Sherlock Holmes.

Chapter 61 The Legendary Hound (10)
"Barrymore, if it wasn't for your master, I wouldn't care about it at all. I'm here to help him. Please tell me quickly, why are you bothered?"

Barrymore twitched, as if regretting what he had just said.

He finally said, "Sir, what's bothering me is the queer things that have been going on these days."

Pointing to the swamp, he added: "Sir, I think a terrible conspiracy is brewing there! I hope Sir Henry will not stay here any longer."

"Why do you say there is a conspiracy here? Do you know the truth of something?"

"Don't you understand? What a terrible place this is. You can always hear strange noises at night, and that mysterious man in the swamp. What is he trying to do? What is he for? No one here is doing any good. If Sir Henry had a new servant, I would have left without saying a word."

"What else do you know about the mysterious figure in the swamp? Has Celdan found anything in his hiding place?"

"Seldan saw this man before, but he was so cunning that he thought it was a prison guard at first! But later he found out that the man was preparing his own plan. Seldan said that the man seemed to be from the upper class character, but I don’t know what this person wants to do.”

"Where does he live in the swamp?"

"It's in the ruins of primitive people."

"Then what does he eat from morning till night?"

"Seldan found out that there was a boy who brought him meals every day. Everything he sent was bought from Combe Tracey."

"Very well, let's consider this issue another day."

After Barrymore was gone, I went to the window and looked at the branches that were blowing about in the wind.A night like this was scary enough, but what about being alone in the swamp?What kind of hatred had given this man such determination and courage to lurk here?Does he still have some unreasonable thoughts?Looks like I'll have to check out those houses in the swamp.I swear I'll find out tomorrow.unexpected

The above is written with the aid of my diary at a time when strange things were developing one after another.As I neared the horrific end, the events of the ensuing days affected me simply too profoundly.Even with my eyes closed, I can recite it backwards.

When I learned of those two clues, one of them was that Mrs. Laura Lyons of Coombe Tracy had written to Sir Charles Baskerville and agreed to be at the place where he died. Meet time; another clue is the man hidden deep in the swamp, which can be found in the stone house on the side of the mountain.After mastering these two clues, if you still can't figure it out, I think there must be something wrong with your brain.

Sir Henry played cards with Dr. Mortimer till midnight yesterday, so I did not tell him about it.This morning I told him all I knew, and asked him if he would go with me.

As soon as he heard it, he wanted to go with me.Later, we both thought about it carefully and decided that it would be more appropriate for me to go alone.For the more solemn the form of the visit, the less we will learn.So I left Henry alone at home, and went to visit in my own car.

When I got to Coombe Tracy, I asked the groom to put the horses in order, and then went to question the lady.It wasn't too difficult to find her home, which was in a pretty good location.A maid came out and took me in without asking, and when I walked into the living room, a lady got up from her typewriter and bowed to me with a smile.When she found out that I was a stranger, she sat down uncharacteristically and asked me why I came here dismissively.

Mrs. Lyons was a pretty, generous lady with brown hair and a few faint freckles on her cheeks, but these freckles looked like ornaments on her face.I repeat, the first impression is that of admiration.But then she discovered her flaws. The vulgar expression on her face, her eyes were a little blunt, and she was fiddling with a gadget in her hand, all of which destroyed her flawless beauty.Of course, these are afterthoughts.I stood there bewildered, and the feeling of being left out was unbearable.Only then did I realize how difficult my task was.

I said, "I know your father."

A mocking expression appeared on her face.

She said: "My father? What have I to do with my father? I have nothing to do with him now. His friends would not have been my friends if it hadn't been for so many good people--Sir Childs and Staplet and so on. Me, I'm dead now. My father never thought of me as his daughter."

"I have come to ask you about Sir Childs."

All of this may have been too unexpected for her. After hearing what I said, her face turned pale with fright, and even the freckles became obvious.

"What can I do for you?" she asked.

She fiddled idly with the punctuation keys on the typewriter.

"do you know him?"

"I have already told you that I am especially grateful for his help to me. It can be said that I am alive today thanks to his help."

"Have you written with him?"

She looked up, an angry gleam in her eyes.

"Why do you ask me that question?" she asked sharply.

"It's because I'm afraid that the scandal will spread. It's better for me to ask here than to let the matter get out of hand."

She was silent, her face was still so ugly, and finally she said with reckless and challenging eyes: "Well, you can ask whatever you want."

"Have you written with Sir Charles, then?"

"I wrote him one or two letters, thanking him for his help."

"And when did you write the letter?"

"I can't remember that."

"Then have you met?"

"Yes, once or twice at Coombe Tracy. He's a good man who doesn't want to show himself."

