Sherlock Holmes.

Chapter 12 Four Signatures Revealed (1)
The disappearance of the captain, the death of the major, and the tragic experiences in the life of the four people who signed the treasure map are all due to a mysterious Arabian treasure.What is the truth?Holmes solved the secret through detective reasoning.

magical inference

Sherlock Holmes produced a vial of liquid medicine from the edge of the mantelpiece, and a syringe from a leather case.Although his fingers were pale and slender, they were strong.He secured the needle with his fingers and rolled up the left cuff of his shirt.Quietly, he stared at his arm, muscular but riddled with needles.After a while, he finally stuck the needle into his arm, pushed in the medicine, and then lay down in the easy chair, with a very satisfied look, and took a long breath.

He had to do this injection three times a day.After a few months, I got used to it.Slowly, the situation became more and more irritating to me, but I didn't have enough guts to stop him.Whenever I think about it late at night, I feel uncomfortable.Several times I wanted to tell him what was in my heart, but his eccentric temper would not take other people's opinions easily, and that was really difficult.His strong-willed and self-righteous attitude and the eccentricity I saw and felt when we got along with him often frightened me to avoid making him unhappy.

One afternoon, however, I felt compelled to warn him, perhaps because I had been drinking with dinner, or perhaps his attitude had irritated me.

"Was it cocaine or morphine today?" I asked him.

He was about to read the broken book, when he heard my words, he raised his head limply and said, "Cocaine is seven percent, do you want to try it?"

I replied bluntly: "I won't try. Since I participated in the war in Afghanistan, my physique has not fully recovered. I don't want it to hurt me again."

He ignored my anger and said with a smile: "Maybe you are right, Watson. It is harmful to the body, I know, but there is a gain in every loss. It can enhance people's excitement and clear the brain." , so its side effects can only be ignored.”

I sincerely said: "You should think carefully about its stakes. As you said, maybe your brain will be excited due to the stimulation of drugs, but it will also damage your brain, aggravate the deterioration of organs and tissues, and make it more serious." The most important thing is that it can weaken the brain for a long time. You also know that its side effects on the body are not worth the candle. Why persecute your super energy for a moment of pleasure? These words, I am not only a friend, but also a As a doctor, I told you that I am responsible for your health."

My words did not offend him; on the contrary, he put his arms on the arm of his chair, fingers together, and made a gesture of interest in what I said.

"I have a restless personality, and whenever I have nothing to do, I am a little impetuous. People provide me with problems and tasks, ask me to decipher esoteric codes, or ask me to do the most complicated analysis work, then I will I feel the most comfortable.” He said, “What I do is not an ordinary job—or I was the one who started this career, and no one does this kind of job anymore—I hate the ordinary life, and I always want to Keep yourself motivated all the time."

I looked up and asked, "The only private eye?"

"Unique! I am the supreme judge among detectives! When Ethelney Jones or Grayson or Lethred are in trouble--as they often are--they turn to me. As this I often review materials for them and express my opinion. After solving the case, Sherlock Holmes' name will not appear in the newspapers. I have never taken credit for it. I just want to make the joy of solving the case become Pay for working for me. Do you remember the Jefferson Hope case? Wasn't it the case where I brought you experience in my own way?"

"Of course, I remember it clearly. This is the first time I have encountered such a strange case in my life. I named it "The Tracking of Scarlet Words", and I have already written the story into a booklet."

"I've briefly read that booklet, but I really don't like it." He shook his head dissatisfied, "You know what? Detective science—maybe it should be a very precise subject, and people who study it should use very calm The brain should not be emotional. When you write a novel, you have actually added an artistic color to it. It is like mixing a love story with abstract geometry."

I disagreed with his statement, and immediately retorted: "That's the fact, and it's very close to the plot of the novel."

