The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes

Chapter 147 Uncanny Valley (9)
Holmes carefully lifted the coat to the lamp, pointed on it with his slender fingers, and said, "Look, the inner pocket of this coat is specially made, as if there is enough space to hold the truncated shirt. Short musket. On the collar, there is the maker's logo - Neil's Clothing Store, Vermissa, USA. I once spent an afternoon in the library of an abbot and learned some knowledge .Vermissa is a prosperous small town at the mouth of a well-known coal and iron valley in the United States.Mr. Barker, I remember that when you told us about Mr. Douglas's first wife, you mentioned the coal mining area Then it can be deduced that the card with the letters VV beside the deceased may be the abbreviation of Vermissa Valley (Vermissa Valley), the killer may come from this valley, and this valley is probably what he called The Uncanny Valley. Now that this is clear, it seems, Mr. Barker, that it is your turn to say something."

When the great detective was explaining, Cecil Barker's face was full of complex expressions. He was sometimes shocked and angry, and sometimes terrified and hesitant.In the end, he chose to evade, and said with sarcasm, "Mr. Holmes, since you know everything, please continue."

"Of course I can tell you more, but Mr. Barker, it's better for you to speak decently."

"Ah, do you think so? Well, I can only tell you that even if there is any privacy, it is not my secret. Let me say that I found the wrong person."

"Well, Mr. Barker, if you decide to adopt this attitude," said Macdonald coldly, "then we shall detain you, and when we have a warrant, we shall formally arrest you."

"As you like," Buck said defiantly.

The scene suddenly reached a stalemate, and it seemed that we could no longer get anything out of his mouth.One look at his stubborn, resolute face shows that, even under torture, he will never be honest with us.However, at this moment, a woman's voice came, breaking the stalemate.Mrs. Douglas, who had been standing outside the half-open door listening to us, now entered the room.

"You have tried your best, Cecil." Mrs. Douglas said, "No matter what the future will be, you have tried your best."

"Not only as hard as you could, but too hard," said Sherlock Holmes gravely. "I sympathize with you, madam, but I firmly hope that you will have confidence in the professionalism of our police, and will give you a just verdict. Maybe I made a mistake in the process, because I didn't pay attention when you told me about your secrets through my friend Dr. Watson, but at the time I thought you were directly involved in the crime. Now, I fully believe That is not the case. At the same time, there are many things that I have not yet cleared up, so I advise you to invite Mr. Douglas out, and let him tell the whole story for himself."

Hearing what Holmes said, Mrs. Douglas couldn't help but exclaimed.At this time, we noticed that a figure appeared from the corner of the wall, and he was walking towards us from the shadow of the corner. The other two detectives and I couldn't help but screamed.

Mrs. Douglas immediately turned around and hugged him, and Buck also held the hand he extended.

"It's for the best, Jack," repeated his wife. "I believe it's for the best."

"Quite so, Mr. Douglas," said Sherlock Holmes. "I am sure you will find it best."

The man had just walked from the shadows, and his eyes couldn't adapt to the light for a moment, and he stood there blinking and looking at us.He has a distinctive face - gray eyes expressing bravery and determination, a gray beard short and neat, a square chin that protrudes slightly, and a sense of humor at the corners of his mouth.He looked us over carefully, then, to my amazement, walked towards me and handed me a scroll.

"I've heard of you," he said, not quite English nor American, but mellow and melodious, "you are the recorder of these men, Mr. Watson, and I dare take All the estate bet you that you've never had story material like this before. How you write it is up to you, but as long as you stick to these facts, the book will be a hit once it's done. I'm in the Chamber of Secrets For two days, I hid in the cave and used the daytime to record these things in words. You and your readers can read these materials at any time. This is the story of the uncanny valley."

"These things are over, Mr. Douglas," said Sherlock Holmes calmly, "and we would now like to hear from you about the case."

"I will tell you the truth, sir," said Douglas. "May I smoke now? Well, thank you, Mr. Holmes. If I remember correctly, you also like smoking. I think you can understand what it is." I have been holding it back for two days, but I dare not inhale it even though I have cigarettes in my pocket, for fear that the smell will arouse suspicion from others."

Douglas was leaning against the mantelpiece, smoking the cigar Holmes had offered him. "I have admired your name for a long time, Mr. Holmes, but I never expected to meet you in this way. But before you have finished reading these materials," he nodded to the scroll in my hand, "you will definitely Say, these things I tell are really novel."

