else, to which Holmes replies - no longer in the voice of a man near death - "a match and a cigarette." Inspector Morton then enters - the full gaslight was the signal to move in. Holmes tells Morton to arrest Culverton Smith for the murder of his nephew, and perhaps also for the attempted murder of Sherlock Holmes. Smith points out that his word is as good as Holmes' in court, but Holmes then calls for Watson to emerge from behind the screen, to present himself as another witness to the conversation. Holmes explains his illness was feigned as a ruse to induce Smith to confess to his nephew's murder. Holmes was not infected by the little box; he has enough enemies to know that he must always examine his mail carefully before he opens it. Starving himself for three days and the claim of the "disease's" infectious nature was to keep Watson from examining him and discovering the ruse, since, as he clarifies, he has every respect for his friend's medical skills. Period details In the story, the killer Culverton Smith's motive for killing his nephew, Victor Savage, is mentioned in an offhand remark by Holmes that Savage stood between "this monster [Smith] and a reversion." The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes has a note for this word: The setting date may be inferred from Watson's mention of it being "the second year of my marriage", the first having been 1889. Inspector Morton is referred to in a familiar fashion but this is his only appearance in canon. Canonical scholar Leslie S. Klinger wondered if Morton was the companion to Inspector Brown in The Sign of the Four. Tropical disease specialist William A. Sodeman Jr., proposed that "Tapanuli fever" was melioidosis, a conclusion supported by physician Setu K. Vora. Vora raised the possibility that Conan Doyle read the first report of melioidosis published in 1912 before writing his short story in 1913. Publication history "The Adventure of the Dying Detective" was published in the US in Collier's on 22 November 1913, and in the UK in The Strand Magazine in December 1913. The story was published with three illustrations by Frederic Dorr Steele in Collier's, and with four illustrations by Walter Paget (Sidney Paget's brother) in the Strand. The story was included in the short story collection His Last Bow, which was published in the UK and the US