The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes

Chapter 70 Memoirs (11) ([-])
"' She said: 'He's gone, while no one is looking.He is not in the room.Ah yes, he's gone, he's gone! "Speaking, Rachel leaned against the wall and let out bursts of high-pitched laughter. This sudden hysterical attack made my hair stand on end, and I hurriedly rang the bell to call the servant to help her back to the room. I asked her about She was still screaming and crying about Brenton's situation. Obviously, Brenton really disappeared. There was no sign of anyone sleeping in his bed last night, and no one had seen him since he returned to his room the night before. It is not known how he left the house, for the doors and windows were bolted in the morning. His clothes, watch, and money were all in the house, but his usual black suit was missing. He left in slippers, But he left his boots. Where would the butler Brenton be? What is he now?
"'We searched the whole manor from the basement to the attic, but we didn't even see him. This old house is like a maze, especially those old wing rooms, which are no longer inhabited. But we repeatedly Searched every room and basement, but still no sign of him. I can't believe he left empty handed, but where could he have gone? I called the police and couldn't find him. The night before After the rain, we searched the lawns and paths around the manor, but still found nothing. This is the case. Then there was a new development, which distracted our attention from this doubt.

"'Rachel Howells was so ill for two days, unconscious and hysterical, that I hired a chaperone for her. On the third night after Brenton's disappearance, the chaperone saw the patient Sleeping soundly, I dozed off in an arm-chair, and awoke the next morning to find the bed empty, the window wide open, and the patient nowhere to be seen. The attendant woke me up immediately, and I set out with two servants to find the The missing girl. It is not difficult to find her whereabouts. Starting from under her window, we followed her footprints, across the lawn, and came to the small lake. When we arrived here, the footprints disappeared near the gravel road, and this gravel road It leads to the garden. The little lake is eight feet deep, and we can imagine how we felt when we saw the tracks of the poor crazy girl disappearing by the lake.

"'We immediately retrieved the remains, but found no trace of them. Instead, we retrieved from the lake the most unexpected thing, a linen sack containing a heap of old, rusted metal , and some dull crystal and glass. Other than that, we have not fished anything else from the lake. Although we searched and asked all we could yesterday, Rachel Howells and Richard The fate of de Brenton remains unknown to us, and the police are helpless. I have come to you, as my last hope.'

"You can imagine, Watson, with what eagerness I listened to this extraordinary sequence of events, and with what pains I tried to connect their details together, and to find the common thread of them all. The butler disappeared, The maid is also missing, the maid once loved the butler, but later resented him. The girl is of Welsh blood, impulsive and irritable. She is very excited about the disappearance of the butler. She throws the bag containing the strange things into the lake. These are Questions that require us to think carefully, but these questions are not the most critical ones. What is the fuse that caused this series of events? Now there is only the end of this series of intricate events.

"I said: 'Musgrave, I must see that document which your butler would rather risk his job to read.'

"'Our family rite is a very absurd thing,' replied Musgrave, 'but it is a legacy of the past, and has at least some merit. I have the rite, if you will see it. A transcript of the question and answer words.'

"Watson, Musgrave has handed me this document I am holding now, which is a copy of the strange catechism which every adult member of the Musgrave family is bound to observe. Please listen to the text of the catechism. original.

"'Whose is it?'

"'It belonged to the man who went away.'

"'Who deserves it?'

"'The one who is coming.'

"'Where is the sun?'

"'On the oak tree.'

"'Where's the shadow?'

"'Under the elms.'

"'How to measure it?'

"'Ten steps to the north, five steps to the east, two steps to the south, one step to the west, just below.'

"'What shall we pay for it?'

"'With our all.'

"'Why are we doing this?'

"'Because a promise is to be kept.'

"'The original is undated, but the writing is written in mid-seventeenth-century spelling,' said Musgrave. 'I suppose, however, that it won't help you much in solving the case.'

"'At least,' said I, 'it presents us with another unsolvable riddle, and a more interesting one than the original. It is probable that by solving this one, the other is also solved. Excuse me, Musgrave. Husband, I think your steward is a very wise man, and ten generations smarter than his master's family.'

"'I am having trouble understanding you,' said Musgrave, 'and I do not think the document is of any practical importance.'

"'On the contrary, I find this document to be of great importance, and I think Brenton agrees with me, and it is probable that he had seen it before he was caught by you that night.'

