Violet Smith looks back and sees a solitary cyclist following her. Sidney Paget, Strand Magazine, 1904.
"The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist" is a Sherlock Holmes short story by the British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was first published in the December 26, 1903, issue of the weekly Collier's magazine in the United States and in the January 1904 issue of Strand Magazine in England. The story was later collected in The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905). "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist" is the twenty-eighth short story and the thirty-first tale of the Sherlock Holmes Canon.
In the story, the brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes is consulted by a beautiful young music teacher named Violet Smith. For the past few months, Miss Smith has been teaching the young daughter of Mr. Carruthers, a friend of her late estranged uncle, at his house in the country. Not only is she getting paid twice the usual rate, but she is also allowed to go home to her mother in London every weekend. Lately, however, she has been bothered by a mysterious cyclist who follows her as she rides her bicycle to and from the train station. Already engaged on another case, Holmes enlists the help of his friend Dr. Watson with the investigation. But the seemingly trivial case soon takes a curious turn, and Holmes decides to personally look into the mystery.
"The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist" has been adapted for radio, television, and film.
Plot[]
Holmes examines Miss Smith's hand and deduces her occupation. Sidney Paget, Strand Magazine, 1904.
Late in the evening on Saturday, April 23, 1895, Miss Violet Smith comes to Baker Street to consult Sherlock Holmes. She is young, beautiful, and graceful. Holmes deduces from her shoes, fingers, and complexion that she is an ardent bicyclist and a musician living in the country. Miss Smith confirms that she bicycles a good deal and teaches music in the country, near Farnham in Surrey. She then begins her story.
Miss Smith and her mother were left very poor when her father died. Their only relative, her uncle Ralph Smith, left for Africa twenty-five years ago and was never heard from. Four months ago, there was an advertisement in the Times placed by a lawyer searching for Miss Smith and her mother. The lawyer introduced them to two friends of Uncle Ralph's from South Africa named Carruthers and Woodley. According to the two men, Ralph Smith died some months ago. Although he died poor, he asked Carruthers and Woodley to look after his relatives. Woodley was a red-mustached, coarse young man, and Miss Smith found him odious. Carruthers, on the other hand, was an older, clean-shaven and polite gentleman. Carruthers offered Miss Smith a hundred pounds a year to teach his ten-year-old daughter. On condition that she would be allowed to go home to her mother every weekend, Miss Smith accepted the generous offer.
Carruthers' home is located six miles from Farnham. He is a widower and the household is run by a respectable housekeeper. Everything was going very well until Woodley came for a visit. He pestered Miss Smith to marry him and, after dinner one day, seized her and demanded a kiss. Carruthers found them and tore Woodley off Miss Smith. She has not seen Woodley since.
Miss Smith then begins to explain why she has come to see Holmes. She rides her bicycle every Saturday morning to the train station to take the 12:22 to London. The road is lonely, especially in one section where it lies, for over a mile, between Charlington Heath on one side and the woods of Charlington Hall on the other. Two weeks ago, she happened to look back while cycling along that stretch and saw a middle-aged man with a dark beard on a bicycle two hundred yards behind her. Returning on Monday, she saw the same man in the same area. The man was there again last week. Carruthers has ordered a horse and trap but they have not arrived, so she bicycled again this morning. The same man again followed, always keeping his distance so she could not see his face clearly. When she slowed down, he slowed down, and when she stopped, he stopped. She went quickly around a sharp turn then stopped and waited, but he never appeared. When she went back he had vanished, even though there are no side roads in the area.
Miss Smith assures Holmes that the man could not have retreated down the road or gone toward the heath. Holmes is satisfied that the man must have gone towards Charlington Hall. He then asks Miss Smith if she has admirers. Miss Smith is engaged, but she is certain it was not her fiancé following her. She mentions Woodley then hesitates before admitting that Carruthers appears to take an interest in her. Holmes promises to make inquiries then bids her good-bye.
Front cover of the December 26, 1903 issue of Collier's magazine, in which "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist" was first published in the United States, with illustration by Frederic Dorr Steele.
Holmes thinks they should find out who resides at Charlington Hall then look into the connection between Carruthers and Woodley. They are an odd pair, and Holmes wants to know why they are both so keen to help Miss Smith. He also finds it curious that Carruthers can afford to pay twice the usual rate for a governess and yet does not keep a horse. Holmes is busy on an important case, so he asks Watson to go to Farnham. He instructs him to take the early train on Monday, hide and observe what happens, then proceed to make inquiries into the occupants of the Hall.
