[Sherlock Holmes] The Legend of the Nightingale

(Nightingale's Diary)

Nothing happened this night.Holmes was still on the verge of calm and edginess the next day, and every time we thought he was going to explode, nothing happened.I had very little to say to Holmes at this time, for he was so preoccupied with this extraordinary case that he forgot to share his experience with me.And, strictly speaking, we've just had a serious dispute that's been quite rare for 221B, and the consequences have lasted a long time.I am almost certain that if I tell him what I think, and if he is in the mood for me, I will be laughed at indifferently.He only asked Merry one question that sounded weighty:

"Is there a cellar here?"

"No."

"This kind of house usually has a cellar."

"Yes, but not in this house. I grew up here and never saw the shadow of a cellar."

"There is no shadow in the cellar, my dear Miss Merry." Holmes tapped vigorously on the drawing-room floor with his stick. "But it is true that the floor is not empty. Is this the Sholtos' old house, or did they buy it later? "

"I bought it later." Meili said, "Mr. Sholto brought me and my brothers to settle here after my father passed away. I bought this house at that time."

Watson is used to it. Although I can't let go of my heart, I don't feel uneasy.Only Merry couldn't ignore Holmes' strange behavior. She pinned all her hopes on him, and her emotions almost followed Holmes' changes.In the afternoon I had to urge Watson to take Merry out as much as possible, not to stay at home and be affected by this gloomy atmosphere.But Holmes told them that they must go home before seven o'clock in the evening anyway.

"Why don't you go out with her?" Watson asked helplessly.

"I can't understand a word with a Scottish accent," I replied.

Holmes' behavior today was different from usual. He seemed not thinking, lazy and absent-minded. If I had to say it, he looked more like he was waiting for something.It took me a while to realize that I was engrossed in observing the half-asleep detective in shirt-sleeves and carelessly combed hair across the way, who probably didn't notice me at all.

"It's been a long time since I said anything," I said.

"What?" asked Holmes lazily.

"Anything is fine, it has something to do with the case, if you have laughed enough at my romantic imagination, you can talk to me about something serious."

"Women always need to talk to someone, even if they talk to me, if they are quiet, they can't stay, right?"

"If you say this, then thank you, I prefer to stay by myself for a while."

I had just stood up from the sofa when Holmes closed his eyes and made a "sit down" gesture.

"No, tell me, what's the matter?"

"From my observation of you—though not of the case—the code has been broken?"

"Yes, Watson's good student—what, I didn't tell you?"

"……No."

"It may be that I am dreaming," said Holmes with a weary smile. "I thought I was the first to tell you such things. Do you remember what was written on that piece of paper?"

"Remember. It's all numbers."

"I should have also said what their arrangement matters."

"Yes, not in the normal reading order, but in geometry."

"so……?"

"Actually, I guessed..." I said hesitantly.

"Please don't get into the habit of using the word 'guess,'" interrupted Holmes. "You will be laughed at by the people of Scotland Yard."

"Well, I thought about it." I changed my words, "It can be regarded as a simple drawing. The numbers represent the length, that is, they are not regarded as vertices, but the length of the sides. Then the whole sheet of paper is equivalent to several a rectangular plan."

"The reaction was faster than I thought, Nightingale. Don't you know what this means?"

"do not know."

"My God, think about it again, what is the floor plan of something?"

"Uh... buildings?"

Holmes tapped his forehead resignedly.

"It's this house, Nightingale, and that's why we're coming to Edinburgh!"

"……oh--!"

"I really shouldn't get my hopes up."

"Hey."

"Okay, stop kidding now."

"Do we still need to find the other half of the code?" I asked.

"Fortunately, as long as this point is clearly seen, only the upper half of the plan does not affect the location of the treasure hunt, because we have already determined the approximate location." Holmes said in a voice full of superiority, "The star representing the location of the treasure The number is on this half of the paper. The number in the middle that does not belong to any room represents the stairs, and it should be at the foot of the stairs."

"There should be an open space under the stairs, but this..." I raised my finger and pointed downstairs, "The space under the stairs is sealed with wooden boards."

"That's almost it." Holmes whistled easily. "Obviously Mr. Sholto didn't let his family come over when he was renovating the house, just to hide the underground space. It will take him quite a while to complete this. Work, we must not leave any flaws, and then let them move in."

"You didn't know this before, did you?"

"Not exactly. Before I actually saw the house, I was just guessing, but I can be sure that the positions of these numbers represent the orientation. Then I roughly measured the dimensions of these rooms, which basically agree with the numbers, in feet Afterwards, I checked the documents left over from that year, and it was true. It was nearly a month earlier than Meili recalled when she moved to Edinburgh. It was almost the time it would take to dispose of a cellar of average size and seal the entrance.”

