The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes

Chapter 73 Memoirs (2) ([-])
"The last window on the left, the one next to my father's bedroom."

"Are the lights in both of your rooms on?"

"Yes."

"Now there are a few doubts," Holmes said with a smile. "This is a thief, and he is an experienced thief. He can tell from the light that two people in this family are still awake, and yet he deliberately broke into the house. Isn't that strange?"

"He must have been a calm old hand."

"Oh, of course, we would not bother you if it hadn't been an odd case," said Mr. Alec, "but you say that the thieves entered the room before William found them, and I I think it's absurd. Hasn't the house been turned upside down and nothing missing?"

"It depends," said Holmes. "Don't forget that we are dealing with a very extraordinary robber, who seems to have his own way. You see, those he stole from the Acton's What are the odd things? A ball of thread, a paperweight, and a few odd things."

"Well, Mr. Holmes, everything is entrusted to you," said old Cunningham. "Everything is under your orders or that of the Inspector."

Holmes said: "First of all, I would like to ask you to offer a reward for the arrest of criminals. It will take some time for the authorities to agree to pay the money, and these things cannot be done immediately. I have already drafted a reward notice, if you have no objection." , please sign. I think fifty pounds is enough."

Old Cunningham took the paper and pen that Holmes handed him, and said, "I would like to offer five hundred pounds."

"I wrote too hastily."

"You see you began, 'Whereas there was an attempted robbery at a quarter to one on Tuesday morning,' etc. In fact, it happened at a quarter to eleven in the evening."

It pained me to see Holmes make this mistake, for I knew that Holmes was always embarrassed by such omissions.Getting the facts right is his specialty.But his illness tormented him very badly.This mistake in front of me is enough to show me that his body has not recovered yet.Obviously, he was embarrassed.The officer raised his eyebrows, and Alec Cunningham laughed.The old gentleman immediately corrected the mistake, and returned the paper to Holmes.

"Send it off to press," said old Cunningham, "I think you have a very good idea."

Holmes carefully put away the paper, and put it in his note-pad, saying: "We had better now go over the house, and see if there is anything else the queer thief has stolen."

Before entering the room, Holmes carefully examined the broken door.The lock had apparently been picked by inserting a chisel or a sturdy pocketknife.We can see that there are traces of sharp tools inserted on the wood.

"Don't you use bolts?" asked Holmes.

"We generally don't think it's necessary."

"You don't have a dog?"

"Yes, but we chain the dog to the other side of the house."

"When did the servants go to bed?"

"About ten o'clock at night."

"I heard that William usually goes to bed at this time?"

"Yes."

"It is strange that he was up on the night of the accident. I should be glad, Mr. Cunningham, if you would show us the house now."

Through the stone-paved corridor next to the kitchen and along a wooden staircase, we come to the second floor of the house.We ascended the landing.Opposite it, another ornate staircase leads to the vestibule.From this landing came the drawing-room and several bedrooms, including those of Mr. Cunningham and his son.Holmes walked unhurriedly, observing the appearance of the house.From his expression, he was following a clue, but I still couldn't guess what he was following.

Mr. Cunningham said impatiently: "Sir, this is quite unnecessary. My bedroom is at the top of the stairs. My son's bedroom is next door. I want you to judge. If the burglar went upstairs and we How could you not have noticed?"

"I think you should look around the house for new clues," Cunningham's son scoffed.

"Be patient a little longer. I should like to see how far I can see from the bedroom window. This is your son's bedroom, I know." said Holmes, pushing the door open. "This is the dressing-room where he was when the alarm was sounded." Room? Where does its window face?" Entering the bedroom, Holmes opened the door and looked around at the other room.

"I suppose you are satisfied now?" said Mr. Cunningham bitterly.

"Thank you, I am very satisfied."

"If you really think it necessary, you can come to my room."

"If it doesn't bother you too much, go for it!"

Old Cunningham shrugged his shoulders and led us into his own bedroom.The interior furnishings are simple and ordinary, and it is an ordinary room.Holmes slackened his pace as we made our way towards the window, and he and I fell behind us.There was a plate of oranges and a bottle of water on the small table by the bed.As we passed the bed, Holmes leaned forward in front of me, deliberately knocking the little table over.Glass bottles shattered and fruit rolled everywhere.This sudden movement caught me off guard.

"How careless you are, Watson," said Holmes calmly, "you have made a mess of the carpet."

I squatted down in a panic to pick up the fruit, because I knew Holmes must have his reasons for wanting me to take the responsibility.Others helped to pick up the fruit and helped the small table up.

"Ouch!" cried the inspector, "where has he been?"

Holmes was gone.

"Please wait here," Little Cunningham said, "I think this man is a little out of order. Father, come here, let's go and see where he got into!"

