The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes

Chapter 40 Four Signatures (24)
"About 12 or 16, he returned to Europe and bought land near Horsham, Sussex. He had a large estate in America, and the reason why he came back to England , because he didn't want to be neighbors of Negroes, and he didn't like the Republican Party's right to vote for Negroes. He was withdrawn, terrible, and violent, and he often said vulgar words when he was angry. During the years he settled in Horsham, he He lived so reclusively that he was never seen in town. He had a garden and two or three plots beside the house. He sometimes walked in the garden, but sometimes stayed away for weeks. He liked brandy and smoking, but he didn't Making friends and socializing, not even with my own brother. But he liked me a lot, I was [-] when he first met me. I remember [-], he came back to England for [-] years He asked my father to let me live with him. He loved me in his way. He often played chess with me when he was free. He also let me deal with servants and merchants on his behalf, so I was [-] I became the master of the house at the age of [-]. I manage all the keys, as long as I don’t disturb him, I can go wherever I want and do whatever I want. However, there is one exception. He has a secret room, which is the attic One of them, that room, has been locked all year round, and no one can get in. I once peeped into the house through the keyhole with a child's curiosity, but I only saw a few worn-out boxes and bundles. Nothing else.

"I remember that it was one day in March, [-], and there was a letter on the table with a foreign stamp on it. It was indeed an unusual thing for him to receive a foreign letter. For his bills were all It was paid in cash, and he had no friends. He picked up the letter and said in amazement: "From India, postmarked in Pondicherry. What's the matter?" He opened the letter at once, and suddenly there were five The small orange core fell out of the envelope and landed on the plate. I was about to laugh, but when I saw his face, my smile suddenly disappeared. I saw his face changed drastically, his eyes were dazed, and his face was ashen. He stared at the envelope , suddenly shouted: 'KKK! God! God! There is no escape from guilt!' I cried: 'Uncle, what is this?' He said: 'Death!' Then he got up and went back to his room .My heart was uneasy. I picked up the letter and found that there were three letters of 'K' written in red ink on the glued place of the envelope. There was nothing in the envelope except five dried orange pits. What does this mean? What? As I was leaving the breakfast table to go upstairs, I saw him coming downstairs with a rusty key in one hand--this must have belonged to the back room in the attic, and in the other hand a key that looked like it was used for money. He swore, 'They can do what they want, but I'll beat 'em.' Then he said to me, 'Let Mary light the fire in my room, and get Horsham's Attorney Fordham.' I did as he was told. When the attorney arrived I was summoned to his room. The fire was burning brightly, and there was a black piece of paper in the fireplace, which flew with the fire. The brass box stood beside the fireplace, empty inside, and when I looked at it, I saw on the lid the same three 'K's I had seen on the envelope that morning.

"My uncle said to me, 'John, I want you to be a witness to my will. I leave my estate and everything that comes with it, good or bad, to my brother, who is your father, and, of course, these The future is also reserved for you. It is better that you can enjoy them in peace. If not, I advise you to give it to your enemies. I am very sad. What I give you is good or bad, and I am also Don't know what the future holds. Now you sign the will where Attorney Fordham directs you.'

"I signed it as he said, and the lawyer took it away. It was a strange thing, so I was very impressed. I tried it over and over again, but I didn't understand the mystery. After a few weeks, Nothing out of the ordinary happened, and my uneasiness about it slowly subsided. However, my uncle has been behaving strangely ever since. He drinks more than he used to and is less willing to participate in any social activities. He spends most of his time with Spending himself in his room and locking himself in. Sometimes he got too drunk and would rush out of the house with a pistol in his hand, and run about in the garden, shouting frantically: 'I'm not afraid of anyone, no matter what Whether it is a human or a ghost, no one can imprison me.' When the madness was over, he quickly ran back to the room, locked the door, and bolted the door again, as if a person was terrified in his heart and had no face to pretend. In this case, I saw his face, even on a cold day, was covered with sweat.

"Mr. Holmes, please listen patiently. I will now tell the outcome of the matter. One night he was very drunk and ran away, but he did not come back. When we found him, we found him face-to-face. He fell face down in a sinkhole in the garden with green weeds floating on it. But there was no trace of the murderer, and the puddle was only two feet deep. Therefore, the prosecutor concluded that he committed suicide based on his usual strange behavior, but I know He never thought of dying, and it is hard to believe he would have gone out and committed suicide. Afterwards, my father inherited his estate and £[-] in the bank."

"It is indeed a strange thing to hear from you," said Holmes. "Please give me the date on which your uncle received the letter and the date of his suicide."

"The letter was received on March [-], [-], and he died seven weeks later, on the night of May [-]."

"Thank you, please continue."

"When my father took over the Horsham estate, I asked him to take a closer look at the attic where it was normally locked. We found the brass box there, its contents burnt. There was a small sheet of Paper, with three letters 'K' written on it, and the words 'Letters, Memorandums, Receipts, Rosters' written below it, from which we can see the nature of the documents burned by my uncle. Other things are Not very important, there are many scattered documents and diaries, recording my uncle's achievements in the war and his account of the title of heroic soldier. There are also some things about the reorganization of the southern states and provinces in the United States after the war. policy is against it.

