The of the Engineer's Thumb

A young hydraulic engineer, Victor Hatherley, visits a doctor after suffering a severe injury to his hand, where his thumb has been violently severed. He recounts a harrowing experience that began when he was approached by Colonel Lysander Stark, who sought his expertise on a hydraulic press. Stark promised a substantial fee for a late-night visit to his remote estate in Berkshire, emphasizing the need for secrecy. Upon arrival, Hatherley is taken to a dark, eerie house where he meets Stark and his secretary, Mr. Ferguson. After examining the hydraulic press, Hatherley realizes that the colonel's story about needing help with fuller's earth is a ruse. When he questions the purpose of the machine, Stark locks him inside and activates the press, intending to kill him. Hatherley narrowly escapes through a hidden panel just as the press descends. A woman, Elise, warns him to flee, but Stark pursues him with a cleaver. Hatherley jumps from a window, injuring his hand further in the process. He loses consciousness in the garden and later wakes up near a train station, confused but alive. He decides to report the incident to the police and seeks help from Sherlock Holmes. Holmes, intrigued by the case, deduces that Stark and his associates are part of a counterfeiting operation. They set out to find the criminals, but upon arriving at the scene, they discover that the house has burned down, likely due to Hatherley's oil lamp igniting the wooden structure. The criminals have vanished without a trace, leaving behind only a severed thumb and remnants of their operation. Despite the loss of his thumb and the fee, Hatherley gains a harrowing experience and a story that will haunt him. Holmes reflects on the case, emphasizing the lessons learned and the nature of human greed and desperation.

By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle · First published 1892 · Genre: Mystery, Detective Fiction, Thriller · 11,623 words

First lines

Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes for solution during the years of our intimacy, there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his notice-that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details, that it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when set forth _en bloc_ in a single half-column of print than when the facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly served to weaken the effect.

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The of the Engineer's Thumb is listed on Textopian as a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, dated 1892 CE.

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• Work type: Short story
• Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Date: 1892 CE
• Language: English
• Genres: Mystery, Detective Fiction, Thriller, Adventure, Crime
• Length: 11,623 words
• Structure: 1 section, 176 paragraphs
• Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

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Genres

• Mystery — The plot revolves around a mysterious incident involving a severed thumb and a secretive commission, typical of the mystery genre.
• Detective Fiction — Features Sherlock Holmes, a detective solving a case, which is a hallmark of detective fiction.
• Thriller — Contains suspenseful elements, including danger and a life-threatening situation, characteristic of thrillers.
• Adventure — Involves a journey and an exploration of unknown circumstances, fitting the adventure genre.

Tags

mystery · detective · suspense · crime · investigation · Victorian · short story · thriller · surgery · engineering · deception · murder

More by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

• The Parish Magazine (1914)
• The Great Brown-Pericord Motor (1914)
• The Holocaust of Manor Place (1901)
• The Debatable Case of Mrs. Emsley (1901)
• The Love Affair of George Vincent Parker (1901)
• The Disintegration Machine (1927)
• The Bully of Brocas Court (1914)
• The Brown Hand (1914)
• All works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle