Sherlock Holmes Complete Works 2

Chapter 33 Return 9
He took out the notes of the little dancing figures from his pocket and put them on the desk. After working for a while, he wrote a letter and handed it to the little shepherd. Little answer.The address and the recipient's name were scrawled on the letter.It read: Norfolk, East Rolston, Elrich Farm, Mr Afan Slaney.

My companion asked the sheriff to send a guard, and he said: "Please telegraph them, because you are escorting a very dangerous prisoner. The boy who delivers the message can take your telegram with him. The work here is very fast. It's almost over."

After dismissing the children, Holmes told all the servants that if anyone came to see his wife, they should take him to the living room, and repeatedly urged him not to mention his wife's situation.He also told us that the matter is coming to an end and everyone can take a rest.The country doctor was gone, and it was only me and the sheriff who remained.

"Now I am going to pass the time in a way that interests you," said Holmes, moving his chair closer to the table and spreading out the pictures again. "I have to pay you, Watson, because I have not told you the answer to the case. As for the sheriff, we can have a business discussion. I will tell you some interesting facts, which Mr. Cupid told me." Then he briefly described the aforementioned those situations. "It was these queer things before me. I am quite familiar with this form of secret games. But this is the first time I have seen such symbols. Whoever came up with this method is to deceive people. It is a representation of letters. Yes, and should be explained by the laws of secret characters. In this way, it is not difficult to find the answer. On the first piece of paper given to me, I can only assume it to be E with a certain degree of security. Because, in the English alphabet, E Most frequently. Four of the fifteen symbols on the first sheet are the same. In these pictures, there are flags and some without flags. I think the flags are for Words are used. I also take this as a very likely accepted hypothesis.

"The difficulty is that, except for E, the frequency of occurrences of English letters is irregular. But generally speaking, the order of occurrences of letters is T, A, O, I, N, S, H, R, D, L; But T, A, O, and I appear at almost the same frequency. It would be impossible to permutate and combine each possibility once. So I had to wait for new information. When Hilton Cupid came to London for the second time, Brought me two short sentences and a word, which are these symbols without flags. Among the words combined with five symbols, I found that the second and fourth are both E. So It could be sever, it could be lever, or it could be never. It is clear that the last word is a very likely answer to a request, and there are all indications that it is Mrs. Cupid's answer. If the judgment is true, then the three symbols represent N, V, R respectively.

"Of course, the difficulty remained at this time, but a brilliant idea led me to a few more letters. I think if assuming that these requests came from someone who was close to Mrs. Cupid since childhood, there would be an E with three letters in it. The individual monogrammed word was probably the name ELSIE. I double-checked and found three times it ended a sentence. I concluded that this must be a plea to 'Elsie'. So I I found L, S and I again. What is he begging for? The word before 'Elsie' has only four letters, and the last one is E. The word must be Come. The others start with E I tried all the four letter words at the end, but they didn't work, so I found C, O, and M, and now I can reanalyze the first sentence, so the sentence becomes:

?M?ERE??E SL?NE.

"Of course the first one can only be A. This discovery is quite useful, because it appears three times in this short sentence. Obviously, the second word should start with an H. This sentence becomes:

AM HERE A? E SLANE.

"Then add the letter that was missing from the name:

AM HERE ABE SLANE.

(I have arrived. Abe Slany)

"When I have so many letters, the second sentence is much more convenient. It should read like this:

A?ELRI?ES?

"I think the sentence can only be made good by adding a T and a G in the vacant places (meaning living at Elrich), and further assuming that this is the residence or hotel of the writer."

The sheriff and I listened with great interest to my friend explaining his process of deciphering the code, and our doubts were immediately resolved.

"What did you do after you cracked it?" asked the sheriff.

"I think Abe Slany is an American, because Abe's word is American, and all the troubles have been caused by an American letter. There must be a criminal undertones in this affair, the mistress hinted at her own past and her refusal to tell the truth to her husband, it all justifies it. So I sent a telegram to my friend Wilson Hargrave in the NYPD asking if he knew about Abe Slaney The telegram he answered indicated that the man was a Chicago swindler. On the same night I received the answer, Cupid also sent me the last line of the little figure drawn by Abe Slaney. This is how it translates:

ELSIE? RE? ARE TO MEET THY GO.

"After adding P and D, it becomes a complete sentence (meaning: Elsie, get ready to see God), which shows that the gangster has changed from persuasion to threat. Chicago gangsters will immediately put threats into action, so I came to Norfolk at once with Watson, but it was a step too late."

"It's an honor to work with you," said the Sheriff earnestly, "but, to be honest, if Abe Slaney of Elrich Farm is really the murderer, if he escapes while I sit here If it is dropped, how can I afford it.”

"He won't run."

"Why are you so confident?"

"If you run away, isn't that a self-report?"

"Then let's get him."

"I think he'll come here by himself in a moment."

"why?"

"Because I have written to ask him to come."

"Will you ask him to come? Wouldn't that be a warning?"

"I have made up a letter, and he will be sure to take the bait," said Holmes. "I think the gentleman is hurrying here." A tall, dark, handsome fellow appeared in the path outside the door. is coming in stride.He was dressed in flannel, a Panama hat, an upside-down beard, a large hooked nose, and eagerly waved his cane as he walked.

