The Valley of Fear

The Valley of Fear (1916)

Arthur Conan Doyle

ESL Easy Read

Reading Comprehension B1 • Original Text • Português Support

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Copyright

Fonte original — domínio público

Esta edição ESL Easy Read foi adaptada a partir de The Valley of Fear, de Arthur Conan Doyle, publicado originalmente em 1915.

A obra original encontra-se em domínio público e pode ser utilizada, reproduzida, distribuída e adaptada de acordo com a legislação aplicável.

Autor

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)

Estados Unidos

Esta obra foi publicada originalmente em 1915.

Nos Estados Unidos, obras publicadas antes de 1930 encontram-se normalmente em domínio público.

Com base no ano de publicação disponível, esta obra encontra-se em domínio público nos Estados Unidos desde 1º de janeiro de 2011.

Brasil

Autor: Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)

De acordo com a Lei nº 9.610/1998, os direitos patrimoniais expiram 70 anos após a morte do autor, contados a partir de 1º de janeiro do ano seguinte ao falecimento.

Arthur Conan Doyle faleceu em 1930.

Situação no Brasil: DOMÍNIO PÚBLICO.

Portugal

Autor: Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)

De acordo com o Código do Direito de Autor e dos Direitos Conexos, a proteção patrimonial dura 70 anos após a morte do autor.

Arthur Conan Doyle faleceu em 1930.

Situação em Portugal: DOMÍNIO PÚBLICO.

Dados da publicação original

Obra original: The Valley of Fear

Autor: Arthur Conan Doyle

Primeira publicação: 1915

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Esta adaptação ESL Easy Read

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Introdução

Como ler este livro

Cada livro desta coleção é apresentado em um nível de leitura simplificada, de acordo com o CEFR — Quadro Europeu Comum de Referência para Línguas.

A2 — Básico: indicado para leitores que já compreendem frases simples, vocabulário frequente e textos curtos sobre situações do cotidiano.

B1 — Intermediário: indicado para leitores que conseguem compreender as ideias principais de textos claros e acompanhar uma narrativa com vocabulário e estruturas de dificuldade moderada.

B2 — Intermediário avançado: indicado para leitores que já conseguem compreender textos mais complexos, acompanhar descrições detalhadas e reconhecer uma variedade maior de vocabulário e estruturas gramaticais.

Este livro foi adaptado para o nível B1.

Assim, você pode começar a lê-lo mesmo sem dominar completamente o inglês. O texto foi simplificado para facilitar a compreensão, preservando a história, os personagens e os acontecimentos principais da obra original.

Como usar as notas

No texto de leitura simplificada, cada parágrafo possui um link Pt/En. Esse link abre uma nota com a tradução em português do texto simplificado e o trecho correspondente no texto original em inglês.

No texto original em inglês, o link PT leva diretamente ao parágrafo correspondente na versão em português. Na tradução portuguesa, o link En retorna ao parágrafo correspondente no texto original.

A tradução para o português é feita a partir do texto em inglês simplificado, e não diretamente do texto original. O objetivo é ajudar você a compreender com precisão a frase simplificada que está estudando naquele momento.

O texto original em inglês é apresentado separadamente para a etapa seguinte do aprendizado, quando você já estiver preparado para ler e comparar a obra em sua forma original.

Cada nota contém links que permitem retornar exatamente ao parágrafo que você estava lendo.

Sobre este livro

O Vale do Terror é o quarto e último romance de Sherlock Holmes escrito por Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A história começa com Holmes recebendo uma mensagem cifrada de um capanga do Professor Moriarty, alertando sobre um perigo. Logo depois, um homem chamado John Douglas é assassinado em Birlstone Manor, em Sussex. Holmes e o Dr. Watson viajam para o local, onde encontram o corpo da vítima com um haltere faltando e um cartão com os dizeres 'V.V. 341' preso ao peito. Holmes deduz que o assassinato está ligado a uma sociedade secreta. A narrativa então muda para um flashback ambientado na região de mineração de carvão da Pensilvânia, EUA, onde um jovem chamado John McMurdo se junta aos sinistros Scowrers, um grupo violento baseado nos Molly Maguires. Na verdade, McMurdo é um detetive disfarçado da agência Pinkerton chamado Birdy Edwards, enviado para infiltrar a organização. A história cria tensão enquanto Edwards trabalha para levar os criminosos à justiça, culminando em um confronto dramático. O romance retorna ao presente, onde Holmes revela que a vítima era Edwards, que vivia sob um nome falso. O tom é sombrio e cheio de suspense, mesclando trabalho de detetive com uma narrativa de thriller. O cenário muda do campo inglês para a cidade mineira americana, destacando temas de vingança, justiça e o longo braço da lei.

Nota editorial

A tradução para o português e a versão Reading Comprehension B1 foram geradas com apoio de inteligência artificial e submetidas a revisão editorial.

Em caso de dúvida ou observações, fale conosco.

MicMac from Las Vegas LLC
Contato: admin@micmacfromlasvegas.com

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Reading Comprehension B1

2 - I — The Warning

3 - II — Sherlock Holmes Discourses

4 - III — The Tragedy of Birlstone

I — The Warning

Pt/En The narrator said he was inclined to think about something.

Pt/En Sherlock Holmes remarked impatiently that the narrator should do that.

Pt/En The narrator admitted that he was annoyed by the interruption, even though he felt he was a very patient person.

Pt/En The narrator told Holmes seriously that he could be difficult to deal with sometimes.

Pt/En Holmes was very focused on his thoughts and did not answer immediately. He was looking at a piece of paper he had taken from an envelope. He then held the envelope up to the light and looked carefully at the outside and the flap.

Pt/En He thought the writing belonged to Porlock. He was sure it was Porlock's writing because of a special Greek letter 'e' he had seen before. He also said that if it was Porlock, it must be very important.

Pt/En He was speaking to himself, but his words made me interested.

Pt/En I asked him who Porlock was.

Pt/En He explained that Porlock was a fake name, not a real person. Porlock had told him he could never find him in the city. Porlock was important because he was connected to a very dangerous and important man. He asked if I had heard of Professor Moriarty.

Pt/En I started to say that Moriarty was a famous criminal, known among criminals as...

Pt/En Holmes spoke to Watson in a quiet voice, saying he was blushing.

Pt/En Holmes was going to say that the person was not known to the public.

Pt/En Holmes told Watson that he was making a joke. He explained that calling Moriarty a criminal was not true in the eyes of the law. Holmes described Moriarty as the greatest planner of all time, who controlled all bad activities and had a mind that could change the future of countries. However, Moriarty was so careful and hidden that he could sue Watson for saying these words and get money for his damaged reputation. Holmes also mentioned that Moriarty wrote a difficult book about mathematics that no one in science could understand. He asked if such a man should be spoken about badly. Holmes said that if he lived longer, their time to act would come.

Pt/En Watson said he hoped he would be there to see it. He then asked Holmes to continue talking about Porlock.

Pt/En Holmes replied that Porlock was a part of the plan, but not a very strong part. He told Watson that Porlock was the only weak point he had found in the whole plan.

Pt/En Holmes explained that a chain is only as strong as its weakest part.

Pt/En Holmes agreed with Watson and said that Porlock was very important. He explained that Porlock sometimes tried to do good and received money secretly. Because of this, Porlock had given him useful information before, which helped stop crimes before they happened. Holmes believed that if they had the secret code, they would see that this new message was similar.

Pt/En Holmes spread the paper flat on his desk again. Watson stood up and looked at the strange writing with him.

Pt/En The inscription was a series of numbers: 534 C2 13 127 36 31 4 17 21 41.

Pt/En The inscription also included the names "Douglas" and "Birlstone" with numbers: Douglas 109 293 5 37 Birlstone.

Pt/En 26 Birlstone 9 47 171

Pt/En Watson asked Holmes what he thought about it.

Pt/En Holmes said that it was clearly an attempt to send secret information.

Pt/En Watson then asked what the use of a coded message was without the key to decode it.

Pt/En Holmes replied that in this case, it was no use at all.

Pt/En He asked why the speaker used the specific words "in this instance".

Pt/En The speaker explained that many codes are easy to understand, but this one was different. He said it clearly referred to words on a specific page of a book. He felt he could not do anything until he knew which page and which book.

