Sherlock Holmes.

Chapter 35 Adventure History (13)
"'They can do what they want, and it won't be so easy to beat me,' he swore. 'Let Mary light up the fire in my room today, and send for the Ford of Horsham. Attorney Tom please!'

"I did as he said. When the lawyer came, he called me into his room, where a fire was burning brightly in the fireplace, and there was a heap of burnt black paper ashes in it. The little brass box was left open. Putting it aside, there was nothing inside. I looked at the box and was very surprised. The three K letters I saw on the envelope were clearly printed on the lid.

"'John,' said my uncle, 'I wish you to be a witness to my will. I will leave all my estate, good and bad, to your father, my brother. From him you will inherit in the future Yes. It's best if you can get it right. But if it doesn't work out, it's best to leave it to your enemies. I'm sorry to leave you with a double meaning, but neither do I. Determine how things will play out. You sign your name now where Attorney Fordham points to.'

"I signed my name at the place designated by the lawyer, and then the lawyer took away the will. You should be able to imagine the psychological pressure this incident caused me. I can't figure out the mystery , but there is no way to get rid of the fear caused by this incident. Although this feeling will fade as time goes by, and our life has not been affected in any way. But I still find that after this, my uncle Behavior is very different from before, he drinks more heavily than before, and locks himself in his room most of the time, and he doesn't like to go to social places even less. Sometimes, he seems crazy again, taking He ran rampant inside and outside the house with a revolver, yelling, saying that he was not afraid of anyone, and that no one, whether it was a man or a ghost, could imprison him like a sheep. After the madness, he hurried Hiding inside, bolting and locking the lock, as if he was too terrified to pretend to be bluffing, and whenever this happened, even in the cold of winter, his face would be dripping with cold sweat, as if he had just come out of a basin of water. come out.

"Oh, I can't go on trying your patience, Mr. Holmes, but let me tell you about the ending. One night, he got drunk again, ran out suddenly, and never came back. We are at the end of the garden, a glowing He was found face down in a pit of green sewage. The water in the pit was no more than two feet deep, and no trace of violence was found. From his usual erratic behavior, the jury concluded that he committed suicide. But I know he has been He was quite a death-defying man, and didn't quite believe that he would kill himself. Even so, it was over. My father inherited his entire estate, including land and a bank account of about fourteen thousand pounds."

"Wait a moment, this is another strange case I have heard. Please give me the date of your uncle's receipt of the letter and the date of the alleged suicide."

“他在1883年3月10日收到信，死在七周后的5月2日。”

"Thank you, please continue."

"When my father took over the house in Horsham, I advised him to take a good look at the attic which had been locked for many years. There we found the brass box, its contents destroyed, with a A paper label with the three capital letters KKK written on it, and the words 'Letter, Receipt, Memorandum, and a Record' below it. We think that the nature of the documents destroyed by Colonel Openshaw can be deduced from these words. Attic Nothing in the book is important except for a few scattered papers and notebooks recording my uncle's life in America. Some of these scattered papers record the situation of the war and his deeds as a heroic soldier, and the other is the rebuilding of the South after the war. Some texts related to politics at the time. At that time, my uncle was obviously participating in the struggle against those politicians from the North.

"My father moved to Horsham at the beginning of 1884, and all went well until January 1885. We were at breakfast on the fourth day after New Year's Day when we heard my father scream, I saw him holding a freshly opened envelope, and in the other hand were five dry and small orange pits. Usually, when I mentioned the adventures of my uncle, he always thought it was ridiculous, but today he also encountered the same thing. My father was terrified, pale and dazed. 'My God, John, what's going on?' he stammered.

"My heart is heavy as lead. 'This is the KKK,' I replied.

"He looked at the inner layer of the envelope and exclaimed: "Yes, these are these letters. Is there anything else written in it?" "

"'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, standing behind my father.

"'What paper? What sundial?' he asked again.

"'Supposed to be the sundial in the garden, but not elsewhere,' said I. 'The papers must refer to those that were destroyed.'

"Bah! This is a civilized country, and lawlessness is not allowed!" he ventured. "Where did this thing come from?"

"I looked at the postmark and said, 'From Dundee, Scotland.'

"'It's a ridiculous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I got to do with papers and sundials! I don't mind such nonsense.'

"I said: 'We should call the police.'

"'To call the police? Ridiculous! I will never call the police.'

"'Then let me report.'

"'No, you are not allowed to go, and it will be a joke.'

"He was a very stubborn man, and it would be futile to argue with him, so I walked away, but I was very disturbed, and always felt that something bad was coming.

