Sherlock Holmes.

Chapter 155 The Last Greeting (17)
"The telegram came from an inn in Plymouth, Watson, the name of which I found out from the clergyman, and I telegraphed to inquire whether Dr. Leon Steadyre's account was true. He did stay at that hotel in the evening, and he did put some of his luggage on board for Africa, and he himself came back to find out what happened, what do you think, Watson?"

"The matter seems to have something to do with him. I thought about it, and it must be so."

"At stake—yes, but there's one clue we haven't got. It might help us sort out this mess. Take heart, my friend, as soon as all the material is in hand, the problem will be easy to handle, and we'll get rid of it in no time. Far away, Watson, you must believe that victory will surely be ours."

I wondered how soon Holmes' words would be realized, which would open up a new avenue for our investigation, and how strange and sinister this new development would be, did not occur to me.

In the morning, I was shaving while standing by the window, and I heard the clatter of horseshoes. I looked out and saw a carriage coming from there.In a blink of an eye, it stopped at our door, and the priest jumped down and ran towards the garden path.Holmes has also risen, and we shall meet him at once.

Our guest, utterly overwhelmed with excitement, stammered at last to tell his sad story.

"We are possessed by the devil, Mr. Holmes! The poor parish is possessed!" he cried. "The devil himself has wrought it! We have fallen into his clutches!" If it weren't for his pale face and frightened eyes, he would be a Shakespeare clown.Holmes and I both looked at him in astonishment, until at last he revealed the terrible truth.

"Treckens died last night in exactly the same condition as those three. Sir, we must be haunted by the devil."

Holmes rose nervously.

"Can your carriage hold us both?"

"can."

"Watson, I'm skipping breakfast. Mr. Longguard, we are all under your command. Hurry up and go to the scene."

Mr. Mortick Trekens occupied two rooms in the parsonage, one above and the other above, both in the same corner.Below was a large living room, and the upper one was a bedroom, and from both rooms there was a view of a lawn on which baseball was played beyond the windows.We were one step ahead of the doctors and the police, so there was no movement at all.It was a foggy March morning, let's talk about the scenery at the scene.I am sure that the impression it left on my mind will never be erased.

The atmosphere in the room was gloomy and rather stuffy, and the servants first came in and opened the windows, which would otherwise have been intolerable, perhaps because a lamp was still burning, smoking, on one of the tables.The dead man was at the table, leaning back in his chair, his sparse beard bristling, his glasses pushed up on his forehead, his face looking out of the window, his face distorted with terror, like his sister's.His limbs twitched and his fingers clenched, as if he had died of extreme terror. He was well dressed, but he seemed to have dressed in a panic.After our investigation, we learned that he had gone to bed and was killed in the early hours of the morning.

If you had seen the sudden change which took place when Holmes entered that room, you would have sensed a warm energy beneath his cool exterior.He immediately became tense and vigilant, as if he was about to face some struggle, his eyes sparkled, his face became serious, and his limbs trembled with excitement.Now he was out on the lawn, now he jumped in through the window, and looked about the room, and now he was back upstairs in the bedroom, like a hound bounding out of hiding.He did a quick check of the bedroom.Then he opened the window, and as if it gave him some excitement again, he leaned out of the window and yelled loudly.Then he rushed downstairs, slipped through the open window, lay down with his face on the lawn, got up again, and went back into the house again.He is full of energy, like a hunter who has found the trace of his prey.The lamp in the room was ordinary, but he checked it carefully and measured the size of the lamp panel.I also used a magnifying glass to look at the mica baffle covering the top of the chimney; I scraped off the ash that was attached to the shell on the top of the chimney, put it in an envelope, and put it in a notebook.Finally, the police and the doctor came, and he beckoned the priest over.The three of us came to the lawn outside.

He said: "Gladly, my investigations are not fruitless, and I cannot stay and discuss the matter with the police, but Mr. Runguid, if you please, remind the inspector for me of the bedroom windows and the drawing-room lights, I would be very grateful to you. Because the bedroom window and the light in the living room are very enlightening for us, put the two together, we can almost draw a conclusion. If the police want to know more about the situation, I welcome them to my residence, Watson, we had better look elsewhere now, and let the police do their work!"

Perhaps the police were unhappy with the private detective's involvement, or they had their own way, but it is certain that we heard nothing from the police for the next two days.

During this period, Holmes stayed at the villa, smoking, daydreaming, or walking in the village for several hours, and he did not tell me where he had been when he came back.

Then we did an experiment, which finally gave me a little insight into his investigation.He bought a lamp of the same size and construction as the one in the room in which Mortick Trekkens' tragedy had occurred.

He filled the lamp with the kind of oil used in parsonages, and kept a detailed record of the time it took for the lamp to burn out.This is the first experiment.But I will never forget the second experiment, which was unbearable.

