “You mustn’t blame me. I am nearly mad. Mr. Holmes, I am the unhappy John Hector McFarlane.  I am the most unfortunate man at this moment in London. For heaven’s sake, don’t abandon me, Mr. Holmes! If they come to arrest me before I have finished my story, make them give me time, so that I may tell you the whole truth. I could go to jail happy if I knew that you were working for me outside.”
“Arrest you!” said Holmes. “This is really most grati – most interesting.”
The Adventure of the Norwood Builder

It must be admitted that some clients found it difficult to accept that to Holmes they were merely problems, and not always human beings of flesh and blood. 

Without having a tinge of cruelty in his singular composition, he was undoubtedly callous from long overstimulation.  There was no trace then of the horror which I had myself felt at this curt declaration; but his face showed rather the quiet and interested composure of the chemist who sees the crystals falling into position from his oversaturated solution.

The Valley of Fear, Chapter 2

As he aged, Holmes became gradually more accommodating of human foibles.

C2.       Is honest and frugal

People in a panic will say anything, promise anything, to secure the assistance they desperately need.  At such time they are careless about money.  Holmes is not: he always accounts faithfully.

No matter how preposterous our client’s deportment, Holmes treated him with deference.

“There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in notes,” he said.
Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and handed it to him.

A Scandal in Bohemia

            C3.       Is interested in the results, not the credit

Singled-minded in his quests for truth, Holmes concentrated the whole of his being upon the task at hand – pursuit of the client’s interests.  As good consultant, he told me, cares not how it is done, nor who claims the credit afterwards, provided the client is satisfied.

At least, that is what he would say upon reflection.  In the heat of the moment, he sometimes resented the hangers-on, those who plagiarized his writings or claimed for themselves intelligence or activity performed by Holmes.

“What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence,” returned my companion, bitterly. “The question is, what can you make people believe that you have done?”

Yet he realized that his willingness to share credit, his positive indifference to it seizure, meant he would be brought in on many more matters than had he been one to hoard his insights, knowledge, or standing.

“Never mind,” he continued, more brightly, after a pause. “I would not have missed the investigation for anything. There has been no better case within my recollection. Simple as it was, there were several most instructive points about it.”

A Study in Scarlet, Part 2, Chapter 7

When the goal was in sight, the closing at hand, Holmes could be temporarily magnanimous:

Holmes smiled, and clapped Lestrade upon the shoulder.

In their early days, Lestrade was often derisive of Holmes’s amateur approach, but a few encounters convinced him that Holmes was a fellow worth following about.

“Instead of being ruined, my good sir, you will find that your reputation has been enormously enhanced. Just make a few alterations in that report which you were writing, and they will understand how hard it is to throw dust in the eyes of Inspector Lestrade.”
“And you don’t want your name to appear?”
“Not at all. The work is its own reward. Perhaps I shall get the credit also at some distant day, when I permit my zealous historian to lay out his foolscap once more–eh, Watson?”

The Adventure of the Norwood Builder

Credit always comes to rest at the feet of its rightful owner in the end.

C4.       Is the greatest expert in his specialized field(s)

A consultant must be an expert.  Never be merely average in your field, I recall Holmes advising a young South African aspiring to be a detective.  Always be the best.  If you are not the best, narrow your field of specialization until you are dominant.

Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. “Problems may be solved in the study which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the aid of their senses. [P]ossession of all knowledge, even in these days of free education and encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have endeavoured in my case to do.”

The Five Orange Pips

“This I have endeavoured in my case to do.”

The result, as he observed on numerous occasions, is that within his field he has no competition.

“Well, I have a trade of my own. I suppose I am the only one in the world.”

That uniqueness he found not intimidating but exhilarating.

“I’m a consulting detective, if you can understand what that is. Here in London we have lots of government detectives and lots of private ones. When these fellows are at fault, they come to me, and I manage to put them on the right scent. They lay all the evidence before me, and I am generally able, by the help of my knowledge of the history of crime, to set them straight.”

He made a study of housing finance ecosystems:

“There is a strong family resemblance about misdeeds, and if you have all the details of a thousand at your finger ends, it is odd if you can’t unravel the thousand and first.”

