clear explanation of The Mysteries of a London “Growler” by Arthur Conan Doyle:

This story is told by a man who is going on a family outing in London. Because the day looks rainy, he hires a four-wheeled cab, which in old London was called a “growler.”

The cab is driven by an old, wise cabman. The narrator sits beside the driver and gives him a little gin to make him talk. Then the cabman begins to share strange and unbelievable stories from his long career.

The cabman has been driving for 47 years, and in that time he has seen many unusual and sometimes frightening things. He says he has seen more death than life.

First big story: The dead man in the cab

One night, two well-dressed women stop the cabman. They are holding a young man who looks very drunk. They say he is the husband of the younger woman. They want the cabman to secretly take him home so no one sees him drunk. They give the cabman money and put the man inside the cab.

But when the cabman reaches the address, he discovers the house belongs to someone else. When he checks the man inside, he realizes the man is already dead—and has been dead for some time.

At the police station, doctors find marks on the man’s neck that show he was probably murdered by a woman. But the two ladies had disappeared, and there was no clue who they were. The cabman says the police never solved the case.

Second big story: The note forger

Another time, the cabman regularly picked up a strange old man with a leather bag. Every day, for months, this man sat with the cab windows closed for three hours. Later, the cabman learned that the “old man” was actually a young criminal in disguise, making fake banknotes in the cab. The police finally caught him.

Third story: The coal torpedo

Once, the cabman drove a sailor who had a piece of coal in his lap. When the cabman secretly looked through a small window, he saw that the “coal” was actually a hollow box filled with explosives. This is called a coal torpedo—a device placed in real coal to blow up ships. Later the cabman realized this man might have destroyed a ship in Germany.

The cabman says he has seen many criminals, thieves, and murderers ride in his cab. He could tell stories forever. When they reach their destination, he tells the narrator to visit him again if he wants to hear more tales.