"I don't quite understand why you didn't say it earlier." I said, "Didn't you see how anxious Mei Li was? She pinned her hopes on you."

"You've been feeling a bit sentimental lately, Nightingale. Her anxiety isn't to find the treasure, or not only, but to find the murderer. They'll come back here, because we've got the code, and now that we've suddenly left London, they You will think that we have solved the secret and found the exact location of the treasure. With a little patience, it will be easy to kill two birds with one stone."

"I don't think about the meaning of those hide-and-seek circles you went around before. Those two murderers seem to be very familiar with the situation of the Sholto family." Accurately knew about the treasure, and solved the two men in the family one by one. Maybe they had a connection with Sholto before and knew about the treasure. The death of Thaddeus is also a very fine murder, if he Like me, I don't have the habit of turning pages, and I don't have direct contact with food and water afterwards. The chance of poisoning my hands after washing is very small. No one would use such an unreliable method of murder, so this murderer is a man with Sadie Someone that Ursherto knew well."

"Yes, is there any other conclusion?" said Holmes cheerfully.

"Not yet. Do we need to investigate people close to Thaddeus Sholto in Edinburgh?"

"Not yet."

"Holmes, I beg you not to hold your breath any longer," I said, somewhat brokenly. "Are you still waiting for those two men to come to you?"

"Would you recognize those two persons at once, if they were indeed here?" asked Holmes casually, a question not directly related to my question.

"Of course you can—but you answer me first." The young man with the scar on his face and the old man with strangely colored hair came to mind.

"Then I'm basically relieved. If there are no accidents, let's change the boards under the stairs to see the effect. I think Mr. Sholto is just to be on the safe side, that should be the only entrance to the treasure."

Holmes looked back at the space under the stairs that was once sealed tightly and ingeniously. It looked no different from an ordinary stairwell without any gaps. Even the wood pattern was carefully selected to be the same as the stair boards. It can't be seen that it was not decorated when the house was built.

"You mean—now?"

"Correct."

"It's a big job, God!" I exclaimed. "At least until Watson comes back?"

"If you hadn't had some mean sympathy to push the doctor out for a walk, we could have an extra helper now, but we can barely get the job done." Holmes stood up from the sofa. I checked where the tools are placed. I don't want to demolish the stairs with the physically weak 'beautiful and gentle gender', but who is out of luck. Hey, Nightingale, don't be listless now, it's just Just take a few boards off."

"No, it's not because of that. But are you sure you don't need Meili's consent first?"

"Time, dear Nightingale, we have to buy time."

"Hey, are you sure it's a good time for you to say that now?"

Not suitable, really not suitable.Honestly, I don't want to hide my malice.I always subconsciously look forward to witnessing a case where Holmes' prediction fails.But it's not after you've listened to his predictions and toiled for an hour that you realize he failed them.

"We've dug down five feet, still no entrance, and we're making a mess of the living room. The house is going to fall down." I kicked the saw and shovel aside, and found a safe place among the sawdust and plaster. A clean place to sit down.Holmes sat cross-legged across from me, sweaty, dusty, and as depressed as I was.

"All I can say now is that our forecast is a bit off." He said slowly, "Mr. Sholto is smarter than we thought. But this also eliminates all wrong options. If nothing else, wait for Watson When they come back, we can start working in the backyard."

"Wait, Holmes, I didn't interrupt you because I didn't want to continue working." I suddenly remembered something, stood up and looked around, and finally fixed my eyes on the clock on the wall, "But I think something has happened .Watson and Merry? They haven't come back yet. And it's almost nine o'clock now."

Holmes also stood up.

Not that we were too engrossed, they really didn't come back.I went to the door and looked, but found nothing.I turned and looked at Holmes, who was standing deep in thought in the drawing room, and as if sensing my gaze, he raised his eyes to me.

"Do you think something's wrong?" I whispered.

"If there is nothing wrong, Watson will be back on time," replied Holmes. "The appointed time is the news. If they do not come back on time, we will take action."

"Call the police?"

"No need." Holmes raised a finger in a silencing gesture. "They are here, or at least near the house."

"here?"

"I thought that was the only entrance, but I guess I miscalculated." He said indifferently. "There are other places to enter. It seems that the result of this case will not be too boring."

"Holmes, they're going to kill Merry," I said anxiously.

"No, Nightingale, not this time." Holmes put his hand on my shoulder. "Our doctor may encounter some trouble, but this murderer will not harm Merry. Let us go."

The author has something to say: the author came back alive after finishing the fourth grade exam hahahahahaha~~~~ I am so happy to see you all again!