Sherlock Holmes Complete Works 2

Chapter 37 Return 13
"Okay, okay! Why do people with good driving skills only ride on the road?" Morphos was a little impatient, "Oh, what's the sound?"

There was a knock at the door, and Dr Huxtable entered.

He shouted excitedly: "We finally found a clue, we at least know the path the child walked. This is his hat." He handed over the blue hat in his hand.

"Where did you pick it up?"

"A caravan of escaped gypsies who had camped on the moor."

"What did they say?"

"Said it was picked up on the moor on Tuesday morning."

After the doctor left, Holmes said: "Very well! This proves the correctness of my speculation, Watson, you see! There is a waterway across the wasteland. Some places gradually widen into swamps, especially in the Duke's Mansion and An area between schools. The weather is dry, so we can only start from here, let's try tomorrow morning."

At dawn next day Holmes came to my bedside.He was already dressed and visibly gone out.

"I've seen the lawn and the bike shed, and I've been to Xiaogang," he said.

He is in high spirits, and he looks like he is showing his ambitions.

But things did not go as smoothly as expected, and we saw no trace of the child, or the German.And there were only traces of sheep, and the footprints of cattle a mile or two away.

He looked sad and said, "Let's go a little further. Look! Come on, what's this?"

On a very narrow path, bicycle tracks appeared.

I yelled, "We finally found it!"

But my companion shook his head with a very confused expression.

He said: "But it's not necessarily the bike we're looking for. Oh, it's definitely not! The tires are Dunlop, and the tires are thicker. But the German teacher Heidige's bike is Palmer." , with striped trees."

"Could it be that child's?"

"It's possible, but we can't prove that the kid actually had a car. Look, obviously the bike came from the school."

"Is there no possibility of riding to school?"

"No, no, my dear Watson. The tracks made by the weight-bearing rear wheels are relatively deep. From these two tracks we can conclude that the car must have come from the school."

We headed back down again, and after a few hundred yards, the bike tracks disappeared in a marshy patch of land.A little further down the path, the bike tracks were back, but the hooves nearly wiped them all away.There are no traces of tires any further, it is a trail leading to Xiaogang grove behind the school.The car came from a small forest.Holmes sat on a big rock and thought hard.

After a while he said: "There is a possibility that this cunning person has changed the tire of his bicycle. Let's ignore it and continue to inspect the wetland."

After walking for a while, Palmer's tire tracks appeared, and he cried out with joy.

"This must be Mr. Hedigg!"

"congratulations."

We kept going, as expected.The tracks of the tires appear and disappear.

"The cyclist must have been speeding forward," said Holmes. "The front and rear tires are equally deep. Ah! He fell."

He showed me a bunch of crushed gorse, smeared with purple, and the heather on the trail was spotted with blood.

Holmes said: "He was injured and fell, then got up, and continued to ride. But there was no trace of another vehicle, and the track on the other side was only the hooves of cattle and sheep, and no other footprints."

We continued to walk forward, and after a while, we saw the tracks of the tires suddenly turning on the trail.Ahead, something glows.We ran over, and it was a Palmer bicycle with a bent pedal and blood all over the front.One shoe was sticking out on the other side of the bushes.We saw the poor cyclist lying there.He was tall, bearded, and wore glasses with one lens missing.Part of the skull was shattered. He was wearing no socks, but a shirt he only wore when he slept. This was Heidig, the German teacher.

Holmes examined the body, then sat down for a moment in silent thought.His frown showed that he thought the body was meaningless to our investigation.

After a long while, he said: "Although there are some difficulties, we should continue to investigate. In addition, we must report this matter to the police and let them take good care of the body of this unfortunate man."

"I can send the note back for you."

"I need your company and assistance more. Ah, look! That man is digging peat. Send him to the police."

Holmes told the terrified farmer to send a note to Dr Huxtable.

Then he said: "My friend, so far, we have obtained two clues, one is the bicycle with the Palmer brand tires, and the situation we just discovered from it. The other clue is the bicycle with the Dunlop brand. A bicycle with thick tires. As for this clue, we have not yet fully determined what.

"First of all, the child must have left voluntarily. He was alone or with another person."

"Also, the child was fully dressed, which proves that he had a clear purpose before the incident. But the German left without socks. He must have been unprepared."

"That's for sure."

"It may be that he saw the child run away from the bedroom window. He wanted to recover the child, but encountered misfortune on the way."

"Probably so."

"Now I come to the most critical part of my deduction. An adult riding a bicycle, not running after a small child. And I heard that he was quite skilled, which proves that he thought the child would run away quickly."

"That's going to involve the other bike."

"Let's go ahead and imagine the situation: Five kilometers from school, he was brutally hit by a strong arm. That means the kid was accompanied on the run, and they were running fast because a good biker It took five miles for the men to catch up with them. At the scene, there were only a few hoof marks of cattle and sheep. There was no path within fifty yards. Another cyclist may have nothing to do with this murder, and there No footprints of that person were left."

"Is this possible, my friend?" I exclaimed.

"That's right," said Holmes. "That's not the case at all."

"Did he break his skull when he fell?"

"That can't happen in wetlands."

"I can't think of any other way."

"I'll put it to good use now. The other tire is a Dunlop bicycle."

We followed the trail of the bicycle for some distance, and the moors soon rose to slopes, covered with heather, and we passed a waterway.But this trajectory still does not provide us with any clues.Where Dunlop's tire tracks ended was the Chesterfield High Road, which led on one end to the Duke's House, a few miles to our left, and on the other to the lower, vague countryside ahead.