Pt/En Someone asked why the names "Douglas" and "Birlstone" were used.

Pt/En The speaker answered that it was because those words were not found on the page that was used.

Pt/En The other person then asked why the book itself had not been mentioned.

Pt/En Holmes told Watson that it was not smart to send the secret code and the message in the same envelope. If the envelope was lost, they would have a big problem. He said that both things must be wrong for there to be trouble. He was waiting for the post, expecting a new letter or the book that the numbers were from.

Pt/En A few minutes later, Billy, the page, arrived with the letter they were waiting for. This happened just as Holmes had thought.

Pt/En Holmes saw that the writing on the new letter was the same as before. He was happy because it was signed. He said they were making progress. But when he read the letter, his face became sad.

Pt/En Holmes said that the letter was very disappointing. He thought that all their hopes were gone. He hoped that the man named Porlock would not get hurt.

Pt/En The letter started with "Dear Mr. Holmes."

Pt/En Fred Porlock wrote that he could not continue with the matter because it was too dangerous. He felt that someone suspected him. This person had visited him unexpectedly, just as he was preparing to send the key to a secret code. He managed to hide the envelope, but he believed he saw suspicion in the visitor's eyes. He asked the recipient to destroy the secret code message, as it was no longer useful.

Pt/En The letter was signed by Fred Porlock.

Pt/En Holmes read the letter and then sat for a while, looking into the fire and thinking.

Pt/En Holmes said that perhaps there was no real danger. He thought that Porlock might just be feeling guilty because he knew he had betrayed someone. Porlock might have imagined he saw accusation in the other person's eyes because he felt like a traitor himself.

Pt/En The other person, Holmes guessed, was Professor Moriarty.

Pt/En The speaker agreed and explained that when people from that group talk about 'He', they all understand who they mean. There was one main person that everyone referred to as 'He'.

Pt/En Someone asked what this person could do.

Pt/En The speaker thought this was a big question. He said that when a very intelligent person in Europe, with powerful evil forces behind him, is against you, many things are possible. He also noted that Friend Porlock was clearly very frightened. He pointed out that the writing on the note was clear and steady, but the writing on the envelope was difficult to read, and Porlock had said the envelope was written before the visit.

Pt/En Someone asked why Porlock wrote the note instead of just leaving it.

Pt/En The speaker explained that Porlock was afraid that if he had not written, the speaker might have looked for him and caused him trouble.

Pt/En The speaker agreed and looked closely at the secret message. He felt it was very frustrating that an important secret might be on the paper, but they could not understand it.

Pt/En Sherlock Holmes put his breakfast aside and lit his pipe, which he often used when thinking deeply. He wondered if there were details the speaker had missed. Holmes suggested they think about the problem using only logic, starting with the fact that the message referred to a book.

Pt/En The speaker replied that the clue about the book was not very clear.

Pt/En Holmes said they should try to make the clue clearer. He felt that as he thought about it, it seemed less impossible to understand. He asked what information they had about this book.

Pt/En The speaker answered that they had no information.

Pt/En Holmes explained that the cipher message started with the number 534. He thought this number probably referred to page 534 in a book. He said this meant their book was now much larger. He then asked Watson what the letters C2 might mean.

Pt/En Watson guessed that C2 could mean chapter two.

Pt/En Holmes disagreed, saying the chapter number was not important if the page number was known. He also suggested that if page 534 was in the second chapter, the first chapter must have been very long.

Pt/En Watson suddenly said "Column!"

Pt/En Holmes praised Watson, saying he was very clever. Holmes agreed that C2 likely meant column. He explained that this suggested a large book printed with two columns on each page. He noted that one word was numbered 293, showing the columns were long. He asked if they could discover anything else.

Pt/En The speaker said they were afraid that something was true.

Pt/En Holmes told Watson that he was being too hard on himself and had another idea. He explained that if the book had been unusual, the sender would have given it to him directly. Instead, the sender had planned to send the clue in the envelope before his plans were stopped. The sender wrote in a note that he thought Holmes would be able to find the book easily himself. Holmes concluded that the book must be a very common one.

Pt/En Watson replied that what Holmes said sounded reasonable.

Pt/En Holmes stated that they had narrowed down their search to a large book, which was printed with two columns of text and was commonly used.

Pt/En Watson excitedly guessed that the book was the Bible.

Pt/En Holmes told Watson that his idea was good, but not perfect. He explained that a book belonging to one of Moriarty's helpers would not be a religious book. This is because there are many different versions of religious books, so the page numbers would not be the same. Holmes said it must be a book that is the same for everyone, so page 534 would be the same in every copy.

Pt/En Watson replied that only a few books would fit this description.

Pt/En Holmes agreed and said this was why they could find the book. He explained that they were looking for books that are the same for everyone and that people might have.

Pt/En Watson suggested Bradshaw.

Pt/En Holmes explained that Bradshaw was not suitable. He said its language was too simple and limited for sending general messages. He also thought a dictionary would not work for the same reason. Holmes then asked Watson what other options they had.

Pt/En Holmes said it was an almanac.

Pt/En Holmes was happy and thought Watson had found the right thing. He said they should check Whitaker's Almanac. He explained that it had many pages and was written in two columns. He remembered that the end of the book had more words. Holmes took the book and looked at page 534, second column. The first word was 'Mahratta', which he thought was not a good start. The next word was 'Government', which made sense but was not useful. Then he found 'pig’s-bristles'. Holmes felt they had failed.

Pt/En Holmes was joking, but his face showed he was sad and annoyed. I felt helpless and unhappy, watching the fire. After a long silence, Holmes suddenly shouted. He quickly went to a cupboard and took out another book with a yellow cover.

Pt/En Holmes told me they had a problem because they were too modern. He said it was January 7th, so they had the new almanac. He thought the person who sent the message probably used the old almanac. Holmes then checked page 534 in the new book. The first word was 'There', which was better. The next word was 'is'. Together, 'There is'. Holmes was very excited. He continued to count words and found 'danger'. He told me to write it down. The message continued: 'There is danger—may—come—very—soon—one.' Then he found the name 'Douglas' and more words about a rich man at Birlstone House who needed help. Holmes asked me what I thought of his logical method.

Pt/En I was looking at the strange message that I had written on a piece of paper on my lap while Holmes was reading it.

Pt/En The narrator commented that the way someone expressed their idea was very strange and unclear.

Pt/En Holmes disagreed, saying the person had done very well. He explained that when you only have a few words to choose from, you cannot say everything perfectly. You must let the other person understand some things themselves. Holmes believed the message was clear: someone planned to harm a rich country gentleman named Douglas. The sender was sure the situation was urgent. Holmes felt this was a good piece of analysis.

Pt/En Holmes felt happy like an artist when he did good work, but sad when his work was not as good as he wanted. While he was still pleased with his recent success, Billy opened the door. Inspector MacDonald from Scotland Yard entered the room.

Pt/En This was in the late 1880s, long before Alec MacDonald became famous. He was a young but trusted police detective who had succeeded in several cases. He was tall and thin, showing he was strong. He also had a large head and deep, bright eyes, showing his intelligence, which could be seen behind his thick eyebrows. He was a quiet, careful man with a serious personality and a strong accent from Aberdeen.

Pt/En Holmes had helped MacDonald succeed twice before, and Holmes's only reward was the pleasure of solving the problem. Because of this, MacDonald felt deep respect and affection for Holmes, and he openly asked Holmes for help with any difficult case. Ordinary people only understand things at their own level, but talented people recognize genius. MacDonald was talented enough in his job to know there was no shame in asking for help from someone who was already the best in Europe for his skills and experience. Holmes did not easily make friends, but he tolerated the tall Scottish man and smiled when he saw him.

Pt/En The inspector greeted Mr. Mac, saying he was early. He wished him luck and said he was worried that something bad was happening.

Pt/En The inspector replied to Mr. Holmes, with a smile. He thought that Mr. Holmes should hope instead of fear, as it was more likely to be true. He said he did not want a drink and needed to leave. He explained that the early hours of a case were very important, and Mr. Holmes knew this well. He stopped speaking suddenly.

Pt/En The inspector stopped suddenly. He looked with great surprise at a paper on the table. This paper was the one where the writer had quickly written the strange message.

