Sherlock Holmes Complete Works 2

Chapter 52 Return 28
We spent the morning in the garden.Stanley Hopkins went to the village to investigate some rumors, and he was not at all interested in the news that Hopkins brought back.Hopkins said: "Some children did see a woman like Holmes described. She wore a pair of glasses, maybe a pince-nez." At lunch, Susan waited on us and actively Let's talk about some situations.Holmes was very interested in what she had to offer.Susan said: "Yesterday morning, Mr. Smith went for a walk, and within half an hour after he came back, the tragedy happened." Suddenly he stood up and looked at his watch.Said: "It's two o'clock, gentlemen. We should go to the bedroom, let's talk this matter out with the professor."

The professor has just finished his lunch and his appetite is good because there are empty plates on the table.When he turned his head and stared at us with flickering eyes, I felt that he was indeed a mysterious figure.

"Mr. Holmes, have you cleared up this case?" He pushed a large tin box of cigarettes on the table and pushed it to Holmes.Holmes stretched out his hand, but he knocked over the cigarette case, and the cigarette rolled all over the floor.We spent a full one or two minutes kneeling down on the ground to pick up those scattered cigarettes.When we rose there was a gleam in Holmes' eyes, and his cheeks were very rosy, with that expression of a battle-faced one which I had only seen him show once, in the most critical situation.

"Yeah, I figured it out," he said.

Both the sheriff and I were dumbfounded, while the professor's haggard face kept trembling, and at the same time he sneered mockingly:

"Really, figured it out in the garden?"

"not here."

"Here! When?"

"Now!"

"Sir, please don't joke. I must remind you that this matter is very serious, so don't be so casual."

"Professor Kerris, I am serious now, because every argument I have concluded has been investigated and verified. As to why you did this, and what you did in this strange case, I cannot yet Sure. However, you may tell me yourself in a few minutes. For your convenience, let me tell you what happened in the past two days first, so you can know what I have to ask you.

"A woman came into your study yesterday. She came to take the papers from your desk cupboard. She had a key with her, not yours, because I didn't find that when I checked yours. Slight discoloration caused by scratches. I understand from the relevant evidence that she came to grab the documents and you didn't know it, so you are not an accessory."

"That is very interesting," said the old gentleman, "and enlightening to me. Now that you have found out quite a bit about this lady, you must know what she has done."

"Yes, sir, I will. It was your secretary who caught her in the first place, and to get away she took the pocket knife and stabbed him. I am inclined, however, to regard the case as a misfortune." because I don't think this lady wanted to kill. If she had a motive to kill, she would have the tools of the crime with her. It turned out that she was terrified of what she had done and was desperate to run away, but with Mr. Smith During the fight, her glasses were taken away. She is very short-sighted and can't see clearly without wearing glasses. She ran along a road, thinking it was the one when she entered the house. It happened that the two aisles were paved A mat of coconut hair. When she realized that she had made a mistake, it was already too late, and the way of retreat had been cut off. She could not go back, but she couldn't stand still on the spot, so she had to keep going. She walked up the stairs, pushed away The door has entered your room."

The old professor sat there with his mouth open, but his face showed surprise and fear.He shrugged calmly and let out a smirk.

He said: "Sir, your reasoning seems to be right, but there is a little loophole in it. I have been in the house, you know, and have not left the whole day."

"Professor, I know that."

"Then you mean I didn't notice a woman come into my bedroom while I was lying in bed?"

"I didn't say that was the case. You noticed it. You talked to her. I think you know each other. You also tried to help her escape."

The professor stood up abruptly, the last glimmer of hope floating in his eyes.

He said aloud: "Go crazy, you are talking nonsense! How can I help her? Where is she now?"

"There she is," said Holmes, pointing to a tall bookcase which stood in a corner of the room.

At this time, the old man was stunned. He raised his trembling hands, and then his whole body collapsed on the chair.At this time, the door on the bookcase opened, and a woman came out and stood in the middle of the room.She said in a strange foreign tone: "You are right! Very right! Here I am."

She was not very pretty, and her figure and face were exactly as Holmes had guessed, and besides, she had a relatively long chin, which gave her a strong appearance.Although she is not very beautiful, she has a dignified manner and a calm demeanor, showing a tenacious and heroic spirit everywhere from her, which makes everyone present admire her.

Stanley Hopkins grabbed her arms and prepared to handcuff her.But she gently pushed Hopkin away with a solemn expression.

She said: "Sir, I have been arrested. I would like to tell all about it. I killed the young man, but it was a complete accident. I didn't notice at the time that I was holding a It was a knife, because I grabbed something at random from the table and stabbed the young man desperately so that he might let me go. I'm telling the truth."

"Ma'am, I trust you completely. You seem to be in poor health."

Her face was ugly, and the dust on her body was even more terrifying.She sat down on the edge of the bed and went on:

"I don't have much time, but I still want to tell you the whole truth. This man is my husband. He is a Russian. I don't want to say his name."

The old professor shouted: "Anna, God bless you, God bless you!"

She looked at the old man contemptuously and said, "Sergis, why do you live such a miserable life? You have ruined many people in this life, and it doesn't seem to do you any good. Why not How about taking your own life as soon as possible? But, I must speak up, or I will never have the chance to speak up.

