#smh so hard at Victor 'don't tell me what to do' Hatherley

[mariana-oconnor]

The Engineer's Thumb pt 2

Our last entry was particularly gory and followed the lines of 'creepy person offers struggling worker job with pay they cannot afford to refuse and may secretly be a vampire cult leader'.

OK, so I added that last part, that's new, but the skeletal man offering our eponymous Engineer his job had a very undead aesthetic going on, so I'm keeping it.

I'm still not convinced that Mr Hatherley could have survived the trauma and blood loss he experienced long enough to get to Watson, but I was struck the other night, as I was going to bed, by the peculiar thought of what the other passengers on that train must have thought.

In Victorian times, they did still have compartments, so it's possible no one saw him. But in the modern day when you're all stacked in like sardines and he would have been on the commuter train... You're just sitting there, minding your own business, listening to a podcast and trying to ignore the very loud conversation from the two women behind you about how her cousin stole the family dog, entered it in a dog show and accidentally uncovered a drug smuggling ring, then ran off to Ibiza with her mistress -- but not trying too hard because honestly it's more interesting than the podcast, kind of. Anyway, you're minding your own business and you smell... blood.

And there's this guy sitting opposite you looking very pale and kind of sweaty and you've been avoiding making eye contact because he's sort of twitchy and you never make eye contact on British public transport, so instead you look at his hands and... is that a twig? And... a blood stained bandage and... is it just you or does his hand look a weird shape. You should stop staring. Maybe he's just tucking his thumb into his pal- no. No, he doesn't have a thumb. And that's blood and... and he's just sitting on the train with no thumb and fresh blood.

Would it be rude to ask?

It would probably be rude to ask. Like, he probably knows he's missing a thumb and you don't have any medical training and it's none of your business, is it? You should stop staring.

Yeah... honestly not the most disturbing thing I've come across on public transport, but it would be quite the morning.

On to today's email, though.

"Colonel Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve."

Either one of you is about as good at estimating distances as I am, or he's taking the long way round so Mr Hatherley can't find his way back.

"I was aware, more than once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me with great intensity."

This is giving very 'I want to steal your skin and wear you as a suit' energy, or is it just me.

"I tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we were, but they were made of frosted glass"

Was not aware that frosted glass windows were a thing at this point in time. I guess it makes sense as all you really need to do is scratch the surface of the glass a lot, but still. That's interesting.

It's also total overkill. You must come at night, we will take you down the windiest route possible to discombobulate you and we will have frosted windows so you cannot see out and no one can see you inside.

Frosted windows also don't provide any reflections on their frosted side. Not that Colonel Stark is a vampire, of course. I'm not even convinced he's a Colonel.

"We stepped, as it were, right out of the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the most fleeting glance of the front of the house."

If you look at it the right way, all these precautions are actually kind of reassuring. If you're planning to kill someone, you don't really care if they know where you're doing it. They probably intended to let Mr Hatherley go.

Always look on the bright side of shady nighttime business deals and potential kidnapping attempts.

"I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly fell from her hand."

And now we're getting some Greek Interpreter shit going on, which explains why I always get those two titles mixed up in my head.

"It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise everything was deadly still."

Sounds like hell.

"She held up one shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. “‘I would go,’ said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to speak calmly; ‘I would go. I should not stay here. There is no good for you to do.’"

Well, I'd be out of there. Honestly, I'd probably be frozen in fright and too scared to try to leave, but I'd want to be out of there. This is about as obvious a red flag as you can get. And she tries 3 times to tell Mr Hatherley to go and he refuses. Trying very hard not to victim blame, but after a certain point of ignoring direct, clear warnings to your life, you have to take some responsibility.

“But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way."

...Victor... Victor, Victor. Are you saying that you stayed in the creepy house with the creepy cult-leader not-at-all-undead Colonel because you were feeling contrary?

"I thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to go for nothing?"

