Sherlock Holmes Complete Works 2

Chapter 15 Memoirs 15
Indeed, I have never seen such a confessing facial expression.Old Cunningham was dumbfounded, with a sullen expression on his resolute face.Alec Cunningham, on the other hand, lost his original lively attitude, his eyes showed a menacing look like a hungry beast, and he no longer had the previous elegant expression.The officer went to the door and blew his siren.After a while, two police officers arrived.

"That's all I can do, Mr. Cunningham," went on the Inspector. "I think it might be a misunderstanding, but you can see—oh, what do you want? Put it down!" He threw up his hand, The pistol in Alec's hand fell to the ground with a "click".

"Hold on," said Holmes, calmly putting his foot on the pistol. "It is only useful in interrogation, and that is what we need most," said he, holding up a small ball of paper in his hand.

"That part of the paper that was torn off!" the officer yelled.

"good."

"Where did you find it?"

"Found it where I could have expected it. Colonel, I think you and Watson can go back now. I shall see you again in an hour at the most. The officer and I will question the criminal, but I will certainly Come back to have lunch with you."

Holmes was very punctual, and he rejoined us in the colonel's smoking-room about an hour later.There was a little old gentleman beside him. Holmes introduced him as Mr. Acton, and the previous theft happened in his home.

"I have come to explain this little case to you, and I would like Mr. Acton to be present," continued Holmes, "who is also interested in the particulars of it. My dear Colonel, I have received a man like myself. People who like to cause trouble, I'm afraid you will regret it."

"On the contrary," replied the Colonel enthusiastically, "I consider it a great honor to have had the opportunity of learning your skill as a detective. I confess that I have not seen a single clue."

"I'm afraid I'll disappoint you with my explanation, but my method is by no means confidential. However, since I was attacked in the dressing room, I'd like some brandy to calm my nerves, Colonel."

"I trust that your neuralgia will not flare up again."

Sherlock Holmes laughed out loud. "Let's talk about this matter later," he paused, "I'll tell you about this case in sequence. If there is anything unclear, please feel free to ask me.

"In the art of detectives, the most important thing is to be able to see which is the key point from many facts, otherwise, your energy will be scattered. Therefore, from the very beginning of this case, I think that the whole case The key must lie in the scrap of paper in the hand of the dead William.

"What I want to draw your attention to is that if what Alec Cunningham said is true, if the murderer ran away immediately after killing William Kirwan, then it is obviously impossible for the murderer to tear it from the dead man. The piece of paper. But if it wasn't the murderer who tore it, then it must have been Alec Cunningham, for, before the old man went downstairs, several servants had arrived on the scene. It can be seen that the police officer ignored this. Because he From the outset, it was supposed that the matter had nothing to do with these squires, and for this reason I began to look suspiciously at Mr. Alec Cunningham's character.

"I examined very carefully the note the police officer gave me. It is clear to me that it is a piece of paper that deserves careful attention. Don't you still see anything telling?"

"The font looks very irregular," said the colonel.

"My dear sirs," cried Holmes, "it is needless to say that it has been written alternately by two persons. I call your attention to the strong 't' in the 'at' and the 'to'. Compare it with the two feeble 't's in 'quarter' and 'twelve', and you'll immediately find out what's going on. From the analysis of these two ways of writing 't', you can know : The 'learn' and 'maybe' were written by a man with a strong pen, and the 'what' was written by a man with a weak pen."

"My God, that's so clear!" cried the colonel. "Why on earth did those two men write the letter in such a form?"

"It was clearly a crime, and one of them didn't trust the other, so he decided that no matter what he did he had to do it together. Obviously, the one of the two who wrote 'at' and 'to ' The man is the mastermind."

"Why do you say that?"

"If you pay attention to this piece of paper, you will come to the conclusion that it is the man with the strong pen who writes all the words he wants to write first, leaving blanks for another person to fill in, and these blanks Not very abundant, you can see that when the second person filled in the word 'quarter' between 'at' and 'to', it was very crowded, indicating that the two words 'at' and 'to' were written first Yes. The person who finished what he wanted to write first, needless to say, is the mastermind of this case."

"Excellent!" exclaimed Mr. Acton.

"But that is an obvious fact," said Holmes. "But we now come to an important point. In this case, if the handwriting of one man is found to be strong and powerful, the handwriting of the other, though feeble, is Still quite distinct, but with the 't' missing, we can say that one of them is a young man, and the other is old, though not particularly old."