Pt/En He said the names "Douglas" and "Birlstone" in surprise. He asked Mr. Holmes what this was and if it was magic. He wanted to know where Mr. Holmes had found these names.

Pt/En Mr. Holmes explained that it was a secret code that he and Dr. Watson had solved before. He then asked why the names were causing a problem.

Pt/En The inspector looked at them, very surprised. He told them that Mr. Douglas from Birlstone Manor House had been killed last night.

II — Sherlock Holmes Discourses

Pt/En This was an exciting moment for Sherlock Holmes. He was not shocked or very excited by the news. He was often not emotional because he thought too much. But his mind was very active. He did not show the fear that I felt. Instead, he looked calm and interested, like a scientist watching something important happen.

Pt/En He said it was remarkable.

Pt/En Someone asked him if he was not surprised.

Pt/En He replied that he was interested, but not surprised. He explained that he had received a warning that someone was in danger. Soon after, he heard that the danger had happened and the person was dead. He said this made him interested, but not surprised.

Pt/En Holmes briefly explained the details of the letter and the secret code to the inspector. MacDonald sat with his chin on his hands, his sandy eyebrows looking messy.

Pt/En Holmes said he was going to Birlstone that morning. He had wanted to ask the inspector and his friend to come with him. However, based on what the inspector had said, Holmes thought they might do more useful work in London.

Pt/En Holmes disagreed, saying he did not think that was the best plan.

Pt/En The inspector exclaimed that the newspapers would soon report the Birlstone mystery. He asked Holmes what the mystery was if someone in London had predicted the crime before it happened. He believed that if they could find that person, the rest of the case would be solved.

Pt/En Holmes asked the inspector how he planned to find the person called Porlock.

Pt/En MacDonald looked at the letter Holmes had given him. He said it was posted in Camberwell, which was not very helpful. The name used was fake, so there was not much to learn. MacDonald asked if money had been sent to the person.

Pt/En The answer was twice.

Pt/En Holmes asked how the money was sent.

Pt/En MacDonald explained that the money was sent in notes to the Camberwell post-office.

Pt/En Holmes then asked if MacDonald had ever checked to see who collected the money.

Pt/En Sherlock Holmes answered no.

Pt/En The inspector looked surprised and shocked. He asked why.

Pt/En Holmes explained that he always kept his promise. He had said he would not try to find the person when they first wrote to him.

Pt/En The inspector asked if Holmes thought someone was helping the person.

Pt/En Holmes confirmed that he knew someone was involved.

Pt/En He asked if it was the professor that Holmes had mentioned.

Pt/En Holmes confirmed this.

Pt/En Inspector MacDonald smiled and told Holmes that the C.I.D. thought he was too interested in the professor. MacDonald said he had asked about the professor himself and found him to be a very good, educated, and skilled person.

Pt/En Holmes was pleased that MacDonald recognized the professor's talent.

Pt/En MacDonald said that everyone could see the professor's talent. He explained that after hearing Holmes's opinion, he met the professor. They talked about eclipses, and the professor used a lantern and a globe to explain it clearly. The professor lent him a book, but MacDonald found it difficult to understand, even though he had a good education. MacDonald thought the professor, with his thin face, gray hair, and serious way of speaking, would make a great minister. When the professor put his hand on MacDonald's shoulder as they said goodbye, it felt like a father's blessing.

Pt/En Holmes chuckled and rubbed his hands. He said it was great. He asked MacDonald if the pleasant meeting had been in the professor's study.

Pt/En MacDonald confirmed that it was.

Pt/En Holmes asked if it was a nice room.

Pt/En MacDonald replied that it was very nice and handsome.

Pt/En Holmes then asked if MacDonald had sat in front of the professor's writing desk.

Pt/En Holmes confirmed.

Pt/En Holmes asked if the sun was in the listener's eyes and the other person's face was in shadow.

Pt/En The listener replied that it was evening, but remembered the lamp was shining on his face.

Pt/En Holmes asked if the listener had noticed a picture above the professor's head.

Pt/En The listener told Mr. Holmes that he noticed many things, perhaps from learning from him. He said he saw the picture of a young woman looking sideways, with her head in her hands.

Pt/En Holmes said that the painting was by Jean Baptiste Greuze.

Pt/En The inspector tried to look interested.

Pt/En Holmes continued, explaining that Jean Baptiste Greuze was a French artist who worked between 1750 and 1800. He added that modern critics agreed with the high opinion people had of him at the time.

Pt/En The inspector looked away, and started to say that they should perhaps do something else.

Pt/En Holmes interrupted him, saying that they were already doing that. He explained that everything he was saying was very important for the Birlstone Mystery and was, in a way, its centre.

Pt/En MacDonald looked at Holmes and asked him to explain. He said Holmes's ideas were too fast for him and that he missed some steps. He wanted to know what the connection was between the dead man who painted and the Birlstone case.

Pt/En Holmes replied that all knowledge is useful for a detective. He mentioned that a painting by Greuze called "La Jeune Fille à l’Agneau" was sold for a lot of money in 1865. Holmes suggested this fact might make MacDonald think.

Pt/En The inspector seemed genuinely interested, and it was clear that Holmes's words had made him think.

Pt/En Holmes continued by saying that the professor's salary could be found in reference books. He stated that the salary was seven hundred pounds a year.

Pt/En The inspector started to ask how the professor could buy something with that salary.

Pt/En Holmes agreed and asked how it was possible.

Pt/En The inspector thought it was very interesting. He told Mr. Holmes to continue talking and said he enjoyed it very much.

Pt/En Holmes smiled, happy with the inspector's praise. He then asked about Birlstone.

Pt/En The inspector checked his watch and said they had enough time. He mentioned his cab was ready and it would take them only twenty minutes to reach Victoria. He then asked Mr. Holmes if he had ever met Professor Moriarty.

Pt/En Holmes replied that he had never met him.

Pt/En He was asked how he knew about the man's rooms.

Pt/En The speaker explained that he had been in the man's rooms three times. Twice, he waited there for the man using false reasons and left before he arrived. The third time, he said he could not tell an official detective about it. On that last visit, he looked through the man's papers and found surprising results.

Pt/En The question was asked if something bad or illegal was found.

Pt/En The speaker replied that nothing bad was found, which was surprising. He pointed out that the man was very rich. He explained that the man was not married, his younger brother worked at a train station, and his job paid him seven hundred pounds a year. He also owned a valuable painting.

Pt/En The other person responded with a simple question, asking for more information.

Pt/En Holmes stated that the conclusion was very clear.

Pt/En Watson asked if Holmes meant that the person had a lot of money and earned it illegally.

Pt/En Holmes agreed and explained that he had many small clues that pointed to the main problem. He mentioned the painting by Greuze so Watson could understand it better.

Pt/En Watson told Holmes that his ideas were wonderful and asked him to explain more clearly where the money came from, such as forgery, making fake money, or burglary.

Pt/En Holmes asked Watson if he had ever heard of Jonathan Wild.

Pt/En Sherlock Holmes thought the name sounded familiar, perhaps from a novel. He said he did not pay much attention to detectives in books because they did things without showing how. He felt this was just imagination, not real work.

Pt/En Holmes explained that Jonathan Wild was not a detective and did not appear in a novel. He was a major criminal who lived in the last century, around the year 1750.

Pt/En The other man replied that if Jonathan Wild was not useful to him, then he was not interested. He stated that he was a practical person.

Pt/En Holmes suggested that the most practical thing the man could do would be to study crime history for three months, reading twelve hours a day. He explained that everything repeats, like Professor Moriarty. Jonathan Wild was the main person behind criminals in London, selling his intelligence and organization for a fifteen percent fee. Holmes believed that history repeats itself and that he would tell the man some interesting facts about Moriarty.

Pt/En The other man said that Holmes would certainly interest him.

Pt/En Sherlock Holmes said he knew the first person in Moriarty's criminal group. He explained that Moriarty's network was like a long chain of criminals, with Moriarty at one end and many other bad people involved in different crimes at the other. Holmes mentioned that Colonel Sebastian Moran was Moriarty's chief of staff, and he was as difficult for the law to reach as Moriarty himself. Holmes then asked what he thought Moran was paid.

Pt/En The other person wanted to hear the answer.

