"Hey, Mr. Alec stood at the corner of the stairs and witnessed the two fighting. Where we are standing now is the place where the two fight. Old Mr. Cunningham was on the second window from the left and saw the thief fleeing to the bushes on the left. Alec said the same thing, and they all talked about the bushes. Mr. Alec later ran out and leaned against the injured coachman. Look at the ground here, and did not leave any clues for us." Sherlock Holmes was talking, and saw two people walking around the corner of the house and walking on the path of the garden. One was older, with deep wrinkles on his face, but his face was firm and his eyes looked depressed; the other was a young man in fashion and gorgeous clothes, with a smile on his face and a lively expression, which was a very strange contrast to the cases we had come before.

"Are you still investigating this?" he said to Sherlock Holmes. "I thought you Londoners would not fail, but it seems that you will not be able to solve the case soon."

"Oh, you need to give us some time," said Sherlock Holmes happily.

"This is necessary for you," said Old Cunningham. "Ah, I can't see any clues at all."

"There is only one clue." The policeman replied, "We thought we could find it only... Oh God! Mr. Holmes, what's wrong with you?"

My friend Holmes suddenly showed a very terrible expression on his face. His eyes rolled upwards, and his face almost deformed. He couldn't help but let out a painful sound and fell to the ground. His condition suddenly became so severe that we were frightened and hurriedly carried him into the kitchen and lay flat on a large chair. He took a few minutes of breathing, and finally stood up from the chair, expressing shame and apologies to everyone for his weakness.

"Watson will tell you that I had a serious illness not long ago and just recovered." Sherlock Holmes explained, "However, this kind of neuralgia is very prone to sudden."

"Do you need to send you home with my carriage?" asked Old Cunningham.

"Since I've arrived here, I still hope to figure it out a little bit, oh, this is not difficult to find out."

“What’s the problem?”

"Oh, according to my opinion, the arrival of the poor coachman is not necessarily before the thief enters the house, but after the thief enters the house. It seems that you are just wishful thinking that even though the door is opened, the thief has not entered the house."

"I think this is obvious," said Mr. Cunningham with a serious expression. "My son Alec has not fallen asleep yet. If anyone walks around, he will definitely hear it."

"Where was he sitting at that time?"

"I was sitting and smoking in the locker room," Alec said.

“Which window is the locker room?”

"The last window on the left is the one next to my father's bedroom."

"Then the lights in your two rooms should be on?"

"Yes."

"Now, there are a few strange doubts." Sherlock Holmes said with a smile, "A thief, and an experienced thief. When he finds the light, he will definitely know that there are two people in this family who are not asleep yet. If he still insists on breaking into the house, there is definitely a possibility of being discovered and caught. Isn't this very logical?"

"He must be a very experienced veteran."

"Oh, of course, if this case wasn't weird, we wouldn't have been forced to disturb you." Mr. Alec continued, "But you said that the thief had entered the room before William caught the thief. I think this view is too outrageous. The house was not messed up, nor was it lost."

"It depends on what kind of thing," said Sherlock Holmes. "Don't forget that we are fighting a strange robber. He has a very difficult and has his own way. Look, how strange the things he took from Acton's house - a ball of thread, a paperweight, and other trivial objects that I don't know."

"Well, all of this is entrusted to you, Mr. Holmes," said Old Cunningham, "we all follow your or the police officer's arrangement."

"First," said Holmes, "I hope I can ask you to give me a reward limit information. If you wait until the official agrees and pays a fund, you may have to wait for some time. Besides, these things may not be done immediately. I have written the grass. If you accept it, please sign here. I think 50 pounds is enough."

"I personally think that the case investigation should be advanced by £500." The sheriff took the paper and pen handed over by Holmes, and then said, "But this is not completely correct." He looked at the draft and added.

"I wrote too hastily." Sherlock Holmes replied with a smile.

"Look at what you wrote at the beginning: Given that there was an attempted robbery case at 0:45 a.m. Tuesday, etc. In fact, the case happened at 11:45."

I was very sad that this mistake made me realize that Holmes was always embarrassed by such negligence. It was his proud specialty to make the facts accurate. However, his condition has tortured him so much recently that the little thing that happened in front of me was enough to show that his body had not recovered at all. He was obviously embarrassed. The police officer raised his eyebrows, and Mr. Cunningham laughed cheerfully a few times, then immediately corrected the wrong place and handed the paper back to Holmes.

"Send it quickly!" said Old Cunningham, "I believe your ideas are very clever."

But Holmes carefully put the paper away and put it into his notepad.

"Now," he said, "we'd better have a close inspection of the house together to find out if the weird thief really didn't steal anything?"

Before entering the house, Holmes carefully inspected the broken door. It was obvious that it was made by using a chisel or a solid knife to pry the lock open. We could see the traces left on the wood after the sharp weapon was inserted.

