The Adventure of the Red Circle(红圈历险记)

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The Adventure of the Red Circle

The Adventure of the Red

Circle

By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Adventure of the Red Circle

One

"Well, Mrs. Warren, I cannot see that you have any particular cause for

uneasiness, nor do I understand why I, whose time is of some value,

should interfere in the matter. I really have other things to engage me."

So spoke Sherlock Holmes and turned back to the great scrapbook in

which he was arranging and indexing some of his recent material.

But the landlady had the pertinacity and also the cunning of her sex.

She held her ground firmly.

"You arranged an affair for a lodger of mine last year," she said--"Mr.

Fairdale Hobbs."

"Ah, yes--a simple matter."

"But he would never cease talking of it--your kindness, sir, and the

way in which you brought light into the darkness. I remembered his

words when I was in doubt and darkness myself. I know you could if

you only would."

Holmes was accessible upon the side of flattery, and also, to do him

justice, upon the side of kindliness. The two forces made him lay down

his gum-brush with a sigh of resignation and push back his chair.

"Well, well, Mrs. Warren, let us hear about it, then. You don't object

to tobacco, I take it? Thank you, Watson--the matches! You are uneasy,

as I understand, because your new lodger remains in his rooms and you

cannot see him. Why, bless you, Mrs. Warren, if I were your lodger you

often would not see me for weeks on end."

"No doubt, sir; but this is different. It frightens me, Mr. Holmes. I

can't sleep for fright. To hear his quick step moving here and moving

there from early morning to late at night, and yet never to catch so much

as a glimpse of him--it's more than I can stand. My husband is as

nervous over it as I am, but he is out at his work all day, while I get no rest

from it. What is he hiding for? What has he done? Except for the girl,

I am all alone in the house with him, and it's more than my nerves can

stand."

Holmes leaned forward and laid his long, thin fingers upon the

The Adventure of the Red Circle

woman's shoulder. He had an almost hypnotic power of soothing when

he wished. The scared look faded from her eyes, and her agitated

features smoothed into their usual commonplace. She sat down in the

chair which he had indicated.

"If I take it up I must understand every detail," said he. "Take time to

consider. The smallest point may be the most essential. You say that the

man came ten days ago and paid you for a fortnight's board and lodging?"

"He asked my terms, sir. I said fifty shillings a week. There is a

small sitting-room and bedroom, and all complete, at the top of the house."

"Well?"

"He said, 'I'll pay you five pounds a week if I can have it on my own

terms.' I'm a poor woman, sir, and Mr. Warren earns little, and the money

meant much to me. He took out a ten-pound note, and he held it out to

me then and there. 'You can have the same every fortnight for a long

time to come if you keep the terms,' he said. 'If not, I'll have no more to

do with you.'

"What were the terms?"

"Well, sir, they were that he was to have a key of the house. That was

all right. Lodgers often have them. Also, that he was to be left entirely

to himself and never, upon any excuse, to be disturbed."

"Nothing wonderful in that, surely?"

"Not in reason, sir. But this is out of all reason. He has been there

for ten days, and neither Mr. Warren, nor I, nor the girl has once set eyes

upon him. We can hear that quick step of his pacing up and down, up

and down, night, morning, and noon; but except on that first night he had

never once gone out of the house."

"Oh, he went out the first night, did he?"

"Yes, sir, and returned very late--after we were all in bed. He told me

after he had taken the rooms that he would do so and asked me not to bar

the door. I heard him come up the stair after midnight."

"But his meals?"

"It was his particular direction that we should always, when he rang,

leave his meal upon a chair, outside his door. Then he rings again when

he has finished, and we take it down from the same chair. If he wants

The Adventure of the Red Circle

anything else he prints it on a slip of paper and leaves it."

"Prints it?"

"Yes, sir; prints it in pencil. Just the word, nothing more. Here's the

one I brought to show you--soap. Here's another-- match. This is one

he left the first morning--daily gazette. I leave that paper with his

breakfast every morning."

"Dear me, Watson," said Homes, staring with great curiosity at the

slips of foolscap which the landlady had handed to him, "this is certainly a

little unusual. Seclusion I can understand; but why print? Printing is a

clumsy process. Why not write? What would it suggest, Watson?"

"That he desired to conceal his handwriting."

"But why? What can it matter to him that his landlady should have a

word of his writing? Still, it may be as you say. Then, again, why such

laconic messages?"

"I cannot imagine."

It opens a pleasing field for intelligent speculation. The words are

written with a broad-pointed, violet-tinted pencil of a not unusual pattern.

You will observe that the paper is torn away at the side here after the

printing was done, so that the 's' of 'soap' is partly gone. Suggestive,

Watson, is it not?"

"Of caution?"

"Exactly. There was evidently some mark, some thumbprint,

something which might give a clue to the person's identity. Now. Mrs.

Warren, you say that the man was of middle size, dark, and bearded.

What age would he be?"

"Youngish, sir--not over thirty."

"Well, can you give me no further indications?"

"He spoke good English, sir, and yet I thought he was a foreigner by

his accent."

"And he was well dressed?"

"Very smartly dressed, sir--quite the gentleman. Dark clothes--

nothing you would note."

"He gave no name?"

No, sir."

The Adventure of the Red Circle

"And has had no letters or callers?"

"None."

"But surely you or the girl enter his room of a morning?"

"No, sir; he looks after himself entirely."

"Dear me! that is certainly remarkable. What about his luggage?"

"He had one big brown bag with him--nothing else."

"Well, we don't seem to have much material to help us. Do you say

nothing has come out of that room--absolutely nothing?"

The landlady drew an envelope from her bag; from it she shook out

two burnt matches and a cigarette-end upon the table.

"They were on his tray this morning. I brought them because I had

heard that you can read great things out of small ones."

Holmes shrugged his shoulders.

"There is nothing here," said he. "The matches have, of course, been

used to light cigarettes. That is obvious from the shortness of the burnt

end. Half the match is consumed in lighting a pipe or cigar. But, dear

me! this cigarette stub is certainly remarkable. The gentleman was

bearded and moustached, you say?"

"Yes, sir."

"I don't understand that. I should say that only a clean-shaven man

could have smoked this. Why, Watson, even your modest moustache

would have been singed."

"A holder?" I suggested.

"No, no; the end is matted. I suppose there could not be two people

in your rooms, Mrs. Warren?"

"No, sir. He eats so little that I often wonder it can keep life in one."

"Well, I think we must wait for a little more material. After all, you

have nothing to complain of. You have received your rent, and he is not

a troublesome lodger, though he is certainly an unusual one. He pays

you well, and if he chooses to lie concealed it is no direct business of

yours. We have no excuse for an intrusion upon his privacy until we

have some reason to think that there is a guilty reason for it. I've taken

up the matter, and I won't lose sight of it. Report to me if anything fresh

occurs, and rely upon my assistance if it should be needed.

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TheAdventureoftheRedCircle1TheAdventureoftheRedCircleBySirArthurConanDoyleTheAdventureoftheRedCircle2One"Well,Mrs.Warren,Icannotseethatyouhaveanyparticularcauseforuneasiness,nordoIunderstandwhyI,whosetimeisofsomevalue,shouldinterfereinthematter.Ireallyhaveotherthingstoengageme."SospokeSherlockHolmes...

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