They rushed out the door, and the officer, the colonel, and I remained in the room, looking at each other.

"I agree with Alec," said the inspector, "that he may be ill, but it seems to me—"

Before he finished speaking, there was a sudden cry for help: "Come here! Come here! Kill someone!" I couldn't help feeling horrified, because I recognized it was my friend's voice.I rushed frantically from the room to the landing.The cry for help from the room we had first entered died away to a hoarse, inarticulate cry.I rushed straight over and ran into the locker room inside.Cunningham and his son pinned Sherlock Holmes to the ground, the young Cunningham took Holmes by the throat, and the old Cunningham seemed to be twisting one of his wrists.

The three of us immediately pulled them away from Holmes, who rose with difficulty, pale and evidently exhausted.

"Arrest these two at once, Inspector," said Holmes breathlessly.

"Arrested for what?"

"Murder of coachman William Kirwan."

The Inspector stared blankly at Holmes.

"Well, Mr. Holmes," said the Inspector at last, "I trust that you do not really mean--"

"Look at their faces, sir!" cried Holmes roughly.

I have never seen such a guilty facial expression.Old Cunningham was dumbfounded, with a look of pain and sullenness on his resolute face.Little Cunningham lost his former liveliness, his eyes were fierce, and he no longer had the slightest trace of elegance.Without saying a word, the officer walked to the door and blew his siren.Two policemen responded.

"I'm afraid that's all I can do, Mr. Cunningham," said the sergeant. "I'm sure it might all be a misunderstanding, but you can see... oh, what are you doing? Put it down!" He threw up his hand took the pistol Alec was about to shoot.

"Hold on," said Holmes, deliberately putting his hand on the pistol. "It is only useful in interrogation. Here is what we really need," he said, holding up a small ball of paper.

"That part of the paper that was torn away!" the officer yelled.

"Yes."

"Where did you find it?"

"Found it where I expected. I will explain the whole case to you at once. Colonel, I think you and Watson can go back now. I will be looking for you in an hour at the most. Me and the Inspector." To question the criminal, but I'll be back by lunch."

Holmes kept his promise, and an hour later he met us in the colonel's smoking room.A little old gentleman accompanied him.Holmes introduced me, this is Mr. Acton, the first robbery occurred in his home.

"Mr. Acton was present when I wished to explain this little case to you," said Holmes. "He would also like to know the details of it. My dear Colonel, I am afraid you must have treated me so well." A troublemaker, regret it."

"On the contrary," replied the Colonel enthusiastically, "I am very honored to have had the opportunity of learning your methods of detection. I confess that the result was quite unexpected. I see no clue."

"I'm afraid I'll disappoint you with my explanation, but my methods of work are not at all secret to anyone. However, since I was attacked in the dressing room, I would like to drink a little brandy to calm my nerves, Colonel. Just now I'm exhausted."

"I trust that your neuralgia will not flare up again."

Sherlock Holmes laughed aloud. "We shall return to the matter later, and I will tell you the case from the beginning to the end, and give you the points which prompted my resolution. If you have any doubts If you understand something, please feel free to ask me.

"In detective work, the most important thing is to be able to distinguish which are the key issues and which are secondary issues among the complicated facts. Otherwise, your energy will not only be unable to concentrate, but will be scattered instead. From the beginning of this case, I am convinced that the key to this case is the scrap of paper in the hands of the deceased.

"Having said this, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that if what Alec Cunningham said was true, if the murderer had fled immediately after shooting William Kirwan, it would have been impossible for the murderer to tear the The paper. But if the murderer hadn't torn it, it must have been Alec Cunningham, for some servants had arrived at the scene of the crime before old Cunningham came downstairs.

"Although this point is very simple, the police officer ignored it. Because from the very beginning, he speculated that these squires had nothing to do with the case. At that time, I was determined not to have any prejudice and follow the direction guided by the facts. Therefore, when we started the investigation, I Then suspect Mr. Alec Cunningham.

"I inspected carefully a corner of the fragment which the officer had handed us. It was immediately clear to me that the note was a very noteworthy object. Can you see something in it now?"

"The lettering looks very irregular," said the colonel.

"My dear sir," cried Holmes, "it is evidently written by two persons. You have only to notice the strong 't' in the 'at' and 'to', and follow it Comparing the two weak 't' letters in 'quarter' and 'twelve', you will immediately find out the truth of the matter. From a simple analysis of these four letters, you can say with certainty that the 'Learn' and 'maybe' were written by men with strong pens, but 'what' was written by men with weak pens."

"My God, that's true!" cried the Colonel. "Why on earth did those two write this letter?"

"It was clearly a crime in which one of the men did not trust the other, and he decided that no matter what the two had to do together. Apparently, of the two men, the one who wrote 'at' and 'to' People are masterminds."

"What is your basis?"

