The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes

Chapter 93 The Return (8)
It was a small and delicate alligator leather handbag with silver trim on the table.Holmes opened it and poured out its contents.The handbag contained nothing but a roll of Bank of England notes, twenty notes of fifty pounds held together by rubber bands.

"This bag must be kept, and it will be a witness in court," said Holmes, handing the bag and the banknotes to the sheriff. "Now we must try to account for the third bullet. Judging from the fragments of wood Well, the bullet was obviously fired from the house. I want to ask their cook, Mrs. Kim again. Mrs. Kim, you said that you were woken up by a loud explosion. Do you mean you Sounds like it's louder than the second?"

"Well, sir, I was awakened from sleep, so it's hard to tell. But it sounded loud at the time."

"You don't think it's possible that it was the sound of two shots fired at about the same time?"

"I can't say for sure, sir."

"I think it was indeed the sound of two shots. Inspector, I don't think there's anything worth investigating here. If you'll come with me, we'll go into the garden and see if we can find any new evidence."

Outside there is a flower bed extending to the window of the study.When we approached the flower bed, everyone screamed in unison.The flowers in the flower beds were trampled down, and the wet soil was full of footprints.It was a man's big footprint, with particularly slender toes.Holmes searched the grass and leaves on the ground like a hound for a bird it has struck.Suddenly, he let out a cry of joy, bent down and picked up a small copper cylinder.

"As I expected," he said, "that revolver had the ejector, and that's the casing of the third shot. Inspector Martin, I think we're almost nearing the end of our case."

The country sheriff's face was filled with astonishment, evidently overwhelmed by Holmes' quick and skillful detection.At first he showed a little desire to speak his mind, but now he was admirable and willing to listen to Holmes.

"Who do you think fired the shot?" he asked.

"I'll talk about it later. There are a few points on this subject which I cannot yet explain to you. Now that I have come this far, I had better proceed as I wish, and at last set the matter straight from the beginning."

"Listen, Mr. Holmes, as long as we can bring the murderer to justice."

"I don't want to play tricks at all, but it's impossible to start giving long and complicated explanations in the course of the action. I have all the clues. Even if the mistress can never regain consciousness, we can still explain what happened last night. What has happened will be unraveled, and it will be guaranteed that the murderer will be brought to justice. First of all, I want to know if there is an inn called 'Elrich' in the vicinity?"

All the servants have asked, and they all said that they have never heard of such a hotel.In this matter the stable boy was a little helpful, remembering a farmer named Elridge who lived just a few miles away in East Roston.

"Is it a remote farm?"

"Very out of the way, sir."

"Perhaps the people there don't know what happened here last night?"

"Perhaps not, sir."

"Prepare a fine horse, my boy," said Holmes, "and carry a letter to Elridge Farm for me."

He took out many slips of paper with dancing figures from his pocket, put them on the desk, and sat down to work for a while.Finally, he handed the stable boy a letter and asked him to put the letter in the hands of the addressee, especially remembering not to answer any questions the addressee might have.I saw that the address and the name of the addressee on the outside of the letter were scrawled and messy, not in the strict handwriting that Holmes used to write.It read: Mr. Abe Slaney, Elrich Farm, East Rolston, Norfolk.

"Sheriff," said Holmes, "I think you might as well send a telegram requesting that additional guards be sent, as you may be escorting a very dangerous prisoner to the county jail, if I am not mistaken. The messenger boy will do." Take your telegram. If there is a train back to London this afternoon, Watson, I reckon we will catch it, as I have a rather interesting chemical experiment to perform, and this investigative work will soon be over. gone."

Holmes sent the stable boy to deliver the message, and then gave orders to all the servants: If anyone came to see Mrs. Cupid, they should be led into the drawing room at once, and the state of Mrs. Cupid's health must not be revealed.He urged the servants to remember these words very seriously.Finally, he led us to the living room, saying that the current situation is out of our control, and everyone should try to rest and wait to see what will happen.The country doctor had left to see his patient, and only the sheriff and we remained.

