The Creeping Man
This tale is a unique one, sometimes identified as an example of Arthur Conan Doyle's excellent work as a science-fiction author. (Is there anyone among us who does not know that ACD wrote about modern-day dinosaurs long, long before Michael Crichton was even born? And who depicted the matter-energy-matter transporter decades before STAR TREK was conceived?
What do you think? Is The Creeping Man (CREE) a science-fiction story? In many ways it resembles Doctor Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, which Robert Louis Stevenson preferred to describe as something like poetry or allegory rather than "sci-fi."
However the story may be pigeonholed, there's no denying that the story offers some hair-raising images. And it's not just the monster-amock scenario; there are shocking sexual overtones to this adventure as well. This is clearly a latter-day Sherlockian outing which could never have been recorded when Watson was a younger biographer.
It's worth noting here, I think, that the story also contains two of the most quotable remarks of the entire Canon! First is of course Holmes' famous summons:
Come at once if convenient – if inconvenient come all the same.
S. H.
But I've always had a warmer place in my heart for this exchange:
"We can but try."
"Excellent, Watson! Compound of the Busy Bee and Excelsior. 'We can but try' – the motto of the firm.."
Holmes' light-hearted reference to the argot of the British coat-of-arms is a lovely affirmation of the old friendship between these two. I seem to recall seeing a drawing made many years ago by some famous Sherlockian scholar – I regret that I have forgotten the who and the when – but it was a drawing of the "Holmes and Watson Coat of Arms," with the bee and the slogan-standard Excelsior, and of course the words "We Can But Try" – in Latin. Anybody else seen this? Or did I dream it?