Pt/En Holmes told him that Colonel Moran was paid six thousand pounds a year. He said this showed how much Moriarty earned and how big his operations were, noting that it was more than the Prime Minister received. Holmes also mentioned that he had recently seen some of Moriarty's bank checks for household bills, which were drawn on six different banks. He asked if this made an impression.

Pt/En The other person found it strange but asked what Holmes understood from this fact.

Pt/En Holmes explained that Moriarty wanted to keep his wealth secret, so no single person would know how much he had. He believed Moriarty had many bank accounts, possibly with most of his money in foreign banks. Holmes suggested that studying Professor Moriarty would be a good project if someone had time.

Pt/En Inspector MacDonald was becoming more impressed during the talk. He was very interested. But his practical mind made him focus again on the problem they were discussing.

Pt/En MacDonald told Holmes that he could wait. He said Holmes had made them forget the main problem with his interesting stories. He thought the important point was Holmes's idea that the professor was connected to the crime. This idea came from a warning from a man named Porlock. MacDonald asked if they could learn anything more useful for their current needs.

Pt/En Holmes suggested they could guess the reasons for the crime. He understood from MacDonald that the murder was strange and not explained. Holmes thought there could be two possible reasons for the crime. He explained that Moriarty controlled his people very strictly, and the only punishment was death. Holmes thought that perhaps the murdered man, Douglas, had betrayed Moriarty. His punishment was death, and this would be known to others to make them afraid.

Pt/En MacDonald said that was one idea, Mr. Holmes.

Pt/En Holmes offered another idea: that Moriarty arranged the murder as part of his usual business. Holmes asked if anything was stolen.

Pt/En Holmes said that he had not heard.

Pt/En Holmes explained that if something was true, it would support his second idea and not his first. He thought Moriarty might have been hired to do the job for a share of the money, or he might have been paid a fixed amount. Holmes believed the answer to the mystery was in Birlstone, because he knew the person they were looking for would not leave any clues behind.

Pt/En MacDonald was excited and stood up. He said they must go to Birlstone. He told Holmes and Watson that they had only five minutes to get ready.

Pt/En Holmes agreed that five minutes was enough time for them. He quickly got up to change his clothes. He asked MacDonald to tell him everything about the case while they were travelling.

Pt/En The information MacDonald gave was not much, but it was enough to show that the case was interesting for Holmes. Holmes became happier as he listened to the few but important details. After many boring weeks, there was finally a case that was a good challenge for his skills. His sharp mind was getting dull from not being used.

Pt/En Sherlock Holmes looked very excited when he heard about a new case. He leaned forward in the taxi and listened carefully as Inspector MacDonald explained the problem they had in Sussex. MacDonald said he had received a short note about the case early that morning from a local officer named White Mason, who was his friend. This meant MacDonald was told about the case much faster than usual for Scotland Yard, and that London police experts often had to solve difficult cases.

Pt/En The letter MacDonald read was from White Mason. It said that an official request for MacDonald's help was coming separately, but this note was private. Mason asked MacDonald to send a message about which train he could take to Birlstone the next morning, so he could meet him. Mason described the case as very exciting and told MacDonald to start immediately. He also asked MacDonald to bring Mr. Holmes if possible, saying Holmes would find it interesting. Mason added that the situation seemed like a play, but with a dead man involved, and called it a very unusual case.

Pt/En Holmes commented that the writer of the letter seemed like a smart person.

Pt/En MacDonald agreed, saying that White Mason was a very capable and active officer.

Pt/En Holmes then asked if MacDonald had any more information.

Pt/En Holmes said that the person would give them all the details when they met.

Pt/En The speaker asked how Holmes knew about Mr. Douglas and that he had been murdered.

Pt/En The speaker explained that the information came from an official report. It stated the name John Douglas, that his head injuries were from a shotgun, and that the alarm was given near midnight. The report also said it was a murder case with no arrest and some strange features. That was all the information they had.

Pt/En Holmes agreed to stop there. He said that making theories too early with not enough information is bad for their work. He saw two certain things: a smart person in London and a dead man in Sussex. He said they would find the connection between them.

III — The Tragedy of Birlstone

Pt/En The narrator wanted to explain events that happened before they arrived. He said this would help the reader understand the people and the unusual situation they were in.

Pt/En Birlstone is a small, old village in Sussex with houses made of wood. For many years, it stayed the same. But in recent years, rich people have moved there and built houses. New shops have opened for the growing population. The village is becoming more modern and may grow into a town. It is an important centre for the area, as the nearest large town, Tunbridge Wells, is about ten to twelve miles away.

Pt/En About half a mile from the village is Birlstone Manor House, located in an old park with very large beech trees. Parts of the house are very old, dating back to the time of the first crusade. A man named Hugo de Capus built a fort there, which was later destroyed by fire. In the 1600s, a new brick house was built on the old castle's ruins, using some of the old stones.

Pt/En The Manor House still looks much like it did in the early 1600s, with many pointed roofs and small windows. It used to have two moats for defence. The outer moat is now dry and used as a garden. The inner moat is still there, forty feet wide, surrounding the house. A small stream fills it, keeping the water moving. The ground floor windows are very close to the water's surface.

Pt/En The only way to reach the house was across a drawbridge. Although its old lifting system was broken, the current residents fixed it. They now raise the drawbridge every evening and lower it every morning. This made the Manor House like an island at night, which became important for a mystery that later interested all of England.

Pt/En The house had been empty for some years before the Douglases moved in. There were only two people in the family: John Douglas and his wife. John Douglas was about fifty years old and looked strong. He had a rugged face, grey hair, sharp grey eyes, and a fit body. He was friendly and kind, but sometimes seemed a bit distant, as if he had experienced a very different life before living in Sussex.

Pt/En John Douglas became very popular with the villagers. He gave money to local projects and sang well at village events. People thought he was rich, perhaps from gold mining in California. He and his wife also talked about living in America.

Pt/En People also thought John Douglas was brave and did not fear danger. He was not a good horse rider, but he always joined hunting events and often fell. He also showed courage when he went back into a burning building to save things, even after the firefighters stopped trying. In five years, John Douglas became well-known in Birlstone.

Pt/En His wife was also liked by those who met her. However, not many people visited her because she was new to the area and had no introductions. This did not bother her much, as she was quiet and seemed very focused on her husband and her home. She was an English woman who met Mr. Douglas in London when he was already a widower. She was a beautiful, tall, dark, and slim woman, about twenty years younger than her husband, but they seemed very happy together.

Pt/En Some people who knew them well noticed that the couple did not seem to share everything. His wife either did not talk about his past or did not know much about it. A few people also saw that Mrs. Douglas sometimes seemed nervous. She would become very worried if her husband was late coming home. In the quiet countryside, people noticed these things about the lady of the Manor House. These observations became more important later when significant events happened.

Pt/En There was one more person who sometimes stayed at the house. His presence during the strange events that will be told later made him well-known. This person was Cecil James Barker, who lived in Hampstead.

Pt/En Cecil Barker was a tall, thin man who often visited the Manor House. He was Mr. Douglas's only friend from his past life in America. Barker was English, but he had known Douglas for a long time in America, where they were very good friends. He seemed rich and was not married.

Pt/En Barker was about 45 years old, younger than Douglas. He was tall and strong with a face like a boxer. He was friendly with Douglas and his wife. The butler said Barker was a kind man, but warned that it would be bad to make him angry. Barker was close to Douglas and his wife, but sometimes Douglas seemed annoyed by their friendship. Barker was living with them when the bad event happened.

Pt/En There were other people working at the old house. Ames was a neat and good butler, and Mrs. Allen was a cheerful woman who helped the lady of the house with her work. The other six servants were not important to what happened on the night of January 6th.

Pt/En At 11:45 PM, the local police station got the first call. Cecil Barker was very upset and ran to the police station to tell them that John Douglas had been murdered at the Manor House. He quickly returned to the house. The police sergeant arrived soon after 12:00 AM, after telling other police that something serious was happening.

Pt/En When the sergeant arrived at the Manor House, the bridge was down, lights were on, and everyone was confused and scared. The servants were in the hall, looking pale. The butler was worried. Only Cecil Barker seemed calm. He led the sergeant into a room. Dr. Wood, a local doctor, also arrived. The three men went into the room where the crime happened. The butler followed them, closing the door behind him.

