"I just think..." I said.

"I must do this," said Holmes, somewhat impatiently.

I have always considered myself a very patient person, but I have to admit that it did make me unhappy when Holmes interrupted me in such a mocking tone. So I responded to him in an unusually serious tone: "Mr. Holmes

, to be honest, sometimes you are really difficult for others to accept."

Holmes did not immediately pay attention to my protest to him, but was concentrating on thinking about the problems in his heart. He supported his head with one hand, and an uneaten breakfast was placed in front of him. He stared intently at the envelope he had just pulled out.

After a while he picked up the envelope again, held it up to the lamp, and studied its appearance and seal very carefully.

"This is definitely Pollock's handwriting." Holmes said thoughtfully. "Although I have only seen Pollock's handwriting twice in the past, I can now say with absolute certainty that this message was written by him. Pollock

Locke liked to write the Greek letter epsilon in a squiggle at the top, which was his style. But if this is really what Pollock wrote, then it means something extremely important must have happened."

Holmes's words to himself were not directed at me, but his words aroused my interest, and all of a sudden the unhappiness in my heart disappeared.

"So who is this Mr. Pollock?" I couldn't help but ask casually.

Watson, this is a pseudonym. Pollock is just an identity symbol for this person, but behind this name is an elusive and cunning person. In his last letter, he told me in no uncertain terms that this

The name is not his, and he even openly told me that if I tried to track him in this vast metropolis, it would be futile and useless. The reason why he is important to me is not because of himself, but because of himself.

Because of the big shot he befriended.

Think, Watson, of a shark and a mackerel, a lion and a jackal--in short, what would happen if an insignificant thing in itself joined hands with a vicious devil.

What about the monster? It is not only vicious, but also extremely insidious. Watson, in my opinion, this man is such a monster. Have you ever heard of Professor Moriarty?

"Are you talking about the criminal who has a great reputation in the mafia and has superb methods..."

"No jargon, Watson," muttered Holmes a little unhappily.

"I just want to say that despite this, he is still unknown to the public." I defended.

"Ha! You are so smart!" Holmes shouted immediately, "I didn't expect you to be so humorous and witty! Ha, Watson, I really need to be careful. But from a legal perspective

It is said in the article that calling Professor Moriarty a 'criminal' is not a blatant slander against him? In fact, here is the secret! In fact, this man is the real mastermind behind the scenes, the leader of the underworld, he is the biggest

He is a conspirator, and all his actions can influence the destiny of a nation. Such a person has never had any doubts about him, and he has never been criticized. This cannot but be attributed to his admirable conduct in life.

His ability and his demeanor of not being keen on self-expression! Just the few words you just said are enough for him to take you to court, and he might even fine you a year's salary to compensate for his reputation.

What a loss! Didn't he also write a book called "Asteroid Mechanics" that is said to be difficult for the scientific community to criticize? It is said that this book has brought pure mathematical theory to another level. From this point of view, people like him

How can people be slandered casually? One becomes a doctor who talks nonsense, and the other becomes a professor who is maliciously slandered - you will be treated very differently. He is really not an ordinary person, Watson. But

, as long as we are not succumbed to the evil forces of darkness, we will one day win."

"I hope, as you said, we can wait until this day as soon as possible. You just mentioned the man named Pollock..."

"Well, yes, he is one of the links in the whole link. He is not far away from the big man, and his position in this link is not very solid. Of course, I am just saying this to you.

, according to my judgment, he is indeed the weakest one in the whole link."

"If you put it this way, if one link is weak, the whole link will not be indestructible, right?"

"Exactly, dear Mr. Watson, in this case, Pollock is very important to us. His most basic conscience and the 10-pound note I secretly gave him encouraged him, and

I have been provided with tips in advance once or twice. Because these tips allowed me to foresee and prevent some crimes from happening, instead of punishing the criminals after the fact like before. I can say with certainty that if we master the password,

You will find that it is exactly the kind of letter I just mentioned."

