The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes

Chapter 49 Four Signatures (33)
He said: "You two may not know that I am an orphan and a bachelor. I live in London by myself. Professionally, I am a hydraulic engineer and worked in the famous Wenner and Matheson in Greenwich. I had a seven-year apprenticeship with the company during which time I gained a great deal of experience in the trade. I started my apprenticeship two years ago. After my poor father passed away, I inherited a large sum of money. So I made up my mind to start my own business and rented a couple of offices on Victoria Street. I think everyone knows that starting a business on your own for the first time can be a particularly tedious business. For me it was even more so. Two I had only three consultations and one small job in the course of a year, and that was all I had to do. All my income was £27 ten shillings. Every day from nine in the morning to four in the afternoon, I Waiting longingly in my office until my heart grew cold, I finally realized that no customer would ever come to my door again.

"However, just yesterday when I was about to leave the office, the clerk came in to report that a gentleman wanted to meet me on business matters, and handed me a business card with the name Lysander S. Colonel Tucker's name, followed by the Colonel himself. He was of medium height, but extremely thin. I had never seen anyone so thin. His face was so thin that only the nose and chin remained. The protruding cheekbones seem to break the tight skin. Because his eyes are piercing, and his steps and demeanor are brisk and natural, so his haggard appearance should not be due to illness, but Natural. He was dressed simply and neatly. I judged his age to be in his late twenties. He said to me with a little German accent: 'You are Mr. Hatherley, aren't you? Mr. Hatherley. I highly recommend you, saying that you are not only exceptionally proficient in your business, but also discreet in every way and able to keep a real secret." I bowed to him immediately, like other young people, when I heard this compliment Immediately feeling smug, I said, 'Excuse me, may I ask who complimented me so much?' He said, 'Well, it's better not to tell you about that. I learned from the same person that you Or an orphan, and a bachelor, living alone in London?' I replied: 'Yes, but please forgive me, I don't think this has anything to do with my ability to work. As far as I know, you are here The purpose is to come to me to discuss business matters?' He said: "It is true. But you will find that what I said is not nonsense. We want to entrust you with one thing, but the most important thing is absolute confidentiality. Absolute secrecy, do you understand? It is true that we consider a man who lives alone to be more capable of keeping it than a man who lives with his family.' I said, 'You can rest assured that once I promise you I will keep it. secret, then I can do it." As I spoke, he kept looking at me with such suspicion that I had never seen such a look. After a while, he said: "You mean you have Made a promise?' I said, 'Yes, I promise I will.' He said, 'Be completely silent at the beginning and the end of the matter, and throughout the course of it, and never Mention this, neither verbally nor in writing, can you do it?' I said, 'I have assured you.' He said, 'That would be great.' Suddenly he got up Running across the room at lightning speed, slamming the door open, the hallway outside was empty. 'It's okay!' he walked back, 'I know some clerks are very curious about their employer's affairs Heart. But now, we can talk with confidence.' He leaned the chair close to me and looked at me again with suspicious and searching eyes.

