Sherlock Holmes Complete Works 2

Chapter 57 Return 33
"That may be the reason. Hopkins, can you tell me something about this knight?"

"He is very kind when he is sober, but when he is drunk or half drunk, he becomes very vicious. It is said that once he was drunk, he soaked his lady's dog in kerosene and set it on fire. Another time he told the maid Theresa Rhett threw a water bottle. What are you looking at?"

Holmes knelt on the ground, carefully examined the knots in the red rope, and then carefully examined the end of the rope that the robber had torn off.

"The kitchen bell should be very loud if the rope is pulled down," he said.

"No one will hear it, the kitchen is at the back of the house."

"The robber won't know the situation. How could he break the bell-rope first?"

"I've thought about it too. The robbers knew the house well, and they knew the customs. He knew the servants went to bed early and no one could hear the kitchen bell. So he It must have something to do with one of the servants. But all eight servants are well-behaved people."

Holmes said: "If the situation of every servant is similar, then you should be suspicious of the servant whose master threw the water bottle on her head. But if you suspect the maid, you will suspect the lady. After you catch Randall It will be clear. We must investigate what Madam has said." He went to the window, opened it, looked at it, and said: "There will be no trace here, because the ground under the window is hard, and those mantelpieces candles are lit."

"Yes, it was by the light of these candles and the lady's bedroom candle that they went out."

"Did they take anything?"

"There are only six plates in the sideboard. The lady thinks the robbers were too flustered by Sir's death to rob them."

"There seems to be some truth to that explanation, is she saying they had a drink?"

"Probably they were trying to calm their nerves."

"Yes. Perhaps the three glasses on the sideboard have not been moved?"

"No, everything remains as it is, including the cup."

"Let's see, hey, what is this?"

There were three glasses, each of which had been filled with wine, and one of which still had the dregs of wine.There is a wine bottle next to the wine glass, there is still more than half of the bottle of wine in it, and a cork is placed beside it.The shape of the cork and the dust on the bottle indicate that this is not ordinary wine, why would the prisoner drink this wine?

Suddenly Holmes's eyes flashed, and he carefully checked the cork in his hand.

"How did they get the corks out?" he asked.

Hopkins pointed to the half-open drawer, where some napkins and a large corkscrew lay.

"Has Madam ever mentioned the matter of the corkscrew?"

"No, maybe when the robbers opened the wine bottle, the madam had passed out."

"But it is probable that they did not use a corkscrew, but a screw that was carried on a pocket knife. This can be drawn from a close inspection of the upper part of the cork, which was inserted three times before it could be pulled out. The corkscrew will come out in no time.”

"Analysis is brilliant!" says Hopkins.

"But what these glasses mean, I don't know. My lady did see these three drinking, did she?"

"Yes, she remembers that very well."

"Anything else? But, Hopkins, you must admit that there are many peculiarities about these three glasses. Well, Hopkins, goodbye! Let me know if Randall is caught or something new arises. Watson, let us go home."

On the way home, Holmes had a perplexed expression on his face.When our train was moving from a small suburban station, he suddenly pulled me and jumped onto the platform.

He said: "I'm sorry to have startled you, but a thought has suddenly arisen in my mind. At any rate, Watson, I must take care of the case. Things are turned upside down, I assure you. But we can't find Mrs. There is a little loophole in what I said, and the maid's testimony is also sufficient, and the details are also very accurate. What do I disagree with? Three wine glasses, that's the three wine glasses. If I go back to investigate the situation now, will I just Can more corroboration be obtained? I think it will. I will give you my evidence, Watson, but first you must deny in your heart that everything the maid and mistress say is true.

"If we think about it seriously, we can cast doubt on some of the details in the lady's words. These robbers were all over the place a fortnight ago. Their movements and appearances are already in the papers, so who wants to make up a When there are stories about robbers, they must be the first thing that comes to mind. And robbers who have already got a lot of money generally don’t take risks easily. In addition, robbers generally don’t rob at such an early age, and they don’t usually use wounds A woman's way to stop her screaming, if a woman is beaten, she will scream louder. Also, if there are many robbers, they will not kill, because they are enough for one person. Also, Robbers are often very greedy, and will take everything they can. In the end, the robbers will not leave more than half a glass of wine, but drink it up. Watson, what do you think?"