You were feeling contrary and the sunk cost fallacy, got it.

"This woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac."

"She listened for an instant, threw up her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and as noiselessly as she had come."

Girl, same!

"a short thick man with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double chin"

omg, is there actually a type of beard called a chinchilla beard? Is it fluffy?

The only thing google is giving me is this exact quote and an urban dictionary link, which probably isn't relevant to a 19th century text unless ACD was a time traveller.

So basically he's got a chinchilla tail coming out of his chin? That's how I'm choosing to see it anyway.

“‘I had better put my hat on, I suppose.’ “‘Oh, no, it is in the house.’ “‘What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?’ “‘No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that."

"There were no carpets and no signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in green, unhealthy blotches."

And this is where he lost his thumb? Yeah, no way he's not infected. He's have flu-like symptoms within the hour. Nothing worse than flu-like symptoms. I'm surprised that he didn't get sepsis just from walking through the place. Perhaps the lady is a 'monomaniac' from all the mould spores she's been inhaling. That shit can't be healthy.

“‘We are now,’ said he, ‘actually within the hydraulic press, and it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of many tons upon this metal floor."'

Hello foreshadowing... postshadowing? Technically this is all a flashback and we know Victor loses his thumb, so I don't know what we call this? A not-so veiled threat?

I'm the opposite of claustrophobic, but there's no way I'm standing in that room.

Is someone going to turn this on intentionally, or is the real villain the OSHA violations we ignored along the way?

"It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth was the merest fabrication..."

“I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as that which he had told me. ‘I was admiring your fuller's-earth,’ said I; ‘I think that I should be better able to advise you as to your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it was used.’"

Victor here is standing in the death chamber in front of the murder man saying 'kill me now, please'. Guy has the survival instincts of a giant panda, I swear.

‘Hullo!’ I yelled. ‘Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!’

I'm interested in whether Victor actually thought this would work. His survival instincts have clearly finally kicked in, but they are still sleepy. I get there's not much else he could do, but the man just locked him in the death chamber and flipped the squishing switch, I don't think 'Hullo' is really going to make much of an impact. But if it makes you feel better about this totally avoidable circumstance, Mr Hatherley, then sure. 'Hullo' away.

"Then it flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black shadow wavering down upon me?"

Well that's... a thought process. Totally horrifying. 10/10 for shudder inducing.

Mr Hatherley is clearly a very practical man, but at the same time lacks any common sense whatsoever.

"It was the same good friend whose warning I had so foolishly rejected."

This woman is the most patient person ever, and she doesn't even have a name at this point - unless I missed it.

"I clambered out upon the sill, but I hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance."

Very heroic. Very dumb. Woman's got at least ten times the brains you have and she's survived this long. Admittedly her problem is entirely your fault, but she's risking her life to get you the fuck out. So...get the fuck out.

“‘Fritz! Fritz!’ she cried in English, ‘remember your promise after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be silent! Oh, he will be silent!’"

The German guy is called Fritz? How unexpected.

And apparently he's a serial person squisher, so that's a thing.

“‘You are mad, Elise!’ he shouted, struggling to break away from her. ‘You will be the ruin of us.'"

Elise, nice to properly meet you. You are the MVP of this story, although you are probably also involved in the criminal undertakings. Sorry Victor was such an idiot. You tried.

"I endeavoured to tie my handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the rose-bushes."

Oh, and his open, bleeding wound fell into the dirt. He is so infected. Victor Hatherley is a dead man walking. No way he survives this.

I've found a paper that states in the 1850s the mortality rate for medical amputations was 45%, with the main cause of death being sepsis. This story is a little later on, not a major limb and, honestly, probably cleaner than a medical amputation at the time (from what I know, Victorian era surgeons weren't big fans of cleaning their equipment or themselves between patients) but even if he doesn't die, that wound is not clean and there's been no cauterisation of the wound and surgeons were at least quick.