"I think I can help you while away an hour in an amusing and profitable manner," said Holmes, moving his chair closer to the table, and spreading out the slips of paper with funny figures on them. Sir, I am in debt to you for refusing to satisfy your curiosity for so long. As for you, Inspector, the whole history of this case may attract you to an unusual business discussion. I must Let me tell you some interesting facts, which I heard from Mr. Hilton Cupid when he came twice to consult with me in Baker Street." He then briefly repeated what I have said before. again. "I have before me these rare works which, I suppose, would have laughed if they had not been the harbingers of this dreadful tragedy. I am familiar with secret writing in all its forms, and have written one A crude treatise on the subject, which analyzed 160 different ciphers. But this is the first time I've seen this. Whoever came up with this method was clearly trying to fool others into thinking they were scribbling children I can't see the information conveyed by these symbols. However, as long as I see that these symbols represent letters, and then apply the laws of secret writing to analyze, it is easy to find the answer. On the first piece of paper handed to me The sentence is so short that I can only presume with some confidence that it stands for E. You also know that E is the most common letter of the English alphabet, and occurs so often that it can be seen even in a short sentence. The first paper Four of the fifteen symbols on the bar are exactly the same, so it is reasonable to assume that it is E. Some of these figures have a small flag, and some have no small flag. Judging from the distribution of small flags, The graphic with the flag may be used to break the sentence into words. I take this as an acceptable hypothesis, and note that the E is used to represent it.

"However, now comes the most difficult problem. Because, except for E, the order of occurrences of English letters is not very clear. This order may be the opposite in a normal printed page and a short sentence. Roughly speaking, the order of occurrences of letters is T, A, O, I, N, S, H, R, D, L; but T, A, O, and I appear almost equally. If It would be endless work to try every combination until one came to the senses. So I had to wait for new material to come in. Mr. Hilton Cupid, on his second visit, gave I have two other short sentences and a sentence that seems to have only one word, which are these symbols without flags. In this word composed of five symbols, I found that the second and fourth are both E. The word may be sever (cut off), lever (lever), or never (never). There is no doubt that the use of the last word to answer a request is extremely likely, and each case Show that this is the answer written by Mrs. Cupid. If this judgment is correct, we can now say that the three symbols represent N, V ​​and R respectively.

"Even at this time my difficulties were great. But a brilliant idea led me to know a few more letters. It occurred to me that if these entreaties came from someone who had been close to Mrs. Cupid in her youth, then A combination with E at both ends and three other letters in it is probably the name ELSIE (Elsie). I checked and found that this combination has formed the end of a sentence three times. Such a sentence must be correct for 'Elsie ' an entreaty. So I found the L, S, and I. But what is the entreaty? The word before 'Elsie' has only four letters and ends in an E. The word must It's COME (come) without a doubt. I've tried various other four letters ending in E, none of which fit the bill. So I found C, O and M, and now I can go back to the first sentence and put It breaks into words, and letters not yet known are replaced with dots. After doing this, the sentence looks like this: .
M.ERE..ESL.NE.
"Now, the first letter can only be A. This is the most helpful finding, since it occurs three times in this short sentence, and it is also obvious that the second word begins with an H. The sentence now becomes:

AM HERE AE SLANE.
Then fill in the missing letters in the name:

AM HERE ABE SLANE. (I have arrived. Abe Slane.)
"I now have so many letters that I can interpret the second sentence with great confidence. It reads like this:

A.ELRI.ES
I see that in this sentence I can only make sense by adding T and G where the letters are missing (meaning: lives in Elrich), and assume the name is the place or inn where the writer lives. "

Sergeant Martin and I listened with interest to my friend's account of how he had found the answer, and all our doubts were answered.

"What did you do next, sir?" asked the Inspector.

"I have every reason to suppose that Abe Slaney is an American, since Abe is an American abbreviation, and the cause of these troubles was a letter from America. I have every reason to think that There's a criminal inside story. What the mistress said that hinted at her past and her refusal to tell her husband the truth made me think about it that way. That's why I gave the NYPD a friend named Wilson Hargreave A telegram was sent asking if he knew the name Abe Slaney. This friend had used on several occasions what I knew about crime in London. His return said: "This man is the most dangerous con man in Chicago. . "On the very evening when I got the call back, Hilton Cupid sent me the last line of little figures drawn by Abe Slaney. Translated from the letters already known, it becomes this sentence:

ELSIE. RE. ARE TO MEET THY GO.
"Add P and D to complete the sentence (meaning: Elsie, get ready to meet God) and show that the gangster has changed from persuading to intimidating. I know the gangs in Chicago well, so I think He may soon act on his threats. My friend Dr. Watson and I came to Norfolk at once, but unfortunately, by the time we got here, the worst had already happened."

"It is an honor to be on a case with you," said the Inspector enthusiastically, "but, with all due respect, you are responsible only to yourself, and I am responsible to my superiors. If this man who lives If Abe Slaney, of Elrich Farm, is the real murderer, if he runs away while I sit here, I'm sure I'll be dealt with severely."