A Study in Scarlet, Part 1, Chapter 2

Cases are variations on a theme, as it were

C5.       Creates specialized tools

A specialist creates tools.  The right tool makes the job easy.  Many of Holmes’s relied on information, such as his personal docket.

For many years he had adopted a system of docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not at once furnish information.

A Scandal in Bohemia

He was also adept at disguise …

Or in his structured research into matters likely to prove relevant.

“Here is my monograph upon the tracing of footsteps, with some remarks upon the uses of plaster of Paris as a preserver of impresses. Here, too, is a curious little work upon the influence of a trade upon the form of the hand, with lithotypes of the hands of slaters, sailors, cork-cutters, compositors, weavers, and diamond-polishers. That is a matter of great practical interest to the scientific detective–especially in cases of unclaimed bodies, or in discovering the antecedents of criminals.”

Chapter 1, The Sign of Four

… whatever suited the situation.

C6.       When it comes to making transactions work, is both optimistic and skeptical

Holmes was a skeptic when it came to strangers appearing and offering help, yet he was always an optimist both regarding the great British public and with respect to finding solutions.  He never conceded defeat until it was impossible to reverse, or until the client relieved him of further duty.  In this pursuit, he asked endless questions, worrying the problem as a terrier worries a rat.

 “Oh, it is as well to test everything. Our inspection was not wasted. ”

The Reigate Puzzle

Shall we ascertain for certain that he is dead?

            C7.       Is courageous and true to his principles

Holmes was not a man to flaunt his morality upon others, yet his principles were bedrock.  Often his abstracted pursuit of the truth led him into dangerous waters or incurred the ire of powerful antagonists, men of whose lack of scruple neither I nor Holmes had any doubt.  Yet he never wavered.  When first we met I thought it was simply that in his excitement he was oblivious to danger, but the more I saw of him, the more I realized it was part of his character.

If Holmes thought his cause right, he was fearless.  If we hold our principles only when it is safe and comfortable to do so, he told me once, then we have no principles, merely the self-delusion of them … and that is worse than being consciously unprincipled.

Nowhere was this courage better demonstrated that in his duel with Professor Moriarty.  As Holmes himself told it:

Moriarty’s eyes were deep-set with all the death he had seen.

The fact is that upon his entrance I had instantly recognized the extreme personal danger in which I lay. The only conceivable escape for him lay in silencing my tongue. In an instant I had slipped the revolver from the drawer into my pocket and was covering him through the cloth. At his remark I drew the weapon out and laid it cocked upon the table. He still smiled and blinked, but there was something about his eyes which made me feel very glad that I had it there.

Moriarty’s entrance brought an aura that made one reach for one’s pistol

‘You evidently don’t know me,’ said he.
‘On the contrary,’ I answered, ‘I think it is fairly evident that I do. Pray take a chair. I can spare you five minutes if you have anything to say.’
‘All that I have to say has already crossed your mind,’ said he.
‘Then possibly my answer has crossed yours,’ I replied.
‘You stand fast?’
‘Absolutely.’

The Final Problem

Even after Moriarty was dispatched to his Maker, Colonel Sebastian Moran was no man to trifle with.

A message to the percipient reader

[Continued tomorrow in Part 3b.]

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[A previous trio, Part 1a , Part 1b , and Part 1c, covered the rules of engagement with clients.]

Holmes sat for some time in silent thought. He had lit the oldest and foulest of his pipes.
“I am not clear yet what you want me to do in this matter, Mr. Mason,” he said at last. “Can’t you make it more definite?”

The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place

Three decades of experience in affordable housing finance, alongside the great detective Sherlock Holmes, the Compleat housing finance consultant, has given me insight into the profession of consulting, and to the services and activities requisite to success.  A hundred years hence, New York City will give rise to the ultimate consultants, the Ghostbusters, but in nineteenth century London, Holmes reigns supreme, because his services are comprehensive.

B6.       Asks all the questions the client finds it difficult to ask

A specialist, be he doctor, lawyer, or affordable housing consultant, must be fully expert in his field, and thus must delve into the muck of human existence:

“He appears to have a passion for definite and exact knowledge.”
“Very right too.”
“Yes, but it may be pushed to excess. When it comes to beating the subjects in the dissecting-rooms with a stick, it is certainly taking rather a bizarre shape.”
“Beating the subjects!”
“Yes, to verify how far bruises may be produced after death. I saw him at it with my own eyes.”

