The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes

Chapter 139 Uncanny Valley (1)
The Tragedy of Birlstone
a warning
"I'd rather think..." I said.

"I ought to," said Holmes impatiently.

I consider myself a very refined person, but I must admit that I was somewhat annoyed by his rude interruption.So I said gravely, "Holmes, you are quite unacceptable at times."

He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he ignored my protest at once.He propped his head on one hand, with an unused breakfast in front of him, fixed his eyes on a note he had just pulled out of the envelope, then picked up the envelope again, held it up to the lamp, and pondered it appearance and closure.

"This is Pollock's handwriting," he said thoughtfully. "Although I have only seen it twice, I am sure that this note was written by him. How unusual it is to write the top of the Greek letter ε in a cursive. .But if it really was Pollock, there must be something important."

Rather than saying that he was talking to me, it would be better to say that he was talking to himself, but his words aroused my interest, and my unhappiness just disappeared.

"Then who is Pollock?"

"Watson, Pollock is an alias. It is nothing more than a symbol, but behind it hides a capricious and scheming figure. In a previous letter, he bluntly stated that this is not his real name." , and advised me not to bother trying to trace him in the vast crowds of this metropolis. Pollock's danger lay in the great man he befriended, not in himself. Imagine a mackerel and A shark allies, a jackal and a lion--those shams who are not only savage, but insidious. I think Pollock is one of those sorts, Watson. Do you remember that Professor Moriarty?"

"That famous criminal with a high IQ has a reputation among those gangsters..."

"Don't look like a layman, Watson!" Holmes muttered disapprovingly.

"I mean, he's not that well known."

"Well, you are very clever!" cried Holmes. "How did I not realize that you have a humorous and witty side? Watson, I must be on my guard against you from now on. But from a legal point of view, if you To call Moriarty a criminal is to blatantly slander him - and that's the secret of it! He is the greatest conspirator in history, the mastermind of all evil, and the master of social darkness , is a think tank capable of destroying and controlling the fate of the world! This is his true face. But in the eyes of the public, he has not received any suspicion at all. What you said is enough to send you to court and fine you a year's salary to compensate for the loss of his reputation. Isn't he the author of the famous book "Asteroid Mechanics"? The profound and pure Mathematical attainments, it is said that even insiders cannot easily criticize it. Such a person, can you slander him? A doctor who talks nonsense and a professor who is slandered—this is what you two will play respectively Characters! That's a genius, Watson. But if the ordinary people are far from my match, then, you see, I am now on my match."

"I wish I could see it!" I exclaimed enthusiastically, "but you were talking about Pollock..."

"Oh yes, this so-called Pollock is a link in the chain, close to the central figure. It's not easy for me to break that link. But from what I've seen, he's the only one in the chain. weakness."

"However, as long as there is a weak link, the whole chain will not be so strong!"

"That's right! My dear Watson. That's why Pollock is very important. He still has a sense of justice. Encouraged by my occasional transfer of ten-pound notes to him secretly, he Once or twice I have been given valuable information in advance--information whose value is not in enabling me to punish criminals after the fact, but in enabling me to foresee and prevent a crime from happening. I am sure that if I had the code at hand , we shall find that it is a letter of the character I have just described."

Holmes spread the paper flat on the empty plate again, and I stood up, lowered my head, and gazed at the strange characters, which were arranged as follows:
534C21312736314172141
DOUGLAS109293537BIRLSTONE
26BIRLSTONE947171
"Holmes, do you find anything in these words?"

"Clearly, it was sending a secret message."

"But you can't find the code, so what's the use of these codes?"

"In this case, it's really useless."

"Why do you say 'in this case'?"

"Because I know several ciphers that seem as easy as reading a bulletin board in a newspaper. Those simple little games are fun and relieve fatigue. But this cipher is different, it obviously refers to some Some words on a certain page in this book to help understanding. If you don't tell me which page of which book it is on, then I can't do anything."

"Then why do the words Douglas (DOUGLAS) and Birlstone (BIRLSTONE) appear?"

"It means that there are no those two words in this book."

"Then why didn't he tell us which book it was?"

"My dear Watson, with your natural shrewdness and natural cunning, you will certainly not put the cipher letter and the decoding letter in the same envelope, because if the letter is dropped in the wrong place, then you are finished. In this way, he is likely to commit crimes. It was revealed before the implementation. Our second letter is due to arrive by now, and it would surprise me if the future letter did not send us an explanation related to the code, or it is also possible to send it directly to We sent over the original book for the symbols."

Sure enough, as Holmes expected, a few minutes later, the little servant Billy came in with the letter we were looking forward to.

