Chapters 17-20 Summary

Chapter twenty-one, "Doctor's Case," is narrated by Sherlock Holmes' constant companion, Watson. There has been only one crime that Watson was able to solve before Holmes and that is where the story begins.

One rainy night, Holmes is approached at home by Lestrade, a policeman who has a mutual dislike with Holmes. There is a fresh corpse that Lestrade wants Holmes to investigate. The dead man is Lord Hull, a shipping magnate who has apparently been murdered. Lestrade gives Holmes and Watson the background for Hull, including his family as well as the fact that the man had just changed his will disinheriting his wife and children. Instead, Hull bequeathed his fortune to a number of distant relatives, charities, and a boarding house for cats.

A month previous, Lord Hull had been diagnosed with a case of gangrene on his leg...