"It was early in [-] when my father moved to Horsham. Everything was going well until January [-]. On the fourth day after New Year's Day we sat down at table to eat At breakfast, my father suddenly yelled and saw him sitting there with a freshly opened envelope in one hand and five dried orange pits in the other. He heard me say that my uncle was ridiculous when he received the letter He thought the story was funny at the time, but now he was shocked when he encountered the same thing. He asked: "John, what's going on?" ' He looked at the inside of the envelope, and exclaimed: 'Yes, these are the letters. But what is written on it?' I looked over his shoulder and read: 'Put the papers on the sundial .' My father asked: 'What document? What is a sundial?' I said: 'The sundial in the garden, nowhere else. But the document has been burned.' He comforted himself by saying: 'We are in a civilized country , there will be no such disaster. Where did this letter come from?' I looked at the postmark and said: 'From Duntee.' He said: 'This is a prank. The sundial and the document, what do you mean? What? I don't care about such nonsense.' I said, 'If it was me, I'd go to the police.' He said, 'You'll just be made fun of.' 'Well, let me go, then.' "No, you don't want to go. I don't want to do such a meaningless thing." I knew it was useless to argue with him, because he was a very stubborn person. I had to walk away, feeling uneasy and feeling bad. Foreboding. On the third day after the letter my father left home to call on his old friend, Major Freebody, who is now in command of a rampart on Portsdown Hill. I am glad of his absence, Because I thought he could avoid the disaster by leaving home, but I was wrong. On the second day after he left home, I received a telegram from the major, telling me to go to him immediately. Said that my father fell into the In a deep pit, his skull was broken when he was rescued, and it was too late to rescue him. When I hurried there, he had already passed away. It is said that he came back from Ferham at dusk because he was not familiar with the road. , fell into a deep pit in a lead mine and died. I carefully checked the facts related to the cause of death, but I couldn't confirm that it was murder, because there were no traces of fighting, no footprints, and no one saw robbery on the road. I don't tell you, I'm very upset. I think someone must have plotted some kind of plot to kill him.

"So, I inherited the inheritance. Do you want to ask me why I still want to inherit it? Because I think the disaster of our family is related to this ominous inheritance. It is better for me to bear it myself. My father It has been two years and eight months since I left us in January, [-]. I have lived happily in Horsham all this time. I hope that disaster has left my family, It has ended with the previous generation. Unexpectedly, the happy days are not long, and yesterday morning, what happened to my uncle and my father happened to me again."

At this moment the young man took out a crumpled envelope from his coat pocket, and placed it on the table with five dried orange pits.He went on: "The contents of the letter are the same as my father received, three 'K' letters and 'put the paper on the sundial'. The letter is postmarked in the East End of London."

"What have you done since you received the letter?" asked Holmes.

"did not do anything."

"Did nothing?"

The young man lowered his head, covered his face with his thin hands, and said, "To tell you the truth, I feel hopeless. I'm like a poor rabbit being stared at by a poisonous snake. I don't think there is any way to prevent it or resist it." .”

"Sir," said Holmes, "you must do something, or you are lost. Nothing can save you but yourself. There is no longer any waiting."

"I've called the police."

"what!"

"But after they listened to my words, they just laughed. They seemed to think that these letters were just a prank. The deaths of my uncle and my father were all accidents and had nothing to do with this letter."

Holmes shook his fist, and cried: "Those useless fools!"

"But they promised to send a policeman to my house."

"Is he coming with you tonight, too?"

"No, his task is just to stay in that house."

Holmes shook his fist again angrily, and exclaimed, "Why have you come to me now? Why didn't you come to me in the first place?"

"I don't know. I spoke to Major Prendergast about my plight today, and he suggested that I come to you."

"This is the second day after you received the letter. We should act before then. Besides the plots you just mentioned, are there any details that can enlighten us?"

"There is one," said John Openshaw, and taking out of his pocket a piece of faded blue paper, and putting it on the table, said, "I remember the day when my uncle was burning the paper, and I Saw some small unburned papers in the pile of paper ash that were of this color. This paper was picked up on the floor of his room, and I thought it might have fallen out of that pile of papers, so It wasn't burned. The paper doesn't seem to be of much use to us except the mention of the orange pit. I suppose it might be a page from a diary, and the handwriting on it is my uncle's."

Holmes moved the lamp a little closer to the table, and we looked down at the paper.The edges of the paper are not neat, obviously torn from the notebook."March, [-]" was written on it, and the following read:

Four days: Come Hudson, same old politics.

Seven days: Macaulay, Palamino and John Swain sent orange pits to Augustine.

Nine: Macaulay cleared.

Ten Days: John Swain Cleared.

[-]th: Visit to Palamino, all goes well.

Holmes folded the paper and returned it to the young man, saying, "Thank you. There is no longer any further delay. I have no time to talk to you. Now go back and get to work."

