Sherlock Holmes Complete Works 2

Chapter 31 Return 7
For some hours Holmes sat in silence.His long and thin body was bent, staring at a chemical test tube in front of him, which contained a very foul-smelling compound.His head hangs on his chest.

He suddenly said, "Watson, you don't plan to invest in South Africa anymore, do you?"

I was very surprised that he suddenly exposed my scheming.

"How do you know?" I was puzzled.

He turned around, his deep-set eyes looked like he was about to laugh slightly.

"You are now at last willing to admit that you were surprised, Watson," said he.

"of course."

"I should ask you to write this down, and then force you to sign it. Because it won't take 5 minutes, and you'll say it's too easy."

"I promise not to say that."

"You see, my dear Watson, it is actually quite simple to make a chain of inferences, and to make each inference depend on the one preceding it, and that it is simple in itself." The tone said to me, "Remove the middle reasoning process and announce the starting point and conclusion, and you can reach the point of surprise. Then when I look at your left hand, I know that you don't intend to invest your little capital." To the gold mines."

"But does it matter?"

"It doesn't seem to be. But the missing links are: first, you have white powder on the tiger's mouth when you come back from the club; second, you only put white powder on the tiger's mouth when you play pool; Fourth, you told me four weeks ago that Thurston had a privilege to buy some South African property, but it expired in a month, and you wanted to share that privilege with him. ; fifth, your checkbook is in my drawer and you have never asked me for the key; sixth, you do not intend to invest in South Africa."

"It's so easy!" I exclaimed.

He was a little annoyed. "But the question is how you explain it, dear friend." With that, he threw a note on the table.

On the paper are some absurd symbols.

"Hey, man, this looks like a child's drawing."

"Oh, isn't that what you thought?"

"What could this be?"

"That's what Mr. Hilton Cupid is anxious to understand. He lives at Racecourse Estate in Norfolk. Oh, the bell has rung, Watson. I think it is Mr. Cupid."

Presently a gentleman entered, a tall, well built gentleman, very clean-shaven.Bright eyes and rosy cheeks showed that he lived in a foggy place far away from Baker Street. After shaking hands with us, he was about to sit down when he saw the note with strange symbols on it.

"How do you explain it, Mr. Holmes?" he exclaimed. "These are queer things. I am sending you this note so that you may find time to study it before I come."

"The picture is indeed difficult to read," said Holmes. "It looks like little dancing figures. Why should you attach any importance to it?"

"I don't take it seriously! But my wife is the complete opposite, and the picture terrifies her."

Holmes let the sun shine on the paper, on which were drawn in pencil some dancing figures.

After reading it, Holmes carefully folded up the note and put it in his wallet.

He said: "Mr. Cupid, I want you to go over the details again to my friend."

"I'm not good at telling stories," the guest said.He fiddled with his large hands. "If you don't understand something, just ask me. I want to start from before and after I got married last year. Let me explain in advance that although I am not a rich person, my family has lived in Machang Village for 500 years, and it is considered to be somewhat famous. Last year I went to London to attend the sixtieth anniversary celebrations of Queen Victoria and stayed in an apartment in Rosseau Square with the Rev. Parker of our parish. There was also a young American lady named Patrick whose full name was It was Elsie Patrick. And so we became good friends. Within a month, I fell so deeply in love with her that we married in secret and ended up back in Norfolk as a married couple. All you had to do was meet her and know her , and you'll know I'm not crazy.

"At this point, she was blunt at the time. It never occurred to me to change her mind. She said to me: 'I've been with some hateful people in the past, but now I just want to forget about them. If you marry me, Hilton , you married a woman with a clear conscience. But you must promise that you will not ask me about the past before I married you.' The day before our wedding, she said the above to me. I told her I promise, I Always kept his promise.

"We have been very happily married for a year. But about a month ago, at the end of June, I saw the first sign of trouble. On that day, a letter from America arrived in the hands of my wife. She turned pale at once. We have been Didn't mention it, but since then, the horror is always on her face. Just a reminder, my wife is definitely an honest person. Whatever happened to her before in life, it was never Her fault. Though I am but a common Norfolk squire, our family is the most prestigious in all England. She knows it too. I have no doubts that she would not want the slightest loss to my family's reputation.

"Okay, now let me talk about the suspicious aspect of this matter. About a week ago, last Tuesday, I saw some funny little people dancing on the windowsill. Drawn. I thought it was drawn by the little wrangler, but he swore he didn't know. Anyway, those little people were drawn at night. I erased it before I mentioned it to my wife .But she cared about it, and begged me to allow her to look at it when it came up again. For a week, nothing came up. Until yesterday morning, when I found this note by the sundial in the garden. She Immediately after reading it, I fainted. After that, I was in a trance, and my eyes were full of fear. At that time, Mr. Holmes, I wrote a letter and sent it to you together with the note. Can you tell me what to do? I'm not rich, but I'm willing to spend everything to make my wife happy."

Mr. Cupid is a typical British native handsome man, simple, upright and elegant, with a pair of simple blue eyes and a delicate face.From his face, I can see his love and trust for his wife.After listening, my companion sat and thought about it for a while.

