[Comprehensive Classics] Detective Mary

With the degree of discussion of "Serial Killer Chess Game" and the completely seamless serialization of "King of Carnival", the new issue of "Seaside Magazine" gave Mary's new story a full-featured layout.

At the beginning of the story, Detective Luther came to Paris directly after receiving the invitation of the deputy director. The train just stopped, and before he had time to take down the suitcase, countless reporters rushed forward and surrounded him.

Philip Luther was taken aback by this gesture. What was even more exaggerated was that before the detectives figured out what the reporters were doing, several young police detectives chased after them blowing their whistles, posing as if they were escorting the big shot He sent Luther respectfully to the special car and drove him to the hotel.

To be honest, although Luther is a well-known British detective, he has never received such courtesy.The abnormal situation caused Luther to vaguely realize that there was a problem before he met the client and had no contact with the case.And the newspaper reports the next day confirmed this point even more.

He picked up the newspaper, and on the first page was the name—"Philip Luther Visits Paris for Burglary!" 》, and then a picture of a snapshot of the train station.

Luther was speechless.

He took a closer look, and then saw the names related to the case in the last natural paragraph of the front page news.

"Pluto, the circus owner, expressed no fear of Luther's visit," the reporter wrote, "and he said that even Philip Luther would not be able to prevent him from removing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre Museum." From another perspective, even the famous Philip Luther was attracted by the case of the circus. Shouldn’t the citizens living in Paris see what he is going to do in order to realize their own Is it true that the Mona Lisa will be exhibited in a circus performance?"

Luther: "..."

The detective felt amused, and at the same time felt that he was cheated.

I haven't seen the center of the contradiction in the recent incident. He himself has been used as a promotional material?

At this point, without having access to any details of the case, he has already determined in his heart that the so-called theft case is nothing but fake news released by the circus owner Pluto in order to promote his circus performance. That's all.

Therefore, after seeing the deputy chief of the police station and understanding the ins and outs of the matter, when he met Pluto, the owner of the circus, Luther's attitude was extremely cold.

It is commensurate with the enthusiasm of the boss himself.

"Detective Luther!"

When Luther came to the circus, Pluto gave him a big hug, and put him in a very cordial way: "I wanted to find time to meet you as early as when I was touring in London, but I didn't expect to have the opportunity at that time. We finally met in Paris! I've been waiting for you, if you don't come, I'm afraid it will be too late!"

Luther raised his eyebrows: "Why is it late?"

Pluto: "Of course the Mona Lisa was stolen by gangs of thieves."

Luther froze: "Theft gang, you mean that you are not the one who wants to steal the Mona Lisa."

The owner of the circus laughed out loud.

He observed Philip Luther with a smile, which was the usual expression of the boss Pluto: a friendly attitude and warm eyes, as if treating audiences from all over the world as his closest friends.Therefore, in society, although the circus owner Pluto, who is more famous than Luther, has a bad reputation, no one around him hates him.

"You see," the boss said, "since I announced that I would exhibit the Mona Lisa, the police force on the streets of Paris has been tripled, and the Louvre is even more heavily guarded. The members of the circus at the time did a trick and stole the Leonardo da Vinci painting."

"so……"

Under Pluto's hint, Luther probably understood.

"The Paris government has stepped up its police force. If there is a gang of thieves who really want to steal the "Mona Lisa", they will never do it during this time."

"That's right," Pluto nodded, "But anyone with a little wisdom would not choose to throw himself into the trap at this time."

"So, how do you know that someone is going to steal the painting, and it must be the Mona Lisa?" Luther asked.

Pluto's eyes lit up.

"this story."

He retreated to the center of the stage that the circus had already set up. The well-dressed circus owner took off his hat and bowed deeply to Philip Luther: "You are also very lucky, detective, to watch us A final show for the tour's curtain call and advance rehearsal."

The circus owner's voice fell, and the whole stage suddenly lit up.

What was presented to Philip Luther was a grand and well-prepared circus performance.Luther was not surprised by this. On the contrary, when the music sounded, he realized what the curtain call of Pluto's circus was.

It was a show that reflected the theft.

The beginning of the show explains the circus' third stop in Italy, in Florence.The circus performance was as successful as ever, and the joy and lively atmosphere ignited the whole ancient city.As the boss Pluto's name hits the headlines, so does an old friend of his.

