The Crooked Man Trivia Quiz

Answer: While walking home from a church guild meeting

Nancy Barclay had attended a church guild meeting with her neighbor, Miss Morrison. As they were walking home that evening, they passed a shriveled man with a crooked back who cried out, "My God, it's Nancy!" Nancy spoke with him and then told Miss Morrison that it was an old acquaintance and not to mention what she had seen. Nancy had met the man before but he wasn't a "crooked man" then.

Answer: In India

James Barclay had been a sergeant in the same unit as Nancy Barclay's father, who was the color-sergeant. She wasn't as taken with him as he was with her, but they were a happily married couple and had been so for thirty years.

Answer: He set Henry up to be captured.

Their unit was surrounded, and they needed to get help. Henry Wood volunteered to go, and James Barclay drew up the plans to get him past the enemy. However, Barclay actually was setting him up to walk into an ambush. Wood was believed to be dead, but he was actually captured and tortured. As the result of being repeatedly tortured, his body had become twisted, turning him into a "crooked man".

Answer: Both men were Nancy's suitors.

Both James Barclay and Henry Wood, who served in the same unit, were pursuing Nancy. Although her father favored James, Nancy preferred Henry so James decided to get rid of his rival.

Answer: A mongoose

Sherlock Holmes was baffled by the animal; it had the footprint of a dog, yet it had run up the curtains, apparently in an attempt to get to the canary that was hanging nearby. He believed it might be a member of the weasel family based on his calculations of its height and length. When he later caught up with Henry Wood, Henry showed him that it was a mongoose.

Answer: As a conjurer

Henry Wood had learned magic tricks from the various natives with which he had lived. After escaping, he used the tricks to entertain troops. He eventually saved up enough money to return to England, but he continued to do the only work he knew how to do.

Answer: The door was locked and the key was missing.

When the servants heard screaming from the room, they tried to enter, but the door was locked. The butler then entered the room from the French windows in the yard, but he was unable to open the inner door leading to the house because the key was gone. It wasn't found on either James or Nancy Barclay, so this meant that a third person must have taken it.

Answer: She was suffering from brain fever.

Nancy Barclay had been severely agitated after running into Henry Wood and had had a fierce argument with her husband on her return home. She then fainted when she saw her husband collapse. According to Holmes, she was "temporarily insane from an acute attack of brain fever".

Answer: Apoplexy

Although the police initially thought that James Barclay had been beaten with a club that was found in the room, the physician later confirmed that the cause of death was apoplexy. Everyone who had seen the body remarked on the look of terror on Barclay's face, and Henry Wood had told Sherlock Holmes that Barclay had that look on his face when he saw Wood; Wood believed Barclay was dead before he hit the floor.

Answer: Because of the similarity to the Biblical story of David and Bathsheba

In the Biblical story, David wanted to marry Bathsheba, but she was already married to Uriah, so David sent Uriah into battle where he was killed. Like David, James Barclay had tried to send Henry Wood to his death so that he could have Nancy for himself.