[Comprehensive Classics] Detective Mary

Greeting Mary in the middle of the night is already the last link in the deployment of the whole plan.

By the time Mary and Holmes came to the hillside near Hamp's house in the dark, all the personnel had already taken their positions. Standing on the hillside, they could just see the lights of the Hamp's mansion.

As the client, Mr. Thornton naturally couldn't sleep well tonight. He couldn't rest assured, so he took the initiative to take the responsibility of accompanying Hamp, lest he, who was afraid of death, expose himself at a critical moment.

Now Hamp's figure is sitting by the window, probably [-]% of which is Mr. Thornton's credit.

Higgins, who provided the sniper spot a few days ago, was not at ease, and took Butcher to hide in the bushes under the hillside to wait for orders, in case Colonel Sebastian Moran brought his accomplices or other accidents.

On the top of the mountain, of course, there were only Holmes and Mary.

The two of them hid behind the trees at the top of the hillside.The night is dark, but the moon hanging above the curtain is extremely clear, reflecting the entire sky without stars, and the earth is also clear.

This is a fine weather suitable for sniping, and more importantly, the bright moonlight elongates the shadows of the trees, making the dark shadows completely cover the figures of the two people.

Standing in a backlit place is less likely to be noticed.

There are only two people.

Mary swayed from side to side, seeing that Colonel Moran didn't show up for a long time, she couldn't help turning her head to look at Sherlock Holmes.

The detective leaned against the tree, the night shrouded his face, even if he was so close, he couldn't see clearly.But he was not idle for a moment, and kept holding his empty right hand.

Mary thought for a while: "Do you want to smoke, sir?"

Holmes: "..."

The detective who was said to be the center of the matter let out a rather irritated breath: "It's too eye-catching, it's not suitable now."

Mary laughed out loud.

For the past few days, he was temporarily living in the Marlborough factory, mingling with it as a worker. No matter how privileged Sherlock Holmes was, he would not be allowed to smoke in the factory.

Not during the day, nor at night to investigate the case.Although Mary thinks smoking is harmful to health, it is much better than Sherlock Holmes injecting cocaine in the original book.

So she kindly started a new topic to help the detective divert her attention: "What did you go through in your overseas investigation, sir? Since Professor Moriarty discovered you, it must be very difficult."

"It wasn't difficult at first."

Holmes accepted Mary's kindness and replied, "I went to Egypt first. The manpower he deployed in the raw material market didn't know his real face, and the investigation went smoothly."

Egypt!

Mary's eyes lit up. She wanted to go to Egypt too.In the 21st century, Mary has been interested in mysterious ancient civilizations since she was a child.But after she worked for a long time and had enough savings to travel abroad, the Mesopotamia was fighting and Egypt was in chaos.Travel plans have been put on hold due to safety concerns.

Perhaps in the Victorians she would one day become as famous a writer as Dickens and pay for a trip to Egypt.

——Although this future is far away, it is still possible to dream.

"It was only after arriving in France," he said, "that I quickly established that James Moriarty himself was present in France. That's how I gave away my whereabouts."

Mary was taken aback.

"Did you see him with your own eyes," she asked urgently. "Have you seen Professor Moriarty?"

Holmes pondered for a moment.

He turned his head sideways, and the small half of his stern face turned to the moonlight, and Mary read a bit solemnly: "I saw him from a distance."

"Hey?"

"The current James Moriarty is a visiting professor of mathematics at the Sorbonne," Holmes explained. "His courses are very popular, and he even has a special public lecture. I sneaked into the school auditorium and saw him."

"What does it look like?"

"The conversation is witty, calm and decent," the detective replied, "and more importantly, his lectures are indeed very valuable, explaining the profound things in simple terms, quoting from many sources, and explaining the incomparably novel and complicated mathematical principles in an easy-to-understand manner, which even benefited me a lot. "

"..."

Mary could not have missed the sympathy in Sherlock Holmes' tone.

Assuming it wasn't an illusion, she still felt that the detective was a little excited and a pity - if the two were not on opposite sides, they would definitely become very good friends.

"Sounds like a gentleman. It's hard to imagine that such a person would be trying to disrupt the world market." Mary muttered.

"Bad guys don't wear their identities on their faces," Holmes said. "It is precisely because he is a mathematical genius that the global economic situation is nothing more than a huge mathematical model in the eyes of Professor Moriarty. Do it, and enjoy it.”

Well, it makes sense.

"Besides the professor?"

Mary couldn't help but asked curiously again: "Since this Colonel Sebastian Moran is the professor's confidant, and he left his confidant in the country, will he not be without other people?"

Holmes nodded upon hearing this, "There is a lady beside him."

Miss?

Mary blinked blankly.

It is never mentioned in the original book that James Moriarty had a constant female companion - in fact Sir Conan Doyle spent very little ink on the detective's sworn enemy.

"The lady is not very old," said Holmes. "It appears to be his daughter."

... The original book does not say that James Moriarty was a bachelor old gentleman.

Mary's heart couldn't help tightening: the part beyond what was explained in the original work is considered a supplementary setting in the world of fan fiction.This part of the clue is completely out of Mary's control.

There was a young girl, probably the professor's daughter.

She silently repeated this clue in her heart and memorized it firmly.

All unexpected variables must be carefully considered.

"I see," Mary nodded slightly, "How's the environment in Paris? It's so close, I must go sightseeing in Paris if I have the chance."

Egypt has the pyramids, but Paris is no different in terms of cultural influence.Especially in the nineteenth century, the influence of countless French literary and artistic masters spread to almost the whole of Europe.