Pt/En A dead man was found lying on his back in the middle of the room. He was wearing a pink dressing gown over his pyjamas and carpet slippers on his feet. A doctor looked at him and saw that he was very badly hurt. A strange weapon lay on his chest: a shotgun with a short barrel. The triggers were tied together. It was clear the gun had been fired very close to his face, destroying his head. The tied triggers made the shot more powerful.

Pt/En The local policeman felt nervous and worried about the big job that had suddenly come to him. He said quietly that they should not touch anything until his bosses arrived, looking with horror at the terrible head.

Pt/En Cecil Barker said that nothing had been touched yet and that the policeman was seeing everything exactly as he had found it.

Pt/En The sergeant asked when that was and took out his notebook.

Pt/En Cecil Barker explained that it was just half past eleven. He had been sitting by his bedroom fire, not yet undressed, when he heard a sound. He said the sound was not very loud, and seemed quiet. He ran downstairs and was in the room less than thirty seconds later.

Pt/En He asked if the door had been open.

Pt/En The person answered that the door was open. He said that poor Douglas was lying there as he was seen. The bedroom candle was burning on the table. He also mentioned that he had lit the lamp a few minutes later.

Pt/En He asked if anyone had been seen.

Pt/En The person replied that no one was seen. He heard Mrs. Douglas coming down the stairs behind him and quickly went out to stop her from seeing the terrible sight. Mrs. Allen, the housekeeper, came and took Mrs. Douglas away. Ames had arrived, and they all ran back into the room.

Pt/En He stated that he had heard the drawbridge was kept up all night.

Pt/En The speaker agreed that something was true, but only until they lowered it.

Pt/En The speaker asked how a murderer could have escaped, saying it was impossible. They thought Mr. Douglas must have shot himself.

Pt/En Barker explained that their first idea was suicide, but he showed that the window was open. He also pointed to a blood mark on the window sill, suggesting someone had stood there to get out.

Pt/En The other person asked if Barker meant that someone walked through the moat.

Pt/En Barker confirmed that this was exactly what he meant.

Pt/En The speaker said that if someone entered the room very soon after the crime happened, the person in question must have been in the water at that exact time.

Pt/En The speaker agreed completely. He wished he had gone to the window quickly, but the curtain hid it, so he did not think of it. Then he heard Mrs. Douglas coming, and he stopped her from entering the room because it would have been too terrible to see.

Pt/En The doctor said it was horrible enough, looking at the damaged head and the awful marks around it. He stated he had never seen such injuries since a big train accident at Birlstone.

Pt/En The police sergeant, using his simple, practical sense, was still thinking about the open window. He said it was fine to suggest that a man escaped by walking through the moat, but he asked how the man got into the house in the first place if the bridge was up.

Pt/En Barker replied that this was the main question.

Pt/En Someone asked at what time it was raised.

Pt/En Ames, the butler, said it was almost six o'clock.

Pt/En The sergeant said he had heard it was usually raised at sunset, which at this time of year would be closer to half-past four than six.

Pt/En Ames explained that Mrs. Douglas had visitors for tea, so he could not raise it until they left. He then wound it up himself.

Pt/En The sergeant concluded that if anyone came from outside, they must have entered across the bridge before six o'clock and stayed hidden until Mr. Douglas entered the room after eleven.

Pt/En The speaker explained that Mr. Douglas checked the lights every night before going to bed. This action brought him to the room where a man was waiting and shot him. The killer then escaped through the window, leaving his gun behind. The speaker believed this was the only way to explain the facts.

Pt/En The sergeant picked up a card from the floor next to the dead man. On the card, the initials V. V. and the number 341 were written in ink.

Pt/En He held up the card and asked what it was.

Pt/En Barker looked at the card with interest. He said he had not seen it before and thought the murderer must have left it behind.

Pt/En The sergeant stated that he could not understand the meaning of "V. V.—341".

Pt/En The sergeant examined an object in his hands. He asked Dr. Wood what "V.V." might mean, suggesting it could be initials. He also asked Dr. Wood what he had found.

Pt/En A large, strong hammer was on the rug near the fireplace. Cecil Barker pointed to a box of nails on the shelf above the fireplace.

Pt/En Cecil Barker explained that Mr. Douglas had been changing the pictures the day before. He saw Mr. Douglas standing on a chair to fix a large picture. This explained why the hammer was there.

Pt/En The sergeant suggested putting the hammer back on the rug where it was found. He thought the police would need their best people to solve the case, and it would become a London investigation. He then looked around the room with a lamp and excitedly asked when the curtains had been drawn.

Pt/En The butler replied that the curtains were drawn when the lamps were lit, which was a little after four o'clock.

Pt/En The detective saw muddy boot marks in the corner. He thought someone had hidden behind the curtain. He explained that the person likely entered the house between 4 PM and 6 PM. The detective believed the intruder wanted to steal things, but Mr. Douglas found him, so the intruder killed Mr. Douglas and ran away.

Pt/En Barker agreed with the detective's idea. He asked if they were wasting time and suggested they should search the area immediately before the suspect could escape.

Pt/En The sergeant thought about this for a short time.

Pt/En The sergeant said that there were no trains before 6 AM, so the suspect could not escape by train. He also said that if the suspect left by road with wet legs, someone would probably notice him. The sergeant could not leave himself until he was replaced. He advised that no one should leave until they understood the situation better.

Pt/En The doctor took the lamp and looked closely at the body. He asked about a mark on the body and if it could be related to the crime.

Pt/En The dead man's right arm was outside his dressing gown, showing his skin up to the elbow. On his forearm, there was a strange brown mark. It looked like a triangle inside a circle and stood out clearly on his pale skin.

Pt/En The doctor looked closely and said the mark was not a tattoo. He had never seen anything like it. He thought the man had been branded like cattle and asked what it meant.

Pt/En Cecil Barker said he did not know the meaning of the mark. However, he had seen it on Douglas many times over the last ten years.

Pt/En The butler agreed, saying he had also seen the mark many times when the master rolled up his sleeves. He had often wondered what it was.

Pt/En The sergeant said the mark had nothing to do with the crime. He thought it was strange, like everything else about the case. He then asked what the next step was.

Pt/En The butler was very surprised. He pointed to the dead man's hand, which was held out.

Pt/En The butler said in surprise that someone had taken the dead man's wedding ring.

Pt/En Barker was surprised and asked what the butler meant.

Pt/En The butler explained that the master always wore his plain gold wedding ring on his left little finger. He pointed out that another ring with a rough stone and a snake ring were still there, but the wedding ring was missing.

Pt/En Barker agreed with the butler.

Pt/En The sergeant asked if the wedding ring was found under the other ring.

Original English Text

2 - I — The Warning

3 - II — Sherlock Holmes Discourses

4 - III — The Tragedy of Birlstone

I — The Warning

PT “I am inclined to think—” said I.

PT “I should do so,” Sherlock Holmes remarked impatiently.

PT I believe that I am one of the most long-suffering of mortals; but I’ll admit that I was annoyed at the sardonic interruption.

PT “Really, Holmes,” said I severely, “you are a little trying at times.”

PT He was too much absorbed with his own thoughts to give any immediate answer to my remonstrance. He leaned upon his hand, with his untasted breakfast before him, and he stared at the slip of paper which he had just drawn from its envelope. Then he took the envelope itself, held it up to the light, and very carefully studied both the exterior and the flap.

PT “It is Porlock’s writing,” said he thoughtfully. “I can hardly doubt that it is Porlock’s writing, though I have seen it only twice before. The Greek e with the peculiar top flourish is distinctive. But if it is Porlock, then it must be something of the very first importance.”

PT He was speaking to himself rather than to me; but my vexation disappeared in the interest which the words awakened.

PT “Who then is Porlock?” I asked.

PT “Porlock, Watson, is a nom-de-plume, a mere identification mark; but behind it lies a shifty and evasive personality. In a former letter he frankly informed me that the name was not his own, and defied me ever to trace him among the teeming millions of this great city. Porlock is important, not for himself, but for the great man with whom he is in touch. Picture to yourself the pilot fish with the shark, the jackal with the lion—anything that is insignificant in companionship with what is formidable: not only formidable, Watson, but sinister—in the highest degree sinister. That is where he comes within my purview. You have heard me speak of Professor Moriarty?”