Since the 60th century, many Italians came to the United States one after another. The problem of Italian immigration was still a major problem in the United States until the [-]s and [-]s, which was reflected in many literature, film and television.At the moment, this friend of Pluto is an Italian who smuggled to the United States with his relatives when he was young, and wanted to make a fortune in the "gold digging".

It's a pity that this old friend was lazy and sneaky, couldn't survive in the United States, and returned to the motherland in despair.Unexpectedly, after he returned home, he joined a local gang by chance, and things went well.

He found Pluto, not so much to reminisce, but to show off.He had to take Pluto to drink, and when he drank too much, he said bluntly that his circus was just a trick to seduce people with deformed monsters, and even asked the beautiful trapeze girl in the circus to come and accompany the drink.

Even Pluto, who is all-round and exquisite, couldn't help but lose his face. The drinking session ended in a quarrel. When the gang members left, they said angrily that Pluto looked down on him at all, and now they look down on him. After a few months, he and his brothers "did big thing", he will regret it.

The two broke up badly, and the next day the Italian forgot all the rhetoric he had made when he was drunk.He went out as usual, found his friends, and planned their "shocking case".

Yes, it was the Italian who wanted to steal the "Mona Lisa" with his accomplices.

The gangsters who are drunk, dreaming, and committing all kinds of crimes don't understand the artistic value of the "Mona Lisa". They just heard that the representative painting of Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian painter, is actually placed in a French museum. "Patriotism" must be stolen back.

What they thought was very simple. This is an Italian painting, so it must be handed over to the Italian government.At that time, in order to commend their sincere "patriotism", the government will have to give some bonuses or something - if not, they can be sold to domestic collectors.

Just do what you say, the Italian and his accomplices planned the case and set a date to go to Paris. When they were about to celebrate, they suddenly heard a voice outside.

He rushed out with a knife, but what he saw was a Chinese man in a simple mandarin jacket.

At that time, China was still in the Qing Dynasty, and Asians with braids were almost the most inferior existence in Europe.When the Italians saw his terrified expression and submissive attitude, and even muttered foreign languages ​​that he didn't understand, they immediately felt disgusted.

He caught the Chinese, interrogated them for a long time and found that there was no language between the two. He couldn't understand Italian at all, and he couldn't move left or right, so he beat him up and let him go.

However, what he didn't expect was that after the Chinese youth left the street in embarrassment, he took off his dirty clothes, turned a corner, and returned to Pluto's circus.

It turned out that this Chinese who could not understand Italian was one of the members of the circus.Although he couldn't understand Italian, he had the ability to remember by ear, and he even recited the speeches of the Italians and his colleagues verbatim.

After hearing all the content, Pluto was shocked: this man actually wanted to steal the "Mona Lisa"!

And the last stop of the circus tour is Paris, and the time is actually the same as the time set by the Italian thieves gang.

Pluto fell into hesitation: let’s report him, they have no evidence, who can prove that these words are not some drunkard’s jokes?Keep it a secret, even if Pluto insisted that he had nothing to do, his circus members would not agree.

In the end it was the trapeze girl who inspired him.

"Since it's a dilemma," she said, "how about we release the news that we know the plan and scare them? It's just a bunch of thugs, maybe they backed down because of it."

But Pluto knew his old friend better than she did, and the circus owner didn't think he was a person who gave up easily.On the contrary, if you use this threat, maybe it will stimulate the other party's blood and do even more terrible things.

Pluto thought hard all night.

Fortunately, he is not only a man with a good brain, but also a man with flexible thinking and business acumen.

The next day, Pluto announced to the members of the circus that he had already figured out a countermeasure, which would not only bring the Italian theft gang to justice, but also find new business opportunities in it.

The members of the circus couldn't help asking: "What business opportunity?"

Pluto smiled slightly: "A carnival."

The performance came to an abrupt end, the music and performers left the stage one after another, and Pluto came back to the front of the stage.

"How's our new show, Detective?" the boss asked.

"It's wonderful, but you didn't perform completely. This is just an opening." Luther replied.

"We haven't finished rehearsing yet."

"Didn't the rehearsal finish?"