Chapter 1, A Study in Scarlet

When Holmes struck, he knew what he was striking and what effect it would have.

B7.       Identifies the relevant information from a welter of data

As an expert, the consultant can identify what information is critical to uncover, can extract it from sources, and can then arrange the information into a format suitable for interpretation, which the consultant then provides to the client. 

“It is of the highest importance in the art of detection to be able to recognize, out of a number of facts, which are incidental and which vital. Otherwise your energy and attention must be dissipated instead of being concentrated.”

The Reigate Puzzle

Holmes grunted from the sofa.
“The county police ought to make something of that,” said he; “why, it is surely obvious that– –”

All that scrying of entrails is for the purpose of making explicit a vision of the proposed transaction, so that at each time a new fact or resource is added, the consultant is able instantly to update the projection and give the client real-time guidance.

“It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet

Eliminating the impossible on behalf of Alexander Holder

B8.       Creates options and does not foreclose them

The consultant is the expert, Holmes once lectured me.  The client not required to be an expert.  Not for clients to develop theories, design alternative financial structures, or create options.  That is our job.

When Miss Violet Hunter was puzzled by events at her situation, Holmes spared no effort to decipher them.

“I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we shall no doubt find waiting for us.”

The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

B9.       Makes things decisionable

An effective consultant is like a hound on a leash, Holmes once commented to me as we were being hauled through the streets of London by Toby, a half-spaniel, half-lurcher with an infallible nose.  It is his job to lead the client unerringly to the decision point, and then let the client decide.

Like his bloodhound Toby, Holmes was relentless when scenting a solution

A good consultant thus works for his client by operating independently within the absolute limits of his remit.  There is no need to ask the client for permission to do things which are preparatory or technical in nature, and where no client decision is required. 

Nevertheless, in every complex matter, there come points where the client must choose:

“It was not the wife; it was the children,” groaned the prisoner. “God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My God! What an exposure! What can I do?”

The Man with the Twisted Lip

At such times, the consultant must sketch the probable outcome of actions, and invite the client’s decision:

Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him kindly on the shoulder.
“If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up,” said he, “of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the details should find their way into the papers. Inspector Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case would then never go into court at all.”

The Man with the Twisted Lip

Holmes gave Neville St. Clair a chance to redeem his life and his good name

B10.     Recommends to his client

Even as the consultant operates independently over large stretches of territory, there are some essential decisions that are the province solely of the customer.  Time and again I have seen Holmes nudge a client toward an answer, or frame it in a way that he hoped would yield a particular result, but as he emphasized many times to me, the ultimate decision is always and ever the client’s choice:

“God bless you!” cried the prisoner passionately. “I would have endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left my miserable secret as a family blot to my children.

“It must stop here, however,” said Bradstreet. “If the police are to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone.”
“I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take.”
“In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your results.”
“I reached this one,” said my friend, “by sitting upon five pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast.”

How to solve a complex problem: an ounce of shag

B11.     Puts the right team on the case, and manages his subcontractors

Even the cleverest consultant is but a single man, and some assignments call for teams of people.  Indeed, when portfolios are involved, or vast geographies must be covered.  For this the consultant needs to be able on short notice to assemble a team of subcontractors:

As he spoke, there came a swift pattering of naked feet upon the stairs, a clatter of high voices, and in rushed a dozen dirty and ragged little street Arabs. There was some show of discipline among them, despite their tumultuous entry, for they instantly drew up in line and stood facing us with expectant faces. One of their number, taller and older than the others, stood forward with an air of lounging superiority which was very funny in such a disreputable little scarecrow.

For all that they were street urchins, the Irregulars were professional

“Got your message, sir,” said he, “and brought ’em on sharp. Three bob and a tanner for tickets.”