PT “The famous scientific criminal, as famous among crooks as—”

PT “My blushes, Watson!” Holmes murmured in a deprecating voice.

PT “I was about to say, as he is unknown to the public.”

PT “A touch! A distinct touch!” cried Holmes. “You are developing a certain unexpected vein of pawky humour, Watson, against which I must learn to guard myself. But in calling Moriarty a criminal you are uttering libel in the eyes of the law—and there lie the glory and the wonder of it! The greatest schemer of all time, the organizer of every deviltry, the controlling brain of the underworld, a brain which might have made or marred the destiny of nations—that’s the man! But so aloof is he from general suspicion, so immune from criticism, so admirable in his management and self-effacement, that for those very words that you have uttered he could hale you to a court and emerge with your year’s pension as a solatium for his wounded character. Is he not the celebrated author of The Dynamics of an Asteroid, a book which ascends to such rarefied heights of pure mathematics that it is said that there was no man in the scientific press capable of criticizing it? Is this a man to traduce? Foul-mouthed doctor and slandered professor—such would be your respective roles! That’s genius, Watson. But if I am spared by lesser men, our day will surely come.”

PT “May I be there to see!” I exclaimed devoutly. “But you were speaking of this man Porlock.”

PT “Ah, yes—the so-called Porlock is a link in the chain some little way from its great attachment. Porlock is not quite a sound link—between ourselves. He is the only flaw in that chain so far as I have been able to test it.”

PT “But no chain is stronger than its weakest link.”

PT “Exactly, my dear Watson! Hence the extreme importance of Porlock. Led on by some rudimentary aspirations towards right, and encouraged by the judicious stimulation of an occasional ten-pound note sent to him by devious methods, he has once or twice given me advance information which has been of value—that highest value which anticipates and prevents rather than avenges crime. I cannot doubt that, if we had the cipher, we should find that this communication is of the nature that I indicate.”

PT Again Holmes flattened out the paper upon his unused plate. I rose and, leaning over him, stared down at the curious inscription, which ran as follows:

PT 534 C2 13 127 36 31 4 17 21 41

PT Douglas 109 293 5 37 Birlstone

PT 26 Birlstone 9 47 171

PT “What do you make of it, Holmes?”

PT “It is obviously an attempt to convey secret information.”

PT “But what is the use of a cipher message without the cipher?”

PT “In this instance, none at all.”

PT “Why do you say ‘in this instance’?”

PT “Because there are many ciphers which I would read as easily as I do the apocrypha of the agony column: such crude devices amuse the intelligence without fatiguing it. But this is different. It is clearly a reference to the words in a page of some book. Until I am told which page and which book I am powerless.”

PT “But why ‘Douglas’ and ‘Birlstone’?”

PT “Clearly because those are words which were not contained in the page in question.”

PT “Then why has he not indicated the book?”

PT “Your native shrewdness, my dear Watson, that innate cunning which is the delight of your friends, would surely prevent you from enclosing cipher and message in the same envelope. Should it miscarry, you are undone. As it is, both have to go wrong before any harm comes from it. Our second post is now overdue, and I shall be surprised if it does not bring us either a further letter of explanation, or, as is more probable, the very volume to which these figures refer.”

PT Holmes’s calculation was fulfilled within a very few minutes by the appearance of Billy, the page, with the very letter which we were expecting.

PT “The same writing,” remarked Holmes, as he opened the envelope, “and actually signed,” he added in an exultant voice as he unfolded the epistle. “Come, we are getting on, Watson.” His brow clouded, however, as he glanced over the contents.

PT “Dear me, this is very disappointing! I fear, Watson, that all our expectations come to nothing. I trust that the man Porlock will come to no harm.

PT “Dear Mr. Holmes [he says]:

PT “I will go no further in this matter. It is too dangerous—he suspects me. I can see that he suspects me. He came to me quite unexpectedly after I had actually addressed this envelope with the intention of sending you the key to the cipher. I was able to cover it up. If he had seen it, it would have gone hard with me. But I read suspicion in his eyes. Please burn the cipher message, which can now be of no use to you.

PT Fred Porlock.”

PT Holmes sat for some little time twisting this letter between his fingers, and frowning, as he stared into the fire.

PT “After all,” he said at last, “there may be nothing in it. It may be only his guilty conscience. Knowing himself to be a traitor, he may have read the accusation in the other’s eyes.”

PT “The other being, I presume, Professor Moriarty.”

PT “No less! When any of that party talk about ‘He’ you know whom they mean. There is one predominant ‘He’ for all of them.”

PT “But what can he do?”

PT “Hum! That’s a large question. When you have one of the first brains of Europe up against you, and all the powers of darkness at his back, there are infinite possibilities. Anyhow, Friend Porlock is evidently scared out of his senses—kindly compare the writing in the note to that upon its envelope; which was done, he tells us, before this ill-omened visit. The one is clear and firm. The other hardly legible.”

PT “Why did he write at all? Why did he not simply drop it?”

PT “Because he feared I would make some inquiry after him in that case, and possibly bring trouble on him.”

PT “No doubt,” said I. “Of course.” I had picked up the original cipher message and was bending my brows over it. “It’s pretty maddening to think that an important secret may lie here on this slip of paper, and that it is beyond human power to penetrate it.”

PT Sherlock Holmes had pushed away his untasted breakfast and lit the unsavoury pipe which was the companion of his deepest meditations. “I wonder!” said he, leaning back and staring at the ceiling. “Perhaps there are points which have escaped your Machiavellian intellect. Let us consider the problem in the light of pure reason. This man’s reference is to a book. That is our point of departure.”

PT “A somewhat vague one.”

PT “Let us see then if we can narrow it down. As I focus my mind upon it, it seems rather less impenetrable. What indications have we as to this book?”

PT “None.”

PT “Well, well, it is surely not quite so bad as that. The cipher message begins with a large 534, does it not? We may take it as a working hypothesis that 534 is the particular page to which the cipher refers. So our book has already become a large book, which is surely something gained. What other indications have we as to the nature of this large book? The next sign is C2. What do you make of that, Watson?”

PT “Chapter the second, no doubt.”

PT “Hardly that, Watson. You will, I am sure, agree with me that if the page be given, the number of the chapter is immaterial. Also that if page 534 finds us only in the second chapter, the length of the first one must have been really intolerable.”

PT “Column!” I cried.

PT “Brilliant, Watson. You are scintillating this morning. If it is not column, then I am very much deceived. So now, you see, we begin to visualize a large book printed in double columns which are each of a considerable length, since one of the words is numbered in the document as the two hundred and ninety-third. Have we reached the limits of what reason can supply?”

PT “I fear that we have.”

PT “Surely you do yourself an injustice. One more coruscation, my dear Watson—yet another brain wave! Had the volume been an unusual one, he would have sent it to me. Instead of that, he had intended, before his plans were nipped, to send me the clue in this envelope. He says so in his note. This would seem to indicate that the book is one which he thought I would have no difficulty in finding for myself. He had it—and he imagined that I would have it, too. In short, Watson, it is a very common book.”

PT “What you say certainly sounds plausible.”

PT “So we have contracted our field of search to a large book, printed in double columns and in common use.”

PT “The Bible!” I cried triumphantly.

PT “Good, Watson, good! But not, if I may say so, quite good enough! Even if I accepted the compliment for myself I could hardly name any volume which would be less likely to lie at the elbow of one of Moriarty’s associates. Besides, the editions of Holy Writ are so numerous that he could hardly suppose that two copies would have the same pagination. This is clearly a book which is standardized. He knows for certain that his page 534 will exactly agree with my page 534.”

PT “But very few books would correspond with that.”

PT “Exactly. Therein lies our salvation. Our search is narrowed down to standardized books which anyone may be supposed to possess.”

PT “Bradshaw!”

PT “There are difficulties, Watson. The vocabulary of Bradshaw is nervous and terse, but limited. The selection of words would hardly lend itself to the sending of general messages. We will eliminate Bradshaw. The dictionary is, I fear, inadmissible for the same reason. What then is left?”

PT “An almanac!”