"It would be interesting if you put all these things together. The most suspicious thing I see is that the robbers tied the lady to the chair."

"I haven't figured that out yet. They'd better kill her, or get her somewhere where they can't escape. But what about the glass?"

"And what about the wine glass?"

"Have you figured out what happened to the glass?"

"I've figured it out."

"Do you think it's possible that three people drink from glasses?"

"How is that impossible? There's wine in every glass."

"Yes, but what's the matter with the dregs being in only one cup?"

"When pouring, the last glass may have dross."

"That's not the case. Because the bottle is full. There are only two possibilities. One is: After the first two glasses were filled with wine, the bottle was shaken vigorously, and the third glass was filled with dregs. But It seems so impossible."

"Then how do you explain that?"

"That is, only two glasses were used, and the dregs from both glasses were poured into the third, creating the illusion that three persons were drinking there. If the interpretation of this detail is correct, it can Prove that what the lady and the maid are telling is all lies. This is a peculiar case, then. There must be a reason why they protect the criminal, so they cannot be relied upon. We are left to ourselves and try to make the situation clear. Clearly. Here comes the train, Watson, for Seatonham."

Our return surprised the people of the Grange.Stanley Hopkins had reported back to the headquarters, so on entering the dining-room Holmes locked the door and inspected it for two hours.He sat in a corner and examined it carefully.We checked the windows, the drapes, the rugs, the chairs, the rope, and thought about it.Jazz's body has been removed, and what remains is as we saw it this morning.Holmes also climbed onto the mantelpiece.The red-headed rope was still attached to a wire and was hanging high above his head.In order to get closer to the end of the rope, he knelt on a wooden bracket on the wall, but it was the bracket, not the rope, that caught his attention.Later, he jumped down contentedly.

"Well, Watson," said he, "we have settled the case, which is one of the most singular cases in our collection. Now, save for a few details, the whole course of the matter is understood."

"Who do you think the criminals are?"

"There's only one culprit, but he's a formidable man. He can bend a squeegee, and he must be as strong as a lion. He's six foot three, nimble as a squirrel. He makes up the whole story." .We have a case that this character has carefully engineered, but he's showing a hole in the bell rope."

"What's going on?"

"Watson, if the bell-rope were to be pulled down, where do you think the rope should break? Of course it would break where it meets the wire. But why did the rope break three inches from the wire?

"Yes. He frayed the end of the rope on purpose with a knife. But the other end was unfrayed. If you climbed up the fireplace, you'd see that end cut neatly, without any signs of fraying. The man needed a but he knew the bell would sound the alarm, so he didn't break the rope. What did he do? He climbed up the mantelpiece, but couldn't reach it, so he knelt on one leg again on the bracket (the dust on the bracket There are marks), took out a knife and cut the rope. I couldn't reach the place yet, at least three inches away, so I think he was three inches taller than me. What is the mark on the oak chair?"

"is blood."

"Indeed it was blood. That makes the lady's story a lie. If she had been sitting on the chair when the robber killed the man, how could there be blood on the chair? So she must have sat on the chair after her husband's death. Then A black dress bears the same trace. Watson, I would like to have a few words with nurse Tiressa."

The nanny was taciturn and rude.Holmes was gentle with her, and after a while she at last trusted him.She hated her dead master very much.

"Yes, he threw the water bottle at me. Once he scolded the mistress, and I said that if the mistress's brother was around, he wouldn't dare to scold. So he threw the water bottle at me. The mistress is always abused by him. In the morning The scars you see on the lady's arm, that's from pins. He was very genteel and polite when we first met him, when the mistress had just arrived in London. Her heart was taken by knights with titles, money and hypocrisy They got married in the first month of last year. Ah, she came downstairs again, don't ask too many questions, she has suffered enough."

We went into the living room with the maid.The maid again began to apply hot compresses to the mistress's bruised eyes.

The lady said, "Didn't you come to interrogate me again?"

My friend said, "No, ma'am, I don't want to trouble you. If you trust me like a friend, I will try to help you."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Tell me the truth."

"Mr. Holmes!"

"Mrs. Brackenstall, it would be useless to conceal. I think what you have told is a complete fabrication."

The lady's face was pale, and there was a look of fear in her eyes.

"You say my mistress is lying!" cried the maid.

"Have you nothing else to tell me?" my friend said.

(End of this chapter)