"You rarely meet and correspond, so how does he know about you? What makes him care about you so much?"

She answered the question as if she had been prepared.

"Several well-meaning people here helped me when they learned of my situation. The first one who helped me was Mr. Staplet. Sir Childs was his neighbour, and it was through Staplet that he found out about me. something."

I knew that Childs had asked Staplet several times to help him with handouts, so it sounded like she was telling the truth.

I continued, "Have you ever asked to meet him?"

Her face turned red. "Sir, why do you ask me such a question?"

"Sorry, I have to ask that."

"Then I'll tell you, absolutely not."

"Didn't you ask him out the day he died?"

Immediately, her face turned ashen, and she seemed to be in great pain and said, "No."

These can be seen on her face even if she doesn't answer.

I said, "You are a gentleman, please burn this letter and wait for me at the gate at ten o'clock. Didn't you write these words?"

At the time, I thought she would be taken aback, but she managed to regain her composure.

She was short of breath, and said to herself: "Is there really a gentleman in the world?"

"No, please don't misunderstand him. He burned the letter, but sometimes something can be seen from the ashes. So you admit it now?"

"Yes, I wrote it, so what? Why should I be ashamed of it? I want more help from him, so I want to meet him."

"Then why did you ask him out at that time?"

"What's wrong with this time! Because he's going to London next day. For other reasons, I can only ask him at ten o'clock in the evening."

"Then why don't you meet him in his drawing room?"

"Think about it, is it appropriate for a lonely man and a widow to live together late at night?"

"Did anything happen when you arrived?"

"I didn't even go that day."

"really?"

"Yeah, I really didn't, I can swear to you. Because something happened to happen that day."

"Then what's the matter?"

"That's a private matter, I can't talk about it."

"You admitted that you asked him out that day, but you denied that you did."

"This is real."

When I asked her again, she refused to say anything.

Before I went away, I said to her: "Mrs. Lyons, I advise you to tell all you know, or you will be held seriously responsible. You are in a very dangerous situation. It seems that I have to ask for help." The police, and if you have no ghosts in your mind, why did you deny writing to Sir Childs that day?"

"Because I'm afraid that if this matter is not clear in the end, it will implicate me in a scandal instead."

"Then why did you ask Sir Charles to burn the letter?"

"If you read the contents of the letter, you will understand."

"How can I read the contents of the letter after burning it?"

"Didn't you say part of it?"

"Yes, but what I quoted was only the postscript. The letter is now recognizable as the postscript. Why did you let him burn the letter, I ask you?"

"I said it was a private matter, I can't say it."

"You must be afraid of being investigated by the police, right?"

"Well, I'll tell you now! You may know something about me. I was once in an unhappy marriage."

"I've heard about it."

“My husband was a big obstacle in my life. The law supported him and he forced me to live with him all the time. Later, he told me that if I gave him a sum of money, he would give me freedom, so I gave Cha Sir Olds wrote that letter. It was a lot of money, so I thought it would be better to have an interview with him."

"Then why didn't you go if you wanted all of this?"

"It was at this time that I got assistance from elsewhere again."

"Then why don't you explain all this to Sir Childs?"

"His death happened so suddenly, I haven't had time to write about it yet."

The woman's words were so flawless that I couldn't find any flaws.I just had to look into whether she had filed divorce proceedings against her husband when the tragedy happened.If she really went, she probably wouldn't dare to deny it.Because she must go there by carriage, in which case she could only return to her residence the next morning.That way, someone will always see it.

After much deliberation, I guess she was telling the truth, so I hurried back listlessly.But when I think of the woman's face and expression, I always feel that she has something important to say.Why does she look so flustered?And why does she always deny before admitting?Of course, the answers to these questions will definitely not be as simple as she explained to me.

It seems that there will not be much progress in investigating this clue, so we have to go to the swamp to see another clue!

But where should this start?I looked at the surrounding mountains, and there were so many remains of primitive people on them, and that person was only in one of them.I think the hope of finding out this clue is also very slim.Fortunately, I saw this man on that rock last time.I'll take this as a starting point, and gradually check out every nearby mountain until I find it.

If I do get him, I'll have to force him to reveal who he is and why he's following us?I would use my pistol to force him to speak if necessary.He escaped in Regent Street, but in this barren swamp, it is estimated that it will be difficult for him to escape from me again.No matter how long it takes to stay here, I'm going to catch him.Holmes had let him escape last time, and it would indeed be a great victory for me if he fell to my hands.

My investigations into this case had not been going very well, but luck has come, and it was Mr. Frankland, gray-haired and rosy-cheeked, who stood at the garden gate.

