We walked in with the Indians, walked through a corridor that was not very clean, had simple furniture, and had weak lighting, and walked to a door on the right. The Indian pushed the door open, and dark yellow light came out of the room. Under the light stood a short man with a pointed head.

The top of his head was bald except for a ring of red hair, like a bare mountaintop emerging from the fir trees. He stood in the room rubbing his hands. The expression on his face was unstable, sometimes smiling and sometimes frowning. His lips drooped downward, revealing yellow and crooked teeth. Even if he covered the lower half of his face with his hands, he couldn't hide his ugliness. Although he is bald, he is not old and looks like he is thirty years old.

He said a few words loudly in succession: "Miss Morstan, I am willing to serve you." "Gentlemen are willing to help you. Come on, come in quickly. This house is not big, but I like this Style. Miss, you see it looks like a cultural oasis in a remote southern suburb of London."

We feel a little strange about the furnishings of this house. When I first looked at it, it looked like an expensive diamond set on an inconspicuous pillar. Its construction style does not match the items on display. The tapestries and curtains are extremely luxurious, with oriental vases and elegant picture frames exposed in the middle. The thick, soft amber and black carpet is very comfortable, and stepping on it feels like walking on soft green grass. Two tiger skins were draped across the carpet. A large hookah made in India is placed on the mat in the corner of the room, giving the room a more oriental charm. There is a golden thread faintly passing through the roof, and a silver dove-style hanging lamp hangs on the roof. When the lights are on, a fresh fragrance fills the room.

The short man still looked uneasy. He introduced with a smile: "My name is Thaddeus Sholto, Miss Morstan, what are the names of these two gentlemen?"

< p>"This is Mr. Sherlock Holmes, and this is a doctor, Mr. Watson."

He shouted excitedly: "Ah, doctor! Do you have a stethoscope on you? Please?" Can you listen to it? My heart is not good. The aorta is fine. Please check his heart." I couldn't find anything wrong with him except that he was shaking nervously. I said: "There is nothing serious. My heart is normal. Don't worry."

He became relaxed and said: "Please forgive me, Miss Morstan, I am too anxious. I often feel uncomfortable." , I always suspected that he had a bad heart. I am very happy that the doctor said it was okay. Miss Morstan, if your father had good control and protected his heart, he might still be alive and well now!" p>

After hearing his thoughtless words, I was very angry and wanted to beat him up. Miss Morstan sat down and said with a pale face: "I already knew in my heart that my father is no longer alive."

He said: "Don't worry, I will tell you everything I can and give you back Justice, no matter what my brother says, I will seek justice for you. I welcome the arrival of these two gentlemen. They are now both your protectors and witnesses in this matter. This matter does not require official intervention. , a few of us can deal with my brother. We will solve this matter well without outsiders' involvement. Bartholomew definitely doesn't want this matter to be made public." He sat on a very low chair. , looking at us with tearful blue eyes, looking forward to our answer.

Holmes said firmly to him: "I can assure you that I will not tell the outside world."

I nodded to answer him.

He said: "Okay! That's good! Miss Morstan, would you like a glass of champagne or Toucai? I don't have anything else here. Can I open a bottle? If you don't want to drink, then Okay. Do you mind if I smoke a cigarette? It has a soft oriental aroma. This cigarette will make me relax." He lit the hookah and smoked from the rose water. Emerging slowly. The three of us sat in a semicircle, surrounding this man in the middle. This nervous-looking short man had a shaved head and was smoking a cigarette unnaturally.

He began to speak: "When I made up my mind to write you a letter, I originally wanted to write the address, but I was afraid of provoking the police. Therefore, I ordered my people to meet you first. I believe He has the ability to deal with things flexibly. I told him not to bring you here if something happens. I hope you will understand my arrangement in advance. I rarely interact with people outside, let alone the police.

I have a bad impression of the police. They are a bit rude and I don't like dealing with rude people. You see, there is an elegant atmosphere around me. I love art. As you can see, the scenery was painted by Gaulot and Salvador Rosa. Some people may have noticed that it was fake, but that painting of a canvas is real. "

Miss Morstan said: "Mr. Sholto, I'm so sorry. I came here to listen to what you said. It's quite late now and I wish our conversation could be simpler. "

He said: "We still have to go to Shannorwood to find my brother, which may cause a delay. I hope we can all go and defeat him together. Last night, I had a long argument with him, and he didn't agree with my opinion. You can't imagine how unconvincing he can be when he's angry! ”

I couldn’t help but said: “If you want to go to Shannuowood, let’s leave now.” "

He suddenly laughed so hard that his ears turned red and said, "It's not quite right. If you and I go to his place, how will he treat you? I'll tell you what I know in advance. However, there are a few things about this that I don’t quite understand, so I can only tell you the best I can. "

"My father, perhaps you have guessed, he is Major John Sholto, who is stationed in India. In India, he made a lot of money. About eleven years ago, after his retirement, he brought back many precious antiques and several Indian servants, bought Sakuranum Villa in Shannorwood, and lived a wealthy life. My father has only one twin, Bartholomew and me.