Holmes took out the piece of paper again and spread it flat on an empty plate. I stood behind him and carefully observed the seemingly irregular words. The words were arranged as follows:

534C21312736314172141DOUGLAS109293537BIRLSTONE26BIRLSTONE947171

"Well, Holmes? Do you get any information from these words?"

"There is no doubt that these words represent some secret information." "We don't have a code book, but this code letter is still useless!"

"Of course, it's completely useless in this case."

"Huh? Why did you say 'in this case'?"

"That's because there are many passwords that seem to me like reading the blurred words on a newspaper bulletin board. They are very simple, and these simple things make people feel interesting. But this time is very different.

These words refer to certain words on a certain page of a certain book, but we don't know which book it is, so it makes me feel helpless."

"Then why do the words DOUGLAS and BIRLSTONE exist here?" I asked in confusion.

"Obviously, these two words do not exist in this book," replied Holmes.

"Well, then why didn't he point out which book it was?"

"Dear Mr. Watson, you make everyone around you happy to have such a gifted friend like you. You wouldn't do something as stupid as putting the code letter and code book in the same envelope, would you?

If there is a mistake in one letter, everything will be lost. You can pack it separately. Only if two letters make mistakes at the same time can an accident occur. Now the second letter is coming soon. If there is no relevant explanation or explanation in that letter,

The original book of these symbols, that’s weird!”

A few minutes later, as expected, the little servant Billy came in with the letter we were looking forward to.

Holmes opened the envelope and said to me: "The handwriting is the same, and they are all signed!" He unfolded the letter and continued to say to me excitedly, "Look, Watson, there is finally progress." But when he finished reading the content inside

After that, he frowned.

Alas! Watson, this is really disappointing. Maybe our hopes will be dashed. I hope Pollock doesn’t encounter any unexpected events!

Dear Mr. Holmes:

I don’t want to do this anymore, because it’s too dangerous, and I can clearly feel that he has begun to doubt me. When I was about to finish writing my mailing address and send you the password index, he came unexpectedly.

Fortunately, I covered it in time. If he saw it, my life would be in danger. But I can already feel his distrust of me from the way he looked at me. Please cover it up.

Burn the coded letters I sent you last time, because they are of no use to you now.

Fred Pollock

Holmes sat down and fiddled with the letter, frowning and looking at the fireplace in front of him.

"Maybe it's nothing in itself, maybe it's just that he feels guilty. He feels that he has betrayed those thieves, so he feels that there is condemnation in other people's eyes." Holmes finally said.

"I think the person he is talking about is Professor Moriarty!" "That's right! No matter who among their group, as long as they say 'him', they will know who they are referring to. Because among them

There is only one 'he' who can give orders."

"So what?"

"Well! This is a big problem. When one of Europe's top smart people with a gangland background goes against you, anything is possible. But in any case, our friend Pollock is already very good.

He was obviously frightened. You can compare the handwriting on the envelope and the letter paper. The handwriting on the envelope is clear and strong. It was obviously written before that person arrived, while the handwriting on the letter paper was obviously written after that person came.

, so sloppy as to be blurry.”

"Then why does he insist on writing to us? Wouldn't it be safer not to write at all?"

"That's because he is worried that if that happens, I will ask him, which will cause him more trouble."

"That's right." I said, "Of course."

I frowned and carefully studied the original letter written in code: "I know that there are important secrets in it, but I can't decipher it. It's really crazy."

Sherlock Holmes pushed away the untouched breakfast in front of him and lit the boring pipe that accompanied his meditation.

"I have some doubts!" ​​He leaned back in his chair, looked up at the ceiling and said to me, "Your Machiavelli-like intelligence has also missed something. Let us simply reason about this problem,

The coded letter was based on an unknown book, and we used that as a starting point."

“This starting point doesn’t sound very promising!”

"Then let's narrow the scope as much as possible. If I focus all my thinking on this, it doesn't seem to be so complicated and unfathomable. Are there any signs that we can crack this book?"

"Not at all."