On Monday morning, Watson arrives in Farnham and walks to the heath. He finds the spot Miss Smith described and sees that there is a gateway to the Hall and also some gaps in the hedge along the road. He takes cover behind a clump of flowering gorse in the heath where he can see the gateway as well as the length of road along the hedges. Before long, the mysterious cyclist appears from the direction opposite to that of the train station. The man dismounts and disappears with his bicycle through a gap in the hedge.
Fifteen minutes later, Violet Smith comes from the station. After she passes the spot, the man comes out from his hiding place and follows her. She slows down, and he slows down. She stops, and he also stops. Then, to Watson's surprise, Miss Smith reverses direction and rides towards the man. The man flees quickly. Presently, Miss Smith returns and rides off towards her employer's house. The man reappears and dismounts at the gates. He stands for a minute among the trees with hands raised, perhaps settling his necktie. Then he rides down the drive towards the Hall. Watson runs over and peers through the trees but his view is obstructed by the dense shrubbery.
Satisfied with the morning's work, Watson then goes to a local house agent. The agent directs him to a firm in Pall Mall. Stopping there on the way back, Watson learns that the Hall was let a month ago to a Mr. Williamson, an elderly gentleman.
Watson reports back to Holmes in the evening and is disappointed by the detective's reaction. Holmes tells Watson he did "remarkably badly" by hiding too far away and failing to get a close look at the man. He also chastises Watson for seeing a London agent instead of visiting the nearest public house for gossip on the Hall's tenants. The name Williamson means nothing to Holmes, and an elderly man cannot be their cyclist. Holmes laments that they know no more than they did before.
The next morning, they receive a letter from Miss Smith describing what Watson saw. She then adds that Carruthers has proposed to her. She had to refuse him since she is already engaged. Although he took the refusal well, she reports that the situation has become strained. After reading the letter, Holmes decides to go down to Farnham himself.
Holmes answers Woodley with a straight left. Sidney Paget, Strand Magazine, 1904.
Holmes returns late in the evening with a cut lip and a bump in the forehead. Laughing heartily, he recounts his adventure. He went to the pub to chat with the landlord at the bar. Williamson is a white-bearded man rumored to have been a clergyman. He is an unlikely character, however, and Holmes has since learned that he had a "singularly dark" clerical career. The landlord also mentioned that Williamson entertains weekend guests, including a red-mustached Mr. Woodley. At the mention of his name, Woodley himself walked up to the bar, having overheard everything. He demanded to know who Holmes was and what he wanted. He then hit Holmes. Holmes, being an expert boxer, answered with a straight left. A few minutes later, Woodley was taken away on a cart. Holmes confesses that, although enjoyable, his day in Farnham was not much more profitable than Watson's was.
On Thursday, another letter arrives from Miss Smith. She will be leaving Carruthers' employment on Saturday, and the trap has arrived to take her to the station. In addition to the awkwardness with Carruthers, Miss Smith is unnerved by the reappearance of Woodley. She reports that Woodley and Carrruthers had a long conversation and Carruthers was left quite excited afterwards. Holmes takes the news very seriously and suggests going down on Saturday to make sure no harm comes to their client.
Holmes and Watson arrive in Farnham on Saturday morning. As they walk down the road from the station, Holmes spots a vehicle in the distance coming in their direction. It appears Miss Smith intends on taking the earlier train. Seeing that she will get to the Hall before they can, Holmes and Watson rush on. Running ahead of the slower Watson, Holmes sees an empty dog cart pulled by a cantering horse rattling towards them. He tells Watson to stop the horse and jump in. As they turn the cart and ride it back around the corner, Watson sees the solitary cyclist racing towards them. The man sees them and stops. He demands to know where they got the cart and draws a pistol. Holmes asks where Miss Smith is and tells the man they found the empty cart. The man cries out that Woodley and the blackguard parson have got her. He tells Holmes and Watson to follow him then runs to a gap in the hedge.
An empty dog cart pulled by a cantering horse comes rattling towards Holmes and Watson. Sidney Paget, Strand Magazine, 1904.
