Writer 1879: Solitary Journey in France

Chapter 265 ends abruptly again!

By the end of July in London, the Thames River was already emitting a complex odor under the increasingly scorching sun, officially entering the "stinky" season.

Gentlemen, nobles, and wealthy middle-class families would normally have already started packing their bags to escape the city and head to country villas or seaside resorts.

But this year, an unusual scene has emerged.

Some gentlemen who were originally going to the countryside postponed their trips or changed their plans altogether.

"The Hampshire breeze can wait, but Holmes's deductions cannot be missed," a banker told his wife.

Although she complained about the stench of London, she was intrigued by her husband's story and acquiesced to the decision.

On the morning of the release date of the July issue of "Good Words," long queues had already formed outside many major newsstands and bookstores in London.

The people in the group were dressed in various ways: there were gentlemen wearing top hats and carrying canes; there were well-dressed employees with anxious expressions; and there were young students who hadn't slept all night and had bloodshot eyes.

They talked to each other, and without exception, the topic revolved around that name—Sherlock Holmes.

A middle-aged man dressed as a servant complained, “Damn weather! If it weren’t for Mr. Holmes, I would be enjoying the sea breeze in Sussex right now!”

The person ahead of him chimed in: "Who says otherwise? My master originally planned to leave for Bath yesterday, but he couldn't bring himself to go because he was worried about missing today's 'Good Words'. He insisted that I buy it before he would go."

However, many people are speculating about what surprises today's installment will bring.

"Hey Jack, what kind of amazing thing do you think Sherlock Holmes will do today?"

"God knows! Last time he just glanced at the scene a few times and he said so many things, he was like a wizard!"

"He's not a wizard; he uses 'deductive reasoning'! Observation and deduction!"

"You talk as if you've already mastered 'deductive reasoning'!"

“I bet he can catch the guy who left the word 'RACHE'…”

……

When the bookstore doors finally opened and the latest issue of "Good Words" was brought out, a small commotion arose among the crowd.

The magazine cover immediately caught everyone's attention:
Sherlock Holmes crouched on the ground, holding a magnifying glass, carefully examining a clear muddy shoe print;
The background is a hazy London street scene, with the glow of a gas lamp casting a blurry shadow of a horse-drawn carriage.

"Give me one!"

"I need three copies! I'm bringing them for a friend in the club!"

"Quick, quick, find the page of 'A Study in Scarlet'!"

The buying frenzy erupted almost instantly.

The magazine disappeared from newsstands at an alarming rate, flowing into the hands of eager readers.

Soon, public reading rooms, smoking rooms in gentlemen's clubs, and even periodical reading areas in some large libraries in London were packed with readers.

At first, these places were only filled with the rustling of pages turning and low breathing.

But as the story progresses, exclamations of surprise, "Aha!" of sudden realization, and of course, sounds of bewilderment and skepticism frequently arise.

Holmes ignored the corpse, took a measuring tape and a large, round magnifying glass from his pocket, and began searching the room like a well-trained hunting dog. He paced silently around the room, sometimes standing, sometimes kneeling, and once even lying prone on the floor, carefully examining the dust with his magnifying glass… He used the measuring tape to measure the height of the blood-written message from the ground…

To my surprise, on one occasion, he carefully picked up a small clump of curled, grayish-black flakes from the corner of the fireplace with tweezers, placed them in his palm, smelled them, and then examined them closely by the light of the window.

I leaned closer to look, and the flaky ash was a dark color and had an undulating shape.

...]

Some readers, upon reaching this point, couldn't help but mutter, "What's so interesting about ashes? They're all burned to ashes; even if there were words, you wouldn't be able to make them out, would you?"

Another reader scoffed, "That's because you can't see it, but that's Sherlock Holmes, he must have some way of doing it!"

Other readers chimed in, "Yes, Mr. Holmes will surely have a way!"

The readers who had initially raised questions immediately fell silent.

At this moment, the owner of the public reading room also reminded them, "Hey, gentlemen, watch your time, there are people waiting behind you!"

Those discussing the topic glanced at the dense crowd outside, immediately fell silent, and continued reading.

In the following episodes, Lionel shows the reader almost all the traces that Holmes discovered:

Footprints, puddles, tire tracks, hoofprints, dust, and in the deceased's pockets a gold watch, gold chain, gold ring engraved with the Freemason emblem, loose change, and a business card bearing the name "Inauk Zeppelin"...

Holmes, like a magician, continuously extracts information from corners where Lestrade asserts "there are no clues."

Finally, he stood before the blood-written "RACHE" and fell into a brief moment of contemplation.

Gretchen and Lestrade couldn't wait to offer their speculations about "Miss Rachel".

The readers also fell into deep thought; faced with the sheer volume of details, their meager brains were almost completely drained.

Everyone knew that these traces must hold a secret, but all their thinking quickly hit a dead end.

Various speculative guesses, like shards of glass scattered on the ground, all suggest that piecing them together could restore the broken cup, but no one could actually complete the task.

Then, the magazine published the most brilliant and irresistibly captivating passage of the series:
Holmes turned to the two detectives and continued, “This is a murder. The killer is a middle-aged man, slightly over six feet tall, though his feet are rather small for his build. He wears thick, square-toed boots and smokes Indian cigars, ‘Tretch’ brand. He and the victim arrived in a four-wheeled carriage drawn by a horse whose three horseshoes are old except for the new one on its right foreleg. Furthermore, the killer is likely to be red-faced and have long fingernails on his right hand. That’s all for now, but it may be of some help to you two.”

At this point, the reader, like the other characters in the novel—John Watson, Lestrade, and Glayson—opens their mouths slightly wide.

They couldn't imagine how Holmes could reconstruct the killer's characteristics and his and the victim's whereabouts from those few scattered clues.

Of the height figures, some might vaguely guess that they were calculated based on stride length or the height of the blood-red lettering above the ground, but the reasoning behind the other information is difficult to fathom.

Readers are quickly reaching the final part of this series—

Holmes strode out, leaving only one sentence: "One more thing, gentlemen, in German the word 'RACHE' means revenge, so stop looking for that 'Miss Rachel,' it's a complete waste of time!"

After saying these words, Holmes left, leaving the two dumbfounded detectives standing there.

(This concludes this installment. Please look forward to the next one.)

"It broke again!" The wailing echoed through the London sky.

(End of this chapter)