Not to mention anything else, at least the artists who will be buried in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery and Montmartre Cemetery in the future are all alive and well. Maybe Mary is lucky enough to meet the literary gods themselves on the street.

However, Mary's fantasy just got Holmes to throw cold water on him straightforwardly: "Do you know French?"

Mary: "..."

In fact, it really does.

Mary chose French as her second foreign language when she was in college. Reading and writing may not be possible, but simple daily communication is no problem.

However, the key point is that the time-traveled Mary can, but "Mary Bennet" can't, she can't tell the truth.

How can this be done?

Mary, unable to admit it out loud, had no choice but to simply ambiguously say, "I just..."

In the middle of her words, Holmes suddenly stretched out his hand, "Hush, here we come!"

Needless to say, Mary also heard footsteps coming from a distance.

The hillside immediately fell silent.

The sound of heavy military boots landing came from far and near to the top of the hillside.Holmes pulled Mary almost immediately, half protecting, half reminding her, pulling her behind him.

From Mary's point of view, she could only see a tall, solid black figure precisely stopping at Holmes' preset sniper point.

Soi Ying put down the box in his hand, squatted down, and opened the box.

He took out the butt of the sniper rifle from it.

Mary immediately held her breath.

She looked at Holmes again, but the detective did not move.

Holmes even reached out and touched the edge of Mary's arm lightly as a gesture of reassurance.

When the black figure assembled the complete sniper rifle at a proficient but steady speed and put it on his shoulder, Mary couldn't help but speak in a very small voice: "Sir?"

There is no need for Mary to remind me next time.

For Sherlock Holmes had already rushed up.

His movements are agile and his figure is extremely fast.But the moment he stepped out of the footsteps, Colonel Sebastian Moran had already heard the movement.

The Colonel's reaction was equally quick. He turned around immediately, dropped the sniper rifle, and blocked Holmes' first attack.

Mary was not idle either.

When the detective first made contact with the colonel, Mary jumped out from behind the tree and kicked the sniper's rifle away.At the same moment Mary saw the colonel's right hand stretched toward the back of his waist.

"Detective beware!!"

Without saying a word, she jumped directly behind Colonel Moran, and took out the gun from behind the man's waist one step ahead.

Colonel Moran, who touched the empty gun, immediately lost the opportunity.

Holmes, dressed as a worker, showed his ability to make the best use of it. He directly took off the towel that was hung around his neck like other workers in order to hide his eyes and ears. He turned his wrist around and wrapped it around Colonel Moran's. one hand.

Colonel Moran tried to break free with his other hand, but the detective blocked it with a backhand.

And Mary's cry made the two workers hiding under the hillside rush to the scene immediately.

This battle was even easier than facing Captain Carter—because Mr. Holmes was not the only one fighting the enemy this time, there were also two adult men and Mary helping him.

The joining of Higgins and Butcher turned the tide of the battle in an instant, and the three men hurriedly pushed Colonel Moran to the ground.

"Colonel Sebastian Moran."

Butcher took out the hemp rope that he had prepared for a long time, and tied Colonel Moran tightly.Holmes said calmly, "I have long admired your name."

"What Colonel Moran?!"

The man in the black windbreaker couldn't stop struggling. He faced the ground and tried to turn his head to look at Holmes: "I don't know what you're talking about. You've got the wrong person!"

Higgins: "Stop talking nonsense! You're near Hamp's house with a sniper rifle. Could it be that you came to shoot birds?"

Colonel Moran: "So what if I'm just here to hunt birds, what Hamp, let me go! Arresting people without evidence, I didn't do anything!"

"what!"

Holmes gave a dry, almost mocking laugh.

"Did you do nothing?" He asked coldly.

The detective stood up and turned his head towards Mary: "Miss, where is his sniper rifle?"

Mary: "Here it is."

She turned around immediately, and dragged back the gun that was kicked away from the position where the two were fighting.

The assembled sniper rifle was a bit heavy for Mary's small body, but it wasn't at a level that couldn't be lifted at all.She struggled to subdue the barrel of the gun: "Sir?"

Holmes: "I think you saw how Colonel Sebastian Moran assembled his guns."

Mary: "I see."

Holmes: "Then can you eject the bullet from the gun intact?"

Mary: "I'll try."

Standing behind the tree just now, Colonel Moran's face could not be seen, but Mary clearly saw how he assembled the gun parts in the box into the sniper rifle.

Recalling the actions of Colonel Moran just now, Mary thought for a moment, then took steps backwards and ejected the bullet that had entered the gun chamber.

"Leave it to me, please." Holmes held out his hand.

Mary handed the bullet to Holmes.

Holmes took a quick glance at the bullet, taking advantage of the moonlight, a line of clear serial number was engraved on the bottom of the bullet case.

"The bullet casings found at the sniper spot where Captain Carter was murdered in London belonged to the same arsenal and the same year," Holmes announced. Yes, Colonel Moran?"

"you--"

"—Don't talk nonsense with him!"

Higgins didn't like the person who attacked Hamp. He gave Colonel Moran an elbow: "If you have anything to say, it won't be too late to say it in court."

"exactly!"

Under the bright moonlight, Sherlock Holmes smiled a barely visible, triumphant smile.

"But before that happens, it's best for Hamp to see who's trying to murder him," he said. "And let him see the coffin with half a foot in it, so we can get the clues we want."

"Clue?" Higgins asked.

"A real clue."

Mary stood aside and breathed a sigh of relief: "Hanpu also has a list of all domestic factories that have joined the monopoly alliance in his hands. To break the illegal monopoly in the overseas raw material market, this list is the only thing to look at."