"Attention, everybody!" said Holmes. "We had better stand behind the door. Be careful with him. The sheriff has the handcuffs ready, and I want to speak to him."

After a while, the door opened, and this person actually walked in.Holmes immediately struck him on the head with the butt of his pistol, and Martin handcuffed him.Their movements were so quick and deft that the guy had no idea what was going on before he was caught.He stared into a pair of black eyes, and suddenly smiled wryly.

"Gentlemen, I admit that I have lost. I came here only after receiving a letter from Mrs. Cupid. Could it be that she set this trap for you?"

"Mrs. Cupid was seriously injured and her life was at stake."

"You liar!" he cried desperately. "It was Hilton who was hurt, not her. He hurt little Elsie so cruelly? I threatened her—God forgive me! But I would never touch her, Not even a single hair. Tell me she wasn't hurt at all!"

"But the truth is when we found her she was lying beside her husband in a very serious condition."

He moaned and sat on the 3-meter-long armchair, covering his face with his hands, without saying a word.After a moment he looked up in despair and said, "I have nothing to hide. You can't be charged with murder for killing a man who shoots me first. But I will never hurt Elsie, you little bit." Don't know me, and don't know her at the same time. No man loves her more than I do, and I have the right to marry her! Why does this Englishman insist on breaking us up? I have the most right to marry her, I just ask my rights."

"But when she really got to know you, she had to leave you," said Holmes sternly. "She left America to avoid you, and she married a gentleman in England. You pressed her every step of the way. , she was miserable, and you tried to make her desert her beloved husband and run away with you. You killed a nobleman and forced his wife to commit suicide. This is what you did! Mr. Abe Slany, You should be severely punished by the law."

"If Elsie dies, I don't care about anything," said the American.He opened his hand and looked at the note in the palm of his hand. "Oh, sir," he said aloud.Eyes full of suspicion. "Are you scaring me? If she is really hurt, who wrote the letter?"

"I wrote it, and I want you to throw yourself into the trap."

"You? But only our gang knows the secret of this little dancing figure, so how can you write it?"

"Since it was created by man, it must be deciphered," said Holmes. "You still have another chance to make it up. Mrs. Cupid has been suspected of murdering her husband. It is only because of my presence and the little information I happen to have. She will not be charged. It is time for her to make it clear to the public that she was not responsible for her husband's death."

"That's exactly what I mean," said the American.

"It may do you more harm than good," the sheriff warned him loudly, in the solemn spirit of equality before the law.

Slaney shrugged and didn't care.

"For her, I will," he said. "I must first tell you clearly that Elsie and I have been childhood sweethearts. There were seven of us in a gang in Chicago, and her father, our leader, Old Patrick invented this secret writing. If it weren't for the gang they would have thought it was a child's scribble. Then Elsie stumbled on us and she couldn't stand it. She had some good ways of her own and she stole away to London, taking advantage of our unsuspecting. We were engaged, and we would have been married long ago if I had quit the business. , I didn't know her whereabouts. I wrote her a letter, but she didn't reply. I had no choice but to come to England myself. I wrote what I wanted to say where she could see it.

"I've been living on that farm for a month, renting a downstairs room. I'm free to come and go every night. I'm trying to trick Elsie. I know she's seen what I've written, because once Under one sentence she wrote a reply. I was very anxious and threatened her, and she sent me a letter, begging me to leave, and saying that she would be grieved if her husband's name was damaged. She also Said that if I agreed to leave, she would wait for her husband to fall asleep at three o'clock in the morning, then go downstairs and talk to me at the back window. She tried to bribe me to let me go. I was very angry, Grabbed her and tried to drag her out of the window. Just then her husband rushed out with a revolver. Elsie collapsed on the floor in fright. I came with a gun. I raised the gun just thinking Scared him away. Didn't expect him to fire, but missed me. Almost at the same time I fired, and he fell. I hurried away through the garden, and I heard the sound of a window closing behind me. Gentlemen, I don't know what happened afterwards, until the boy came riding on horseback, and I hurried here like a fool, and got caught without a fight."

As soon as the Americans finished speaking, the carriage arrived, and two uniformed police officers were sitting inside.Inspector Martin stood up and touched the prisoner on the shoulder with his hand.

"time to go."

"Let me take another look at her!"

"No, she hasn't regained consciousness yet. Mr. Holmes, next time I encounter a serious case, I hope to be lucky enough to meet you again."

We were at the window, watching the carriage go away.I turned around and saw the note that the prisoner had thrown on the floor, the letter my companion had used to trap Slaney.

"Watson, do you know what is written on it?"

On the letter is a line of dancing people:

"Try it," said Holmes, "and you will read it: 'Come at once.' I believed at the time that this would be irresistible to him. So, Watson, we have made use of these dancers too. I have fulfilled my promise, and I can add some special material to your notebook."

Briefly introduce the ending of this story: American Abe Slany was sentenced to death in the final trial in Norwich, but in view of some commutation circumstances and the fact that Mr. Cupid shot first, the sentence was commuted to fixed-term imprisonment.After her recovery, Mrs. Cupid became a widow for Cupid, tried her best to help the poor and managed her husband's property wholeheartedly.

(End of this chapter)