Using short, appropriate quotes, explain the technique Arthur Conan Doyle used to make readers feel nervous while Holmes and Watson waited in Helen...

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle excels at creating suspense, and he does so masterfully in the scene in which Holmes and Watson sit in Julia Stoner’s room to discover the secret of the mysterious whistle and metallic clang. By using the characters’ words and actions, as well as lengthening the time of the scene, Conan Doyle catapults his story to its dramatic climax.

Holmes’s own words, whispered to Watson, give the reader a sense of the danger the two men are facing. "The least sound would be fatal to our plans…do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your pistol ready in case we should need it.”

The need for such caution in the face of a life-threatening mystery draws the reader deeply into the story.

By necessity, Holmes and Watson must wait in complete darkness. Watson describes the wait as a ‘dreadful vigil,’ in which he and Holmes sat in ‘nervous tension.’

Conan Doyle also stretches out the time to increase suspense. The men hear the town clock strike midnight, then one, two, and three before anything happens. At that point, someone in the next room lights a shaded lantern, a secretive and suspicious thing to do in the circumstances. However, another thirty minutes goes by before they hear a soft hiss.

The sudden switch from stillness and silence to frenetic activity jars the reader as much as it did Watson. Suddenly Holmes is ‘lashing furiously with his cane’ and Watson is grabbing grasping the revolver.

By careful use of dialogue and timing, Conan Doyle creates a tightly woven scene of suspense and mystery.