Sherlock Holmes's extraordinary talents made us fascinated by the weird and dramatic stories in many mysterious cases, and even we ourselves eventually joined in these stories. I wrote and published short stories based on these cases.

, writing about failures is far less detailed than writing about achievements. The reason I do this is not because of the reputation of Holmes. In fact, whenever he is on the verge of despair, his energy and talent can always be admired - as long as Holmes has

Where he fails, others cannot succeed, and the story will never have an ending. However, there is often a situation where when he makes a mistake, he is still the one who finally finds out the truth. I once noticed

There are five or six cases of this kind, among which the two most obviously fascinating cases are the Masklev Ceremony case and the other case which is the story I want to tell you now.

Holmes himself rarely does any physical activities for physical exercise. Generally speaking, there are very few people who are good at using their physical strength. There is no doubt that among people of his weight, Holmes can be said to be the best I have ever seen.

A boxer, however, he regards blind physical exercise as a waste of energy, so he rarely participates in projects that have nothing to do with his career. However, his energy is extremely strong and almost tireless. About Holmes's health care

He said, it is indeed a bit strange. His diet has always been very simple, and his daily life is also very simple, which can be regarded as frugal. Except for sometimes injecting some cocaine, Holmes has no other bad habits. Whenever there is no case to be investigated, the newspaper

When the news is very boring, Holmes will turn to narcotics to relieve the monotony of life.

One day in early spring, Holmes seemed to be relatively leisurely. He actually had time to accompany me for a walk in the park. At that time, the elm trees had sprouted green buds, and the tops of the chestnut trees had quietly grown new five-petal leaves. We were together for a while.

We walked around in silence for about two hours, which suited us two very well. By the time we hurried back to Baker Street, it was almost five o'clock.

"Excuse me, sir!" said the little servant who opened the door for us. "A gentleman came to see you just now, sir."

Holmes gave me a complaining look.

"It's all the fault of the afternoon walk!" said Holmes. "Does that mean the gentleman has left?"

"Yes, sir."

"Didn't you invite him in?"

"Please, sir, he has come in." "How long has he been waiting?"

"He waited for half an hour after he came in, sir. He looked very restless, pacing up and down the room and stamping his feet. I waited outside the door, sir, but I could hear him. He

Finally, he walked into the corridor and shouted: 'Is he not ready to come back?' Sir, these were his exact words. I said: 'Please wait a little longer!' He then said: 'Then I will go outside.

Wait, I'm going to be suffocated here, I'll come back later.' He left after saying that, and I couldn't keep him here no matter what I said."

"Oh, you are quite right," said Holmes, as we entered the room. "It is very irritating, Watson. I am waiting for a case. From the look of the man's impatience, it seems to be a comparative case.

An important case! Hi! The pipe on the table is not yours, it must have been left behind by this man. It is a pretty good briar pipe with a long handle and is made of a material that tobacconists call amber.

That's right. I don't know how many real amber cigarette holders there are in London. Some people say that the kind with flies inside is real amber. Hey, he actually forgot this cherished pipe, which shows that he

I must be extremely upset."

"How do you know he cherished this pipe?" I asked. "Well, according to my judgment, the original price of this pipe was only 7 shillings and 6 pence, but, you see, it has been repaired twice, and the wood has been repaired twice.

Once on the handle and once on the amber mouthpiece. You can see that each time it was repaired with a silver band, which was much higher than the original price of the pipe. This man would rather repair the pipe than take out the same pipe.

Spending money to buy a new one means that he must cherish this pipe very much."

"Is there anything else?" I asked, as Holmes turned the pipe over and stared at it in a peculiar state of contemplation.

Holmes picked up the pipe and flicked it with his slender index finger, as if a professor were giving a lecture on animal bones.

"Sometimes a pipe is very important." Holmes said: "Apart from watches and shoelaces, the thing that best shows a person's personality is a pipe, but the signs of this pipe are not obvious and it is not important.

.The owner of the pipe is obviously a man of good health, who uses his left hand in daily life, has good teeth, is careless, and is financially well-off."

Holmes said these words casually and without thinking. He was squinting at me to see if I understood his reasoning.

"Do you think he is a wealthy man because he smokes a seven-shilling pipe?" I asked.

"This cigarette is from Grosvenor, costing 1 pound and 8 pence." Holmes said, and a bit of tobacco was knocked out of the pipe in the palm of his hand: "For half the price, he can smoke high-quality cigarettes.

It shows that he is a rich man."

"So, what are the other times?"

"He had a habit of lighting his pipe on an oil lamp or a gas blowtorch. You could see that one side of the pipe was burnt. If you had used a match, it wouldn't be like this. Use a match to light the cigarette, and the side of the pipe would be burnt.

How could it be burnt? But if you light a cigarette on an oil lamp, the pipe will definitely be burnt. And only the right side of the pipe is burnt, so I infer that this person is left-handed. You can now put your

Put the pipe on the lamp and light it, and you will see that since you are accustomed to using your right hand, the side facing the flame is of course the left side. Sometimes you may not light the cigarette like this, but after all, it is not common, so it can only be said that it is habitual.

The person on the left has his amber mouth bitten through, which shows that he is relatively strong and has neat teeth. If I am not mistaken, I heard him walking upstairs, then we can explore something more interesting than this pipe.

Already."

After a while, our door opened and a burly young man walked in. He was wearing sober and elegant dark gray clothes and holding a brown wide-brimmed felt hat. I estimated that he was about 30 years old, but in fact

How much older do you have to be to have sex with him?