"Don't you ever use a latch?" asked Sherlock Holmes.

“We have never felt it was necessary.”

"Don't you keep a dog?"

"I've raised it, but the dog was tied to the other side of the house by us."

"When did the servants go to bed?"

“Around 10 o’clock in the evening.”

"I heard that the coachman usually goes to bed at this time."

"Yes."

"It's a little strange. He happened to get up on the night of the accident. If you are happy to take us to check out this residence now, I will thank you very much, Mr. Cunningham."

We walked through the stone slab corridor next to the kitchen, followed a wooden staircase and went directly to the second floor of the residence. We walked up to the stair platform, opposite it was another ornately decorated staircase leading to the front hall. From this stair platform, there were the living room and several bedrooms, including Mr. Cunningham's son and his own bedroom. Sherlock Holmes walked calmly, paying attention to the style of the house. I saw from his expression that he was closely following a clue, but I still couldn't guess what he was following.

"I said sir," said Mr. Cunningham with a little impatient, "I think it must be unnecessary. My bedroom is at the entrance of the stairs, and next to it is my son's bedroom. Instead, I want to ask you to make a judgment. If the thief goes upstairs and we don't notice it at all, is it possible?"

"I think you'd better go to the surroundings of the house to find new clues." Cunningham's son said with a gloomy smile.

"I hope you will accommodate me for a while. For example, I would like to know how far you can look out from the bedroom window. Oh, I understand this is your son's bedroom." Sherlock Holmes pushed open the door and said, "This is the dressing room where he was smoking when the alarm was issued! Where does its window face?" Sherlock Holmes walked through the bedroom, opened the door, and looked around the other room.

"Now, I think you should be satisfied, right?" Mr. Cunningham said sharply.

"Thank you very much, I thought I wanted to see everything I wanted to see."

"So, if you think you really need it, go to my room."

"If it's not too much to bother you, then go!"

The sheriff shrugged his shoulders and led us into his own bedroom. The furniture and furnishings in the room were very simple, and it was a very ordinary room. As we walked towards the window, Holmes walked surprisingly slowly, and as a result, he and I were both behind. A plate of oranges and a bottle of water were placed beside the bed. When we approached the bed, Holmes leaned into my eyes and deliberately knocked all these things to the ground, but the glass bottle was smashed to pieces and the fruit rolled all over the ground, which shocked me!

"Warson, look at what you did," said Holmes calmly, "You have messed up the carpet."

I bent down in panic and began to pick up fruits everywhere. I understood that Mr. Sherlock Holmes wanted me to take responsibility, and he had some reason. The rest were picking up fruits, and at the same time they were busy lifting the table up again.

"Oh!" the officer shouted suddenly, "Where has he gone?"

Inside the house, Holmes was gone.

"Please wait here," said Alec. "I feel that this person has some nerve problems. Father, come, let's go find where he has gone."

As they said that, they rushed out of the door, leaving only three of us in the room, the colonel, the police officer and I stood indoors and looked at each other.

"Hey, I thought Alec was right." The police officer said, "It may be because of his illness, but I seem to feel..."

Before he finished speaking, a sharp cry of help came suddenly: "Come! Come! Come! Kill!" I heard that this was the voice of my friend Sherlock Holmes, and I couldn't help but feel nervous. I rushed out of the room frantically and ran towards the stairs platform. The screams became weaker and turned into a hoarse and vague cry, the sound came from the room we had entered for the first time. I rushed straight into and ran straight into the locker room inside. My friend Sherlock Holmes was pressed to the ground by Cunningham and his son. Holmes' throat was pinched by Alec's hands, and old Cunningham seemed to be binding one of his wrists. The three of us quickly pulled the father and son away from Holmes. My friend Holmes shook his body and stood up with an extremely pale face. He was obviously exhausted by tossing.

"Police officer, arrest these two people immediately." Sherlock Holmes said weakly.

"What is the charge of arrest?"

"The charge was for murdering his coachman William Cowan."

After hearing this, the police officer stared at Sherlock Holmes in a daze.

"Ha, OK, Mr. Holmes." The police officer finally spoke, "I believe, do you really want..."

"Hi, sir, look at their faces!" said Sherlock Holmes, raising his voice a little roughly.

That's right, I've never seen such a facial expression when the crime was exposed. The father seemed to be stunned all of a sudden, with anger and pain covering his firm face. His son had already lost his original lively attitude, his eyes spewed out the fierce light like a trapped beast, and turned into a fierce evil spirit. There was no such thing as a politeness. The police officer walked to the door without saying a word, blew the sirens, and two policemen ran over in response.