Holmes had a romantic view of street Arabs, as we called them.  These homeless children, byproducts of the Victorian slums, suffered exploitation, violence, and disease.  Nevertheless, London’s slums were hives of entrepreneurialism, and Holmes, like any good prime contractor, dealt equitably with his subcontractors:

“Here you are,” said Holmes, producing some silver. “In future they can report to you, Wiggins, and you to me. I cannot have the house invaded in this way. However, it is just as well that you should all hear the instructions. I want to find the whereabouts of a steam launch called the Aurora, owner Mordecai Smith, black with two red streaks, funnel black with a white band. She is down the river somewhere. I want one boy to be at Mordecai Smith’s landing-stage opposite Millbank to say if the boat comes back.”

Holmes also knew how to delegate and to insist upon subcontractor accountability:

“You must divide it out among yourselves and do both banks thoroughly. Let me know the moment you have news. Is that all clear?”

“Yes, guv’nor,” said Wiggins. “The old scale of pay, and a guinea to the boy who finds the boat.” “Here’s a day in advance. Now off you go!”

They were named Irregulars but they performed yeoman service.

He handed them a shilling each, and away they buzzed down the stairs, and I saw them a moment later streaming down the street.

We should note that just as Holmes could be a deniable ambassador for his client, the Irregulars were deniable ambassadors for Holmes.

“If the launch is above water they will find her,” said Holmes as he rose from the table and lit his pipe. “They can go everywhere, see everything, overhear everyone.”

The Sign of the Four, Chapter 8

B12.     Executes decisions made wholeheartedly, even if having disagreed

I never had occasion to record it in my diary – Holmes forbade me even to document it privately – but on a handful of occasions, Holmes was called upon to execute client instructions he had counseled against.  Considerations of state occasionally intervened, the tawdry business of diplomacy being a field of endeavor that Holmes eschewed entirely.  More commonly the client made a dreadful blunder, and Holmes was then consulted a second time to minimize the damage. 

If that happened, the client emerged shaken, grateful, and in awe of Holmes, and thus the perfect referrer of interesting cases:

I read as follows:

Sir:
Our client, Mr. Robert Ferguson, of Ferguson and Muirhead, tea brokers, of Mincing Lane, has made some inquiry from us in a communication of even date concerning vampires. As our firm specializes entirely upon the assessment of machinery the matter hardly comes within our purview, and we have therefore recommended Mr. Ferguson to call upon you and lay the matter before you. We have not forgotten your successful action in the case of Matilda Briggs.

“Matilda Briggs was not the name of a young woman, Watson,” said Holmes in a reminiscent voice. “It was a ship which is associated with the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared.”

The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire

“Yes, here we find Vavasoeur, and Vandeleur and the Giant Rat of Sumatra

The world is still not prepared …

 [Continued in Part 3a.]

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The blog, Watson, is a most valuable institution, if you only know how to use it.

The Adventure of the Six Napoleons

In my three decades of experience accompanying my friend Sherlock Holmes, the world’s foremost consulting housing finance detective, the Compleat Consultant, I have seen him solve mysteries far and wide, and use methods both of detection and reasoning that have been justly celebrated around the world.  Yet there was more to Holmes that a magnifying glass or a microscope – or even of his logic.  Holmes had the activity and energy that even his great brother Mycroft lacked:

“That Mycroft should break out in this erratic fashion! A planet might as well leave its orbit.”

“Find an answer to all these questions, and you will have done good service for your country.”
“Why do you not solve it yourself, Mycroft? You can see as far as I.”
“Possibly, Sherlock. But it is a question of getting details. Give me your details, and from an armchair I will return you an excellent expert opinion. But to run here and run there, to cross-question railway guards, and lie on my face with a lens to my eye–it is not my métier. No, you are the one man who can clear the matter up. If you have a fancy to see your name in the next honours list– –”
My friend smiled and shook his head.
“I play the game for the game’s own sake,” said he. “But the problem certainly presents some points of interest, and I shall be very pleased to look into it. Some more facts, please.”

The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans

B.        Services and activities

Energy – an attribute, I know, not a service – is a sine qua non of the successful consultant.  A consultant’s mind must always been spinning with his client’s problems:

He sprang from his chair and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and unclasping of his long thin hands.

“I am going out now!”
“To the police?”

“No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may take the flies, but not before.”

The Five Orange Pips

B1.       Protects his client’s interests

Clients, he once told me with great exasperation, have the annoying habit of acting despite our advice.  Then he chuckled. 

I heard a sharp rustle, the night air blew into the heated room, and the avenger was gone.

On occasion those ruined by evildoers received vengeance.

If they did not, if they always acted wisely, why then there would be no clients for me, no emerald stick pins, no continuing stream of challenges.

When given the opportunity to do the right thing, he acted:

Hardly had the woman rushed from the room when Holmes, with swift, silent steps, was over at the other door. He turned the key in the lock. At the same instant we heard voices in the house and the sound of hurrying feet. The revolver shots had roused the household. With perfect coolness Holmes slipped across to the safe, filled his two arms with bundles of letters, and poured them all into the fire. Again and again he did it, until the safe was empty.

The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton

When I later asked Holmes why he had done this, at some risk to ourselves, he looked at me as if I were daft, and said merely, Common decency warrants no surcharge.

Common decency warrants no surcharge

B2.       Coordinates and communicates

A good consultant communicates.  I always told my patients both my prescription and my diagnosis and the observations on which it was based.  The patient being an actor in his own treatment, that knowledge would serve not only to calm their minds but also help them change their habits to speed recovery or prevent illness.  Throughout our association, Holmes delighted in secretiveness, leading to the breathtaking denouement.  That was an error:

One of Sherlock Holmes’s defects–if, indeed, one may call it a defect– was that he was exceedingly loath to communicate his full plans to any other person until the instant of their fulfilment.

Often Holmes observed and deduced things he could not communicate to others.

Partly it came no doubt from his own masterful nature, which loved to dominate and surprise those who were around him. Partly also from his professional caution, which urged him never to take any chances. The result, however, was very trying for those who were acting as his agents and assistants. I had often suffered under it.

The Hound of the Baskervilles, Chapter 14

It reduced his effectiveness.  In later years, when he had retired to Sussex to keep bees, he admitted as such.

“What I expected to see”

“I am sure that you inquired your way merely in order that you might see him.”
“Not him.”
“What then?”
“The knees of his trousers.”
“And what did you see?”
“What I expected to see.”

The Red-Headed League

B3.       Will be deniable-ambassador if required

As a consultant, one is the client’s agent – so one is often called upon to represent one’s principal in encounters with other parties:

“An illustrious client has placed her piteous case in my hands.  This fiend has several imprudent letters–imprudent, Watson, nothing worse–which were written to an impecunious young squire in the country. They would suffice to break off the match.  Milverton will send the letters to the Earl unless a large sum of money is paid him.  I have been commissioned to meet him, and – to make the best terms I can.”

The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton

Ambassadorship also works in the opposite direction, as when one wants to repair a breach or right a wrong, without exposing one’s principal to other parties:

Good heavens! what is this? Lord Bellinger! Lord Bellinger!”

As an ambassador, Holmes arranged the return of valuables without necessarily disclosing from whom he got them.

The Premier snatched the blue envelope from his hand.
“Yes, it is it–and the letter is intact. Hope, I congratulate you.”
“Thank you! Thank you! What a weight from my heart. But this is inconceivable–impossible. Mr. Holmes, you are a wizard, a sorcerer! How did you know it was there?”
“Because I knew it was nowhere else.”
“I cannot believe my eyes!” He ran wildly to the door. “Where is my wife? I must tell her that all is well. Hilda! Hilda!” we heard his voice on the stairs.

Just as Holmes sometimes agreed not to seek to penetrate another’s anonymity, he could persuade others not to try to penetrate his client’s:

The Premier looked at Holmes with twinkling eyes.
“Come, sir,” said he. “There is more in this than meets the eye. How came the letter back in the box?”
Holmes turned away smiling from the keen scrutiny of those wonderful eyes.
“We also have our diplomatic secrets,” said he and, picking up his hat, he turned to the door.

The Adventure of the Second Stain

A good consultant like Holmes is naturally curious about many things, so his inquiries will not necessarily reveal on whose behalf he is making them. 