"Well, things aren't that bad yet! For this letter, the beginning is a big 534, right? Let's assume that 534 represents the number of pages in this unknown book? That's

It’s quite a thick book, and this is a breakthrough for us. What type of book is this? Is there any way or relevant signs we can find to find out? You see the second symbol is C2, this

What does it mean? Watson."

"Of course that means Chapter 2!"

"That's not necessarily the case, Watson. I'm sure you'll agree with me that assuming it has the page number, the chapter number is not that important. Or, if page 534 is still Chapter Two, then Chapter Two

Isn’t one chapter too long?”

"Then what column does C2 mean?" I shouted.

"You are so clever, Watson. You are so clever this morning! If this does not mean column number, then we are really going astray! Let's think about it. Suppose there is a thicker book.

, each page of this book is printed in columns, and have you noticed that each column should be quite long, because there is a number in the letter which is 293. Look, have we reached the limit of our reasoning? "

"I'm afraid that's how it should be."

"My dear Watson, you underestimate yourself. Think again and let your cleverness come into play again! If this book was not so common, he would have sent it to me long ago. But in fact in

Before he was exposed, he did not intend to send it to me, but only told me the clues by writing a letter, at least that is what he stated in the letter. Considering this point, it can be proved that in his opinion, this book is very important to me.

It's not hard to find. Since he has it, he thought I would have it too. All in all, Watson, this book is very ordinary."

"What you said is absolutely true."

"Then our clues have been narrowed down to a relatively common thick book printed in two columns."

"The Bible!" I suddenly realized and said excitedly.

"Very well, Watson, very well! But if you don't mind, I should tell you that it is not very good enough. Even if I accepted the approval of me, I could not name a less likely to appear in Morrie.

The books that Atty's henchmen have at hand, and there are so many versions of the Bible, no two versions will have the same page numbers, and the book he is referring to obviously has a unified version, which makes him convinced that his book

Page 534 on the page is exactly the same as page 534 in my book.”

“But there don’t seem to be many books that meet this condition!”

"Very true, and this is exactly our breakthrough. In this way, our scope has been narrowed down to almost everyone having one volume and a relatively uniform version of the book."

"A book by George Bernard Shaw!"

"There is still a problem. The words in Watson Shaw's works are concise and the vocabulary is not very rich. Those limited vocabulary are not easy to convey these messages, so they should be excluded. Based on the reason I just said, I can also read the dictionary.

It’s excluded. So let’s think about what other books meet these conditions?”

“Only the yearbook!”

"Excellent, Watson! It would be strange if you missed the mark! It is an almanac! So let us carefully consider the conditions of Whitaker's almanac! It is very common, has many pages, and is also

It is printed in two columns. Even though the vocabulary at the beginning of the yearbook is very concise, if I remember correctly, the language near the end is quite wordy." After that, Holmes walked to the writing desk, picked up the book and opened it: "Look,

The second column on page 534, which is a very long column, discusses trade and resource issues in British India. Watson, please write down these words. Yes, the 13th word, 'Maratha

', I have a bad premonition, the 127th word, 'government', well, this word seems far from Professor Moriarty, but it still seems meaningful. Let's continue, Maratha

What has the government done? Ah, the next word is 'bristle'. My dear Mr. Watson, we are screwed, all our efforts have been wasted!"

Although there was a joking element in his tone, I could see his disappointment and anger from the trembling thick eyebrows. I stared at the fire and sat there glumly without saying anything. Suddenly, Holmes cheered and broke the silence.

Break. He quickly walked to the bookcase and took out another book with a yellow cover.

"Watson, we were almost killed by fashion!" he said in a loud voice, "We suffered a loss in pursuit of fashion! Today is January 7th, so we bought the New Year's book for use. But Pollock has

He probably gave us the information by excerpting words from an old yearbook, and I'm sure if he had continued writing the letter, he would have given us this information. Let's take a quick look at page 534.

"Hmm...the 13th word is 'There', which is very promising, and the 127th word is 'is' - 'Thereis' (meaning 'there' - translator)." Holmes was extremely excited.