"Because," Pluto said frankly, "the next thing hasn't happened yet."

Luther understood immediately.

Pluto made up his mind to present the performance to the audience according to the real experience. The motivation of the Italian gang is just the beginning. What is really exciting is the process of tracing the clues.

And this part was done not by Pluto, but by Luther.

and so……

The circus owner stood in the center of the stage and extended his hand to Luther.

"Would you like to join me," the boss laughed, "to present a wonderful carnival show to the people of Paris?"

——The serialization of the first issue of "The King of Carnival" ends here.

Mary felt that the editor-in-chief of Hall had finally "showed kindness" this time, and did not let the story be cut off at an important plot point, but stopped at a plot point.

Of course, this also has something to do with the fact that the plot of "King of Carnival" is simpler and clearer than that of "Serial Killer Chess Game".

"How about it?"

After both Holmes and Watson finished reading the series, Mary asked expectantly, "How about the new story?"

Watson put down the magazine with a look of shock.

He looked Mary up and down several times, but still couldn't get over the shock that Miss Mary Bennet was Philip Luther.The doctor looked at her for a while, and finally managed to say a word: "Where did you come up with these wild ideas, miss?"

"Why, shouldn't I?"

"No, of course not!"

How to put it, shock is shock, but when you think about it carefully, it is not completely impossible.

After all, in Milton, Dr. Watson had seen Miss Mary's knowledge and vision.

"I just think that those comments are still guessing that Luther is probably a retired old policeman," Watson couldn't help laughing, "If they know that such a straightforward novel is written by a woman, they will scare off their glasses!"

Holmes held a different opinion.

Hearing Watson mention those critics, a look of disdain appeared on his tough face.

"If writers are often unconstrained and cut into cases and themes with some unrealistic ideas," he said bluntly, "at least they have imagined, while those critics have empty brains but can't even use them." No, it's just a businessman who uses 'decency' as a fig leaf."

"There are still quite a few critics who have real talents." Mary said.

"I don't deny that, Miss Mary," said the detective, "but I don't see any merit in a 'critic' who ignores all the merits of the work and only clings to the immorality."

Knowing that Mr. Holmes was speaking for herself, Mary stopped arguing with him.

"That's all right," she said, "I don't mind what people say."

Just give the money!What's more, Editor-in-Chief Hall paid special attention to this aspect. It can be seen from the fact that the editor-in-chief specially left the letters and comments of his friend of "The Times" to Mary, and he was undoubtedly on Mary's side.

"It's amazing."

Watson sighed again: "I really didn't expect that you are Philip Luther himself, Miss Mary, you have to sign me carefully, if you become famous in the future, the autograph will be worth a lot of money."

Mary laughed: "Doctor, if you want to sign, naturally you have to—"

"Mr. Holmes?"

Before she could finish her sentence, the landlady, Mrs. Hudson, suddenly knocked on the door: "A worker came to the door, saying that he was an old friend of yours, and there was something urgent to tell you."

"Worker?"

Mary immediately dropped the joke: "Is it an Irish worker?"

Apparently, Holmes didn't expect any workers to come to visit. He showed an almost indiscernible surprise: "Ask him to come in."

It was indeed the Irish workers from the slums, the young Dawson who took the lead in protesting at the factory after Henry Deck was fired.

He looked hurried, and his eyes lit up when he saw Holmes and Mary when he entered the living room.

"Great, Miss Mary is here," the worker Dawson grabbed the hat on his head and said eagerly as if seeing a savior, "You have to go to the slums to see, people have died!"

The author has something to say: The circus owner is an American. At that time, Italian immigrants and Irish immigrants in the United States had a low status.Arthur Miller's play "Scenery at the Bridge Head" is a work that reflects the smuggling of Italian immigrants. Your teacher Ma Qiang has acted in it. If you have resources on station b, you can search for the English name of the work. I have said so much Don't you think about eating Amway? 【you

The "Mona Lisa" has indeed been stolen in history, and it is indeed a nationalist Italian who stole the painting just to "take back the national treasure" and the process is not particularly real in the world and is not exciting at all... I can't laugh or cry, " I made a slight modification in "King of Carnival", I didn't mean black Italian, you Jiang Hua like handsome guys with Mediterranean style very much!