He said to me that afternoon: "Have you noticed, Watson, that there is one thing in common in all the cases we have learned, and that is the atmosphere felt by the first person who entered the room where the crime was committed, Treken?" Do you remember how he described the last time he went to his brother's house when he went to his brother's house? Mrs. Putt told us that she too passed out when she came in and opened the window. No. The second case is that Trekens himself died-you will not forget that we felt very stuffy when we entered the house, although the servant had opened the window before, and then we went to the servant when we knew that the servant was not feeling well. Go to bed, Watson, these facts are instructive. They show the presence of poisonous gases in both places of crime, and the presence of something burning in both rooms of the crime--a stove in one, and a lamp in the other. Stoves are needed , but turn on the lamps - compare the fuel consumption and you will know, it is already daytime, why do you need to turn on the lights? Lighting, stuffy gas, and those unfortunate people, some are crazy, some are dead, this Don't you see that the three things are obviously connected? Do you think so, Watson?"

"It seems so."

"At least we can regard it as a very favorable hypothesis. Then we conjecture that in both cases a gas was given off by the things burned, which produced a curious poisoning effect. Well, we again Connecting the two cases, the first case - the Trekens house - this stuff was put in a fire. The windows were closed and the fire would naturally spread the smoke up the chimney. So there was no second poisoning The case is serious, because there is nowhere to disperse the smoke in the room of the second case. Judging from the results: in the first case, only the female died, perhaps because the female nerves were more sensitive than the male, and the other two men were insane. Which one it is is obviously due to the initial effect of the poison; in the second case, the full effect of the poisonous gas. Therefore, from the above analysis, it can be seen that the tragedy was caused by the poisonous gas released by the combustion.

"So I looked in the Trekens house to see if there was anything left, focusing on the lampshade or smoke shield. As I expected, I found some unburnt brown powder on the edge of the lamp. You also saw I took half and put it in an envelope."

"Why only take half?"

"My dear friend, I cannot hinder the official police. I leave them all the evidence I have found. The poison is still in the mica cover, if they can find it. Watson, we will light the lamp now, but first Open the window, or our two talented citizens may perish prematurely, sit in your chair near the open window over there, unless you are as wise as a man who would not take part in this experiment, which I know you will Yes, I know you well. I'm sitting across from you, and we keep a certain distance from the poison. The door is open, we look at each other, and if there are no dangerous symptoms, we will finish the experiment, understand? Okay , I took the powder—that is, what was left of it—out of the envelope, and put it on the lighted lamp, and that's it! Watson, let us sit down and see what happens."

As soon as we sat down, we smelled a thick musky smell, which made people sick. When the first scent hit, my brain and imagination couldn't control it. There was a thick black smoke in front of my eyes, but my heart still clear.Although nothing could be seen, something horribly evil seemed to lurk.I was forcibly pushed into the horrible smoke. The vague ghost wandered in the smoke, which seemed to indicate that something was about to appear. A strange figure came to the door and almost burst my heart. Fear gripped me.I felt like my hair was standing on end, my eyes were protruding, my mouth was open, my tongue was stiff, and my brain was like boiling water.Something must have snapped off, and I tried to scream, but it seemed like a hoarse cry from far away, so far away that it didn't seem to be my own voice.At this moment, I thought of running, so I escaped from the frightening and hopeless smoke.

I saw the frightened face of Holmes, like a dead man. This sight brought me to my senses in an instant. With strength, I threw off the chair, ran to embrace Holmes, and we both staggered away. That horrible room.Soon after, we both collapsed on the lawn outside.

At this moment, both of us felt that the brilliant sunlight pierced through the hellish smoke that surrounded us, and the smoke slowly dissipated from our hearts, as if the fog disappeared from the mountains and trees, and the calm and rational sunshine shone again. onto us.We sat on the grass, wiped our cold foreheads, looked at each other, and observed the aftermath of this catastrophe.

"To tell you the truth, Watson!" said Holmes, still trembling, "I must thank you and apologize to you for the experiment, which is quite reproachable even to myself, and to my friend. It's worse. I really shouldn't, my dear friend, I'm so sorry."

I have never had such a detailed understanding of Holmes' inner world as I do now. "You see," I said excitedly, "that this helps you, doesn't it? I'm honored."

Immediately, he returned to the half-humorous, half-sarcasm expression that was his customary attitude towards others: "Watson, it is superfluous to drive us so crazy. Before we conducted this experiment, the audience must have thought that we Crazy. I have to admit, I didn't expect the reaction to be so strong." He ran in and out, the lamp in his hand, arms stretched out to keep himself away from the lamp, and he threw it away. Into the thornbush. "The room must be ventilated. I think, Watson, that you will no longer have any doubts about the occurrence of these tragedies?"

"Yes."

"However, the reason is still unknown." Holmes frowned.

"Let's discuss it in the gazebo over there." He turned and walked into the gazebo.