"Gentlemen, I said we were husband and wife. He was a man of fifty when we got married, and I was a silly girl of twenty."

The old man muttered again: "Anna, God bless you."

"We were all revolutionaries, anarchists, many of us. Later, because of a sheriff, many of us were arrested. And he gave evidence for a lot of money and more for his life. , betrayed his wives and partners. Some of us were killed, others were exiled to Siberia. I was also sent to Siberia, but the exile was for a limited time. My husband brought with him comrades A large amount of ill-gotten gains in blood hid in England and lived a peaceful life. He knew that if he was found by our organization, he would die in less than a week." The old man tremblingly held out his hand again Smoked a cigarette.He said, "Anna, do whatever you want, I know you have always been good to me."

She said: "I haven't told you about his greatest evil qualities. In our team, there is a comrade who is my friend now. He has high moral character and impartiality. My husband does not have these qualities. He opposes the use of Violence, always writes to us, admonishing us not to use violence at every turn. He can get away with these letters, and my diary will also provide him with evidence, because in the diary I have recorded what I have done to him. Feelings and opinions of each of us. But these letters and my diary were discovered by my husband, who hid them secretly, while trying to prove that the young man should be sentenced to death. Although he did not The goal was achieved, but Alexei was exiled to Siberia and forced to work in a salt mine. You villain, think about it, they are treating this noble man like a slave. And for you , I have mastered your life, but I still let you go."

While puffing out the cigarette, the old man said, "Anna, you are a noble woman."

She said: "I have to finish this matter. After I was released from prison, I began to try to find these letters and diaries, because the Russian government will release my friend Alexei after they get these things. I asked When he came to England. After a lot of setbacks, I finally checked his address. I know that he still keeps these diaries because I received a letter from him when I was in exile. He used to quote from my diary to scold me. I knew he was a vindictive person and would never give me the diary automatically. So I hired a private detective who came to my husband's house as a secretary. The second secretary of your Sergis. He resigned soon after he came, because he found all the documents in the small cabinet and got the key sample. He did what he should do and gave The floor plan of my house, and told me that the secretary also lives upstairs, and there is no one in the study room in the morning. That's why I came to get these things myself. I got them, but I paid such a high price.

"When I got these things, I was about to lock them, when suddenly a young man came and grabbed me. I met him that morning when I was inquiring about the residence of Professor Kerris. I didn't know at that time that he was employed by the Corey's."

Holmes said: "That's it! When the secretary came back, he told Professor Corris that he had met a woman of such appearance. The young man wanted to say before he died: it was the one he had told the professor about." The woman stabbed her with a knife."

The woman said commandingly: "You let me finish. When the young man fell, I ran out of the study, but by the wrong door, I came to my husband's room. He said he would denounce me, I told him: If he does that, I will not let him go. If he turns me over to the police, I will tell our organization about him. I am not afraid of death, but I still have Important things to do. I will do what I say, and the fate of the two of us is intertwined with each other, so he had to cover me. I was stuffed into that dark corner by him, and he let the servant eat me sent to the house so that I could share some. We agreed that once the police left, I would run away in the night and never come back. But in the end we were found out by you, and all I have to say in this life is to say It's over." She took out a small bag from her chest and said to Holmes: "Use this thing to save Alexei. Sir, I know you are a man with a sense of justice. I entrust it to you and hand it over to the Russian embassy. British embassy. I have done my duty and..."

Holmes suddenly cried: "Stop her!" He immediately jumped to the other side of the room and snatched a phial from her hand.

She fell down on the bed and said, "It's too late, it's too late! When I came out... I had already taken medicine. My hair was faint. I'm dying! Sir, I beg you... please don't... …don’t forget…the…little package.”

On the way back to town, Holmes said: "The case is simple, but it is thought-provoking. The problem revolves around the pince-nez from the beginning. The young man was lucky to catch the glasses before his death. The depth of the glasses shows that People who wear glasses are so nearsighted that they can't do anything without them. Mr. Hopkins, you've made me believe that she actually walked across a patch of grass and wasn't trying to hide it. Do you remember, I'll just say Now, this approach is extraordinary. But in fact, I have long thought in my mind that this is impossible, except that she still has a pair of glasses. So, I can only seriously consider another hypothesis-she is still here. In the house. As soon as I saw that the two passages were almost the same, I thought that she might have gone the wrong way, and she would go into the professor's room through that way. I carefully observed the place where people could hide in this house.

The carpet was nailed in one piece to the floor so firmly that there could be no trap door in the floor.It is possible to hide a person behind the bookcase, which is usually the case in old-fashioned study rooms.The floor was full of books and the bookcase was empty, so I assumed the bookcase was a door.I couldn't find any other evidence, because the carpet was dark brown, so I smoked a lot on purpose and sprinkled the ashes in front of the suspicious bookcase.This method is simple and effective.Then we went downstairs, and later learned from Mrs. Marco about Mr. Cowres's surprisingly large appetite, which reminded me of two people sharing a meal.When we went upstairs at two o'clock in the afternoon, I purposely overturned the cigarette case so that I could examine the carpet in detail.By observing the changes of the traces of soot on the carpet, it can be seen that the lady came out of the bookcase after we left.Hopkins, congratulations on another successful case.Farewell, good-bye, my friend, the two of us are going to the Russian embassy in England. "

(End of this chapter)