Sherlock Holmes Complete Works 2

Chapter 20 Memoirs 20
The July of my year of marriage was a memorable one, for Holmes and I solved three great crimes together.These three major cases are "Second Bloodstain", "Naval Agreement" and "The Tired Captain". Among them, the first case is of great content, involving many dignitaries, and this case cannot be published for many years.So I can only publish the second case in the diary.

I was good schoolmates with Percy Phelps.We are the same age, but I am two grades below him.He was very talented, and had several notable relations, and his uncle was said to be Lord Holdhurst, a well-known Conservative politician.After graduating, he got a good job in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with his own talent and powerful relatives, and I almost forgot about him afterwards.It wasn't until he sent me a letter some time ago that I remembered him again:

Woking Brillbray Dear Watson:

I think you remember Phelps when I was in fifth grade and you were in third grade.You may have heard that I got a position in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through my uncle.But suddenly a terrible misfortune happened and ruined my career.

I won’t tell you the details in the letter, but if you agree to my request, I can tell you personally.I have been insane for nine weeks, and now I am well, but debilitating.Would you please invite your friend Mr. Holmes to come and see me? I should like to hear his opinion, though the government tells me that nothing can be done.Be sure to invite Mr. Holmes to come.

your alumnus percy phelps

I was so shaken by this letter that I told Holmes at once.He granted my request.

We caught an early train at Waterloo station and we were in Woking in an hour.Brillbrae was a large mansion, standing alone on a large piece of ground, a few minutes' walk from the station.We were received graciously by a rather stout man.Although he is almost 40 years old, he looks like an innocent urchin.

We learned that his name was Joseph Harrison, and he was the brother of Percy's fiancée. Under his leadership, we came to the place where Percy lived.A frail, earth-colored young man was lying on a couch.A woman was sitting next to him and got up when we entered the room.

"Percy, am I leaving?" she asked.

Percy grabbed her hand and motioned her not to go.

Percy said: "I'll cut to the chase. I'm a happy and accomplished man, sir, and I'm getting married. But disaster has wrecked my career.

"I work in the Foreign Office, and I am about to be promoted by my uncle, Lord Holdhurst. My uncle is the foreign secretary in the government. I have been doing some important tasks very well, and he has great trust I.

"About ten weeks ago, on May 23, he called me into his private office. He told me that I had a new and important task to attend to.

"He took out a gray roll of paper from his desk, and said solemnly: 'This is the original secret agreement signed between Britain and Italy, but some rumors have been revealed in the newspapers. There must be no more information leaked out. France The Russian embassy and the Russian embassy are making every effort to obtain the contents of these documents. I would not have taken a copy out of my desk if I had not desperately needed it. Is there a safe in your office?'

"'Yes, sir.'

"'Then, take it and lock it in your safe. But you must be clear: after other people are off work, you are in the office, you can copy the copy calmly, without worrying about being peeped by others. After you copy the original and the copy Immediately lock them in a safe and hand them over to me personally together tomorrow morning.'

"After I got this document, I just..."

"I beg your pardon," said Holmes. "Are you the only one present when this is being said?"

"Yes."

"In a big room?"

"Yes, in a room thirty feet square."

"In the middle of the house?"

"Yes, almost."

"Is the voice high?"

"My uncle's voice has always been very low, and I hardly said anything."

"Thank you," said Holmes, closing his eyes. "Go on."

"What he told me to do, I did. I waited for the other clerks to leave. There was only one man who had a little work to do, and he was Charles Elliott. So I left him alone. In the office, went out to dinner, and when I came back, he was gone. I was anxious to get this business out, because I knew that Joseph (Mr. There's a train for Woking at one o'clock, and I'm trying to catch that too.

"Looking at that agreement, I understood what my uncle said. It is indeed very important. It stipulates the inclination of the British Empire towards the Triple Alliance and the policy to be adopted by the United Kingdom. Totally preponderant. The agreement was purely naval. Signatures by senior officials from both sides. After a scan, I sat down to transcribe.

"It's a twenty-six-article agreement written in French. I copied it quickly, and by nine o'clock I had copied nine. I had no hope of catching the eleven o'clock train. I felt dizzy and wanted to drink A cup of coffee to clear my mind. So I rang the bell to summon the doorman in the small porter room downstairs. The doorman was there all night and could use an alcohol lamp to make coffee for every overtime employee.

"Unexpectedly, it was a woman who came up. She said she was the wife of the janitor and worked as a handyman here, so I asked her to make coffee.

"After copying two more, I felt even more dizzy, so I walked around the house, but the coffee hadn't come. I opened the door and walked down the corridor. From the room where the papers were copied, there was a dimly lit Straight corridor, which is the only exit from my office. There is a turning staircase at the top of the corridor, and the porter's small porter's room is next to the passage below the stairs. There is a small landing in the middle of the stairs, and from this landing there is another corridor. At the top of the second corridor, there is a stairway leading to the side door for the servants, and it is also a shortcut for the staff to enter the building from Charles Street. This is the sketch I drew. "

"Thank you, I understand," said Holmes.

"Please note that I'm coming to the most important point: descending the stairs, I found myself in the hall, where the porter was sleeping soundly in the porter's room, and the coffeepot was boiling on the spirit lamp, and the coffee was spilling on the floor. I put The pot was taken down, and the alcohol lamp was turned off. He woke up suddenly, because the bell above his head suddenly rang loudly.

"'Mr. Phelps!' he said, looking at me suspiciously.