"Gentlemen, please forgive me!" he said with a slight embarrassment, "I think I should knock on the door first. Yes, of course I need to knock on the door first. But, in fact, I am upset, please forgive me for my rashness.

." He put his hand on his forehead, as if he was dizzy, turned around and fell on the chair.

"I can see that you haven't slept for a night or two." Holmes said in a gentle and friendly manner. "This is indeed more stressful than work and play. How can I help you?"

"I want to ask you for advice, sir. I don't know what to do. My whole life seems to have collapsed."

"Would you like me to be a consulting detective?"

"It's not just that. You are knowledgeable and sophisticated. I need your advice. I need to know what I should do next. I hope you can tell me."

He spoke incoherently, his voice was trembling, and his breathing was rapid. I felt that speaking itself was extremely painful for him. He was trying hard to control his emotions with his will from beginning to end.

"This matter is very difficult," he said. "No one wants to talk about his or her household affairs to outsiders, especially discussing his wife's behavior with two strangers. It is very embarrassing. Doing so is really embarrassing.

It’s terrible. But I’m at the end of my wits and have to ask others for advice.”

"My dear Mr. Grant Munro," said Holmes.

Our visitor suddenly jumped up from his chair.

"What?" he shouted, "how do you know my name?"

"If you want to conceal your name and identity," Holmes said with a kind smile, "I remind you not to write your name on the inside of your hat in the future, or when you visit strangers, don't put the inside of your hat.

Toward the house. I was about to tell you that my friends and I have heard many strange things in this room, and God bless us, we have had the good fortune to bring peace to many troubled people. I believe that we

I can also do this for you. Since time is very important, please try not to waste time and tell me the whole story as soon as possible!"

This visitor put his hand on his forehead again, as if he was in extreme pain. I inferred from his posture and expression that he should usually be a taciturn and calm person, with some pride in his nature, and would rather cover his face.

He was hurt and unwilling to be exposed. Later, his clenched fist suddenly made a firm gesture, as if he gave up on keeping the secret and began to talk...

Mr. Holmes, the thing is like this, I have been married and have been married for 3 years. In these 3 years, my wife and I have been very loving and have lived a happy life. Like all couples, our thoughts, words and actions are in harmony.

But now, starting from last Monday, a barrier suddenly appeared between us. I found that I couldn't figure out some things about her life and thoughts at all. She was just like a strange woman. We were estranged.

Now, I want to understand why?

But there is one thing you must know, Mr. Holmes, before I go on. It is not that my wife Effie does not love me, and there is no need for any misunderstanding in that regard. She loves me with all her heart, and now she loves me even more strongly.

Yes. I know this and can feel it. There is no need to doubt it. It is not difficult for a man to detect that a woman loves him, but there is a secret between my wife and me. Until we figure out this secret, we cannot

It's not like before anymore.

"Mr. Munro, please tell me the specific facts." Holmes said a little anxiously.

Let me first tell you the history of Effie that I know. When I first met her, although she was very young, only 25 years old, she was already a widow. Her name at that time was Mrs. Heberon.

When she was a child, she went to the United States and lived in Atlanta, where she married Hebron. Hebron was a lawyer and had many clients. They had a child, but yellow fever suddenly became epidemic there.

Her husband and children were killed by yellow fever, and I saw Hebron's death certificate. This made her resent the United States, and she returned home. In Pinnar, Middlesex,

She lives with her unmarried aunt. I would also like to explain that her ex-husband left her a considerable inheritance, about 4,500 pounds. When her ex-husband was alive, he made a profit from investing in this asset, with an average annual interest of 7

When I met her, she had only been in Pinnar for six months. We fell in love with each other and we were married a few weeks later.

I am a hop merchant with an annual income of 700 to 800 pounds. In Norbury, we rented a small villa with a rent of 80 pounds a year and lived very comfortably. Although our small place is close to the city,

It has a rural flavor. Not far from our villa, there are two houses and a small hotel. There is a separate small villa on the field in front of our door. Apart from this, the only way to see the house is halfway to the station.

My profession requires me to go to the city only during certain seasons, but in the summer I don't need to go to the city. So my wife and I enjoy ourselves in our country house. I might as well tell you that when this unfortunate incident occurred

In the past, nothing unhappy happened between us as husband and wife.

There is one more thing I should tell you in advance before going on. When we got married, my wife transferred all the property to my name. This was not my original intention, because I thought that if my career failed,

It would have been very difficult to turn around. But, she insisted on doing it, and I had to do it. Oh, about 6 weeks ago, she came to see me.

'Jack:' she said, 'when you accepted the money from me, you said so, I will ask for it when I need it.'

'That's right,' I said, 'that money was originally yours!'

'Okay!' she said, 'I want 100 pounds.'

I was actually a little surprised when I heard this, because I thought she just wanted to buy a new dress or something like that.

‘Honey, what’s going on?’ I asked.

'Oh!' she said jokingly, 'you said you were just going to be my bank custodian, and you know bank custodians never ask these questions.'

‘If you really need this money, of course I can give it to you.’ I said.

'Oh, yes, I really need it.'

'Can't you let me know what the money is for?'

'Jack, I can tell you in a few days, but not now.' So I had to do this. But if there is any secret between my wife and I, this is the first time I made an exception. I handed over a check

I gave it to her and then forgot about it. This matter may have nothing to do with what happened later, but I think it's better to say it.
To be continued...