 The story is signed "S_________ M______, Major (Ret'd)".The reader, from the beginning of the story, is misled to believe that the detective and his veteran friend, the narrator, are Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, by means of what information about them is provided and what concealed, and the fact that their roles in the story are parallel to those of Holmes and Watson in Conan Doyle's original Holmes stories.Indeed, the story strongly mirrors the opening chapters of the original Holmes novel, "A Study in Scarlet", from which it takes its name.