"Mr. Cunningham, that's all I have." The officer said, "I hope it's all a funny misunderstanding, but you should see-oh, what do you want to do? Put it down!" He raised his hand and hit him, and the pistol that was about to knock in Alec was shot to the ground with a "click".

"Don't move," said Holmes, stomping his pistol with his feet, and then said, "It's only useful during interrogation, and what we really need is this." He raised a small ball of paper and said excitedly.

"The piece of paper that was torn away!" the police officer shouted.

“It’s true.”

“Where did you find it?”

"I found it at the place where I inferred it will be. Oh, I will tell you all the case very clearly. Colonel, I think now you and Watson can go back, and I will meet you again at most an hour. The police officer and I need to interrogate the criminals, but I can definitely get back for lunch."

Holmes was very compatible. An hour later, we met again in the colonel's smoking room. He came with an old gentleman with a low figure. Holmes introduced me to Mr. Acton, and the first theft occurred in his house.

"When I tell you about this small case, I think Mr. Acton would be better off here to listen," said Sherlock Holmes. "Of course, he must be interested in the details of this case. My dear Colonel, you have treated me such a guest who loves to cause trouble. I think you may regret it!"

"Haha, the opposite." The Colonel replied enthusiastically and with a smile, "I thought it was a great honor to have the opportunity to learn your detective method. I admit that this was not what I expected, and I could not explain the result you came up with. I had almost no clue."

"I'm worried that my explanation will disappoint you, but whether it's for my good friend Watson or everyone else who really cares about my work methods, my work methods are completely public. However, Colonel, since I was suddenly attacked in the locker room just now, I hope I can drink some brandy and calm my mind. I've been exhausted just now."

"I firmly believe that your neuralgia will not be so sudden again!"

Holmes burst into laughter. "We will talk about this later." Holmes said. I will tell you about this case in order. As for the points that prompted me to make up my mind, I will tell you, if there is something I don't understand enough, please ask me at any time.

The most important thing in detective art is to discover what is a key issue and what is a secondary issue from a large number of facts. Otherwise, your energy will be dispersed and you cannot concentrate on solving the case. Therefore, from the beginning of this case, I believe that the key point of the entire case must be the horn of paper held by the deceased.

Before discussing this issue, I hope to draw attention to everyone. If what Alec said was true, if the criminal ran away immediately after shooting William, then the criminal would obviously not be able to tear the paper from the deceased. But if it weren't for the criminal, it would be Alec himself, because before Cunningham went downstairs, several servants had run out of the scene, which was obvious, but the police officer did not notice. Because he had isolated the squire from the case from the beginning. At that time, I was determined to be equal and follow the direction guided by the facts. Therefore, from the beginning of the investigation, I had doubts about the role played by Alec.

I carefully checked the little piece of paper that the police officer gave us. I immediately clearly saw that this was something that attracted particular attention. This is the small piece of paper. Do you see anything to find out the problem now?

"The font looks very irregular," the colonel said.

"My dear sir." Sherlock Holmes said loudly, "It is undoubtedly written by two people alternately. I only need to ask you to pay attention to the two powerful letters of "at" and "to", and then please pay attention to the two weak and weak letters of "t" among the two words "quarter" and "twelve". Just compare them simply and you will immediately see the truth. According to the simple analysis of these four words, you can say with certainty that the 'learn' and 'maybe' are written by a man with strong pen, but the 'what' is from the pen of a man with weak pen."

"God, this is indeed clear!" the colonel couldn't help but shout, "So, why do they write this letter in this way?"

"This matter is obviously a crime, and one of them does not believe in the other, so he decided that no matter what he does, they must do it together. Among these two, it is obvious that the mastermind is the one who wrote 'at' and 'to'."

"What's your basis?"

"It is not difficult to infer from the handwriting of the two, because we have a stronger basis. If you check this piece of paper carefully, you will find a problem: the person with a vigorous pen finishes all the words he wants to write in advance, leaving a lot of blanks for the other person to fill in. However, the blanks left are not all the right, and it is not difficult to see that the second person wrote very tightly when he picked up the pen and filled in the "quarter" between 'at' and 'to', indicating that 'at' and 'to' were written in advance, and the person who wrote the words he wanted to write first does not need to question, he is the planner of the case."

"That's great!" Mr. Acton said loudly excitedly.

"However, this is more obvious," said Holmes calmly. "However, now we will talk about the key point. You may not be clear. Experts can accurately infer the age of a person based on the handwriting of a person. I said, 'In general', this is due to the characteristics of the elderly who are weak and not very healthy. If a young man is a patient, his handwriting will be characterized by the characteristics of the elderly. In this case, if one handwriting is strong and powerful, the other handwriting is still very clear despite its weakness, and the word 't' is missing, it is not difficult to judge that one person is a young man, and the other is not very old, but is also an older person."
To be continued...