"I at least remember the repercussions caused by the disappearance of Captain Morstan in the society. We learned some things in the newspaper. He was a friend of my father, so we often talked about it freely in front of my father. He sometimes speculated with us about how it happened, and we had no doubt that it was related to his father - he was the only one who knew the outcome of his love for Arthur Morstan. "But we probably know there are some secrets - horrible things that have been haunting my father. He usually didn't dare to go out alone, so he hired two boxers as bodyguards. William, who is driving for you today, is one of them. He used to be the British lightweight boxing champion. My father never told us what was on his mind. He was especially wary of people with wooden legs. Once, he shot and wounded a man with a wooden leg. It turned out that this man was an ordinary vendor who came to solicit business. We settled the matter after paying a large sum of money. At first, the two of us thought my father was acting impulsively, but later I changed my mind.

"In the spring of 1882, my father received a letter from India. This letter was a big blow to him. At the dinner table, after reading the letter, he almost fainted From then on, he became ill and died. His spleen had been enlarged for many years, and this blow caused his condition to deteriorate rapidly. We never found out what was written in the letter. When I was holding this letter, I saw from the side that it was very short and the handwriting was illegible. By the end of April of that year, the doctor thought that his condition was hopeless and asked us to come to him to listen to his final instructions.

< p>"When we entered the room, he was breathing heavily and leaning on a large pillow. He asked us to lock the door and stand on either side of him. He held our hands tightly. He was very emotional because of the pain and his words were very incoherent. What he told us surprised us. Now I try to repeat it in his exact words.

"He said: 'I am about to die, but what I regret all my life is what happened to Morstan's daughter. It has always been like a big stone weighing on my heart. I can't let people forgive me for a moment. Greedy, she deserves these treasures. At least half of them belong to her. But I have never used them. I am so greedy that I can only eat well and sleep well when I see these treasures by my side. I couldn't bear to give it to others. You see, the pearl necklace hanging next to Jinji Nashuang was specially selected for that girl, but I couldn't give it away. Children, you must. Give her half of the treasures of Agra, but don't give them to her until I die, not even the necklace. Although I am not alive now, I might still be able to recover.'

"He. Then he said: 'I will tell you how Morstan died. I am the only one who has known about it all these years. His heart is very bad. When we were in India, we had some adventures and got a batch of treasures, which I later brought back to England. The night Morstan arrived in London he came to me to claim his share.

He walked here from the station, and the old servant Lal Jodha opened the door for him. The two of us had disagreements over the division of the treasure and had a heated quarrel. Morstan jumped up from his chair angrily. Suddenly he put his hand on his left chest, his face turned livid, and he fell backward, hitting his head on the edge of the box. I hurriedly bent down to help him, but he was dead.

"My brain is blurry. What should I do? At first, I wanted to call the police, but according to the circumstances, I might be accused of being the murderer - he died during the quarrel between us. Yes, but the wound on his head is very detrimental to me. What should I say if the court asks where this treasure came from? Morstan told me that no one knew he was here, and there was no need for me to tell him. Tell others secretly

“Just when I was thinking about how to deal with it, I looked up and the servant Lal Jodha walked in secretly. He bolted the door and said to me: "Master, don't be afraid, hide him. No one but us will know that you have harmed him." ’ I retorted: ‘I didn’t hurt him. ’ Lal Jodha shook his head and said with a smile: ‘Master, I heard you guys arguing fiercely outside the door, and then he fell down. Don't worry, everyone at home is resting. I won't tell anyone. Let's bury him. ’ His words made me decide. Can I expect twelve jurors to acquit me if my own faithful servant cannot believe it? That night Lal Jodha and I buried his body. After that, within a few days, major newspapers in London published the news of Captain Morstan's disappearance. These things I have told you, do you think Morstan's death was my fault? I just shouldn't have buried the body and kept the treasure to myself. I took Morstan's share as my own, and I hope to return that share of the treasure to his daughter. If you put your ears over, the treasure is hidden..."

"Before he finished speaking, his face changed drastically, his eyes stared outward, his chin dropped, and he shouted loudly: 'Drive him away, we must... we must drive him away!" ’ I can’t forget the sound of his shouting. We looked back and saw a face on the glass. Looking over, we saw his nose that had turned white due to the squeeze. A hairy face with two fierce eyes. We brothers rushed to the window, but a step too late, the man disappeared. When we came back to see our father, he had no pulse.