"You don't have to worry, he won't run away."

"How do you know he won't?"

"Fleeing is tantamount to his admitting that he is the murderer."

"Then let's go and arrest him."

"I think he'll be here soon."

"Why did he come?"

"Because I have written to invite him."

"I can't believe it, Mr. Holmes. Why did he come when you asked? Wouldn't that just arouse his suspicions and make him run away?"

"Haven't I made up the letter?" said Holmes. "If I read correctly, this gentleman is coming here."

On the small path outside the door, a tall, dark-skinned, handsome guy was striding over.He was dressed in gray flannel and a Panama hat, with a moustache standing on his head, a large hooked nose, and waving a cane as he walked.

"Gentlemen," said Holmes in a low voice, "I think we'd better stand behind the door. One has to be very careful with such a fellow. Inspector, get your handcuffs ready, and let me talk to him."

We waited in silence for a moment, one of those moments we never forget.The door opened and the man walked in.Holmes immediately struck him on the head with the butt of his pistol, and Martin immediately put the cuffs on his wrists.Their movements were quick and skilled, and the guy couldn't move before he understood what was going on.He stared at us one by one with his black eyes, and suddenly smiled wryly.

"Gentlemen, you've won this time. I seem to have bumped into something hard. I've only come here after a letter from Mrs. Hilton Cupid. Is she not here? Could it be that she helped you set up the this trap?"

"Mrs. Hilton Cupid was seriously injured and is now dying."

The man uttered a hoarse cry that rang through the room.

"Nonsense!" he cried. "Hilton was hurt, not her. Who would have the heart to hurt little Elsie? I might have threatened her—God forgive me! But I would never touch a hair of her. You take back your words! Tell me she's not hurt!"

"When she was found, she was seriously injured and fell beside her husband."

With a sad groan, he sat down on the bench, covered his face with his handcuffed hands, and remained silent.After five minutes he looked up and said in despair, "I have nothing to hide from you. If I shoot someone who shoots me first, it's not murder. If you think I'm going to hurt Elsie , that's because you don't know me, and you don't know her. There really is no second man in the world who loves a woman like I love her. I have the right to marry her. She promised me many years ago. Why? Is this Brit trying to separate us? I am the first to have the right to marry her and I am just using my rights."

"When she found out what you were, she threw herself off your power," said Holmes sternly. "She left America to escape you, and married a respectable gentleman in England. Chased her, made her miserable, and you tempted her to abandon her beloved husband, and run away with you, whom she hated and feared. You killed a nobleman and forced his wife to commit suicide. This is A record of what you did, Mr. Abe Slany. You will be punished by the law."

"If Elsie's dead, what do I care?" said the American.He opened one hand and looked at a piece of letter paper in the palm of his hand. "Well, sir," he said aloud, with a little doubt in his eyes, "you're not trying to frighten me, are you? If she's really hurt as badly as you say, who's the one who wrote this letter?" He threw the letter across the table.

"I wrote it, just to attract you."

"You wrote it? Nobody but our gang knows the dancer's secret. How did you write it?"

"Anyone who invents it will understand it," said Holmes. "A carriage will soon be here to take you to Norwich, Mr. Abe Slany. You still have time to make up for what you have done." Injury. Mrs. Cupid has been seriously suspected of murdering her husband, you know? Fortunately, I was here today, and I happened to have some material to keep her from being charged. If you love her, you should at least explain to the public: To her She has no direct or indirect responsibility for her husband's tragic death."

"That suits me," said the American, "and I believe that the best way to justify myself is to tell the whole truth."

"It is my duty to warn you that it may be against you, too," cried the Inspector, in the serious spirit of the fair play of English penal law.

Slaney shrugged.

"I'm willing to take the risk," he said, "but I'll start by telling you gentlemen that I've known Elsie since she was a child. There were seven of us in a gang in Chicago, and Elsie Sissy's father, old Patrick, was our leader, and he was a very clever man who invented this secret script. Unless you know how to solve it, it will be regarded as a child's scribble. Later, Elsie found out She couldn't bear it in our business. She had some good money of her own, so she slipped off and fled to London when we weren't looking. She's engaged to me. If I It's a decent job, and I'm sure she's married to me long ago. She wouldn't have any shady job at all. I didn't know where she was until she married this Englishman. I wrote to her I wrote to her, but I didn’t get a reply. After that, I came to England. Since I couldn’t get a reply to my letter, I wrote what I wanted to say where she could see it.

(End of this chapter)