the sharp, keen detective, using his superior talents for observation. At the very start of the novel Watson proclaims "[Holmes] must have eyes in the back of [his] head"(Doyle-3), after he observes Watson analyzing then unknown Mortimer's cane for details about the strange visitor even though his back is turned to Watson. Holmes admits to Watson that he has used the coffee pot's polished surface to observe Watson without even getting out of his chair. Throughout the novel there are multiple instances of Holmes' cunning ability to use simple "elementary" to solve the case such as Holmes' ability to instantly deduce the type of newspaper that the warning letter sent to Sir Henry was cut out from. "There is as much difference to my eyes between the leaded bourgeois type of a Times article and the slovenly print of an evening halfpenny papera Times leader is distinctive, and these words could have been taken from nothing else" (Doyle 33).
             While Holmes is the ever-observant genius, he does have flaws. Holmes lets down his guard and admits he has a fragile ego when challenged at the beginning of the book by Mortimer who calls him "the second highest expert [crime solver] in Europe"(Doyle 9). Holmes, in his usual fashion, asks "who could possibly be the first?" (Doyle 9). Holmes' ego is kept in check by the constant beleaguering of Watson, and always showing one-upmanship on his theories. For example Holmes regularly announces some conclusion based on loose facts only to mock Watson by revealing the most obvious of clues such as Watson's reflection in the coffee pot incident. The "good doctor," as Holmes calls him, plays the sidekick to Holmes' self-obsessed egotistical hero figure. For example When Holmes arrives at Devonshire he announces that he meant for Watson to think he was in London, Watson reacts by stating: "Then you use me, and yet you do not trust...