"Brilliant!" cried Mr. Acton again.

"It's also interesting to note that there are some similarities in the handwriting of these two men. They belong to people of the same blood, perhaps most notably in the 'e' written like the Greek 'ε'. Also, there are many small This can also be shown in places. Because of this, I immediately judged that from the style of writing, this paper was written by a family. And all this gathered my impression that the Cunninghams wrote this letter.

"Now that I have come to this conclusion, the second step is to investigate the details of the crime. Came to Mr. Cunningham's house and saw all we wanted to see. The wounds on the dead man were shot with a pistol four yards away, There were no traces of gunpowder on the clothes of the deceased. From this it was obvious that Alec Cunningham was lying. Both father and son agreed that the man had fled to the place where the main road passed. But, by chance, there was a wide The bottom of the ditch was muddy. Since no footprints were found around the ditch, the Cunninghams lied again this time.

"I must now consider the object of this strange case. First of all, I must ascertain the cause of the burglary at Mr. Acton's house. I know from the Colonel, Mr. Acton, that you are dealing with Canning. The An family is engaged in a lawsuit. I immediately thought that they must have broken into your study to steal some important documents related to the case."

"Exactly," said Mr. Acton, "that's what they're obviously trying to do. I'm perfectly entitled to half of what they have. But if they get that piece of evidence, they'll be able to Winning the case. Fortunately, I have already put this evidence in the lawyer's safe."

"You see," said Holmes, smiling, "that it was a dangerous and unwise attempt, and I have the feeling that it was done by Alec. They found nothing, so they took something by hand, and had it taken away." It's an ordinary theft, which is clear, but there are still many things that are still unclear. First, I have to find the half-torn note. I'm sure he will stuff it In the pocket of the pajamas. Where else can it be put? The only problem is whether it is still in the pocket. We went to their house for this purpose.

"The Cunninghams met us outside the kitchen door, as you probably remember. Of course, the most important thing is that this paper cannot be mentioned in their presence, otherwise they will destroy it immediately. When the police officer was about to tell them how much we valued this piece of paper, I had no choice but to pretend to be sick and fainted on the ground, and then changed the topic."

"Oh!" the colonel said with a smile, "we have been anxious for a long time because of you, so you are pretending?"

"It's very well done," I said aloud, looking in wonder at the man who so often confuses me with his unpredictability.

"It's an art that comes in handy from time to time," said Holmes. "When I got back to my senses, I tricked old Cunningham into writing the word 'twelve. The 'twelve' on the letter was compared."

"Oh, how stupid I am!" I exclaimed.

"I could see that you were sympathetic to my infirmity," said Holmes, smiling. "I knew you must have been very anxious. When we went upstairs together, I went into little Cunningham's room and saw the They turned over the table in old Cunningham's room to try to attract their attention, and then slipped out to check the pockets of the nightgown. Sure enough, the note was in their In the pocket of one of them. Then the Cunninghams jumped on me, and if you hadn't come to my rescue in time, I'm sure they'd have strangled me on the spot. You see, they knew I'd figured it out The whole truth of the facts, they thought it was absolutely safe before, but suddenly they were completely desperate, so they took the risk.

"Afterwards I had a little talk with old Cunningham, and asked him what his motives were for the crime. Cunningham, seeing how bad the case was against him, lost all confidence, and confessed everything. That night, when When William's two masters broke into Acton's house suddenly, William followed them quietly behind. William knew their privacy, and wanted to blackmail them and blackmail them. However, Alec had a genius to see, shocked The burglary in the whole town was a great opportunity to kill the man he feared. They tricked William out and killed him. All they had to do was get the note in its entirety and pay attention to the details of the murder. It will probably not arouse suspicion from others."

But what about the note?

Sherlock Holmes places before us the torn note:

Of you will only come around

at the east gate you will

learn what much support you and maybe

be of the greatest good to you

and Also

to Anna Morison, But say nothing

to anyone upon the matter

(Secret Letter translates as——If you arrive at the East Gate at a quarter to twelve, you will learn something very unexpected and of great benefit to you and Anne Morrison. But don't tell anyone about it. people.)

"This is exactly what I was looking forward to," said Holmes. "Of course we don't know the relationship between Alec Cunningham, William Kirwan and Anne Morrison. But from the ending See, the trap is very ingenious. I think, Watson, that our country tour has had a remarkable effect. To-morrow, when I return to Baker Street, I shall be refreshed."

(End of this chapter)