"But to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house nor garden were to be seen."

Ghost house! Spooky! I don't think I ever realised before how much ACD leant into the influence of Gothic literature in his works. But he's pulling out all the old favourites.

"I had been lying in an angle of the hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night."

And we have the answer of why the horse wasn't tired when he arrived at the station - because it had only come from next door - and why so much secrecy in preventing him from seeing where he was going - because he was only going next door.

"The same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him."

You literally know that's a fake name. His name is Fritz. Of course the porter hasn't heard of Colonel Fakename McPseudonym. He probably has a totally different identity he uses locally.

"There was one about three miles off." “It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the police."

3 miles is too far, but he can totally wait for a train and sit on it, then walk when he's in London. I mean, Victor, you have no thumb, that's pretty good evidence that you need assistance, I'm sure someone would fetch a police officer for you. I'm surprised they haven't already. How many city folk do they get turning up at stupid o'clock in the morning covered in blood and clearly very confused?

You know... I heard that as I was typing it and you're right. That probably is just an average Tuesday. Victorian equivalent of a stag do. Is it really a party if someone doesn't lose a thumb?

"I put the case into your hands and shall do exactly what you advise.”

I personally advise an immediate course of broad spectrum antibiotics, but given that they won't be discovered until the next century, I guess you're shit out of luck. Dip the whole hand in brandy and hope for the best.

Brandy! It cures everything! Unless you die!

I still don't know what Fritz and the chinchilla are up to. Seems like maybe it isn't a land-selling scam after all. But apparently he has been murdering random people, so that's concerning. The problem comes down to the fact I don't really know what hydraulic presses would be used for? Making coins? Is this a forgery business? That lines up with the 'crust of metallic deposit' Victor found in it.

So I'm going to go with that for now, coin forgery. Though why they are German, I don't know. Maybe just because it would add to the Gothic horror vibes if they had accents. Maybe they're working specifically to destabilise the British economy. Or maybe it's not related at all.

[faithful-grigori]

“#smh so hard at Victor 'don't tell me what to do' Hatherley”

The Engineer's Thumb pt 2

Our last entry was particularly gory and followed the lines of 'creepy person offers struggling worker job with pay they cannot afford to refuse and may secretly be a vampire cult leader'.

OK, so I added that last part, that's new, but the skeletal man offering our eponymous Engineer his job had a very undead aesthetic going on, so I'm keeping it.

I'm still not convinced that Mr Hatherley could have survived the trauma and blood loss he experienced long enough to get to Watson, but I was struck the other night, as I was going to bed, by the peculiar thought of what the other passengers on that train must have thought.

In Victorian times, they did still have compartments, so it's possible no one saw him. But in the modern day when you're all stacked in like sardines and he would have been on the commuter train... You're just sitting there, minding your own business, listening to a podcast and trying to ignore the very loud conversation from the two women behind you about how her cousin stole the family dog, entered it in a dog show and accidentally uncovered a drug smuggling ring, then ran off to Ibiza with her mistress -- but not trying too hard because honestly it's more interesting than the podcast, kind of. Anyway, you're minding your own business and you smell... blood.

And there's this guy sitting opposite you looking very pale and kind of sweaty and you've been avoiding making eye contact because he's sort of twitchy and you never make eye contact on British public transport, so instead you look at his hands and... is that a twig? And... a blood stained bandage and... is it just you or does his hand look a weird shape. You should stop staring. Maybe he's just tucking his thumb into his pal- no. No, he doesn't have a thumb. And that's blood and... and he's just sitting on the train with no thumb and fresh blood.

Would it be rude to ask?

It would probably be rude to ask. Like, he probably knows he's missing a thumb and you don't have any medical training and it's none of your business, is it? You should stop staring.

Yeah... honestly not the most disturbing thing I've come across on public transport, but it would be quite the morning.

On to today's email, though.

"Colonel Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve."