"The handwriting is the same," said Holmes, opening the envelope.When he unfolded the letter, he happily added, "It's even signed. Hey, Watson, we're about to find out." But when he quickly read the contents of the letter, his brows furrowed again. .

"Oh, what a disappointment! I'm afraid, Watson, our hopes are in vain. I hope nothing happens to this Pollock."

Dear Mr. Holmes:
I don't want to interfere any more in this matter.It's too dangerous and he's starting to doubt me.I could see that he was suspicious of me.Just when I finished writing the mailing address and was about to send you the password index, he suddenly appeared.Fortunately, I hid it in time. If he saw it, I would be doomed.However, I saw suspicion in his eyes, please burn the password letter I sent you last time, that letter is of no use to you now.

Fred Pollock
Holmes twirled the letter with his fingers, and sat down, frowning, his eyes gazing into the light of the fire.

"Perhaps there is nothing in it. It is merely a guilty conscience. He felt himself a traitor, and that is why he detected the condemnation in the man's eyes," said Holmes at last.

"That person, I guess, is Professor Moriarty."

"It's him! In that group, no matter who mentions 'he', they know who it is. There is only one 'he' among them who controls everything."

"But what can he do?"

"Well, that's a big problem. When you have one of the best think tanks in Europe against you, and he has all kinds of evil forces behind him, then he has nothing to fear. Anyway, our friend Pollock was clearly frightened: compare the handwriting on the letter with the handwriting on the envelope. As he said in the letter, the handwriting on the envelope was written before the man's sudden visit, so it was clear and powerful, while the handwriting on the letter The writing is so scribbled that it's almost impossible to read."

"Then why did he write this letter? Just wash his hands and quit?"

"Because he was afraid that I would go after him and cause him trouble."

"Indeed." As I spoke, I picked up the original coded letter again and stared at the symbols. "It's crazy to try to decipher the big secret behind it with just this piece of paper."

Holmes pushed aside his uneaten breakfast, and lighted the foul-smelling pipe which had been his meditation companion. "Don't jump to conclusions yet." He leaned back in his chair, stared at the ceiling, and said, "Even though you have Machiavelli's intellect, there are some things that are missing. Let's use pure Let's think about it in a rational way. The cipher in this letter comes from a book, and that's where we start."

"This starting point doesn't seem to be sure."

"Let's see if we can narrow it down a bit, then. The matter becomes less inscrutable when we focus our thoughts on a book. Do we have any hints about the book?"

"Absolutely not."

"Well, well, it's not that bad. The number 534 at the beginning of this coded letter is a big number, isn't it? Let's assume that 534 is the page number of the book, so this book is a large book." So we are one step closer to the answer. Do we have any other hints as to what kind of book this is? The next symbol is C2, Watson, what do you think this refers to? "

"Of course it refers to Chapter 2."

"I don't think so, Watson. I guess you will agree with me: since we have been told the page numbers, the chapters are meaningless. Besides, if page 534 is still in Chapter 2, then Chapter 1 must be too long. gone."

"What column is it!" I shouted.

"Great, Watson. You have been very witty today. If it didn't represent the first few columns, I'd really be in a dead end. So, you see, we can now say it's a thick book. In the book, each page is divided into two columns, and each column is quite long, because there is a word in a certain column with the number 293 in the letter. Are we no longer able to reason anymore?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Then you are underestimating yourself, my dear Watson. Think again, and use your brains! If it were a book which we had difficulty finding, he would certainly send me one. In Before his plans were disrupted, it had not occurred to him to send me the book, but to give me clues by letter, which he mentioned in his second letter. This shows that he thought we were very The book will soon be found. In short, Watson, it is a very common book."

"Your words do sound reasonable."

"So our answer has narrowed down to a thick book. It's formatted in two columns, and it's a common book."

"The Bible!" I exclaimed joyfully.

"Well, Watson, well! But I'm sorry I don't agree with you. Even if I pretended to be myself, I would never think that there was a Bible on the desk of a Moriarty. And There are so many versions of the Bible, how can he be sure that his book is from the same version as mine? Obviously, there is only one unified version of this book. He knows that page 534 of his book must be the same as mine It's exactly the same as the one."

"But most books have more than one edition."

"That's true, and that's exactly where our way out is. We've narrowed down our search again to a book that's all in one edition, and that everyone has."

"It's Bernard Shaw's book!"

"Watson, I'm afraid it's not this book. George Bernard Shaw's writing is concise and concise, but his vocabulary is limited. It is difficult to derive a new message from his vocabulary. So let's exclude this book. In this way, dictionaries are not suitable either. So what other books are there?"

"A calendar!"