"'It's quite possible that we've never had a good collection of it.'

"'The last time he looked at it, I suppose, was merely to remember its contents. I know he was comparing the papers with various maps and sketches, which he pocketed hastily when you came in. .'

"'Indeed. But what has he to do with this old custom of our family? What's the point of this boring ceremony?'

"'I don't think there will be much difficulty in ascertaining the matter,' said I. 'If you agree, we can take the first train to Sussex, and go down there and investigate the matter further.'

"The two of us arrived at Hellstone that afternoon. This famous old building is the same as what we saw in the photos and records, so I won't go into details, just want to say that it is an L-shaped building The long row of houses is more modern in style, and the short row of houses is the center of the houses left over from ancient times, and other houses are expanded from here. On the bulky and low lintels in the middle of the old-style houses, there are engraved [-] Seven years. However, experts believe that the actual age of the beams and stone components is older than this date. The walls of the old-style houses are tall and thick, and the windows are very small, so the family lived in the last century. The row of new houses was built. Now the old houses are used for nothing but storehouses and wine cellars. The house is surrounded by dense old trees, forming a small garden with an elegant environment. The small lake mentioned by my client It abuts the avenue, about two hundred yards from the house.

"I'm sure, Watson, that these are by no means three isolated mysteries, but only one. If I understand the meaning of 'Musgrave Rituals' correctly, I shall be able to find clues to find out that the butler Brenton and Maid Howells' disappearance. So I threw myself into it. Why was the steward so eager to master the questions and answers of those ancient rites? Evidently because he saw the mystery, and the generations of the country squire did not notice. What was the mystery, and what effect did it have on the fate of the steward?

"I read the code once, and it became clear that some of the words in the code about measurements must hint at a place, and if this place could be found, the mystery would be solved. Musgrave's ancestors thought it necessary to use This is the special way that future generations will not forget the secret. To get started, we know two direction markers: an oak tree and an elm tree. Finding the oak tree is not difficult at all, it is directly in front of the house, on the left side of the driveway, Among the oaks was one of the oldest and tallest trees I have ever seen.

"'Did you have the oak when you drafted your family ceremony?' I asked as we drove past the oak.

"'It is estimated that this tree existed at the time of the Norman conquest of England,' replied Musgrave, 'and the oak was twenty-three feet thick.'

"My surmise was confirmed, and I asked, 'Do you have an old elm in your house?'

"'There used to be a very old elm over there that was struck by lightning ten years ago. We sawed off the trunk.'

"'Can you point out where the elm is?'

"'of course.'

"'Are there no other elms?'

"'There are no old elms, but many new ones.'

"'I want to see where this old elm is.'

"We were in a one-horse carriage, and before we entered the house, my client led me to a hollow in the lawn, which he said was where the elms used to grow. It was almost halfway between the oak and the house. It seemed that , my investigation is progressing.

"'I suppose it is impossible for us to know the height of this elm?' I asked.

"'I can tell you right away that the elm is 64 feet tall.'

"'How do you know that?' I asked in amazement.

"'My old governess used to make me do exercises in trigonometry, often to measure heights. As a boy I measured the height of every tree and every building on the estate.'

"Great. The data came in faster than I thought.

"'Has the steward asked you about the elms?' I asked.

"Reginald Musgrave looked at me in surprise. 'As soon as you reminded me, Brenton did inquire about the height of the elm, some months ago, when he was arguing with the groom.' he replied.

"Wonderful, Watson, this shows that my thinking is right. I looked up, and the sun was already westward, and I calculated that it would be over the topmost branch of the old oak tree in less than an hour. It is mentioned in the ceremony One of the conditions is satisfied. The shadow of the elm tree must refer to the length of the shadow, otherwise why not choose the trunk as a benchmark? So, I determined the position where the farthest end of the shadow of the elm tree falls when the sun is shining on the top of the oak tree."

"That must be very difficult, Holmes, for the elms are gone," said I.

"Well, I am convinced that if Brenton can do it, so can I. Besides, it's not really difficult. Musgrave and I went into his study and chipped this peg. I took this The long rope was tied to pegs, knotted at intervals of a yard, and the two rods were tied together, a total length of exactly six feet, and I returned with my client to the position of the old elm. The sun was just at the The top of the oak tree. I stuck the end of my fishing rod into the soil, noted the direction of the shadow, and measured its length. It was nine feet long.

(End of this chapter)