Sherlock Holmes.

Chapter 123 Uncanny Valley (1)
A criminal gang named "Blood Sucking Sect" who did many crimes, was vicious, cruel, and devoid of conscience was wiped out. The detective who once entered the enemy's interior and worked as an undercover agent was desperately hunted down by demons...

strange password
I said I……"

No sooner had I said "I" than Holmes went on: "What shall I do?"

I thought I was good at controlling my emotions, but he interrupted me like this, which made me very uncomfortable.So I said:

"Holmes, tell the truth! What you say is hard for me, don't you think?"

He didn't seem to hear what I was saying at all, but frowned and fell silent.He ignored the breakfast in front of him, but rested his chin on his hands and stared intently at an envelope.Then he took out the letter and looked at it under the lamp, noting the face and opening of the envelope intently.After a while, he said to himself: "This looks like Pollock's handwriting." After thinking for a while, he said: "When Pollock wrote the Greek letter ε, it is usually cursive, although I have only seen two. I've seen his handwriting once, but I'm so impressed with the quality that it's really Pollock's. He'll probably come to us on business."

He was talking to himself, not to me, which, nevertheless, aroused my great interest, and at the same time relieved my anger.

I asked, "Who is Pollock?"

"Dear Watson, why are you so naive! A name is just a code name for a person. In other words, Pollock is a false code name, not his real name. However, behind this false code name must be a cunning character. This person is really incomprehensible. But it is very attractive to us. He has already explained clearly in the last letter that this is his pseudonym. He also told me that it is better to find him than to count the cattle It’s hard to be a ox. In fact, he himself is nothing, and there is a big man behind him to support him. Just like a small goldfish and a big shark, a wolf and a fierce lion, it is unimaginable when they unite. This big man not only Fierce and cunning, downright menacing. Do you know Professor Moriarty?"

"You mean that scheming criminal! Among the thieves..."

"Yes!" Holmes' preemption made me unhappy again.

"Is he as quiet as a lamb among thieves?" I finished my sentence angrily.

"Watson, you are too clever and good at using your brain. I didn't expect this. Moriarty is indeed a big man. You can say that he is their boss. He is cunning and cunning. He is the one who directed and planned crimes again and again. , poses a great threat to the country. We dare not alert him easily. You called him a criminal just now, which is your fault. Aren’t you afraid that he will sue you? There are no loopholes. Therefore, ordinary people will not suspect him, let alone point out any flaws in him. He is always silent, does not boast, and disguises himself perfectly. He has a gentlemanly demeanor, especially like a cultured person. I am afraid that you are the only one who dares to speak ill of him, and others dare not, because there is almost no evidence of his guilt. Watson, have you read "Asteroid Mechanics"? This book is written by Moriarty, quite He is popular with everyone. If he is insulted, even the public will look down on him, and if he doesn't do it well, he will blame you instead. But, Watson, please don't worry. One day, I will make his crimes fully revealed."

After saying this, Holmes pretended to be relaxed, and stared at me with burning eyes.

I nodded and said, "I believe you, but there is still..."

"Yes. At present, the only way is to follow the vine. The most important thing we need to do now is to catch the vine of Pollock. With this vine, it will be easy. Moriarty will definitely be caught."

"Yes, as long as these vines and melons haven't fallen, the problem will definitely come to light."

"Very good. We are going to bite this vine like a mosquito. From my previous experience, Pollock is indeed an important person. He has not been influenced by others. His character has always been so kind. I Sneaked a ten pound note to him. He lived up to my hopes, and on a few occasions he gave me important information in advance, which was vital, sometimes the crux of a case. Now What I need most is the code book. Once we have it, we will find that Pollock has provided us with particularly valuable information.

Holmes unfolded the letter.When I looked at these words, I didn't have the slightest idea. What's the use of this?Above are some letters and numbers.

534C21312736314172141
DOUGLAS109293537BIRLSTONE
26BIRLSTONE947171
I asked, "What does this mean?"

"These letters and numbers must express a message."

"But how can we know what it means? We can't decipher it at all now."

"Yes! Without the codebook, this pile of words is meaningless."

"You've always been the smartest, why are you so unconfident now?"

Holmes smiled and said:
"It's not like a bulletin board in a newspaper. It's some code now. If I have a code book, what is it? And these codes are very different from the previous codes. Judging from these words, it must refer to some Some vocabulary from a certain page of this book. But I don't know which book it is, so I can't get to it."

I quickly raised my doubts: "Why are there two words BIRLSTONE and DOUGLAS?"

"It's very simple, there must be no two words on that page of that book."

"It's really inexplicable, why didn't he tell us the title of the book?"

"Watson, use your brains, this little question is not going to bother you. If it were you, would you put the cipher letter together with the cipherbook used to decipher it? What if there is a misposting? That's not it." Is everything exposed? Trust me! We will receive the cipherbooks in the next few letters. By then, I will be able to crack the ciphers.