Officer MacDonald stared at the man who had just appeared for a long time, and finally exclaimed in great surprise: "Oh, this is really hard for me! If you are the owner of the manor—Mr. John Douglas, then, in the past two days Now who is the dead man we saw? My God, where did you pop out? I think you came out of the floor like the doll in the doll box."

"Ah, Mr. MacDonald," said Holmes, wagging his forefinger disapprovingly, "you did not like that pamphlet I read to you, which precisely contained the story of the refuge of King Charles I. In those days, It is impossible to hide without a safe closet. And that hiding-place is of course still available today, so I have no doubt that Mr. Douglas is hiding on this estate."

"Then why, Mr. Holmes, have you kept this from us for so long?" said MacDonald angrily. "You have allowed us to waste a great deal of time in investigating the absurdities which you already know."

"That was not what I intended at the outset, my dear Mr. MacDonald. I did not form this opinion of the case after coming here last night. As the matter cannot be proved until evening, so I warned you during the day and advised you to get out and relax. When I found this bundle in the moat, I knew immediately that the body we were looking at was not John Douglas himself at all, It was the owner of the bicycle from Tunbridge Wells. No other explanation is possible. So I'm going to deduce where Mr. John Douglas himself might be hiding, and the most likely Yes, with the help of his wife and friends, he hid in the most hidden place in the manor, waiting for the best time to escape."

"Well, you're right," said Mr. Douglas appreciatively, "I thought I'd escaped your English laws, because I'm not sure what you're going to do to me, and it's an excellent case." The chance of getting rid of the hounds that tracked me. However, I have done nothing wrong at all, and I would still do it if necessary. But please listen to my story, and then judge for yourselves Detective, I don't need you bothering to warn me, I will never back down from the truth."

"I'm not going to start from the beginning, it's all recorded here." Douglass said, pointing to the scroll in my hand, "You can see countless absurd things, all of which boil down to one thing: some people hated me, and would rather kill me than kill me. As long as I live in this world and they live, I can't find a safe place to go. They tracked me everywhere, from Chicago to California, and eventually took I was kicked out of the United States. After I got married, I settled down in such a quiet rural town. I once thought that I could spend my old age here peacefully.

"I never mentioned these things to my wife, why should she be involved? Once she knows the truth, she will never have peace again, always worrying about when disaster will come. I think she has understood It's something, because I always slip up. Even yesterday when you asked her, she still didn't know the truth. She's told you all she knows, and so has Buck, because It happened in such a hurry that I barely had time to tell them that night. She didn't know all this until now, and I should have told her sooner if I was smart enough, but it's hard for me, dear," said Douglas, holding his wife's hand tightly. hand, "and I've been trying to find a better solution."

"Gentlemen, I was in Tunbridge Wells the day before it happened, and I saw the man in the street at first sight. It was only a glimpse, but I'm always on the alert for such things. I recognized the man. He, this man is the worst of all my enemies - he's been on my way all these years, like a hungry wolf on a reindeer, and I knew I was in trouble. So I went home and took precautions, I thought I can quite manage myself. My good fortune, known in America since [-], is, I have no doubt, still with me.

"I was on the alert all day, and never went into the garden again. I escaped death by doing so, or I would have been sent off by the stubbed musket before I approached him. Death. I always feel a moment of peace in my heart after the drawbridge is pulled up at night, but I never thought that he would take the opportunity to sneak into the house and wait for me. But when I was patrolling the manor as usual in my dressing gown, As soon as I stepped into the study, I felt danger. I think that when a person's life is in danger, he can perceive the warning from the sixth sense. My life has been accompanied by danger almost all the time. I know very well I was acutely aware of some danger, but I could not tell why, which was fully understood when I saw the boots peeping from under the curtain.

"I had only one candle in my hand, and the door was wide open, and the light came in clearly from the hall, so I put the candle down, and jumped to seize the hammer which lay on the mantel-piece. He was already He fell in front of me, saw the knife flash, and I raised my hammer and threw it at him. Fortunately, I hit him, because the knife fell to the ground with a clang. He circled like an eel The desk ran away quickly, and after a while he pulled the gun out of his inside pocket. I heard him pull the trigger, but before he could fire, I was holding tight to the barrel and the gun. He twisted into a ball. The fight lasted only about 1 minute, and whoever let go first and dropped the gun would lose his life.