Either one of you is about as good at estimating distances as I am, or he's taking the long way round so Mr Hatherley can't find his way back.

"I was aware, more than once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me with great intensity."

This is giving very 'I want to steal your skin and wear you as a suit' energy, or is it just me.

"I tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we were, but they were made of frosted glass"

Was not aware that frosted glass windows were a thing at this point in time. I guess it makes sense as all you really need to do is scratch the surface of the glass a lot, but still. That's interesting.

It's also total overkill. You must come at night, we will take you down the windiest route possible to discombobulate you and we will have frosted windows so you cannot see out and no one can see you inside.

Frosted windows also don't provide any reflections on their frosted side. Not that Colonel Stark is a vampire, of course. I'm not even convinced he's a Colonel.

"We stepped, as it were, right out of the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the most fleeting glance of the front of the house."

If you look at it the right way, all these precautions are actually kind of reassuring. If you're planning to kill someone, you don't really care if they know where you're doing it. They probably intended to let Mr Hatherley go.

Always look on the bright side of shady nighttime business deals and potential kidnapping attempts.

"I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly fell from her hand."

And now we're getting some Greek Interpreter shit going on, which explains why I always get those two titles mixed up in my head.

"It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise everything was deadly still."

Sounds like hell.

"She held up one shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. “‘I would go,’ said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to speak calmly; ‘I would go. I should not stay here. There is no good for you to do.’"

Well, I'd be out of there. Honestly, I'd probably be frozen in fright and too scared to try to leave, but I'd want to be out of there. This is about as obvious a red flag as you can get. And she tries 3 times to tell Mr Hatherley to go and he refuses. Trying very hard not to victim blame, but after a certain point of ignoring direct, clear warnings to your life, you have to take some responsibility.

“But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way."

...Victor... Victor, Victor. Are you saying that you stayed in the creepy house with the creepy cult-leader not-at-all-undead Colonel because you were feeling contrary?

"I thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to go for nothing?"

You were feeling contrary and the sunk cost fallacy, got it.

"This woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac."

"She listened for an instant, threw up her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and as noiselessly as she had come."

Girl, same!

"a short thick man with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double chin"

omg, is there actually a type of beard called a chinchilla beard? Is it fluffy?

The only thing google is giving me is this exact quote and an urban dictionary link, which probably isn't relevant to a 19th century text unless ACD was a time traveller.

So basically he's got a chinchilla tail coming out of his chin? That's how I'm choosing to see it anyway.

“‘I had better put my hat on, I suppose.’ “‘Oh, no, it is in the house.’ “‘What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?’ “‘No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that."

"There were no carpets and no signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in green, unhealthy blotches."

And this is where he lost his thumb? Yeah, no way he's not infected. He's have flu-like symptoms within the hour. Nothing worse than flu-like symptoms. I'm surprised that he didn't get sepsis just from walking through the place. Perhaps the lady is a 'monomaniac' from all the mould spores she's been inhaling. That shit can't be healthy.

“‘We are now,’ said he, ‘actually within the hydraulic press, and it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of many tons upon this metal floor."'

Hello foreshadowing... postshadowing? Technically this is all a flashback and we know Victor loses his thumb, so I don't know what we call this? A not-so veiled threat?

I'm the opposite of claustrophobic, but there's no way I'm standing in that room.

Is someone going to turn this on intentionally, or is the real villain the OSHA violations we ignored along the way?

"It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth was the merest fabrication..."

“I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as that which he had told me. ‘I was admiring your fuller's-earth,’ said I; ‘I think that I should be better able to advise you as to your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it was used.’"

Victor here is standing in the death chamber in front of the murder man saying 'kill me now, please'. Guy has the survival instincts of a giant panda, I swear.

‘Hullo!’ I yelled. ‘Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!’

