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Book Club 14th August 2013 - Dancing Men (DANC)
THE DANCING MEN
Ralph Edwards - Fri, 17 Mar 1995
Was Holmes acquiring curvature of the spine?
Did Holmes have an artificial hand?
Was remembering four weeks unnecessary brain stuffing?
Was the check book locked up for safety or Watson's benefit?
Was Holmes usually in or out to unscheduled clients?
Was mention of "no better known family" significant?
In 1898 was a registry office wedding appropriate (without the vicar)?
Having sent a letter earlier, why did Slaney use his full name in the message?
Slaney's second note says "AM HERE ABE SLANEY". What might his first chalked note have said?
Why a week between messages?
Was Cubitt justified in taking his own line?
What other means could Holmes have suggested?
Why does Holmes say "Hilton" so often?
Would the law have upheld killing a prowler?
Why not have farmhands follow Slaney?
Why didn't Holmes have cablegram forwarded to North Walsham?
Had old Anglia been more populous?
Would a much used writing table face a window?
Would guttering show if the candle continues in use?
Were long sharp toes significant?
Why straggling, irregular letters?
What did Slaney do to occupy his waiting days?
Was the surmise about flags entirely correct?
Was Holmes familiar with American name contractions?
Having "dropped" Cubitt, why would Slaney be swaggering?
Did Slaney shoot to wound or to kill?
How was the first of two simultaneous shots determined?
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Re: Book Club 14th August 2013 - Dancing Men (DANC)
Copy and pasting some of the comments from the other thread, so we can keep that one for just making new reading suggestions.
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holmes23 says:
Ok... read it It wasn't my favourite because of those codes. Don't get me wrong, I liked the fact that the act of deciphering has been explained in a convincing way, but IMO the very explanation process hampers the smooth reading of the story. As a brain teaser it's really a good one. A lot effort must have been put into it by ACD
The murder/suicide suspense, the way Abe Slaney caught are all very interesting.
Hilton Cubitt appears to me as a man with some arrogance. If he weren't talking about his family honour that much, I think hiss wife would have made a clean breast of the facts. And is it agreeable to seek someone's help to know the secret of his wife, isn't worse than making a direct appeal to her(as suggested by SH) by breaking his promise?
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Thread Starter- Sherlock Holmes
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Re: Book Club 14th August 2013 - Dancing Men (DANC)
My reply:
I like this one BECAUSE of the codes. One of the first things I did was draw myself out a dancing men alphabet and start to write things using it. Quite time consuming considering I'm crap at drawing.
But yeah, I wish there'd been more stories with codes and ciphers. I think it's cool the way he works them out.
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Thread Starter- holmes23
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Re: Book Club 14th August 2013 - Dancing Men (DANC)
Boss would you mind numbering those questions. To my embarressment, I admit that I don't even know why some of the questions ever asked.
For exmple the second question, "Did Holmes have an artificial hand?" and the third, "Was remembering four weeks unnecessary brain stuffing?"
and the question, "Why didn't Holmes have cablegram forwarded to North Walsham?"
May be it's better to go through the story once again
Some questions I can answer, some I can't. I'll give my answers in the evening 
.
- holmes23
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Re: Book Club 14th August 2013 - Dancing Men (DANC)
Back to the questions...
Was Holmes acquiring curvature of the spine? - Very likely if it developed to a habit with him to sit in that posture for hours
Did Holmes have an artificial hand? - Does this question have any connection with this sentence,"He wheeled round upon his stool, with a steaming test-tube in his hand"?
Was remembering four weeks unnecessary brain stuffing? - As far as Watson is concerned nothing is unneceessary brain stuffing 
Was the check book locked up for safety or Watson's benefit? - surely the second one, Isn't there some mention in canon about Watson's gamling problems?
Was Holmes usually in or out to unscheduled clients? ...................?
Was mention of "no better known family" significant? - No surprise Mrs Cubit was relectant to disclose the secrets about her past!
In 1898 was a registry office wedding appropriate (without the vicar)? ......?
Having sent a letter earlier, why did Slaney use his full name in the message? - There is no indication that he used his name in the first message. Since there was no reply to the first he might have thought that using his name in the second would produce some effect on Elsie
Slaney's second note says "AM HERE ABE SLANEY". What might his first chalked note have said? - Elsie, darling!
Why a week between messages?...................?
Was Cubitt justified in taking his own line? - Nop, it was unjustifiable to seek someone's help to know about his wife's secret. He should have made a direct appeal to his wife even at the cost of breaking his promise and tried to win her confidence
What other means could Holmes have suggested?............?
Why does Holmes say "Hilton" so often?..............
Would the law have upheld killing a prowler? - No, I think
Why not have farmhands follow Slaney?
Why didn't Holmes have cablegram forwarded to North Walsham?.........?
Had old Anglia been more populous?............?
Would a much used writing table face a window?................?
Would guttering show if the candle continues in use? .........?
Were long sharp toes significant?
Why straggling, irregular letters? - may be to imitate Elsie's state of mind
What did Slaney do to occupy his waiting days? - day dreaming
Was the surmise about flags entirely correct? ..............?
Was Holmes familiar with American name contractions?..........?
Having "dropped" Cubitt, why would Slaney be swaggering?..........?
Did Slaney shoot to wound or to kill? . I think he didn't mean to kill, but at the same time he wasn't regretting his action as well
How was the first of two simultaneous shots determined?............?
Last edited by holmes23 (August 16, 2013 6:52 pm)
