How are Sherlock Holmes and Athenley Jones contrasted in Chapter 6
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Holmes gleefully examines the crime scene. He observes two distinctive marks on the floor: a footprint and a circular print of a wooden stump. He and Watson agree that the wooden-legged man must have had help; the outer walls of the house are too high for him to have scaled. Someone else must have got inside and lowered him the rope to climb up, hypothesizes Holmes.
Holmes gets a thrill from case work, particularly when he’s actually on the scene of the crime. The wooden stump footprint ties in with Major Sholto’s deathbed story, in which the two brothers found only one footprint in the flowerbed outside of the Major’s window.
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Watson wonders how the wooden-legged man’s ally could have got into the room. Holmes is mildly annoyed by Watson, saying, “how often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, HOWEVER IMPROBABLE, must be the truth?” Watson realizes that the accomplice must have come through the hole in the roof.
Holmes’ quote neatly sums up his intellectual approach of deduction. Of course, in reality it is difficult to delineate the entire range of impossibilities and so the remark comes across as somewhat patronizing to Watson—who, as a doctor, is not an unintelligent man.
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Holmes and Watson investigate the roof cavity and find a trapdoor leading out on to the roof. Here, they notice another set of footprints—but these are much smaller than those from an average man. Watson thinks a child must have been involved; Holmes clearly disagrees but doesn’t yet explain why. Holmes is satisfied he has gleaned everything there is to learn from the scene.
The second set of footprints sets the stage for Tonga’s entry later in the novella. The disagreement between Watson and Holmes serves to further distinguish their two different intellects.
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Holmes notices that the wooden-legged man appears to have stepped in creosote. They hear the police arrive and quickly examine the body. Bartholomew’s muscles are in a state of extreme contraction, suggesting poisoning by “some strychnine-like substance.” Holmes explains that the poison must have been administered by the thorn.