"Don't write down everything like keeping an account. You can omit some things and describe some things in detail so that the key points can be highlighted. The most worth mentioning about this case is how I found out the cause of the case from the scene and how I went through strict and cautious procedures. The analysis and judgment finally solved the case."

I was very depressed. I originally wrote the booklet to make him happy, but unexpectedly I received a series of criticisms from him.His ego irritated me, and he seemed to be asking that I be allowed to write completely about him alone throughout the book.During the few years that I shared a house with him in Baker Street, I repeatedly noticed that when he was silent or preaching to others, there was always a little arrogance, consciously or unconsciously.But it's useless to talk, I just started to massage my injured leg.After treatment, the leg shot in Afghanistan can no longer hinder walking, but whenever the weather changes, it hurts like hell.

After a while, Holmes filled the pipe with tobacco, and said slowly: "Now my business has expanded to the whole of Europe. A man named François Le Vial came to ask me last week. Perhaps You know a thing or two about him. Now this man is beginning to make his mark in the French detective world. He has the Celtic sensibility but lacks the depth of knowledge which he needs to improve his ability to solve crimes. He Here is an interesting case about wills. I referred him to the Riga case in 1857 and the St. Louis case in 1871. These two cases cleared his fog, and you see, this is Received his thank you letter," he said, throwing me a crumpled letter.I looked at it, and there were some compliments such as "great", "superb means" and "powerful measures" in the letter, in order to express the French detective's praise and respect.

"It's like an elementary school student talking to a teacher."

"He thinks too highly of my help, and his talent should not be underestimated. He has what is necessary for a perfect detective, careful observation and correct judgment, but he lacks profound knowledge. Of course, this can be found in He will make up for it in his future work. Now he plans to translate some of my articles into French."

"your works?"

"Don't you know? Ashamed, I wrote several technical papers, do you remember? One was on the identification of various types of soot, and in that article I listed 140 kinds of cigarettes, pipe tobacco and cigars. soot, and illustrate the difference. Soot is often used as evidence in criminal trials, and sometimes it is the most important clue in the entire case. Think carefully about the case of Jefferson Hope, and you will understand the importance of distinguishing soot to solve the case How helpful it is. For example, if you can distinguish between soot, you can determine the type of soot that the murderer smoked in a case, which can narrow the scope of your investigation. In the eyes of experienced people, identifying 'bird's eye' smoke The white ash of a cigar is as easy to distinguish as a cabbage from the black ash of an Indian cigar."

I said, "You do have a remarkable talent for seeing small things."

"I did realize the importance of observing the subtleties in a case. This is also my paper, on the tracking of footprints, which mentions the method of preserving footprints with slaked lime. It also mentions that occupation can affect the shape of a person's hands, And with illustrations of several workers' hands. Details like this can be useful when you have a case where you need to determine the identity of a criminal or an unnamed body, which means a lot to a detective. Yeah, I'm just saying my detective learned , do you feel bored?"

I said sincerely: "No, not at all, but I find it very interesting. I have witnessed you use these methods to solve the case. Therefore, I think the observation and judgment you just mentioned are mutually exclusive under certain conditions. Associated."

He leaned back comfortably in his chair, exhaled a puff of thick smoke, and said, "It's not relevant. For example: After observing you, I know that you went to the Wigmore Street Post Office this morning. But after deduction, I I know you sent a telegram."

"Yes, that's right. But it's strange. I just decided this morning and no one told me. How did you know?" I asked him in surprise.

Seeing the effect of his words, he smiled smugly: "This is so simple that no explanation is needed, but in order to distinguish the scope of observation and judgment, it is okay to explain. There is a small piece of red mud on your shoe, and The road is being repaired on the opposite side of Wigmore Street, and the dug out red mud is piled up on the sidewalk, and it is only possible to step on the red mud when you go there. At the same time, according to my understanding, it is a special kind of red, and it is difficult to Find the clay of the same color as it. This too is by observation. The rest is by deduction."

"Then how do you know I sent a telegram?"