We came to a dingy looking hotel with a sign of fighting roosters on the door.At this moment Holmes suddenly sprained his ankle.He jumped to the door with difficulty, and squatting in front of the door was a dark-skinned, older man with a black clay pipe dangling from his mouth.

My companion said, "How do you do, Mr. Reuben Hayes."

The countryman raised his eyelids and replied, "Who are you? How do you know my name?"

"The sign over your head tells me your name. You're the head of the family, and you probably don't have a carriage or anything like that in your stables."

"Yes, no."

"I can't keep my feet on the ground."

"Then don't step on the ground."

"Then I can't walk?"

"Can't you dance?"

The countryman was rude, but Holmes didn't mind it.

He said, "Look, friend, I really can't go. I don't mind going any way as long as I can go."

"I don't mind either," said the owner.

"I have very important business to do, and if you will lend me a bicycle, I will give you a pound in guinea."

The innkeeper pricked up his ears in surprise.

"Where are you going?"

"To the house of Duke Holdereth."

The shop owner looked at the dirt on our clothes and said ironically, "Are you the Duke's servants?"

Holmes still smiled mildly.

"He will be very glad to see us."

"why?"

"Because we have news of his missing son."

The owner of the shop was obviously taken aback.

"What? Do you know where his son is?"

"Probably in Liverpool, the police will find him any moment."

The owner of the shop was suddenly nice again.

He said: "Although he fired me for no reason. But I am still very happy to hear the news. Let me help you send the news."

"We'll have something to eat before you roll out the bicycle," said Holmes.

"I don't really own a bike."

My companion drew out a gold pound piece.

"I tell you, I don't have a bicycle, but I can provide you with two horses."

"Let's talk after we've eaten," said Holmes.

In the slate-covered kitchen, when it was just the two of us, his sprained ankle suddenly healed.After dinner Holmes was lost in thought, and once or twice he went to the window and stared.In the far corner of the outer yard was a blacksmith's furnace, where a scruffy boy was working.On the other side of the yard are the stables.Suddenly Holmes exclaimed:

"Ah! It must be so. Watson, do you remember the hoof marks you saw today?"

"Remember, there are some."

"where?"

"Oh, in many places, on the wetlands, on the trails, and near the place where the German teacher was killed."

"Yes. Then, can you tell me how many cattle you and I saw on the moor?"

"It doesn't seem like there's even a head."

"We saw many traces of hooves along the way, but we didn't meet a single cow on the wasteland. How strange?"

"It's very strange."

"Watson, trying to recall now, have you seen these traces on the trail?"

"Good! I see."

"Do you see traces like this?" He arranged some breadcrumbs into the shape of '::::::', "Sometimes it is like this again." He also arranged the shape of '∴∴∴', " Sometimes it happens by accident." He also produced the shape of '∴∴', "Do you remember?"

"No, I can't remember."

"But I can still clearly remember that I was too hasty to come to a conclusion."

"What conclusion do you have?"

"It can only be said that it is a strange cow, walking, running, and galloping. I am sure, Watson, that a country innkeeper would never have thought of such an ingenious deception. There seems to be no problem in solving the problem." , except the kid's still at the smithy. Let's sneak out and see what we can find."

There were two shaggy horses. Holmes lifted the forefoot of one of them, glanced at it, and said with a laugh:

"Old horseshoes, new nails. Let's go to the smithy."

The kid was still buried in his work when we walked past.My friend glanced at the pile of rotten iron and wood on the ground.Suddenly the shop owner came from behind.He was walking towards us viciously with a short stick with an iron head, and I couldn't help feeling for the pistol in my pocket.

He yelled, "You two bloody detectives! What are you doing here?"

Holmes said coldly: "Mr. Rubin Hayes, are you afraid that we may discover something?"

The shop owner tried his best to restrain himself, with a smirk on his face.

He said: "Without my permission, you don't want to poke your head here, you should check out as soon as possible, the sooner the better."

Mr. Holmes said: "We just want to see your horse. Let's walk to the Duke's Palace. I don't think it's too far away."

"The Ducal Palace is only two miles from here, take the road to the left," he said sullenly.

We stopped short at the turn of the road.

Holmes said: "It is so warm to live in an inn. We must not leave this inn."

I said, "I think the villain knows about the whole plot."

"Oh, does he give you that impression? And those horses, and the smithy. Yes, the inn is really interesting. Let's go back quietly."

Behind us is a sloping hillside, where large chunks of limestone are scattered.We left the main road and walked up the hill, when I glanced in the direction of the Duke's Palace, a man was galloping on a bicycle.

Holmes pressed down hard on my shoulder with one hand, and said to me: "Squat down, Watson." Before we had time to take cover, the man was flying across the road.Through the flying dust, what I saw was an excited pale face.

Holmes said: "It's the Duke's private secretary! Watson, let's see what he wants to do."

We hurried over the stones until we came to a point where we could see the front door of the inn.Wilde's bicycle leans against the wall by the door.As night fell, we vaguely saw two connected gas lamps hanging in the stables of the inn.The horseshoes clattered onto the road and then onto the Chesterfield Road.

Holmes said in a low voice: "What is going on here, Watson?"

"It seems to be running away."

"I saw a man in a one-horse carriage, and that man was certainly not Mr. Wilde, for he was still there."

Suddenly a red light appeared in the darkness.Under the light, the figure of Secretary Wilde poking his head appeared, and it was obvious that he was waiting for someone.After a while, there were footsteps on the road, and we saw a second figure flash through the light, the door closed, and the light came on 5 minutes later.

(End of this chapter)