Everything seemed to be arranged by him. While talking, the servant brought in a letter.

Holmes couldn't wait to open the envelope, and quickly unfolded the letter. He said excitedly:
"My dear Watson, it is he who has come. Here is his name, and there is at last some progress."

His smile froze suddenly on his face, and then he said very despondently:

"Things are not as good as we thought. On the contrary, it makes people worry that things are not good. I'm afraid Pollock is going to be in trouble."

I hastily read the letter.

Mr Holmes:

I don't want to do this kind of thing anymore.It is estimated that trouble will land on me, and he has already doubted me.When I was writing the letter, just when I wrote the address and was about to tell you the source of the password, he suddenly appeared in front of me. Fortunately, I put the letter away in time, otherwise, everything would be over.He obviously began to doubt me, and I was a little scared.Then the note from last time is useless, you should burn it!

Vlad Pollock

Holmes read the letter again and again several times. He laid one foot on the ground in a leisurely rhythm, obviously relaxed, and said:

"Perhaps the matter is not so serious. It may be that Pollock has a guilty conscience, which made him feel this way. If you want to do something risky, you will definitely be a little nervous."

"The "he" in the letter refers to Professor Moriarty, right?"

"Yes, there is no one in their group who doesn't know him. He is their boss."

I asked, "What means does he have that he can command so many people?"

"Your question is very interesting. Imagine a person who has super accurate judgments about the future and is very cunning, plus he is so influential on the entire continent. The power of this kind of power is beyond our estimation. This kind of person He can do anything. Is it possible to be careless when making friends with this kind of person? No wonder Pollock is afraid of him.

"From the handwriting on the envelope and the contents, it can be seen that the words on the envelope are much better than those in the letter, and they were all written before he came.

I asked, "Then why would he take such a risk? Wouldn't it be better not to write?"

"No, you're wrong again. We don't understand the situation. If we go directly to him for the code book, he will be more dangerous."

I nodded: "Yes, you are right. However, this password note is of no use to us."

Holmes did not interrupt me, but leaned back on the chair with his legs crossed, and turned his eyes to the ceiling.A puff of light smoke curled up from the burning pipe in his hand into the air.After a while, he spoke again.

"My dear Watson, let us keep our minds active! Let us filter the matter from beginning to end, and perhaps find something useful. First, let us venture to imagine that the cipherbook we crave is actually a Books, this is the starting point of our thinking, what do you think?"

"Isn't this a bit mysterious?"

"I said that it is a book, of course there is a basis. You think this is a bit mysterious, because you haven't understood it yet. Why don't you turn your brain around? Don't you see it at all?"

"Honestly, yes, I was just about to hear your opinion!"

Holmes patted me on the shoulder and said, "Very well! Let us come together!"

"Pay attention to the beginning of this password. '534', this may refer to page 534 of a book, which should start with a large book. What do you think 'C2' refers to? Don't be timid, Stretch your imagination as far as you can, say what it is, and see if we have hope."

"If it is indeed a book, I think C2 should refer to Chapter 2!"

"Okay, I finally used your ingenuity, but there is another possibility. My reasoning is, since I have mentioned how many pages, do I need to say which chapter it is? Besides, page 534 is Chapter 2 , then what kind of book is this book, so thick? Do you agree with me, Watson?"

"Let me think about what C2 refers to? Does that mean the second column?"

"Yes, I think so too. I don't think there is any other meaning. First of all, this is a thick book, and each page is divided into two columns. If you look at the number 293, it shows the capacity of each column. It is also quite considerable. Haha, Watson, let us try! We may still find something." Holmes stretched his tense face.

I asked suspiciously: "Could we still have new discoveries?"

"I'm sure it's one of our common books, and if it had been rare and Pollock knew we didn't have it, Pollock would have given it to us. He didn't, so Pollock would have given it to us. Erlock thinks we have the book, all he has to do is tell us the title, and now our problem is in that thick book."

"You're making more and more sense. From some ciphers to a thick book, this is a great progress. Now there are some clues. I don't think this is the "Bible" that everyone has?"

"You have a point in your wonderful opinion, but I think I'm a little better than you, and when you hear me out, you may not think I'm flattering myself. What I'm saying is, the book of the Bible There are too many versions of the book, and the layout of different versions is not the same. Isn't this a big trouble? Besides, Moriarty and his gang don't use the book "Bible". In short, the book Pollock refers to There must be a unified version, so as not to cause trouble."

"There are too few such books."

"That's where our hope lies, we should be able to find the book in a small area and I'm sure it won't be long before we get it."

"Could it be Bernard Shaw?"

"Perhaps it is not possible. In my impression, George Bernard Shaw's works have a concise style of writing and a small vocabulary. If we look for some words that express a certain meaning from his works, I am afraid that we will not be able to do so, just like we read from a It is just as impossible to find words to express a sentence or a paragraph by looking for a page of a dictionary. A small vocabulary is not what we are looking for."