"He didn't let go, but the gun was always pointing up in his hand. Maybe I caught the trigger, or maybe it went off while we were trying to grab it. Either way, both bullets hit him in the face. , and I stood there and saw the horror of Ted Baldwin. I recognized him in Tunbridge Wells, and I recognized him again when he jumped at me, but I Seeing him lying on the ground, I bet even his mother wouldn't have recognized him. I've been used to fighting for a long time, but it still makes me sick to see him like that.

"While I was leaning against the table, Buck came hastily. Then I heard my wife come downstairs, and ran to the door to stop her, for I must not let her see such a sight. I promised Went back to her room, and said a word or two to Buck, and he got it at a glance, and we waited for the rest to come, but there was no sign of them. I thought they must be nothing Didn't hear anything, only the three of us know what happened here.

"Suddenly, an idea popped into my head, and I even felt ecstatic about the brilliant idea. Because I saw the man lying there, with the symbol on his arm peeking out from under the high sleeves. Please Look here."

Douglas rolled up his own sleeves to show us a brand - a triangle inside a brown circle, exactly like the one we see on the dead.

"I just saw the logo and I knew what to do almost immediately. He's almost the same size, hair, body shape as I am. Nobody recognizes him anymore, The devil! I stripped him of his clothes, and in a quarter of an hour Buck and I put my dressing-gown on him, and the man lay there as you see him. We put him I put everything I had on my body into this bag, weighted it with the only dumbbells I could find at the time, and threw it through the window into the river. The card that was supposed to be on my body, I put on it next to his own dead body.

"Then I put some of my rings on him, but as for the wedding ring," Douglas held out his muscular hand, "you can see how tight I'm wearing it." I haven't taken it off since I was married, and you'd have to file it off. Anyway, it didn't occur to me to file it off, and it wouldn't have been possible, so I had to Let us not pursue this trifle. Besides, I took a small sticking plaster and stuck it on the face of the deceased, and I had a piece on my own face at that time. Mr. Holmes, even if you are as clever as you People, also overlooked this point, if you happened to peel off the sticking plaster at that time, you would find that there was actually no scar under it.

"Well, that's how it was. If I can hide somewhere for a while, and then rejoin my wife, we'll be somewhere safe for the rest of our lives. As long as I'm alive, those The demons gave me no peace, but if they saw the paper next to the dead body in the newspaper, then all my troubles would be over. I didn't have time to explain everything to Buck and my wife, but they He was very understanding, and did his best to help me. I knew before that there was such a hiding place on the manor, and Ames knew it too, but he never imagined that this place had any connection with this case. So I hid in that secret room, and Buck took care of the rest.

"I think you can go on and describe to yourselves what Buck did. He opened the window and left a bloodstain on the sill, giving the impression that the murderer fled through the window. It's unbelievable, but the drawbridge is up and there's nothing else. Backed off. When everything was in order, he rang the alarm. You know what happened after that. That's what happened, gentlemen, you can do what you want, I've told you the truth Yes. I speak the truth. Now, what shall the laws of England do with me?"

Everyone was silent.Sherlock Holmes broke the silence, saying: "The laws of England, on the whole, are just, and you will not be wronged. But I want to say, how did that man know that you lived here? How did he get into it?" In your house, how do you know where to hide to assassinate you?"

"I wonder about that too."

Holmes' face was pale and serious. "I'm afraid it's not over yet, and you're in greater danger than English law, and even your enemies from America. I don't think you're out of danger, Mr. Douglas. Remember my Advice, it's best to continue to be careful."

Now, my readers, don't be weary, follow me away from this Birlstone estate in Sussex for a while, and forget about this year of this man called John Douglas and all the strange things around him.I hope you will follow me back 20 years ago, to the western continent thousands of miles away from us, and start a journey.Well, I'm going to tell you a strange and frightening story -- so horrific that you would find it hard to believe it, even if it were true, even if it had been heard with your own eyes.

Don't think I'm jumping into another case before this one is finished.As you read on, you will find that this is not the case.When I recreate to you the minutiae of this historic event, when you learn the long-lost secret, we shall meet again at this house in Baker Street, where this case will be like so many others. Like a bizarre case, it has its own ending.

(End of this chapter)