Sherlock Holmes Complete Works 2

Chapter 65 The Hound of the Baskervilles 4
Our client is punctual to appointments.The clock had just struck ten when the doctor arrived, followed by the young baronet.

"This is Sir Henry Baskerville," said Dr. Mortimer.

"Well, yes," said Sir Henry, "Mr. Holmes, I would have come to see you if I had not met Dr. Mortimer. I know you are good at trivia. A strange thing happened to me this morning. .”

"Sit down, Sir Henry, what's the matter?"

"I got a letter this morning."

He put the letter on the table, and we'll read it.The texture of the letter paper is average, gray.It was addressed to the Northumberland Hotel, in a scrawled hand, postmarked "Charing Cross Road," and sent the previous evening.

"Who knew you were going to the Northumberland Hotel?" asked Holmes.

"It's impossible for anyone to know. We decided after my meeting with Dr. Mortimer."

"But Dr. Mortimer has been there?"

"No, I was staying with a friend," said the doctor, "and we didn't express our intention to go to this hotel."

He took out the quarter-folded half 13-by-17-inch letter paper from the envelope, opened it and laid it flat on the table.There is a line of printed sentences in the middle, which reads:

If you value your life or have any sense of reason, stay away from the swamp.

Only the word "moor" is written in ink.

"Now," said Sir Henry, "perhaps you can tell me, Mr. Holmes, what this means, and who is so interested in my business?"

"What do you think, Dr. Mortimer?"

"What's the matter?" asked Sir Henry anxiously.

"You will know what we know before you leave this house. Let us now turn to this letter. Watson, do you have yesterday's Times?"

"Put it in that corner."

"Would you please show me a page, the one with the reviews." He skimmed it quickly, and it was about free trade. "Let me read you an excerpt from this article." : 'Perhaps you will again be deceived by the rhetoric that a protection tax would encourage your trade or industry. But if it is rational, in the long run, such legislation will impoverish the country and reduce the total imports, People's living standards are gradually declining.'

"What do you think of that, Watson? Don't you think it a very honorable sentiment?"

"I don't know much about taxation," said Sir Henry, "but as far as this note is concerned, I think we're digressing."

"On the contrary, we are on the point, Sir Henry. Watson knows more about my thoughts than you do, and he may not now understand the importance of this long sentence."

"Yes, I don't see the relationship between the two."

"However, the connection between the two is so close that every word in the text message is extracted from this long sentence. For example: 'you', 'your', 'life', 'life', ' Reason', 'value', 'away', etc., don't you see where those words come from now?"

"My God! You are so right!" cried Sir Henry.

"If there is any doubt about it, the words 'value' and 'keep away' are cut from the same place, and that is enough to remove doubt."

"Well, now... sure!"

"Mr. Holmes," said Mortimer, "if someone said that these words were cut out of a newspaper, I would believe it, but you pointed out which newspaper it was, and said it was an important editorial. Greatest thing I've ever heard. How did you know?"

"I suppose, doctor, you can tell the difference between a black skull and an Eskimo skull?"

"Of course."

"How is it different?"

"It's my hobby, and those differences are obvious."

"This is also my hobby, and the difference is obvious. In my opinion, there is also a clear difference between the small five type used by "The Times" and the type used by ordinary tabloids. The difference between type is The basic skills of a crime expert. The font used in the comment section of The Times is so unique that it is impossible to be mistaken. Because these words were posted yesterday, there is a good chance that we will find these words in yesterday's newspaper."

"So," said Sir Henry, "the man who cut up this note used a pair of scissors..."

"Nail scissors," said Holmes. "The scissors had very short blades, because the maker made two cuts while cutting the word 'keep away.'"

"That is to say, someone cut out the words used in this text message, and then pasted it with paste..."

"Use glue."

"It was glued to the paper. But why is the word 'Marsh' handwritten?"

"Because, he couldn't find the word in the papers. 'Swamp' isn't a common word."

"That makes it clear. Is there anything else in particular that you find in this note, Mr. Holmes?"