I'm interested in whether Victor actually thought this would work. His survival instincts have clearly finally kicked in, but they are still sleepy. I get there's not much else he could do, but the man just locked him in the death chamber and flipped the squishing switch, I don't think 'Hullo' is really going to make much of an impact. But if it makes you feel better about this totally avoidable circumstance, Mr Hatherley, then sure. 'Hullo' away.

"Then it flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black shadow wavering down upon me?"

Well that's... a thought process. Totally horrifying. 10/10 for shudder inducing.

Mr Hatherley is clearly a very practical man, but at the same time lacks any common sense whatsoever.

"It was the same good friend whose warning I had so foolishly rejected."

This woman is the most patient person ever, and she doesn't even have a name at this point - unless I missed it.

"I clambered out upon the sill, but I hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance."

Very heroic. Very dumb. Woman's got at least ten times the brains you have and she's survived this long. Admittedly her problem is entirely your fault, but she's risking her life to get you the fuck out. So...get the fuck out.

“‘Fritz! Fritz!’ she cried in English, ‘remember your promise after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be silent! Oh, he will be silent!’"

The German guy is called Fritz? How unexpected.

And apparently he's a serial person squisher, so that's a thing.

“‘You are mad, Elise!’ he shouted, struggling to break away from her. ‘You will be the ruin of us.'"

Elise, nice to properly meet you. You are the MVP of this story, although you are probably also involved in the criminal undertakings. Sorry Victor was such an idiot. You tried.

"I endeavoured to tie my handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the rose-bushes."

Oh, and his open, bleeding wound fell into the dirt. He is so infected. Victor Hatherley is a dead man walking. No way he survives this.

I've found a paper that states in the 1850s the mortality rate for medical amputations was 45%, with the main cause of death being sepsis. This story is a little later on, not a major limb and, honestly, probably cleaner than a medical amputation at the time (from what I know, Victorian era surgeons weren't big fans of cleaning their equipment or themselves between patients) but even if he doesn't die, that wound is not clean and there's been no cauterisation of the wound and surgeons were at least quick.

"But to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house nor garden were to be seen."

Ghost house! Spooky! I don't think I ever realised before how much ACD leant into the influence of Gothic literature in his works. But he's pulling out all the old favourites.

"I had been lying in an angle of the hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night."

And we have the answer of why the horse wasn't tired when he arrived at the station - because it had only come from next door - and why so much secrecy in preventing him from seeing where he was going - because he was only going next door.

"The same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him."

You literally know that's a fake name. His name is Fritz. Of course the porter hasn't heard of Colonel Fakename McPseudonym. He probably has a totally different identity he uses locally.

"There was one about three miles off." “It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the police."

3 miles is too far, but he can totally wait for a train and sit on it, then walk when he's in London. I mean, Victor, you have no thumb, that's pretty good evidence that you need assistance, I'm sure someone would fetch a police officer for you. I'm surprised they haven't already. How many city folk do they get turning up at stupid o'clock in the morning covered in blood and clearly very confused?

You know... I heard that as I was typing it and you're right. That probably is just an average Tuesday. Victorian equivalent of a stag do. Is it really a party if someone doesn't lose a thumb?

"I put the case into your hands and shall do exactly what you advise.”

I personally advise an immediate course of broad spectrum antibiotics, but given that they won't be discovered until the next century, I guess you're shit out of luck. Dip the whole hand in brandy and hope for the best.

Brandy! It cures everything! Unless you die!

I still don't know what Fritz and the chinchilla are up to. Seems like maybe it isn't a land-selling scam after all. But apparently he has been murdering random people, so that's concerning. The problem comes down to the fact I don't really know what hydraulic presses would be used for? Making coins? Is this a forgery business? That lines up with the 'crust of metallic deposit' Victor found in it.

So I'm going to go with that for now, coin forgery. Though why they are German, I don't know. Maybe just because it would add to the Gothic horror vibes if they had accents. Maybe they're working specifically to destabilise the British economy. Or maybe it's not related at all.