"Haha! If I'm not wrong this time, it's the yearbook!" I didn't give up because of Holmes' negations again and again, I put forward my point of view again.

"My dear Watson, at last your contemplations have come to fruition, and your views are perfectly in line with mine. Let us turn our minds to the Whitaker Almanac! Nothing suits us so well. Its The number of pages meets the requirements, and each page is divided into two columns. Its characteristics range from few to most, from simple to complex, and up to 534 pages, the vocabulary is enough to be used as a codebook."

As Holmes spoke, he went to the bookshelf, picked up the "Whitaker's Almanac", put it on the table, and opened it quickly.

"Watson, let us turn the book to page 534."

I quickly sat down beside him.

"Quickly, Watson, here's page 534. Let's read the second column. It's about the resources and trade exchanges governing India. I hope it's useful to us, Watson, and record these words for me: The 13th word is Maratha, which seems to have nothing to do with what we need. The 127th is the government. , my dear Watson, I guess we have made a mistake in our judgment."

As he spoke, Holmes expressed disappointment, as he would have done to anyone.

I wanted to comfort him a few words, but I didn't know what to say for a while.

The red fire reflected his face, and judging from his eyes, he did not give up on this matter, and his brain was still fighting fiercely.

"Why am I so confused?" His loud voice broke the silence just now.

I saw him rushing towards the bookshelf, flipping through the bookshelf skillfully with his hands, and took out a book from it.I took a closer look, and it turned out to be another yearbook.

"We have changed our minds a little bit. Even the yearbook chooses the new version, so we will not find the answer. The outdated things are what we need, that is to say, this old version is the real key to deciphering the Pollock code. "

He didn't bother to wipe the dust off the book, so he hurriedly flipped through it, muttering incessantly:

"I hope we can succeed this time. Look at page 534, the second column, the 13th word, wow, it is exactly there, which is quite consistent with our needs, the 127th word is is, great! Isn't this just thereis, Just what I want."

Holmes was so happy that he could not close his mouth from ear to ear, his eyes were fixed on the almanac, and he looked very excited.

"Danger! may! come! very! soon! one! Put these words together and there is danger may come every soon one! Douglas - Douglas is a name. Look at richcountrynowatBirlstoneHouseBirlstoneconfidenceispressing - indeed, one of Birlstone House in Birlstone Village now A rich gentleman, Douglas, is in great danger. Ah, Watson, I have succeeded; congratulate me! My Watson, do you think I really deserve a medal?"

I wrote the translated sentence on a piece of paper and handed it to him. He read it over and over several times and said:
"It's a real embarrassment to Pollock, he's done a good job."

"Although the sentences formed are not so fluent, the meaning is still clearly expressed, and let us know an important news."

"It is indeed difficult to find the words to express all his meaning in a page of an almanac. He must have expressed it somewhat briefly. Now let us add for him, that is, a gentleman named Douglas is about to be plotted by others. , the situation is urgent. We'd better have Sergeant Macdonald come."

A look of ecstasy appeared on Holmes' face as he spoke.

Macdonald is a relatively good police officer, he is shrewd and efficient.He has solved several important cases, and people still value him very much.Holmes had helped him, and he trusted Holmes.Moreover, Holmes has never asked for any payment for helping him, which made him have a special kindness towards Holmes.When he was in trouble, he often asked Holmes for advice.Although Holmes doesn't like to make friends very much, he is still responsive to Macdonald.He particularly admired the efficiency of the officer.

After a while the servants called MacDonald, and when he came in, he smiled at us. He was very strong and looked very intelligent. He greeted Holmes in the Aberdeen dialect:

"Hello, is everything going well lately?"

"Very well, we have been waiting for you," replied Holmes.

"Really? I think I can't close the case without your help this time. I just received a case. In order to obtain first-hand information, I have to go to the scene. You should understand me. My time today Very tight, hope..."

Macdonald stopped suddenly. It turned out that he found the password note and shouted:

"Birlstone, Douglas, Mr. Holmes, how you have this! I don't understand."

"Mr. Police Officer, you also know this person? These are the two names in a coded letter we received."

We looked at each other.MacDonald spoke.

"Douglas of Birlstone Manor was killed this morning!" Looking for clues

What he said made me lose consciousness all of a sudden, I didn't feel anything for a while, and I still couldn't believe it was true for a long time.

I looked at Holmes, who seemed even more strange to me.He hardly moved, very calm, with no expression on his face, which is really unpredictable.What is he thinking now?I clearly felt his beating heart and the thousands of assumptions going on in his brain.He was used to this kind of thing. It wasn't dullness, but calmness and contemplation.

Holmes knocked off the ashes, turned to Macdonald and said:
(End of this chapter)