"Seeing the strange behavior of such a thin person, I felt a surge of disgust and fear in my heart. I even ignored the customer's worry and couldn't help showing impatience. I said: 'Sir, please tell me your business, my time is limited.' God forgive me for saying this, but it came out of my mouth. 'Fifty gold coins a night, you think it's okay Is it?' he asked. I said, 'That's a lot!' He said, 'Although I said I would work all night, it might only take an hour or so. I just wanted to ask you some advice. Regarding the gear of the hydraulic press machine coming off. You just need to tell us where the fault is, and we can fix it ourselves. I don’t know what you like about such an entrustment?’ I said: ‘The job sounds easy, Well paid.' He said: 'Yes, that's it. We'd like to take you on the last train tonight.' I said: 'Where?' He said: 'Aygin in Berkshire. It's near Oxfordshire, a little place, not seven miles from Reading. There's a bus from Paddington that will take you there at about fifteen past eleven.' I said, 'Yes.' He added. "I will pick you up in a carriage." I said, "That is to say, we still have to drive a distance in a carriage?" It's seven miles away." "In this case, we won't be able to arrive before midnight. I think we must not catch up with the return vehicle, so we will have to spend the night there." He said: "Yes, we will arrange for you accommodation.' I asked: 'Isn't that inconvenient, can't we go at a more suitable time?' He said: 'We think it would be best for you to arrive at night. It is also to make up for your inconvenience , that's why we paid such a high price for an unknown young man like you. If this price is used to consult the most powerful people in your industry, it should be enough. Of course, if you don't want to accept this business, It's not too late to say no now.' I thought of the fifty gold pieces, and what that money meant to me.' I didn't mean that,' said I, 'I'd be more than happy to get you I want to have a deeper understanding of what you want me to do?' He said: 'Yes, we ask you to keep it strictly confidential, which will inevitably arouse your strong curiosity, and we don't I'm trying to hide something from you. I don't think anyone is eavesdropping on our conversation, right?" I said, "Absolutely not." It is an extremely precious mineral, and there are only one or two places in the UK where such deposits exist.' I said: 'I've heard of it.' He said: 'Not long ago, I bought it less than ten miles from Reading. I found a field - it was very small. Fortunately, I found that one of them contained a deposit of fuller's earth. However, after exploration, this deposit is relatively small. But it connects the left and right sides and is much larger. deposits--but both are in neighboring fields. These good people do not know that in hisThere are also mineral deposits as valuable as gold mines buried in their land.Obviously, before they discover this secret, it is the most cost-effective to buy the land in their hands.However, I don't have enough funds to buy these lands.To this end, I found a few friends and conspired.They proposed that our little mine should be worked out quietly and secretly, and by this means we should raise funds until we could buy the neighbor's land.We've been doing this for a while now.In order to facilitate the operation, we installed a hydraulic press.As I said earlier, something is wrong with this machine and I would like your help.We are always careful and circumspect, but once other people know that we have hired a water engineer to come to our little house, people's curiosity will be aroused.By then, should the truth be discovered, all chance of acquiring these lands and carrying out our plans will be lost.That is why I want you to promise not to mention to anyone that you are going to Ayzin tonight.I hope I have made everything clear. ’ I said, ‘I can hear it very well, but the only thing I don’t understand is that hydraulic machines don’t seem to be of much use to you digging fuller’s earth.As far as I know, fuller's earth is dug out like gravel from a mine, right? ’ He said indifferently: ‘Oh, we have our own method, we first press the soil into bricks, so that we can not reveal the secret when we transport them.But that's just a matter of details.Well, I have now revealed all my secrets to you, Mr. Hatherley, and it shows my confidence in you. ' he stood up as he spoke, 'then we'll meet at Ezin Station at eleven fifteen. ’ I said: ‘I will definitely go. ’ He said: ‘Don’t tell anyone. ' Finally, he stared at me suspiciously for a long time.Then, he held out his clammy hand to shake with me, and left in a hurry.

"You two can imagine what happened afterwards. When I calmed down and thought about it, I was very surprised by this sudden business. Indeed, I was very happy on the one hand, because alone For the job, he paid at least ten times what I asked for, and the business would probably bring in some other business connected with it. On the other hand, the appearance of the customer And the mannerisms did leave a bad impression on me, and I don't think his explanation of fuller's earth was enough of a reason for me to go late at night, or that he should be worried if I talked to someone about it To such an extent. Anyway, I put all my fears behind me, and after a hearty dinner, I drove to Paddington and hit the road, keeping my tight-lipped agreement .

"In Reading I had to change not only trains but also stations. But I happened to catch the last train to Ayzing and I was at the little dimly lit station after eleven. I was the only one in the Passengers getting off there, there was no one on the platform except for a sleepy porter holding a lantern. When I walked out of the station, I saw the customer I met in the morning on the other side where the light could not reach He waited for me in the dark. He took my arm without saying a word, and urged me to get into the carriage with the door open all the time. He drew down the curtains on both sides and knocked on the wooden boards of the carriage. He ran like he was flying."

"Just a horse?" asked Holmes suddenly.

"Yes, only one."

"Did you see its color?"

"Yes, I glanced at it by the light as I stepped into the carriage, and it was maroon."

"Does it look more languid or more lively?"

"Oh, it's full of vitality, and its coat color is very moist."

"Forgive me for interrupting you. Your narrative is very interesting. I hope you will continue."