"There are still one or two points for investigation. He has tried his best to eliminate clues. This address is extremely scribbled. But "The Times" is usually only read by highly educated people. Since he tried his best to conceal himself From the point of view of his handwriting, he is afraid of being recognized by you. Also, as you can see, these words are not pasted in a straight line. This shows that the person was panicked when he posted the letter. Why was he panicked? The morning's letter will reach Sir Henry before he leaves the hotel. The writer is afraid of being caught—but of whom?"

"Now we're pretty much guessing," said Dr. Mortimer.

"Well, let's say it's a comparison. There's another point. You'll definitely take it as nonsense again, but I can be sure that the address on this letter was written in a hotel."

"Why do you say that?"

"If you examine carefully, you will see that both the nib and the ink have given the writer a great deal of trouble. In the middle of writing a word, the nib fell out of the ink twice. Between such a short address, The ink dries three times, which means that the bottle is very low. Private pens and ink bottles are seldom like this. Hotel pens and ink are often like this. If we go to the hotels around Charing Cross Road now to check one by one. Wastebasket, as soon as you find the cut part of the comment, you can immediately find the person who sent the strange letter. Ah! Oh! What is this?"

He held the letter on which the writing was written within an inch or two of his eyes and examined it carefully.

"what?"

"Nothing," he said, throwing down the paper. "Dr. Henry, has anything strange happened to you since you came to London?"

"No."

"Is someone following you?"

"What are you doing watching me?"

"We're coming to that. Before we get to that, Sir Henry, don't you have anything to tell us?"

"What is there to say?"

"Anything out of the ordinary is worth telling."

Jazz laughed.

"I suppose it is unusual to lose a shoe, sir?"

"Have you lost a shoe?"

"Sir," said the doctor, "you misplaced it?"

"Well, he asked me if anything else happened to me besides my daily life."

"Very true," said Holmes. "Do you mean that you have lost a shoe?"

"Last night, I left the shoes at the door, and there is only one left this morning. I just bought it from Hebin Road, and I haven't worn it yet."

"If you haven't worn it, why leave it out to be wiped?"

"The shoes hadn't been oiled yet, so I just left them outside."

"Did you buy a pair of high leather shoes as soon as you arrived in London?"

"I did a lot of shopping, and I had Dr. Mortimer with me. To be a country gentleman, you have to dress in the local style. I paid six dollars for those shoes, but they were stolen before I could wear them. Only."

"The one that was stolen seems to be a thing of no use unless it is paired," said Holmes. "I am of the same opinion as Mortimer. The shoe will soon be found."

"Gentlemen," said the Baronet, "I have told all I know. Now you must tell me what concerns us both."

"Very well," replied Holmes, "Doctor Mortimer, please repeat what you know."

The doctor took out the manuscript from his pocket and told it again. Jazz listened carefully and made a surprised sound from time to time.

"Well, it seems I have inherited a legacy with a grudge attached," he said. "I've heard about the hound when I was a boy, but I never believed it. My uncle's death—oh, this It made me very uneasy, and I still haven't figured it out."

"Yes."

"And now there's this letter again. I think it has something to do with that."

"This incident seems to show that there are people who know more about what happens on the moor than we do," said Dr. Mortimer.

"Besides," said Holmes, "the man meant no ill will to you, for he merely gave you a warning."

"Maybe he's trying to scare me away."

"That is also possible. Sir Henry, the question now arises, should you go to Baskerville Hall?"

"Why don't you go?"

"It might be dangerous there."

"Does the danger you are talking about come from our family's monsters, or from people?"

"That's exactly what we're trying to figure out."

"Whatever it is, I've made up my mind. At the same time, I haven't thought about what you've told me. I want to think about it. It's past eleven, and I'm going back to the hotel at once. If you By having lunch with Dr. Watson at two o'clock, I can tell you more clearly how shocked I am by the incident."

"Watson, is it convenient for you?"

"convenient."

"Then it's settled. Let me call you a carriage."

"I'd rather take a walk."