PT “Excellent, Watson! I am very much mistaken if you have not touched the spot. An almanac! Let us consider the claims of Whitaker’s Almanac. It is in common use. It has the requisite number of pages. It is in double column. Though reserved in its earlier vocabulary, it becomes, if I remember right, quite garrulous towards the end.” He picked the volume from his desk. “Here is page 534, column two, a substantial block of print dealing, I perceive, with the trade and resources of British India. Jot down the words, Watson! Number thirteen is ‘Mahratta.’ Not, I fear, a very auspicious beginning. Number one hundred and twenty-seven is ‘Government’; which at least makes sense, though somewhat irrelevant to ourselves and Professor Moriarty. Now let us try again. What does the Mahratta government do? Alas! the next word is ‘pig’s-bristles.’ We are undone, my good Watson! It is finished!”

PT He had spoken in jesting vein, but the twitching of his bushy eyebrows bespoke his disappointment and irritation. I sat helpless and unhappy, staring into the fire. A long silence was broken by a sudden exclamation from Holmes, who dashed at a cupboard, from which he emerged with a second yellow-covered volume in his hand.

PT “We pay the price, Watson, for being too up-to-date!” he cried. “We are before our time, and suffer the usual penalties. Being the seventh of January, we have very properly laid in the new almanac. It is more than likely that Porlock took his message from the old one. No doubt he would have told us so had his letter of explanation been written. Now let us see what page 534 has in store for us. Number thirteen is ‘There,’ which is much more promising. Number one hundred and twenty-seven is ‘is’—‘There is’ ”—Holmes’s eyes were gleaming with excitement, and his thin, nervous fingers twitched as he counted the words—“ ‘danger.’ Ha! Ha! Capital! Put that down, Watson. ‘There is danger—may—come—very—soon—one.’ Then we have the name ‘Douglas’—‘rich—country—now—at—Birlstone—House—Birlstone—confidence—is—pressing.’ There, Watson! What do you think of pure reason and its fruit? If the greengrocer had such a thing as a laurel wreath, I should send Billy round for it.”

PT I was staring at the strange message which I had scrawled, as he deciphered it, upon a sheet of foolscap on my knee.

PT “What a queer, scrambling way of expressing his meaning!” said I.

PT “On the contrary, he has done quite remarkably well,” said Holmes. “When you search a single column for words with which to express your meaning, you can hardly expect to get everything you want. You are bound to leave something to the intelligence of your correspondent. The purport is perfectly clear. Some deviltry is intended against one Douglas, whoever he may be, residing as stated, a rich country gentleman. He is sure—‘confidence’ was as near as he could get to ‘confident’—that it is pressing. There is our result—and a very workmanlike little bit of analysis it was!”

PT Holmes had the impersonal joy of the true artist in his better work, even as he mourned darkly when it fell below the high level to which he aspired. He was still chuckling over his success when Billy swung open the door and Inspector MacDonald of Scotland Yard was ushered into the room.

PT Those were the early days at the end of the ’80’s, when Alec MacDonald was far from having attained the national fame which he has now achieved. He was a young but trusted member of the detective force, who had distinguished himself in several cases which had been entrusted to him. His tall, bony figure gave promise of exceptional physical strength, while his great cranium and deep-set, lustrous eyes spoke no less clearly of the keen intelligence which twinkled out from behind his bushy eyebrows. He was a silent, precise man with a dour nature and a hard Aberdonian accent.

PT Twice already in his career had Holmes helped him to attain success, his own sole reward being the intellectual joy of the problem. For this reason the affection and respect of the Scotchman for his amateur colleague were profound, and he showed them by the frankness with which he consulted Holmes in every difficulty. Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius, and MacDonald had talent enough for his profession to enable him to perceive that there was no humiliation in seeking the assistance of one who already stood alone in Europe, both in his gifts and in his experience. Holmes was not prone to friendship, but he was tolerant of the big Scotchman, and smiled at the sight of him.

PT “You are an early bird, Mr. Mac,” said he. “I wish you luck with your worm. I fear this means that there is some mischief afoot.”

PT “If you said ‘hope’ instead of ‘fear,’ it would be nearer the truth, I’m thinking, Mr. Holmes,” the inspector answered, with a knowing grin. “Well, maybe a wee nip would keep out the raw morning chill. No, I won’t smoke, I thank you. I’ll have to be pushing on my way; for the early hours of a case are the precious ones, as no man knows better than your own self. But—but—”

PT The inspector had stopped suddenly, and was staring with a look of absolute amazement at a paper upon the table. It was the sheet upon which I had scrawled the enigmatic message.

PT “Douglas!” he stammered. “Birlstone! What’s this, Mr. Holmes? Man, it’s witchcraft! Where in the name of all that is wonderful did you get those names?”

PT “It is a cipher that Dr. Watson and I have had occasion to solve. But why—what’s amiss with the names?”

PT The inspector looked from one to the other of us in dazed astonishment. “Just this,” said he, “that Mr. Douglas of Birlstone Manor House was horribly murdered last night!”

II — Sherlock Holmes Discourses

PT It was one of those dramatic moments for which my friend existed. It would be an overstatement to say that he was shocked or even excited by the amazing announcement. Without having a tinge of cruelty in his singular composition, he was undoubtedly callous from long over-stimulation. Yet, if his emotions were dulled, his intellectual perceptions were exceedingly active. There was no trace then of the horror which I had myself felt at this curt declaration; but his face showed rather the quiet and interested composure of the chemist who sees the crystals falling into position from his oversaturated solution.

PT “Remarkable!” said he. “Remarkable!”

PT “You don’t seem surprised.”

PT “Interested, Mr. Mac, but hardly surprised. Why should I be surprised? I receive an anonymous communication from a quarter which I know to be important, warning me that danger threatens a certain person. Within an hour I learn that this danger has actually materialized and that the person is dead. I am interested; but, as you observe, I am not surprised.”

PT In a few short sentences he explained to the inspector the facts about the letter and the cipher. MacDonald sat with his chin on his hands and his great sandy eyebrows bunched into a yellow tangle.

PT “I was going down to Birlstone this morning,” said he. “I had come to ask you if you cared to come with me—you and your friend here. But from what you say we might perhaps be doing better work in London.”

PT “I rather think not,” said Holmes.

PT “Hang it all, Mr. Holmes!” cried the inspector. “The papers will be full of the Birlstone mystery in a day or two; but where’s the mystery if there is a man in London who prophesied the crime before ever it occurred? We have only to lay our hands on that man, and the rest will follow.”

PT “No doubt, Mr. Mac. But how do you propose to lay your hands on the so-called Porlock?”

PT MacDonald turned over the letter which Holmes had handed him. “Posted in Camberwell—that doesn’t help us much. Name, you say, is assumed. Not much to go on, certainly. Didn’t you say that you have sent him money?”

PT “Twice.”

PT “And how?”

PT “In notes to Camberwell post-office.”

PT “Did you ever trouble to see who called for them?”

PT “No.”

PT The inspector looked surprised and a little shocked. “Why not?”

PT “Because I always keep faith. I had promised when he first wrote that I would not try to trace him.”

PT “You think there is someone behind him?”

PT “I know there is.”

PT “This professor that I’ve heard you mention?”

PT “Exactly!”

PT Inspector MacDonald smiled, and his eyelid quivered as he glanced towards me. “I won’t conceal from you, Mr. Holmes, that we think in the C.I.D. that you have a wee bit of a bee in your bonnet over this professor. I made some inquiries myself about the matter. He seems to be a very respectable, learned, and talented sort of man.”

PT “I’m glad you’ve got so far as to recognize the talent.”

PT “Man, you can’t but recognize it! After I heard your view I made it my business to see him. I had a chat with him on eclipses. How the talk got that way I canna think; but he had out a reflector lantern and a globe, and made it all clear in a minute. He lent me a book; but I don’t mind saying that it was a bit above my head, though I had a good Aberdeen upbringing. He’d have made a grand meenister with his thin face and gray hair and solemn-like way of talking. When he put his hand on my shoulder as we were parting, it was like a father’s blessing before you go out into the cold, cruel world.”

PT Holmes chuckled and rubbed his hands. “Great!” he said. “Great! Tell me, Friend MacDonald, this pleasing and touching interview was, I suppose, in the professor’s study?”

PT “That’s so.”

PT “A fine room, is it not?”

PT “Very fine—very handsome indeed, Mr. Holmes.”

PT “You sat in front of his writing desk?”

PT “Just so.”

PT “Sun in your eyes and his face in the shadow?”