B4.       Will play the attack dog if required

A consultant is more than just an advisor, he is often an ambassador, a spokesperson, an advocate.  Many clients are hesitant; they fear scandal, publicity, even confrontation.  They are unused to the waters in which we swim, and if presented face-to-face with their antagonist (such as Charles Augustus Milverton, whom Holmes dubbed ‘the worst man in London‘), they will show weakness that will be exploited. 

Enter the consultant, who can speak for his client’s wishes:

A Case of Identity

“The law cannot, as you say, touch you,” said Holmes, unlocking and throwing open the door, “yet there never was a man who deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!” he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon the man’s face, “it is not part of my duties to my client, but here’s a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat myself to– –”

Mr. James Windibank had no wish to discover to what Holmes intended to treat himself.

He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road.

A Case of Identity

After all, Watson, he said to me, our clients pay us not for our efforts but for our results, and I believe this one will be satisfactory.

B5.       Negotiates as required

Negotiation is a skill.  It can be earned.  Most people do not negotiate much, and few people negotiate anything and everything for a living. 

Holmes was gray with anger and mortification.

It was important here for Holmes to recognize that his own feelings were unimportant; all that mattered was the service for which he had been commissioned.

“Wait a little,” he said. “You go too fast. We should certainly make every effort to avoid scandal in so delicate a matter.”
Milverton relapsed into his chair.
“I was sure that you would see it in that light,” he purred.

When necessary, Holmes would swallow both his pride and his passions.

Negotiation involves a mutability of character, and the challenging task of being both aggressive for one’s client and alert for any signs or signals from one’s antagonist:

At the same time,” Holmes continued, “Lady Eva is not a wealthy woman. I assure you that two thousand pounds would be a drain upon her resources, and that the sum you name is utterly beyond her power. I beg, therefore, that you will moderate your demands, and that you will return the letters at the price I indicate, which is, I assure you, the highest that you can get.”
Milverton’s smile broadened and his eyes twinkled humorously.

Giving more joy than all the candelabra and butter dishes in London: Charles Augustus Milverton

“I am aware that what you say is true about the lady’s resources,” said he. “At the same time you must admit that the occasion of a lady’s marriage is a very suitable time for her friends and relatives to make some little effort upon her behalf. They may hesitate as to an acceptable wedding present. Let me assure them that this little bundle of letters would give more joy than all the candelabra and butter-dishes in London.”
“It is impossible,” said Holmes.

The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton

Negotiation involves knowing when to keep silent – to provide the other party space for reflection.  Writing blog posts similarly involves knowing when to adjourn until tomorrow.

Burning the midnight oil writing blog posts, eh Holmes?

[Continued tomorrow in Part 2b.]

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Not entirely devoid of interest 

“You are engaged,” said I; “perhaps I interrupt you.”
“Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one”–he jerked his thumb in the direction of the old hat–“but there are points in connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and even of instruction.”

The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

Continuing my modest monograph on the consultancy attributes of the Compleat Consultant, my friend Sherlock Holmes, the world’s foremost consulting housing finance detective, we have seen that he can be both sympathetic and severe with his clients.  Holmes was no less severe and demanding of himself.

A11.     Will do what it takes to achieve the greater goal

If the cause required it, Holmes risked injury and death

Not only would Holmes take risks and exhaust every possible avenue, he also was willing to undertake the simplest, most tedious, or most personally embarrassing tasks if they furthered the client’s goal of solving the mystery:

“You’ll be interested to hear that I’m engaged.”
“My dear fellow! I congrat– –”

“To Milverton’s housemaid.”

“Good heavens, Holmes!”
“I wanted information, Watson.”
“Surely you have gone too far?”
“It was a most necessary step. I am a plumber with a rising business, Escott, by name. I have walked out with her each evening, and I have talked with her. Good heavens, those talks! However, I have got all I wanted. I know Milverton’s house as I know the palm of my hand.”
“But the girl, Holmes?”
He shrugged his shoulders.
“You can’t help it, my dear Watson. You must play your cards as best you can when such a stake is on the table. However, I rejoice to say that I have a hated rival, who will certainly cut me out the instant that my back is turned.”