He finally spoke: "The best way is for your wife to tell you her secret directly."

Hilton Cupid shook his head vigorously.

"I will keep my word, Mr. Holmes. If she will tell me, she will. If she will not, I will never force her. Of course, I can make my own way."

"I'd love to help you. Has a stranger been in your house lately?"

"No."

"I think your area must be a secluded place. As long as a stranger comes, he will be seen, isn't it?"

"That's true not far from where we are. But not too far away, there are a few cattle-drinking places where the peasants often lodge strangers."

"Obviously, there is a meaning to these obscure symbols. If there is a system to these drawings, then I believe we can figure it out. This drawing is too short. And your description is too vague. You should go back first Go, Norfolk, and copy in time any new dancers that may appear. It is a pity that we have no facsimiles painted on windowsills. Also, inquire carefully about strangers coming and going in your place. Once you collect Come here again when new evidence arrives. If there are any new developments, I can rush to your home in Norfolk at any time."

Holmes became strangely silent as a result of this interview.For several days, he carefully studied those strange symbols.So, after two weeks, I was going out one afternoon when he suddenly said:

"Watson, you better not go out."

"why?"

"Because Mr. Hilton Cupid wrote this morning. Do you remember him now and the dancers? He will be in Liverpool Street at 1, and he could be here any minute. There must be many important new developments."

Sure enough, after a while, the Norfolk gentleman came directly from the station in a carriage.He was anxious and depressed, with tired eyes and wrinkled forehead.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Holmes," he said, and sank into the chair. "When you feel that you are surrounded by people invisibly, but you don't know who is plotting you, it is enough to be troublesome. And seeing my wife haggard all day long, being tortured to become thinner and thinner, and I can only watch watching it all."

"Did she say anything to you now?"

"No, Mr. Holmes. There were times when she hesitated to speak. I tried to help her, but she was too frightened to say anything."

"And have you discovered anything new yourself?"

"A lot! Mr. Holmes. I have brought you some new pictures, and I saw the fellow with my own eyes."

"Who? The one who drew these symbols?"

"Yes, I saw him draw it with my own eyes. It happened like this. Since I came to you last time, the first thing I saw when I came home the next morning was a new line of dancing people, They are drawn on the door of the tool shed. The tool shed is close to the lawn, facing the front window. This is what I drew as it was." He opened a piece of paper and put it on the table.

"Excellent!" said Holmes. "Go on, please!"

"After I finished the drawing, I wiped it, but on the third morning there was a new one, and I drew it again. This is what I copied."

Hearing this, Holmes was very happy.

"I am accumulating data very quickly!" he said.

"Three days later, I found another note under a pebble on the sundial. On it was scrawled a line of exactly the same little people. From then on, I resolved to watch there every night, I drew my revolver and sat in my study, watching the lawn and garden. About two o'clock in the morning, I heard footsteps behind me, and my wife approached in her pajamas. She begged me to go to bed, and I put my The idea told her, she said it was just a prank.

"'If this really pisses you off, Hilton, we can go on a trip.'

"'What? Why should a prankster drive us away?'

"'Go to sleep,' she said, 'we'll discuss it tomorrow during the day.'

"As I was speaking, I suddenly noticed that her face had become extremely pale in the moonlight, and she was holding my shoulder tightly with one hand. There was something dangling in the shadow of the opposite tool room. I saw A dark figure sneaked around the corner to the door of the tool room and squatted down. When I grabbed the gun and rushed over, I was hugged by my wife. I tried to shake her off, but she hugged me desperately. When I finally When I broke free from her hand and ran to the front of the tool room, another line of dancing people was drawn on the door in the same order as the previous two, but I didn't find that guy. But he didn't go away, because I checked again in the morning That door has a new painting on it."

"Have you drawn those new figures?"

"Yes, but it's not long, but I copied it anyway, this is this one."

He took out another piece of paper, and the new dance looked like this:

"Please tell me," said Holmes, with a look of great emotion in his eyes, "whether the picture is below the previous line, or is it quite separate?"

"It was painted on another door panel."

"Very good! This is very important for continuing research. Mr. Cupid, please continue to finish this interesting story."

"No, sir, I was very angry with my wife that night, because she held me back just as I was about to catch the rogue who had sneaked in. She said she was afraid that something would happen to me. But I Thought: Maybe she was worried about the misfortune of that person, because I doubted that she knew him and understood those strange symbols. But, Mr. Holmes, her voice and eyes convinced me that what she really thought was indeed My safety. That's all that's been going on for the last few days, so you can tell me what to do. I'm going to hide five or six of the lads on the farm in the bushes, and I'll teach him a lesson when he shows up again. Don, lest he pester us again in the future."

"He is a very cunning man, and such methods will not do," said Holmes. "How long can you stay in London?"

"I have to go back today. I am worried about leaving my wife alone at home all night. She looks nervous and wants me to go back too."

"If you can stay, I may be able to go back with you in a day or two. Give me these notes first, and I may call on you soon. I hope I can help you."

(End of this chapter)