"I'm glad to walk with you," said Dr. Mortimer.

"See you at two o'clock, then!"

I heard the footsteps of two guests coming downstairs and the closing of the door.

"Get dressed, Watson, quickly! Don't stay for a while." Holmes rushed into the room in his pajamas, and came out after changing clothes in a few seconds.We went downstairs together into the street, and in front of us we could still see the Doctor and Sir.

"Shall I call them?"

"My God, please don't."

He picked up his pace, and the distance between us and them was cut in half.Then, he followed closely behind them, keeping a distance of one hundred yards.Once our two friends stopped and looked into a shop-window, and Holmes looked in too.After a while, he called softly, and following his gaze, I saw a two-wheeled carriage parked across the street with a man sitting on it, and now it was slowly moving forward again.

"That's the man, Watson. You should see that man clearly."

I saw a face with a bushy black beard and burning eyes turned towards us through the side window of the carriage.Suddenly, he opened the roof window, shouted something to the coachman, and the carriage galloped away.Holmes looked round for a carriage, but there was no empty one in sight.After that, he rushed over and chased desperately, but the carriage was too fast to be seen.

"Well," said Holmes angrily, "we never had such bad luck."

"Who is that man?"

"do not know."

"Is it a stalker?"

"Well, as far as I can judge, he must have been eyeing him since he came to town from Baskerville. Otherwise, how could Sir have been known to be staying at the Northumberland Hotel so quickly? If they came to the Northumberland Inn on the third day Got his tail, I dare say, the next day too, as you may have seen, when the doctor was talking about that legend, I got up and walked twice to the window, and looked out."

"yes, I remember."

"That was my search for people pretending to be at leisure in the street, and I found none. Our adversary was a shrewd man, Watson. I followed our friends after they had left, in order to spot the stalker. He Very cunning, with a carriage ready. That way you can follow them, or dash past them, without attracting their attention. There is, however, a disadvantage."

"Then he will be at the mercy of the coachman."

"Yes."

"It's a pity we didn't write down the car number."

"NO.2704 is the car number we are looking for. However, it is not useful to us at present."

"I don't see what you can do under the circumstances."

"When I saw the carriage, I should have turned back at once, hired another carriage, and followed it at a distance, or driven to the Northumberland Inn. When the man came home We can then see where he is going. But by my rashness, I exposed myself and lost my target."

We talked and walked.The Doctor and Sir were long gone.

"It is no use following them now," said Holmes. "Do you recognize the face of the man in the carriage?"

"I can only recognize his beard."

"I could too—but I think it's false. Come in, Watson!"

We walked into a helper agency and were greeted by the manager.

"Oh, Wilson, you haven't forgotten that little case I helped you with?"

"Of course not. You saved my reputation, and even my life."

"You've been honored. I remember that you had a kid named Cartley who showed some talent during that investigation."

"Yes, sir. He's still here."

"May I call him out? Thank you, and I would like you to change this five-pound note for me."

A 14-year-old kid stepped out.

"Give me the Guide to Hotels in the Capital," said Holmes. "Thank you! Ah, Cartley, there are twenty-three hotels here, all around Charing Cross. Do you see that?"

"Yes, sir."

"You're going to each of these hotels one by one."

"Yes, sir."

"You give the doorman a shilling for every house you come to, and here are twenty-three."

"Yes, sir."

"You tell them you want to see yesterday's waste paper. Say you're looking for a telegram that was misdelivered yesterday, understand?"

"Understood, sir."

"But it's the Times you're looking for, with a scissors-cut hole in it. That's it. Do you recognize it?"

"Yes, sir."

"Every time, the gatekeeper will call the gatekeeper in the living room to ask, and you will also be given one shilling per person, and you will be given another 23. You will be given another ten shillings for backup. Before evening, you go to my house Send a telegram and report the results of the search. Now, Watson, let us go and find out the coachman by telegram, the number is 2704, and then go to an art gallery in Securities Street to pass some time before we go to the hotel."

(End of this chapter)