There are footmarks in the muddy path on the other side of the hedge. Holmes finds a young man lying unconscious in the bush with a terrible cut on his head. The stranger says it is the groom who drove Miss Smith. Leaving the injured youth behind, they continue running down the path. As they approach the house, Holmes spots footprints leading away. Then they hear a woman's scream. The stranger leads them through the bushes until they come out to a glade. On the far side, under an oak tree, they see Miss Smith with her mouth gagged and Woodley standing next to her. An elderly man in a surplice is putting away his prayer book. Watson gasps "They're married?" as the stranger dashes across the glade.
At the other end, they are greeted by the triumphant Woodley. Woodley tells the stranger to take off the beard, and the man rips off the dark beard to reveal a clean-shaven face. It is Carruthers. Swearing to right the wrong done to Miss Smith, Carruthers shoots Woodley. Williamson pulls out a revolver, but he is stopped and disarmed by Holmes who had his own pistol ready. Holmes then takes Carruthers' revolver.
Holmes sends for the police then takes charge. He orders Williamson and Carruthers to carry the wounded Woodley into the house while Watson assists Miss Smith. Watson examines Woodley and declares he will live. Carruthers is upset at the diagnosis, but Holmes assures him that the marriage is invalid – Williamson was unfrocked, and a marriage requires consent. Holmes tells Carruthers he should have kept his pistol in his pocket. Carruthers agrees but says he loves the girl and could not stand the thought of her with Woodley, a brute who is infamous in South Africa.
Carruthers says he secretly followed to protect Miss Smith every time she went past the Hall. He knew Woodley would make a move because they had just received a cable which read "THE OLD MAN IS DEAD." Holmes urges Carruthers to tell his story, but Williamson warns him against talking. Holmes decides to do the talking himself.
Carruthers and Woodley knew Ralph Smith in South Africa. They found out Smith would not live long and his niece would inherit his fortune. The plan was for one of them to marry the girl and share the wealth with the other. Carruthers admits they played cards for the girl and Woodley won. Carruthers hired Miss Smith and Woodley was to court her, but she would not have anything to do with Woodley. Then Carruthers fell in love. He and Woodley quarreled and Woodley began to make his own plans. Carruthers adds that Woodley picked up Williamson at that time. Having learned that Williamson and Woodley rented the Hall, Carruthers kept an eye on Miss Smith. Two days ago, Woodley came to him with the cable and asked if he would stand by the bargain. Carruthers refused. Woodley then asked if Carruthers would marry her then share the fortune. Carruthers answered that he would gladly do so but she would not have him. Woodley suggested forcing her to marry and Carruthers again refused. Although he had gotten a trap for Miss Smith, Carruthers was still uneasy and decided to follow her. Unfortunately she got a head start and he was too late to prevent the abduction.
Holmes regrets not having figured out the case when Watson reported seeing the cyclist arranging his necktie. He gives Carruthers his card and offers to give evidence in support of him at the trial. In closing, Watson notes that Violet Smith inherited a large fortune and married her fiancé. Williamson was sentenced to seven years and Woodley ten years in prison. He believes the court was lenient on Carruthers and he served only a few months.
Adaptations[]
Figurine of a cyclist on display at the Sherlock Holmes Museum, Baker Street, London.
The Solitary Cyclist (1921), last of the fifteen short silent films of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series starring Eille Norwood, is an adaptation of "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist."
A BBC television adaptation of the story starring Peter Cushing was broadcast on December 9, 1968. The episode is now lost.
The fourth episode of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Granada TV series starring Jeremy Brett is a faithful adaptation of "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist." The dramatization cleverly highlights the friendship between Holmes and Watson while remaining true to the storyline. Its only notable deviation from the text concerns Holmes' preoccupation at the start of the case. He is busy preparing a chemical experiment when Violet Smith arrives, and the experiment is continued in the epilogue with an amusing result. The episode first aired on the ITV network on May 15, 1984.
The story has been dramatized many times for various radio adaptations of the Sherlock Holmes series. The first version, an episode of the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes show starring Richard Gordon, was broadcast in America on April 27, 1931 by NBC. Other notable radio adaptations include "The Solitary Cyclist," a third-season episode of The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series starring Basil Rathbone (first broadcast on NBC on October 26, 1941), and one done for The BBC Presents: Sherlock Holmes series with Clive Merrison in the role of Holmes (first aired on BBC Radio 4 on March 17, 1993).