"We were on the road, and the carriage was at least an hour away. Colonel Lysander Stark told me it was less than seven miles away. But I think, from our speed and the time we took, it must be nearly ten miles away. Two miles away. On the road, he has been sitting silently beside me. I glanced in his direction inadvertently, and found that he was staring at me nervously. The car bumped badly, and the place The country road is not very good, so we staggered from side to side. I looked out of the window to see where this is. But the window frame is frosted glass, and I can only see a little bit of light when I pass by a bright place. I couldn't see anything except the blurred bright colors. I kept saying something to break the silence and embarrassment of the journey, but the colonel didn't respond to me very much. Under such circumstances, the conversation couldn't proceed. Later , I felt the carriage turn away from the bumpy country road and onto the gravel road, which felt much smoother. Finally, the carriage stopped. Colonel Stark jumped out of the carriage, and I followed, he Suddenly, I was drawn into the door that opened right in front of us. We stepped into the hall as if we got out of a carriage, so that I didn't even have a chance to see the outline of the house. After crossing the threshold, I The door slammed shut behind me. I could vaguely hear the creaking of the wheels of the carriage as it drove away.

"The room was pitch dark, and the Colonel was fumbling for matches and muttering something in a low voice. At this moment, a door at the other end of the corridor opened suddenly. Then, a golden light shot towards us, The light grew brighter, and then a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, and she held it above her head, and she leaned forward to look at us. I could see that she was very beautiful, and the light fell on her black coat. The reflected luster can tell that it is a high-quality fabric. She said something in a foreign language, which sounded like a question. My companion answered a few words, and she was very surprised when she heard it. The lights in the room almost fell out. Colonel Stark walked up to her, whispered something to her, then took the light from her hand, and pushed her back into the room she had just left. He walked towards me with the lamp in his hand. He said, "Excuse me, but it seems that you have to wait in this room for a while." As he spoke, he opened the door of another room. The room was small and simply furnished, with a round table in the middle and several German books scattered on it. Colonel Stark placed the lamp on top of a harmonium by the door. He added: 'I I won't keep you waiting too long." With that, he disappeared into the darkness.

"I looked at the books on the table. Although I don't understand German, I can still see that two of them are social science papers, and the others are poetry collections. I went to the window and wanted to see the books outside. The view, however, was blocked by a closed shutter. The room was utterly silent, except for an old clock ticking somewhere in the corridor. Other than that, there was no sound at all. I gradually became uneasy. , What are these Germans doing? What are they going to do in such a remote place? And where is this place? All I know is that it is more than ten miles away from Ayzin. I don't understand. Considering that this place is not too far from Reading, it doesn't seem too out of the way. But it's so quiet here that I can tell it must be in the country. I don't I kept walking around, using the ditty in my mouth to give myself courage, thinking that I would get the fifty gold coins as salary in a while. Suddenly, the door of my room was pushed open without a sound. The woman I saw stood at the door, and there was darkness behind her. The dim yellow light reflected on her beautiful and anxious face, and I could see that she was terrified with just one glance, and this emotion also infected me, making me I couldn't help but startled. She tremblingly raised a finger and said a few words to me quickly in very non-standard English. She motioned for me to keep quiet. She kept looking at the dark place behind her, as if A frightened foal. She said, 'If I were you, I would run away.' She tried to keep her composure, 'You better go, it's not good to stay here, it won't do you any good.' I said, "But ma'am, I haven't done my work here, and I can't leave until I've seen the machine." Then she said, "Your waiting is not worth it. You can go out this door, without any trouble." People will stop you." Seeing me smiling and shaking my head at her, she couldn't control herself and stepped forward. She clasped her hands tightly and said to me in a low voice: "For God's sake, hurry up!" Let’s go, if it’s too late, it’s really too late.” But I have a stubborn element in my nature, and when I encounter a bottleneck in my work, I have to persist to the end. I thought of my reward of fifty gold coins. Tired journey, and this unpleasant night, do I just let it go? Why didn't I complete this task and leave without getting what I deserved? In my opinion, she may be a paranoid woman. So , although I was shocked by her appearance, I was still stubborn and shook my head firmly, and I indicated that I would continue to stay there. When she was about to convince me again, there was a loud door closing upstairs, Then came the sound of footsteps on the stairs, and she listened breathlessly, then raised her hands in a gesture of despair, and disappeared once more as silently as she had come.

(End of this chapter)