"On the third day after the letter my father went to see his old friend, Major Freebody, who was in command of a fort on Mount Putzstein. I was delighted by his visit, for I felt that he Leaving home will keep you safe from danger. But I was wrong. The day after he went out, the major sent me a telegram telling me to go immediately. My father fell into a deep chalk mine, and there are many such He lay unconscious in it, with his skull shattered, and was dead when I arrived. Evidently he had returned from Fairham before evening, as he was unfamiliar with the country roads and the chalk pits had no guardrail, so slipped and fell in. The coroner quickly ruled 'death by accident'. I carefully checked all the details that may have been connected to his death, but found nothing to support murderous intent. There were no footprints or violence at the scene There is no sign of robbery, and there is no record of strangers. But even if I don’t tell you, you can understand that my mood is very difficult to calm down. I am sure that someone is plotting some kind of conspiracy around him.

"I inherited property under the circumstances. You may ask me why I didn't sell it, and the answer is that I am convinced that some accidental event during my uncle's life determined our disaster today. Therefore, no matter where you live Houses, disasters threaten us.

"It has been two years and eight months since my father's misfortune happened in January 1885. During this time, I have lived in Horsham in a relatively peaceful way. I even have such luck that the disaster has already passed. Far away from my home, it was buried with my previous generation. Unexpectedly, this kind of self-comfort came earlier. Yesterday morning, disaster struck again, and the situation was exactly the same as what my father encountered back then."

The young man went to the table, took out a crumpled letter, and poured out five dried orange pits from it.

"This is the envelope," he went on, "postmarked East End of London. It still has the words KKK in it, the same as the one my father received, and 'Keep the document on the sundial'."

"Have you taken any measures?" asked Holmes.

"No."

"No?!"

"To be honest, I don't think there's anything I can do." He lowered his head and covered his face with his thin and pale hands, "I think I'm like a poor rabbit who has encountered a poisonous snake, and seems to have fallen into an irresistible, extremely cruel In the claws of the devil. The claws are hard to guard against."

"Sir," said Holmes, "you must do something, or it will be very dangerous. You must not moan now, but you must pull yourself together, or nothing can save you."

"I went to the police."

"what!"

"But after hearing me say it, they just laughed. I think they got into the mindset that the letters were a hoax, like the coroner said, the deaths of both of my relatives were accidents, so there was no Necessary to be associated with those precursors."

"Insanely stupid!" cried Holmes, shaking his fists.

"But they sent a policeman to stay with me in that house."

"Did he come out with you tonight?"

"No, they asked him to stay inside."

Holmes once again shook his fist angrily.

He roared: "Then why did you come to me again? More importantly, why didn't you come to me in the first place?"

"I don't know. Major Prinderkas sent me to you today when I mentioned my predicament."

"It has been two days since you received the letter. We should have acted before that. Besides what you just said, are there any other more useful details?"

"There is one," said John Openshaw, and he took a faded blue paper from his coat pocket and spread it out on the table.He said: "I remember that when my uncle burned the documents that day, I saw some small unburned documents in the ashes of the paper. The edge of the paper was this color. I picked up this on the floor of my uncle's room. Paper. I think it fell out of those papers, so it wasn't burned. There is no other clue on it except mentioning the orange pit. It may be a page from a private diary, in my uncle's handwriting .”

Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the paper.The edges are ragged, and it was indeed torn from some book, with the words "March 1869" written on it, and here are some inexplicable things:

Day [-]: Hudson arrives.Holding the same old politics.

Seven Days: Deliver the orange pits to Macaulay, Palamino, John Swain of St. Augustine.

Nine: Macaulay is cleared.

Ten Days: John Swain cleared.

[-]th: Visit Palamino, everything goes well.

"Thank you!" said Holmes, folding the paper and handing it back to the young man. "You can't delay for a minute now. We don't even have time to discuss the situation you said. You go home immediately and start taking action."

"What should I do?"

"Just one thing to do, and do it right away. You put the paper you showed us in that brass box you said, and put a note stating that all papers except this one are by you. Uncle burned it. After finishing this, immediately put the box on the sundial as the letter said, understand?"

"understood."

"You don't think about revenge, I think we can achieve it through the law. Now that they have laid a net, we must do something. But first remove the danger you are facing now, and secondly uncover the secrets and fight the criminal gangs. "

"Thank you," the young man got up and put on his raincoat. "I will do as you said. You gave me new life and hope."

"You have to hurry up and take care of yourself at the same time, because I feel that there is a very real danger threatening you. How do you go back?"

"Take the train back from Waterloo Station."

"It's not yet nine o'clock, and there are many people in the street, so I think you'll be all right. But be careful anyway."

"I have a gun with me."

"Great, I'll start your case tomorrow."