"That night, we searched the garden. Except for a distinct footprint on the flower bed under the window, the uninvited guest left no other traces. But based on this sign alone, we may suspect that the face It was out of our imagination. Soon, we got further confirmation that there were many people around us spying on us. The next morning, we found the window of my father's bedroom open and his room had been turned over. All over the place. We found a piece of paper pinned to the box that read: 'Four Signatures.' It was concluded that the house had been turned over, but my father’s belongings were not stolen. We both thought that this incident might be related to his usual caution, but we couldn’t figure out what happened.”

The short man lit his hookah again and took a few puffs. We listened with rapt attention to his enigmatic story. Miss Morstan turned pale as she listened to his account of her father's sudden death. I gently poured a glass of water from a Venetian water bottle on the table, and she just recovered. Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes in deep thought. When I saw him, I couldn't help but think that just this morning, he was lamenting that life was boring. It seemed that there were several problems waiting for him to solve. Mr. Thaddeus Sholto looked at this person and that person. He was very satisfied with the story he told. After taking a few puffs of water pipe, he continued.

He said: "As you can imagine, we brothers were very excited when we heard that there was a treasure at home. A few months later, we dug every corner of the garden, but we still couldn't find it. Found some traces. We can no longer get the location of the treasure from my father's mouth. It is very crazy to think about it. From the necklace, we can infer that this treasure is worth a lot of money. He also thought that if he gave the necklace away, others would be suspicious and it would cause us trouble. I had to try my best to convince my brother that I would be responsible for finding Miss Morstan's address first. I send her a pearl every once in a while so that she can use it to support her life.

”

My companion sincerely praised him: “What a kind-hearted person. What you did is really touching.”

The short man waved his hand indifferently and said, "I think we are just keeping these treasures." But, my brother had other ideas. We already have a lot of money and don’t want any more. Besides, it was unreasonable to do something despicable to this young lady. The French proverb says: 'Vulgarity is the root of all evil', which makes sense. Because of our different views, in the end, I took an Indian servant and William with me and left the villa. Yesterday, I found that he had found the treasure. I told him my opinion. No matter whether he would welcome us or not, he still promised to wait for us. "

After Mr. Thaddeus Sholto finished speaking, he sat there trembling with his fingers. We were silent and focused on the development of the incident. Holmes stood up and said : “Sir, I thought you did a great job from start to finish. Maybe in return, we'll tell you something you don't already know. But just as Miss Morstan said, it's getting late, let's get down to business. ”

Our new friend coiled up the hookah pipe and took out a long and thick lambskin coat from behind the tent. The temperature was not low tonight, but he covered it from top to bottom. He was wearing a rabbit-skin hat, with the brim pulled over his ears. He covered his whole body, leaving only his thin face. He explained to us as he led us out of the aisle. My health was so bad that I had to treat myself as a sick person.

Our car was waiting outside and was already ready for our trip. When we entered, the coachman immediately drove off. Dias spoke loudly on the carriage, so loud that it drowned out the sound of the carriage.

He said: "My brother is very smart, how do you think he found the treasure? He finally concluded that the treasure was hidden in the house. He calculated the volume of the house and carefully measured every corner. He calculated the height of the building to be 74 feet, and then measured the heights of each room. Then the drilling method was used to determine the thickness of the floor slab. The thickness plus the indoor height was only 70 feet. The remaining 4 feet had to be found on the roof. The ceiling on the top floor of the house was made of lath and plaster, and he punched a hole in it. Fortunately, he discovered a sealed roof chamber that no one knew existed. The chests containing the treasures were placed on two rafters in the center of the ceiling. He took the box down and opened it to find the jewels inside, which he estimated to be worth no less than half a million pounds. ”

We opened our eyes wide when we heard this astonishing number. If our Soba plan goes well, she will soon change from a penniless governess to the richest heir in Britain. Her good friend should be happy for her, but my heart felt like a huge stone was weighing on me, and I felt unspeakably uncomfortable. I reluctantly expressed my happiness to her and sat there without saying a word, listlessly. Listening to our friends chatting, I could tell that our new friend suffered from depression. I vaguely remembered him talking about a series of symptoms and taking out a lot of them from his wallet. I wish he had forgotten what I said. I warned him to use two drops of castor oil or a large dose of strychnine as a sedative. It wasn't until the carriage suddenly stopped and the coachman jumped down from his seat and opened the door that I breathed a sigh of relief.

Mr. Thaddeus Sholto took the initiative to help Morstan get out of the car. , he pointed forward and said: "Miss Morstan, that is Sakuranuma Villa. ”