, his eyes were shining. When he pointed at the words in the yearbook, his slender fingers kept trembling with excitement and excitement, "'danger' (meaning 'danger' - translator),

Haha, great, Watson, write them all down. 'Thereisdanger-e-very-soon-one' ('Someone is about to be in danger' - Translator), then 's'('

Douglas' meaning - Translator) This is a personal name, followed by 'rucg-country-now-at-Birl-stoneHouse-Birlstone-confidence-is-pressin-g' ('I am sure a wealthy gentleman named Douglas

About to encounter danger, this man now lives in Birlstone Manor, Birlstone Village, meaning "extremely urgent" - Translator). Look, Watson! What do you think of this kind of pure reasoning and its effect? ​​If fresh goods

The store also sells laurel wreaths, so I’ll ask Billy to buy one for me right away.”

While Holmes was deciphering the codes, I jotted them down on a large piece of paper, concentrating on them as I wrote.

"It seems that the way he expresses his meaning is very strange and forced." I said.

"On the contrary, he did a great job!" said Holmes. "When your scope of expression is limited to a column of text, it is quite difficult to find every word you need to accurately express your meaning, so you can only

Leave some rough words for the recipient to rely on his intelligence to understand. What this letter wants to tell us is very clear. Some demons are working against a man named Douglas. Of course, we don’t know Douglas.

Who is he? I just learned from the letter that he was a rich country gentleman. He was convinced - of course he didn't find the word 'confident' (meaning 'confident' - translator) in that column, so he had to use the word 'confident'.

It is replaced by the similar word 'confidence' (meaning 'trust' - translator) - things can no longer be delayed. These are all we have gained - and it is a very decent and effective analysis work!

"

Holmes now seems to be a true artist. Even when he has not reached the high standards he has always pursued and is feeling quite disappointed, he still has an impersonal attitude towards the work results that satisfy him.

The excitement and excitement of likes and dislikes. When Billy led Inspector Macdonald of Scotland Yard into his room, Holmes was still laughing because he was immersed in the achievements he had just achieved!

As early as the late 1880s, Alec McDonald was not as famous as he is now. He was very young at the time, but he was well-known and deeply trusted in the detective community due to his excellent case-solving abilities.

. He is tall and burly, and seems to have extraordinary physical strength; he has a huge skull, and his pair of deep eyes and thick eyebrows reflect his sharpness and wisdom. He is usually taciturn and looks at things.

He sounds extremely serious and meticulous, and his personality seems to be so stubborn. When he speaks, he is accompanied by his unique strong Aberdeen Port accent.

Prior to this, Holmes had successfully helped him handle two cases. The only reward Holmes received from this was to enjoy the happy process of solving mysteries with his own intelligence. Therefore, he was a very special person from Scotland Yard.

Amateur colleagues who love and respect him, for this reason, every time he encounters a problem, he will take the initiative to seek advice from Holmes. It is difficult for a mediocre person to find out where others are better than him, but a talented person can immediately discover the excellence of others.

Macdonald is a very smart man, and he knows that asking Holmes for help is not a shameful thing, because Holmes is already a unique detective in Europe, both in terms of talent and experience. Although Holmes himself

He was not sociable, but he did not dislike this tall man from Scotland Yard. He always smiled at Detective Macdonald every time he met him.

"Mr. Mike, you came really early." Holmes said, "Everything is going well, right? I'm worried about another case?"

"Mr. Holmes, I think it is more reasonable to say 'hope' than 'worry'." The police officer smiled, "Well, a small sip of wine will immediately dispel the cold morning air.

Oh, thank you, I don’t smoke. I have to hurry up, because whenever a case occurs, the first moments are more precious than ever. You know this very well, but...but..."

The officer's words suddenly stopped. He looked at the piece of paper on the table in surprise where I had just jotted down the coded letter.

"Douglas!" he was already stammering, "Ballstone! What is going on, Mr. Holmes? Oh, you are a magician! Where did you know these two names?

?”

"This is what Dr. Gensheng and I deciphered by accident just now from a coded letter. But, what's wrong? Is there anything wrong with these two names?"
Chapter completed!