"I sat across from you all morning and didn't see you write. You have a bundle of postcards and a large sheet of stamps on your desk, so it can be deduced that you must be going to the post office to send a telegram and nothing else. .”

I thought for a while and said, "That's true. According to what you said, it's really simple. Then let me test you. Don't you think I'm reckless?"

"Of course not. I'm very welcome, and that will take the place of another shot of cocaine. I'm willing to study any questions you may ask," said Holmes.

"I've often heard you say that each object will have some characteristics of its owner on it, which can be easily recognized by people who have been trained in this field. I just got an old watch. See if you can find other features on this watch. Where is the shadow of the old master?"

I handed him the watch and couldn't help but chuckle secretly.In my opinion, he can't find it, even if it is a lesson for him to speak too dogmatically.Holding the watch in his hand, he observed it carefully, first looking at the dial, then opening the cover, and began to study it meticulously.First with the naked eye, and later with a high power magnifying glass.At the end, seeing his frustrated expression, I almost laughed out loud.

Finally, he covered the watch and returned it to me. "The watch has just had the grease wiped, the main marks have been wiped off, nothing seems to be found," he said.

"Yes, the watch did get smudged before it got to me." Using the smeared as an excuse to cover up his failure, I am very disapproving.Even if he hadn't wiped it, he couldn't find much more from here.

He looked at the ceiling with half-closed eyes and said: "There are not many traces, but you can still see it. Let me tell you first, listen to whether it is accurate. I think this watch was passed down from your father to your elder brother, and then passed down by him." your."

"Exactly. Did you know that from the initials HW engraved on the back of the watch?"

"Yes, W stands for your surname. The characters on the watch are similar to the time when the watch was made. It was made about 50 years ago, so it should be left to you by the previous generation. It is customary for relics such as jewelry to be handed down. To the eldest son, and the eldest son often used his father's name. I remember that your father died many years ago, so I deduce that this watch belongs to your brother."

"Yes, that's all right. What else do you know?"

"Your brother is not very restrained. At first he was promising, but he lost a lot of opportunities, so he lived in poverty, and occasionally the situation was better. In the end he died of alcoholism, which is what I see from this watch. out."

I said rather angrily: "It is your fault, Holmes, that you rely on your knowledge of my brother's misfortunes to presuppose your inferences. No one would believe that you obtained the information from the old watch." You came to this. To put it bluntly, these words of yours are all false. "

"Dear doctor, please forgive me, I promise I didn't investigate your brother, I didn't even know you had a brother until you gave me this watch. I only stated these facts according to reasoning, but please forgive me. Forget that this is a very painful thing for you," he said kindly.

I said in amazement: "But this is completely consistent with the facts. How can you be so godly? You can see so many facts from the old watch."

"I just got lucky and got some of the situations right and didn't expect to be that accurate."

"That's not what you guessed?"

"Yes, I never resort to conjecture. That's very bad and often harmful to logical reasoning. It seems incredible to you because you don't understand my way of thinking about problems, and you don't believe that small problems that you observe can lead to big problems For example, I said there's a reason why your brother can't restrain himself, lo and behold, there are two dents on the underside of the watch, and a lot of bump marks elsewhere, and it's only when it's placed with something hard That’s why. People who are careful in life will not be so careless about a watch worth more than 50 pounds. A watch costs more than 50 pounds. Do you think his inheritance will be small? Are you right?”

I just nodded in approval.

"According to the practice of pawn shops in London, after receiving a watch, they will engrave the number of the pawn ticket on the inside of the watch with a needle point, instead of hanging a sign on the watch, so as to avoid confusion or loss of the sign. I just opened the cover of the watch with Look at the magnifying glass, there are at least four sets of numbers like that in the watch. If your brother is not very poor, I believe he will never go to the pawn shop. Of course, his life will sometimes improve, otherwise how can he have money to redeem the watch? Finally If you look at the inner cover of the winding hole, there are countless scars on the side, which should be caused by the key poking. You can think about it, people with a clear mind will not insert it several times in a row. Drunk people do it. Watches need to be wound at night, but drunk people's hands are always shaking, so there will be marks on the watch, it's as simple as that.”