"Well done, Watson! If you don't guess right, I am very mistaken! It is an almanac! Let us consider the Whittaker almanac: it is a common book, and one of the great The beginning of the book, each page is divided into two columns, although the vocabulary is relatively concise at the beginning, if I remember correctly, the ending is very long-winded." Holmes picked up the book from the desk, "This is 534 pages , the second column, which has a very long content, is about the trade and resources of British India. Watson, please note down these words I have picked out! The 13th word is 'Malta', I am afraid this Not an auspicious start, the 127th word is 'government', although it has nothing to do with us and Professor Moriarty, at least it is solid. Let's see again, what did the Maltese government do? Oops, down One word is 'bristle', my good Watson, we have no clue, and that is the end of the game!"

Although his tone of voice seemed to be joking, the thick eyebrows that were tightly furrowed reflected the disappointment and resentment in his heart.I also sat there helplessly, staring at the fire helplessly.Suddenly the long silence was broken by a cheer from Holmes.He ran to the bookcase and took out a book with a yellowed cover.

"We have been fooled by fashion, Watson!" he exclaimed. "We have been punished for being fashionable. Today is January 534th, and we have bought this New Year's calendar early. Pollock may well be Made up that letter from an old almanac. If he could have finished the answer letter, he would have told us that. Now let's see what else is on page 13 of the book. 127th The word is 'this,' and it seems that we have hope. The [-]th word is 'there'--'there is'." Holmes' eyes lit up with excitement, and when his finger pointed to another word "danger", His slender and trembling fingers suddenly twitched. "Ha ha, excellent! Mark it down, Watson. 'There is danger-soon-will-fall', then 'Douglas', then 'Rich-country-now-is', then 'Ber Stone-Manor-Birlstone-Trust-Emergency.'

"You see, Watson, what do you think of pure reasoning and its effectiveness? If there is a laurel wreath in the grocery store, I must send Billy to buy one as a reward for it."

I could not help staring intently at these strange messages which Holmes had just jotted down while deciphering them.

"What a curious message he has for us!" said I.

"On the contrary, he has done a very good job," said Holmes. "When you want to find only the words that express your meaning in a column of text, you cannot expect to find what you want in this limited content. Every word needed. You can only rely on the wisdom of your recipient to make up for it. The meaning of this letter is clear at a glance: Some demons are planning to deal with a man named Douglas. As the letter says, he is A wealthy squire. He was convinced—he couldn't find the word 'certainty', but the close word 'trust'—that the situation was urgent. That's what we got, isn't it a time A fruitful reasoning?"

Though Holmes had been secretly disappointed when his expectations had not been met, he was now, like a true artist, intoxicated by the result of his work.When Billy pushed open the door and ushered in Detective MacDonald from Scotland Yard, he was still smiling with his lips pursed in triumph.

That was in the late 80s, when Alec MacDonald was far from the fame he is now.Although he is young, he is deeply trusted by police detectives because of the excellent cases he has handled.He was tall and well-built, giving the impression of being solid and strong.He has a full vestibule, a pair of piercing eyes, and a deep light of wisdom shines under the thick eyelashes.He was a taciturn, meticulous man with a strong will and a heavy Aberdeen accent.

Holmes has assisted him in the case twice, both successful.The only reward Holmes himself gets is the joy of winning and solving difficult problems.Therefore, the Scotsman has great respect and love for his amateur colleagues, which can be seen in his honesty to ask Holmes for advice whenever he encounters any difficulties.A mediocre person is mediocre because he always starts from himself and cannot see the brilliance of others, while a talented person can quickly discover the genius of others.MacDonald was a gifted detective, and he knew that it would do him no harm to seek advice from Holmes, a genius who was already unique in all Europe in terms of talent and experience.Holmes is not sociable, but he has a good impression of this tall Scot.Seeing Macdonald coming in, Holmes went forward with a smile.

"You are the first visitor of the day, Mr. MacDonald. I wish you luck," said Holmes. "But I am afraid that something bad has happened?"

"Mr. Holmes, I think it would be more appropriate if you said 'hope' instead of 'worry'." The detective replied with a knowing smile. "Well, a sip of wine is enough to beat the morning chill. Thank you, I don't smoke. Forgive me for having to hurry, because the first hours after a crime are the most precious, as you know best, It's just... just..."

The detective stopped suddenly and stared in amazement at a piece of paper on the desk, which was the code translation I had jotted down.

"Douglas, Douglas," he stammered, "Bilstone! What's the matter, Mr. Holmes? Good heavens, it's pure magic! Where did you get those two names? "

"Dr. Watson and I have just deciphered it from a coded letter. What's the matter, what's wrong with these two names?"

The detective glanced back and forth at us in bewilderment, tongue-tied. "Because," said he, "Mr. Douglas of Birlstone Park was murdered this morning!"

Essay on Sherlock Holmes

(End of this chapter)