"Then I shall wait for you at Horsham?"

"No, the crux of the case lies in London, and I'm looking for clues in London."

"Then I'll call again in a day or two and tell you about the copper box and the papers, and I'll do as you say." Then he shook hands with us and said goodbye.The wind was still blowing outside the door, and the downpour kept beating on the windows.This strange story seemed to come with the storm—like a fallen leaf that was blown to us by the wind, and is now carried away by the ferocious tempest.Holmes sat still for a while, with his head thrown forward, and his eyes fixed for a moment on the glowing red flames in the fireplace.Then, he lit his pipe again, leaned against the chair, and began to watch the smoke rings rise to the ceiling one by one...

"I find this, Watson, the most puzzling of all the cases I have come across," said he.

"Maybe, except for that 'four-signature' case."

"Oh, yes, but it seems to me that this John Openshaw was in greater danger than Sholto was then."

"But do you have a clear idea of ​​what the danger is?" I asked.

"The nature is certain," he said.

"What the hell is that? Who the hell is the KKK? Why keep pestering this unfortunate family?"

Holmes closed his eyes, put his elbows on the armrest, put his fingers together and said: "An ideal reasoner can deduce from one aspect of the fact, all other aspects, and all the consequences arising from it. Just like the zoologist Cuvier An entire animal can be accurately described from a single bone. If an observer can fully grasp a certain link in a series of events, he may be able to correctly infer other links. Intuition alone is bound to fail. The reasoner, in order to achieve unmatched power of this kind, must be able to use all the facts he knows. It is not difficult to understand that all arts require knowledge. Even now With free education and encyclopedias, it is still difficult for us to know everything well, and it is not impossible for a man to learn everything that is useful to him. I have been trying, and I remember one time when you accurately Point out my limitations, when we first started dating."

"Yes," I replied, smiling. "That's an interesting list I made. I remember: Philosophy, Politics, and Science gave you zero marks; Botany is not sure; Geology, within fifty miles of London, is very good. deep; reasoning, very unique; anatomy, unsystematic; thriller literature and crime records, which should be unrivaled; violin musicians, fencing athletes, boxers, lawyers; self-poisoners of cocaine and cigarettes. These points are all I figured it out."

Holmes laughed when he heard the last item. "Well, as it has been said before," said he, "I will say it now: a man must store up in his mind what he may need; It can be kept in the library, ready to use when needed. For the case we are taking on tonight, we are going to gather all the materials together now. Please pass me the K-section of the American Encyclopedia on the shelf. Thank you! Let's examine the current situation and see what conclusions we can draw. Begin with this well-founded hypothesis—the reason for Colonel Openshaw's departure from the United States. A man of his age does not usually change his past and I don't think he would willingly give up the comforts of Florida for a lonely country life in England. But his love for the lonely country life in England may also suggest that he is afraid of someone something, but rejoicing in evading success. We may then assume that he was afraid of something and left America. As to what he was afraid of, we may infer from letters received by him and his heirs. You Notice the postmarks on those envelopes?"

"The first from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the third from London."

"A certain part of London to be exact, what can you deduce?"

"These places are seaports, so the writer may be on board."

"That's right. We have a clue. There is no doubt that the writer was probably on board at the time. Let us now consider the second point. In Pondicherry, seven weeks passed between the receipt of the threatening letter and the accident. , and only three or four days have passed since Dundee, what does this mean?"

"Because the former travels farther."

"However, letters have to travel a long way."

"I don't know that."

"We can at least presume that the man or party was in a sailing vessel, and that those strange-looking signals were sent by them before departure. You see, the signal from Dundee was followed by an accident. How fast! If they had come from Pondicherry by steamer, the letter would have arrived with them. But it turned out that it was seven weeks before it happened, so I think the letter came by steamer and the writer sailed here."

"Probably."

"Not only is it possible, it may be. You see now the urgency of the matter. That's why I called young Openshaw on alert. Disaster follows the end of the sender's journey, this time from London Come, so we can't lose time."

"My God! What on earth is this heinous killing?" I exclaimed.

"Openshaw's papers could mean life or death to those in the galleon. It's clear they were not alone, and one person couldn't have killed two people in a row without leaving a trace. And they could have been deceived in their killing methods. The eyes of so many coroners and juries. Therefore, there must be accomplices, and they are all courageous and resourceful people. No matter where the documents are hidden, they insist on getting them. I guess KKK is not the initials of a person's name, but It's the logo of a gang."

"What gang logo is that?"

Holmes leaned forward and asked me in a low voice, "Have you ever heard of the Ku Klux Klan?"

"Have not heard."

"Look here," said Holmes, opening the book on his lap, and read:

(End of this chapter)