"What am I going to do?"

"There's only one thing to do, and to do it right away. You put the paper you showed us in that brass box you said, and a note stating that the other papers were burned by your uncle. It's the only one left. Afterwards, you put the casket on the sundial stand mentioned in the letter. Do you understand?"

"understood."

Holmes said: "Don't think about vengeance now. I think we can win by law, but now that they have woven their nets, we must take measures. Now the first thing is to eliminate the danger you face at this moment, and then the Expose the secrets and punish those villains."

The young man stood up, put on his raincoat, and said, "Thank you, you gave me new life and hope. I will definitely do what you said."

"You must hurry up and not delay. You must guard yourself carefully now, because I am convinced that there is danger threatening you at this moment. How do you plan to go back?"

"Take the train back from Waterloo Station."

"It's less than nine o'clock now, and there are still many people on the street. I hope you will be safe on the road, but you must be careful anyway."

"I carry a weapon with me."

"That's best. I'll start your case tomorrow."

"Then I shall wait for you at Horsham."

"No, the key to this case is in London, and I will investigate here."

"Then I'll come back in a day or two to tell you about the casket and the papers. I'll do as you tell me." He shook our hands and said goodbye.The wind outside was still blowing violently, and the raindrops were beating heavily on the windows.This bizarre story is like a leaf that fell on us, came with the storm, and is now swept away again.

Holmes sat silently in his chair, leaning his head forward, and watched the glowing red flames in the fireplace. Then he lit his pipe and, leaning back in his chair, watched the smoke rings rise one by one to the roof.

He said: "I do not think, Watson, that we have ever had a case more extraordinary than this one."

"Perhaps apart from the 'four-signature case,' this one is the most bizarre."

"Yes, except for the Four Signatures case. This John Openshaw is in greater danger than Sholto, in my opinion."

I asked, "What do you think of the danger?"

"There is no doubt about the nature of the danger," he said.

"So, what is it? Who is the KKK? Why is it killing this unfortunate family?"

Holmes closed his eyes, put his hand on the arm of the chair, and said: "The ideal reasoner, once he knows one aspect of a fact, can deduce all aspects and consequences of the fact from this one aspect. Just like a biologist Wei Ye, it is very difficult to describe the original shape of this animal based on a single bone. In each case, I rely on the facts of the development. Although I can't get the result immediately, I can also speculate on the cause. Hua Do you remember, sir, when we first met, when you pinpointed my limitations?"

I smiled and said: "I remember. I said that you know little about philosophy, astronomy, and political science; you know a little about botany, but you don't know much about it; You can also identify where it comes from; the knowledge of chemistry is unique; the knowledge of anatomy is familiar but not systematic; others cannot compare with you in thrilling literature and criminology; in addition, you are proficient in violin, boxing, fencing and law; it is cigarettes and cocaine poisoners. These are the points of my analysis of you."

Holmes could not help laughing at the last sentence.He said: "Well, what I want to say now, and I have told you in the past, is that all the tools a person uses should be hidden in his head, and secondly, put them on the bookshelf. When needed, they can be taken out and used." Now, for the case in front of you, you should use the reference books on the shelf. Watson, please give me the K-word section of the American Encyclopedia on the shelf next to you. Thank you! Let's analyze the situation first and see if we can get In the first place, Colonel Openshaw must have had some reason to leave America, abandon the pleasant climate of Florida, and come to settle in the English country. He refused to associate with people in England, perhaps because he was interested in someone or He was forced to leave the United States in fear of the incident. As for who he was afraid of, we can guess from these letters. Have you noticed the postmarks on those letters?
I said, "The first is from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the third from London."

"They all come from the east of London. What do you think of that?"

"Those three places are seaports, and the writer probably lives on board."

"Very well, we have a clue. There is no doubt that the writers were on board the ship. Now we analyze the second point. The time sent from Pondicherry, from the receipt of the letter to the accident, there were several The time of the week. The time of Dunti was only three or four days. What does this mean?"

"The previous journey was farther."

"But the second letter also traveled a longer distance."

"Then I can't figure it out."

"We can assume that the sender was on a sailing ship. If they were on a mail ship, then the letter and the person should have arrived at the same time. Now seven weeks have passed between receiving the letter and the accident, which means that the ship they took must have been seven weeks later than the mail ship. "

"this is possible."

"Also, look at the one sent from Dundee, the accident happened on the third day. This is because Dundee is closer to London. The current letter is sent from London, so the time is faster. So I tried my best to tell Openshaw Jr. to defend as soon as possible."

I exclaimed, "My God! Why are they pressing so hard?"

"The documents held by Openshaw must have had a very important relationship with the people on board. I think they must be more than one person. It is impossible for a single person to kill two people in succession, and the method used is completely invisible to others. They There must be someone with a lot of cunning among them. Whoever has the document, they're going to get it. The KKK is probably the hallmark of a group."

"What group is it?"

Holmes leaned forward and whispered, "Haven't you heard of the Ku Klux Klan?"

"never heard of that."

(End of this chapter)