"'I came to see if the coffee was ready.'

"'I fell asleep somehow, sir.' He looked at me, and then up at the still ringing bell, with still more amazement on his face.

"'Sir, you are here, and who rang the bell?' he asked me.

"'Ring the bell!' I cried, 'what bell?'

"'There is a bell in your office.'

"My heart suddenly went cold. Someone was in the office, and the agreement was on the table. I ran back to the office in a frenzy, and I met no one in the corridor. Mr. Holmes, the house and I There was no one there when we left, but the original copy of the agreement was gone, but the copy was still there."

My friend is obviously very interested in this case. "What were you thinking and doing then?" he whispered.

"I immediately thought that the thief must have come up from the side door. If he had come up from the main door, I would have met him."

"Perhaps he has been hiding in the house or in the corridor? You said just now that the lights are very dim there."

"Absolutely impossible. Not even a mouse can hide in a room or in a corridor."

"Thank you, please continue."

"The porter followed me upstairs, and when he saw my pale face, he knew something terrible had happened. We ran down the corridor to the staircase leading to the side door, and when we went down we saw the side door closed, but there was no Locked. The door was thrown open, and we rushed out. The clock struck three times, and it was quarter-to-nine."

"This is very important," said Holmes, making a note on his shirt-sleeve.

"It was a dark night, light rain outside, no one on Charles Street, but Whitehall Road at the end was still busy as usual. We ran along the pavement and there was a police station on the right corner. Where.

"I said out of breath, 'There has been a theft and a very important document has been lost. Has anyone passed this way?'

"'Sir, I have only stood a little while,' said the policeman, 'but a tall old woman passed by wearing a paisley shawl.'

"'Well, that's my wife,' cried the porter; 'is there no one else?'

"'No one else.'

"'The burglar must have escaped around the left corner, then,' he cried, tugging at my sleeve.

"I don't believe it, he's trying to distract me. I'm even more suspicious of his wife.

"'Where did she go?'

"'I don't know, sir, I saw her go by, and she seemed to be going in a very hurry.'

"'How long has it been?'

"'About a few minutes.'

"'Only five minutes?'

"'Yes, no 5 minutes.'

"'Don't waste any more time, sir,' cried the porter, 'believe me, my wife would never do such a thing, and run to the left. If you don't, I will.' And saying, He chased to the left.

"But I grabbed his sleeve all at once.

"'Where do you live?' I asked him.

"'No. 16 Ivey Lane, Brixton Street,' he replied, 'don't be fooled by false clues, Mr. Phelps. We'd better go to the left and ask.'

"His suggestion is also right, so we and the policeman ran quickly to the left, only to see the bustling streets, and no one bothered to tell us who passed by.

"We went back to the Foreign Office and checked the stairs and corridors, but found nothing. The corridors were covered with a kind of beige oilcloth, but there was no trace of it."

"Did it rain that night?"

"It started at about seven o'clock."

"About nine o'clock, that woman came indoors. How could she not have left footprints? Because she was wearing muddy boots."

"I thought so at the time, but the handyman has a habit of taking off her boots and putting on cloth slippers in the caretaker's room."

"I see. That is to say, although it was raining, there were no footprints, right? These are very important. What did you do next?"

"We searched the house. The windows were plugged in from the inside. The floor was carpeted and the ceiling was plain whitewashed. Stolen papers could only escape through the door, I swear it."

"Tell me about the fireplace."

"There's no fireplace at all, just a stove. The electric bell is just to the right of my desk. But why did he ring? It's very strange."

"It was indeed a remarkable thing. Then what did you do? I think you checked the room to see what he left behind, like cigarette butts, dropped gloves, hairpins or other small things. stuff, eh?"

"Not found."

"Is there any smell?"

"I didn't think of it at the time."

"Well, in a case like this, even a little bit of tobacco would be of great use to us."

"I've never smoked, and if there was any smoke in the house, I'd be sure to smell it. It's true, there isn't any. The only suspect is the wife of the janitor named Tangay, from where she hurried Walked out, and the gatekeeper couldn't explain it clearly. Both the police and I thought that if the woman did have the document, she should be caught as soon as possible before she let go.

"Detective Forbes from Scotland Yard were on the scene immediately and took up the case. We arrived at the caretaker's house and the door was opened by a young woman who was their eldest daughter. She asked us to wait in the front hall as her mother hadn't returned yet. Home.

"Ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door. We missed an opportunity when we didn't answer the door ourselves, it was her daughter who answered it. We heard her say, 'Mom, there are two people in the family who are waiting to see you. You.' Then we heard footsteps coming quickly down the hall. The detective slammed the door open and we went into the kitchen, but the woman went in first. She stared at us with hostility. Later, I was identified. When she came out, a very surprised expression appeared on her face.

"'Oh, isn't that Mr. Phelps from the Ministry!' she exclaimed.

"'Hey, hey, why are you avoiding us?' asked Officer Forbes.

"'I thought you were junk dealers,' she said, 'and we have a little affair with a dealer.'

"'That is not a good excuse,' replied Forbes, 'and there is evidence that an important document was taken home by you from the Foreign Office. You have to come with us to Scotland Yard for questioning.'

"She protested and resisted, but to no avail. We called for a carriage, and before we went we wanted to see if she had burned the papers. But there was no trace of crumbs or ashes." Found it. When we got to Scotland Yard, we handed her over to a lady inspector. But the lady inspector sent a report, no papers.

(End of this chapter)