I replied: "One word awakened the dreamer. I'm really sorry just now. I should definitely believe that you are a genius in solving crimes. So do you have a case now?"

"Creating artificial stimulation is because there are no cases. It's too painful for the brain to be idle every day. How can I survive? Please come to the window. Have you ever seen such a boring and miserable world? Look, those yellow fogs are rubbing against the street. The gray house is rolling in, and it's so boring. Think, doctor, how hard it is to have so much energy that you can't use it. Crime is commonplace, and life is as usual. What are these ordinary things?" He sighed.I was about to comfort him when there was a sudden knock on the door.The landlady came in with a tray with a business card on it.

"A young lady wishes to see you," she said to Holmes.

"Miss Merry Morstan. This name is too unfamiliar, let her in, Mrs. Hudson. Doctor, I hope you can stay here too." Mysterious Disappearance
Miss Morstan entered.She has a light body, a steady walk, a calm demeanor, light-colored hair, and clothes that suit her temperament very well, and the gloves match the color of the clothes very well.She was dressed in dark brown woolen clothes without any modification, and she wore a hat of the same color on her head, with a white feather stuck on the side.Simple clothing shows that her life may not be very rich.This young lady is not pretty, but she looks very gentle and lovely, with a pair of big blue eyes that look very energetic.I have traveled to dozens of countries on three continents, and I have never seen such an elegant lady like her.After sitting down, she began to look a little nervous and restless, her lips and hands trembling slightly.

"Mr. Holmes, you have settled a family dispute for Mrs. Heather Forrester. For that, I admire you so much that I have come to you today."

"Mrs. Heather Forrest, I remember the case as too simple to be worth mentioning."

"She's not what you think. At least, you won't say that my case is simple. There is nothing more incomprehensible than this."

Holmes rubbed his hands together with bright eyes.He leaned forward slightly, his face expressed concentration and interest.He said solemnly: "Tell me about the case."

I felt like I was inconvenient here, so I stood up and said, "Excuse me, I'm sorry."

But the young girl stopped me with her hand and said, "Maybe I need your help, just sit down for a while."

So I sat down again.

She went on to say: "The thing is roughly like this. My father is an officer stationed in India, my mother has passed away long ago, and I have no other relatives in the country. I was sent back to England when I was very young, and I was sent to a school in Edinburgh. Good school and boarding, did not leave there until the age of 17. My father was the oldest captain in his regiment, and in 1878 he took a year's leave home. Safely back in London, he gave I sent a telegram to see him at Langham immediately. His message was full of kindness, and I hurried to see him as soon as I got to London. But the people at the Langham Hotel said that there was indeed a Morgan Captain Stein, but he went out two days ago and has not come back. I waited for a day, but there was still no news. At night, I accepted the advice of the hotel manager and reported the case to the police station, and later in various newspapers A missing person notice was posted on the Internet, but there is still no news. Back in the motherland, he could have enjoyed a happy life, but who knows..."

She pressed her throat, tears streaming down her face before she finished speaking.

"Do you remember when you disappeared?" Holmes asked her, opening his book.

"December 1878, 12, almost ten years ago."

"Where's your father's luggage?"

"At the hotel. There are only books and clothes, and a few curios brought back from Andaman, but there is no clue to be found in those things. He used to be an officer in charge of supervising prisoners in the Andaman Islands."

"Has your father had any friends in London?"

"I know Major Sholto, No. 30, [-]th Regiment, Bombay Army, who was in the same regiment as my father. He lived in Upper Norwood after his discharge the other day. Didn't know my father was back."

"That is curious," said Holmes.

(End of this chapter)