"The damned thing still seems to be stuck in my neck, we have to admit, it's all done by that villain Mortique Trekens, who was the victim in the second tragedy, but in the first He's a criminal. We should remember first of all that the family had quarrels before and then reconciled, to what extent we don't know. When I think of Trekens' sly face, especially behind the glasses He was not a good-natured man with his small, sinister eyes. He said something about the garden, and that drew our attention away from the right direction. He just wanted to put We introduce misunderstandings. Lastly, if he hadn't thrown the powder into the fire, who else would have? As soon as he left, something happened. You think, if anyone else came in, the people in the room would definitely stand up from the table. Besides Well, no one is out in this quiet Cornwall after ten o'clock at night, so we can say that everything points to Trekens as a suspect."

"Then he committed suicide!"

"Well, Watson, on the face of it this assumption may appear to hold. A man who has brought such calamity upon his own family will feel remorse, and he may commit suicide out of remorse. But there are reasons for refuting the assumption, well. Well, there is a man in England who knows all about it, and I have arranged that we shall have his account this afternoon, and oh! he has come early."

"Please, Dr. Leon Stridell, we have just conducted a chemical experiment in the room, so we cannot receive distinguished guests in the room." Holmes laughed.

We heard the click of the garden door, and the tall figure of the explorer appeared, surprised, and turned towards us.

"It was you who sent me, Mr. Holmes. I received your letter about an hour ago and I came, though I don't know what I was ordered to do. Is that so, sir?"

"Perhaps we can sort things out before we part," said Holmes. "I thank you for being here now, and I hope you will forgive me for the insufficiency of the outdoor reception. My friend Watson and I will christen "Kurney A new chapter is added to the manuscript of What a Horror, and now we need fresh air, and the issues we are going to discuss may be closely related to you. Therefore, let’s talk in a place where no one can overhear, okay? ?”

The explorer, with a livid face, took the cigar out of his mouth and looked at my companion motionless, as if something had struck him suddenly.

"I don't know, sir," said he, "that the subject you wish to speak of has any affinity with me."

"The death of Mortique Trekens," said Holmes, looking at him.

At that moment, I really wished I was fully armed and holding a weapon in my hand. Stadell's hideous face turned red, his eyes widened, and the veins on his forehead were bulging. He clenched his fist and rushed towards my friend. Then he forced himself to stand still, trying to calm himself down.He looked more frightening than furious.

"I have lived with savages for a long time, and the law can't restrain me," he said, "so I am the law, which is no wonder. Don't forget, sir, that I actually don't want to harm you. You should remember what happened before." thing."

"I don't want to harm you, doctor. Although I already know everything, I went to you first instead of the police."

Stridell sat down gasping for breath, terrified.

Perhaps as never before in his adventurous career, Holmes had a calm, self-assured air which had its own strength.Our guest had nothing to say for a while, and was so anxious that he didn't know where to put his hands, like a bound monkey.

"What do you mean?" he asked at last. "If you are trying to frighten me, you are in the wrong man. Let us stop going around, and come straight to the point, Mr. Holmes. What do you mean?"

"I will tell you," said Holmes, "that I have settled the matter, and have invited you here because I wished to exchange my frankness for yours."

At this point Holmes paused and said:
"The next step I take depends entirely on the nature of your defense."

"My defense?"

"Yes."

"What am I defending?"

"Defense to charge of killing Mortik Trekens."

Studdell wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief. "Frankly, you push too hard," said he. "Has all your astonishing success come from this force of bravado? In that case, you have too much contempt for me, Mr. Holmes."

"It is you, not I, who are bluffing," said Holmes gravely. "Dr. Leon Steadell. I will give you some facts on which my conclusions are based, as evidence. I only want to mention that you Returning from Plymouth, and transporting the greater part of my belongings to Africa, taught me that you were one of the chief elements of this tragedy, and that you were exposed by this action."

"I'm back—" Steddale seemed to explain something.But Holmes didn't listen, and went on to say: "I have heard you explain the reason for your return. But I believe that because it is not sufficient, I should not mention that implausible reason. When you came to ask me who I suspected, at that time I didn't answer you, so you went to the pastor. But you didn't go in, you just stayed outside the pastor's house for a while, and you finally returned to where you lived!"

"How... how do you know?" He asked suspiciously.

"I followed you."

"However, I didn't realize that anyone was following me," he said.

"Since I am following you, I shall not let you know," said Holmes, with a smile, "you have been fidgeting all night in the house, and you have made a plan which you intend to carry out the next morning, and therefore you will be able to do it the next morning." You left the house before the light was on, and there was a pile of reddish pebbles at your door, you took a few of them, put them in your pocket and went out."

Studdale stared at Holmes blankly, stunned.

"Your house is about a mile from the parsonage, and you walked the distance quickly. I saw you were wearing the same tennis shoes you are wearing now. You walked through the garden of the parsonage, and the fence beside it, and appeared Under the window at Trekens, though it was broad daylight at that time, before there was any movement in the house, you took a pebble out of your pocket and threw it on the window-sill."

Studdell stood up.

"You are nothing short of a devil!" he cried.

Holmes only smiled at the compliment.

(End of this chapter)