"By comparing the handwriting of two people, we can deduce it. But we have stronger evidence. If you look at this paper carefully, you will come to this speculation: the person with the strong pen first wrote what he wanted to write. Write all the words, leaving a lot of blank space for another person to fill in the rest of the words. These blank spaces are not all left to spare, and you can see that the second person in the 'at' and 'to' When the word 'quarter' was filled in between, it was very crowded, which means that the two words 'at' and 'to' were written first. The person who finished the word he wanted to write first must be The person who planned this case."

"Excellent!" exclaimed Mr. Acton.

"We now come to an important point," said Holmes. "You may not know that in normal circumstances experts can infer a man's age with considerable accuracy from his handwriting. I say, 'In normal circumstances,' This is because poor health and infirmity are the characteristics of old age, and if the young man is a sick man, his handwriting is also characteristic of old age. In this case, one of the people has a strong handwriting, and the other The handwriting is weak but still legible, except that the 't' is missing a stroke. From this we can deduce that one of them is a young man, and the other is old, though not very old."

"Excellent!" exclaimed Mr. Acton again.

"Another point is very subtle and interesting. There are certain similarities in the handwriting of these two men. They are people of the same blood. The most obvious to you may be that the 'e' is written like a Greek letter. 'e'. However, it seems to me that many small points can confirm this. From the style of writing, I am sure that these two handwritings are from the same family. Of course, what I am telling you now , is just my conclusion from looking at this paper. In addition, there are 23 other inferences, experts are probably more interested than you. All this, let me confirm my inference, Cunningham and his son wrote the letter.

"Now that I have come to that conclusion, my next job of course is to investigate the details of the crime scene and see how much they can help us. I went to their residence with the police officer and looked at everything we had to look at. I absolutely It is reasonably certain that the wounds on the deceased were caused by a pistol fired four yards away. There were no traces of gunpowder on the deceased's clothing. Therefore, Alec Cunningham's statement that the murderer was fired during the struggle is clearly entirely It is a lie. Also, both father and son pointed out in unison that this man fled to the place where the road passed. However, there happened to be a wide ditch in this place, and the bottom of the ditch was wet. Since no footprints were found near the ditch, I am not only sure that Kan Ning An and his son lied again, and they were sure that no one of unknown origin came to the scene.

"Now I must ascertain the motives of the criminal. To do this I must first ascertain the cause of the first burglary at Mr. Acton's. From certain things the Colonel told us, I must I know, Mr. Acton, that you and the Cunninghams are engaged in a lawsuit, and it occurred to me at once that they must have broken into your study with the intention of stealing some important document relating to the case."

"Yes," said Mr. Acton, "they intend to do it, no doubt. I have every right to claim half of what they have. But if they can find my proof, they will be able to." I won the case, but luckily, I put this evidence in the lawyer's safe."

Holmes smiled and said: "I think this dangerous and reckless action was probably done by Alec. They couldn't find the evidence they needed, so they raised suspicions and took something away, trying to mislead others to regard it as a crime." An ordinary theft. This is all too clear, but there are many things that are still unclear. First, I need to find the half of the note that was torn away. I am sure it was taken from the dead by Alec. He tore it out in his hand, and he was sure he must have stuffed it into the pocket of his pajamas. Otherwise, where else could he have put it? The only question was whether it was still in the pocket, and some work had to be done to find it. For this purpose we went together to their house.

"As you may recall, we met the Cunninghams outside the kitchen door. Of course, this paper must not be mentioned in their presence, or they will destroy it without delay. When I wanted to tell them the importance of this piece of paper, I feigned a sudden onset and fainted to divert the conversation."

"Oh!" cried the colonel, laughing, "so we are all worrying about you in vain. Your sudden onset is a fake."

"Professional-wise, that's a pretty neat move," I exclaimed, looking in wonder at the man who so often confuses me with his unpredictable tricks.

"It is an art, which is often in use," said Holmes. "When I recovered my senses, I tricked old Cunningham into writing the word 'twelve,' so that I could Compared to the 'twelve' written on the secret letter."

"Oh, how stupid I am!" I yelled.

"I know that you were very anxious about my weakness, and I was very sorry," said Holmes, smiling. "Afterwards we went upstairs together, and when we entered the room, I saw the nightgown hanging behind the door. Overturned a table to divert their attention, then slipped back to check the pockets of the pajamas. As soon as I got the note in the expected place, the Cunninghams jumped on me. I dare I'm sure if you guys hadn't come to my rescue in time, they would have killed me on the spot. The young man grabbed me by the throat, and his father twisted my wrist to get the note out of my hand. You see , It turned out that they thought it was absolutely safe. When they knew that I had understood the truth of the matter, they felt that they were in a desperate situation, so they took the risk.

(End of this chapter)