He called to me: "How do you do, Watson. Come in and sit down for a while."

After hearing his attitude towards his daughter, I really don't like him very much.I arranged for Persian and the carriage to go back first, got out of the car myself, wrote a note to Henry, saying that I would go back by myself after dinner, and then went into his house with Frankland.

He happily said to me: "Today is the happiest day in my life. I have closed two cases. I must let people here know what the power of the law is. There are people here who are not afraid of the law. I've verified that there is indeed a road that runs through old Midoton's garden center, which is less than 100 yards from his front door. What do you think of this? We really need to let these bastards know that civilians are not easy to bully ...the other thing is that I sealed a woods where Fernworthy used to picnic. These lawless guys seem to think that property rights don't exist at all, they can drill around and leave empty paper bottles everywhere. I have both cases Victory. I haven't been so excited since Sir John Morland was accused?"

"Then how did you report him?"

"Sir, look at the record. It cost me two hundred pounds. But I won it."

"So did you get any benefits?"

"No, I didn't consider any interests when I did this. All I did was to be responsible to the society. I believe that the people in Fernworthy will make me a straw man and burn me tonight. That's what they did last time. I reported this to the police and told them that they should consider my personal safety. But these police officers are really useless and did not provide me with timely protection. Frankland expressed his gratitude to the Queen's Government The lawsuit soon attracted the attention of the public. I warned them that there would be no good end for them. Do you think they have their karma now?"

I asked, "How can this be done?"

Frankland said proudly: "Actually, I can tell them one thing they want to know. But I won't help these bastards."

I'm not interested in the small talk at all, but I still want something from him.I understand the old man's strange temper, that is, you can't show a strong interest in him, otherwise he will talk non-stop.

I said lazily, "It must be about poaching, right?"

"Haha, man, you're wrong, it's about the prisoner in the swamp."

I was taken aback when I heard it, and hurriedly said, "You mean you know where he is hiding?"

His words are getting closer and closer to what I want to know.

He replied, "Of course."

"Then how did you know?" I asked.

"I saw the man who brought him the food with my own eyes."

What I'm most worried about now is Barrymore, but he happened to meet Frankland, a very nosy guy who likes to use the law to mess around.Fortunately, what he said later made me breathe a sigh of relief.

"There is a child who delivers food for him every day. This child walks there at the same time every day. He must be delivering food for the fugitive."

I was thrilled inside, but couldn't let the emotion show.Barrymore had said this too, and what Frankland said was the clue we were looking for.This child is not delivering food to the fugitive, but to the mysterious person.It would be great if I could get something out of this.For now, though, I still have to be skeptical and nonchalant.

"Is that probably the son of a shepherd in the swamp bringing food to his father?"

Once he heard different opinions, this old nerve would get angry. He gave me a hard look, and his beard stood up in anger.

He pointed to the chaotic rocks outside and said, "Sir, look at the black rock, and then look at the short hill covered with thorns in the distance. There are rocks everywhere, how can there be a shepherd? Sir, you really I'm so disappointed."

I said: "Oh, so it is like this, I am so ignorant!"

Seeing that I criticized myself, he smiled smugly.

"Sir, you shouldn't doubt what I said. I must have a basis for what I said. This kid can't escape my eyes when he walks with a bunch of things. Sometimes once a day, sometimes... wait a minute, Hua Well, something's moving on the hillside."

Only a few miles away, I could clearly see a small black dot moving.

Frankland called: "Come on, Watson! Look there." The telescope was mounted on a tripod, and it was huge, standing on the iron roof.Frankland looked over his eyes, and let out a satisfied sound of "tsk tsk".

"Come on, Watson, come on, or he'll be over the mountain."

I hurried over and saw a little boy struggling to climb up the mountain with a big roll of things in his arms.At last he climbed up, and suddenly a man in rags appeared in front of him.He looked around first, as if afraid of being followed, and then disappeared over the hill with the little boy.

"Am I right?"

"Of course, this kid seems to be on a special mission."

"What about the mission? I don't need to say much about it. I'm afraid even the dumbest idiot in the police department can guess it. But you have to keep it a secret, Watson, do you understand?"

"understood."

"The people in the police station have treated me so badly. When the inside story of Frankland's lawsuit against the Queen's government is released, I can guarantee that the whole country will be boiling. In any case, I will definitely not help the police. They Actually come to control me instead of those local ruffians. Come on, let's celebrate today."

I declined his offer, and succeeded in dissuading him from walking home with me.I followed the road as long as he could see me, and then suddenly I turned off the road and turned into the swamp toward the hill where the boy had just disappeared.I will never let go of this wonderful opportunity that is so close at hand.

(End of this chapter)