The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton

A plumber with a rising business, Escott by name

Though personally a loner, a man without profane desires and sparing with praise, Holmes nevertheless inspired by example.  His commitment to his clients being so total, his absorption in his work ethic so great, that those around him found themselves rising to his standard, starting with myself:

“ Well, really, this is a very pretty little mystery! What do you intend to do, Miss Morstan?”
“That is exactly what I want to ask you.”
“Then we shall most certainly go–you and I and–yes, why Dr. Watson is the very man. Your correspondent says two friends. He and I have worked together before.”
“But would he come?” she asked with something appealing in her voice and expression.
“I shall be proud and happy,” said I fervently, “if I can be of any service.”

Chapter 2, The Sign of the Four

Readers know with what happy event my commitment was rewarded.

Once or twice Holmes used me, as he used himself and others, both for my labor and for my credulity, as when he sent me to Dartmoor and Baskerville Hall as his agent on the spot, while he secreted himself on the great Grimpen Mire:

 “Come out,” said he, “and please be careful with the revolver.”

“Please be careful with the revolver.”

I was astonished, and not a little peeved:

“Well, I am glad from my heart that you are here, for indeed the responsibility and the mystery were both becoming too much for my nerves. But how in the name of wonder did you come here, and what have you been doing? I thought that you were in Baker Street working out that case of blackmailing.”
“That was what I wished you to think.”
“But why keep me in the dark?”
I was still rather raw over the deception which had been practised upon me, but the warmth of Holmes’s praise drove my anger from my mind. I felt also in my heart that he was right in what he said and that it was really best for our purpose that I should not have known that he was upon the moor.

The Hound of the Baskervilles, Chapter 12

A12.     Does not exceed his brief

The converse of Holmes’s commitment to his client’s objectives was his readiness, one might even say merciful disposition, not to proceed beyond his remit:

“Once or twice in my career I feel that I have done more real harm by my discovery of the criminal than ever he had done by his crime. I have learned caution now, and I had rather play tricks with the law of England than with my own conscience. Let us know a little more before we act.”

The Adventure of the Abbey Grange

To be sure, Holmes’s discretion was also a form of threat; if the person on whom he applied pressure cooperated, no harm might come to her. 

He drew a small piece of cardboard from his pocket. It was the face of a woman cut out of a portrait.

“I thought it might be useful.”

“I have carried this because I thought it might be useful,” said he. “The policeman has recognized it.”
She gave a gasp, and her head dropped back in the chair.
“Come, Lady Hilda. You have the letter. The matter may still be adjusted. I have no desire to bring trouble to you. My duty ends when I have returned the lost letter to your husband. Take my advice and be frank with me. It is your only chance.”

The Adventure of the Second Stain

The consultant also prepares for contingencies, since when a matter reaches its head, one needs multiple action options:

Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand and a bundle of paper before him. “Just tell us the truth,” he said. “I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall not use it unless it is absolutely needed.”

The Boscombe Valley Mystery

“Farewell, then,” said the old man solemnly. “Your own deathbeds, when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace which you have given to mine.”

A13.     Is comfortable with value-based billing

While Holmes would occasionally take on assignments pro bono, or assist the police out of civic duty, he had the ascetic’s gleam for substantial recompense if the payor was wealthy and the matter urgent and critical.

“You would not think £1000 apiece an excessive sum for them?”
“I would pay ten.”
“That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? Here is a pen. Better make it out for £4000.”
“You have it!” he gasped. “I am saved! I am saved!”
The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom.
The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet

While Holmes would occasionally take on assignments pro bono, or assist the police out of civic duty, he had the ascetic’s gleam for substantial recompense if the payor was wealthy and the matter urgent and critical.

Holmes opened the case, and moistening his finger he passed it along the shoe. A thin film of recent mud was left upon his skin.
“Thank you,” said he, as he replaced the glass. “It is the second most interesting object that I have seen in the North.”
“And the first?”
Holmes folded up his check and placed it carefully in his notebook. “I am a poor man,” said he, as he patted it affectionately, and thrust it into the depths of his inner pocket.

The Adventure of The Priory School

From Holmes, I learned much about how to relate to and deal with customers, lessons I applied to my own medical practice.  Now I shall turn to the services and activities he provided once on the case.

It is paramount to examine all the evidence

[Continued on May 26 in Part 2a.]

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