PT “Well, it was evening; but I mind that the lamp was turned on my face.”

PT “It would be. Did you happen to observe a picture over the professor’s head?”

PT “I don’t miss much, Mr. Holmes. Maybe I learned that from you. Yes, I saw the picture—a young woman with her head on her hands, peeping at you sideways.”

PT “That painting was by Jean Baptiste Greuze.”

PT The inspector endeavoured to look interested.

PT “Jean Baptiste Greuze,” Holmes continued, joining his finger tips and leaning well back in his chair, “was a French artist who flourished between the years 1750 and 1800. I allude, of course to his working career. Modern criticism has more than endorsed the high opinion formed of him by his contemporaries.”

PT The inspector’s eyes grew abstracted. “Hadn’t we better—” he said.

PT “We are doing so,” Holmes interrupted. “All that I am saying has a very direct and vital bearing upon what you have called the Birlstone Mystery. In fact, it may in a sense be called the very centre of it.”

PT MacDonald smiled feebly, and looked appealingly to me. “Your thoughts move a bit too quick for me, Mr. Holmes. You leave out a link or two, and I can’t get over the gap. What in the whole wide world can be the connection between this dead painting man and the affair at Birlstone?”

PT “All knowledge comes useful to the detective,” remarked Holmes. “Even the trivial fact that in the year 1865 a picture by Greuze entitled La Jeune Fille à l’Agneau fetched one million two hundred thousand francs—more than forty thousand pounds—at the Portalis sale may start a train of reflection in your mind.”

PT It was clear that it did. The inspector looked honestly interested.

PT “I may remind you,” Holmes continued, “that the professor’s salary can be ascertained in several trustworthy books of reference. It is seven hundred a year.”

PT “Then how could he buy—”

PT “Quite so! How could he?”

PT “Ay, that’s remarkable,” said the inspector thoughtfully. “Talk away, Mr. Holmes. I’m just loving it. It’s fine!”

PT Holmes smiled. He was always warmed by genuine admiration—the characteristic of the real artist. “What about Birlstone?” he asked.

PT “We’ve time yet,” said the inspector, glancing at his watch. “I’ve a cab at the door, and it won’t take us twenty minutes to Victoria. But about this picture: I thought you told me once, Mr. Holmes, that you had never met Professor Moriarty.”

PT “No, I never have.”

PT “Then how do you know about his rooms?”

PT “Ah, that’s another matter. I have been three times in his rooms, twice waiting for him under different pretexts and leaving before he came. Once—well, I can hardly tell about the once to an official detective. It was on the last occasion that I took the liberty of running over his papers—with the most unexpected results.”

PT “You found something compromising?”

PT “Absolutely nothing. That was what amazed me. However, you have now seen the point of the picture. It shows him to be a very wealthy man. How did he acquire wealth? He is unmarried. His younger brother is a station master in the west of England. His chair is worth seven hundred a year. And he owns a Greuze.”

PT “Well?”

PT “Surely the inference is plain.”

PT “You mean that he has a great income and that he must earn it in an illegal fashion?”

PT “Exactly. Of course I have other reasons for thinking so—dozens of exiguous threads which lead vaguely up towards the centre of the web where the poisonous, motionless creature is lurking. I only mention the Greuze because it brings the matter within the range of your own observation.”

PT “Well, Mr. Holmes, I admit that what you say is interesting: it’s more than interesting—it’s just wonderful. But let us have it a little clearer if you can. Is it forgery, coining, burglary—where does the money come from?”

PT “Have you ever read of Jonathan Wild?”

PT “Well, the name has a familiar sound. Someone in a novel, was he not? I don’t take much stock of detectives in novels—chaps that do things and never let you see how they do them. That’s just inspiration: not business.”

PT “Jonathan Wild wasn’t a detective, and he wasn’t in a novel. He was a master criminal, and he lived last century—1750 or thereabouts.”

PT “Then he’s no use to me. I’m a practical man.”

PT “Mr. Mac, the most practical thing that you ever did in your life would be to shut yourself up for three months and read twelve hours a day at the annals of crime. Everything comes in circles—even Professor Moriarty. Jonathan Wild was the hidden force of the London criminals, to whom he sold his brains and his organization on a fifteen percent commission. The old wheel turns, and the same spoke comes up. It’s all been done before, and will be again. I’ll tell you one or two things about Moriarty which may interest you.”

PT “You’ll interest me, right enough.”

PT “I happen to know who is the first link in his chain—a chain with this Napoleon-gone-wrong at one end, and a hundred broken fighting men, pickpockets, blackmailers, and card sharpers at the other, with every sort of crime in between. His chief of staff is Colonel Sebastian Moran, as aloof and guarded and inaccessible to the law as himself. What do you think he pays him?”

PT “I’d like to hear.”

PT “Six thousand a year. That’s paying for brains, you see—the American business principle. I learned that detail quite by chance. It’s more than the Prime Minister gets. That gives you an idea of Moriarty’s gains and of the scale on which he works. Another point: I made it my business to hunt down some of Moriarty’s checks lately—just common innocent checks that he pays his household bills with. They were drawn on six different banks. Does that make any impression on your mind?”

PT “Queer, certainly! But what do you gather from it?”

PT “That he wanted no gossip about his wealth. No single man should know what he had. I have no doubt that he has twenty banking accounts; the bulk of his fortune abroad in the Deutsche Bank or the Crédit Lyonnais as likely as not. Sometime when you have a year or two to spare I commend to you the study of Professor Moriarty.”

PT Inspector MacDonald had grown steadily more impressed as the conversation proceeded. He had lost himself in his interest. Now his practical Scotch intelligence brought him back with a snap to the matter in hand.

PT “He can keep, anyhow,” said he. “You’ve got us sidetracked with your interesting anecdotes, Mr. Holmes. What really counts is your remark that there is some connection between the professor and the crime. That you get from the warning received through the man Porlock. Can we for our present practical needs get any further than that?”

PT “We may form some conception as to the motives of the crime. It is, as I gather from your original remarks, an inexplicable, or at least an unexplained, murder. Now, presuming that the source of the crime is as we suspect it to be, there might be two different motives. In the first place, I may tell you that Moriarty rules with a rod of iron over his people. His discipline is tremendous. There is only one punishment in his code. It is death. Now we might suppose that this murdered man—this Douglas whose approaching fate was known by one of the arch-criminal’s subordinates—had in some way betrayed the chief. His punishment followed, and would be known to all—if only to put the fear of death into them.”

PT “Well, that is one suggestion, Mr. Holmes.”

PT “The other is that it has been engineered by Moriarty in the ordinary course of business. Was there any robbery?”

PT “I have not heard.”

PT “If so, it would, of course, be against the first hypothesis and in favour of the second. Moriarty may have been engaged to engineer it on a promise of part spoils, or he may have been paid so much down to manage it. Either is possible. But whichever it may be, or if it is some third combination, it is down at Birlstone that we must seek the solution. I know our man too well to suppose that he has left anything up here which may lead us to him.”

PT “Then to Birlstone we must go!” cried MacDonald, jumping from his chair. “My word! it’s later than I thought. I can give you, gentlemen, five minutes for preparation, and that is all.”

PT “And ample for us both,” said Holmes, as he sprang up and hastened to change from his dressing gown to his coat. “While we are on our way, Mr. Mac, I will ask you to be good enough to tell me all about it.”

PT “All about it” proved to be disappointingly little, and yet there was enough to assure us that the case before us might well be worthy of the expert’s closest attention. He brightened and rubbed his thin hands together as he listened to the meager but remarkable details. A long series of sterile weeks lay behind us, and here at last there was a fitting object for those remarkable powers which, like all special gifts, become irksome to their owner when they are not in use. That razor brain blunted and rusted with inaction.

PT Sherlock Holmes’s eyes glistened, his pale cheeks took a warmer hue, and his whole eager face shone with an inward light when the call for work reached him. Leaning forward in the cab, he listened intently to MacDonald’s short sketch of the problem which awaited us in Sussex. The inspector was himself dependent, as he explained to us, upon a scribbled account forwarded to him by the milk train in the early hours of the morning. White Mason, the local officer, was a personal friend, and hence MacDonald had been notified much more promptly than is usual at Scotland Yard when provincials need their assistance. It is a very cold scent upon which the Metropolitan expert is generally asked to run.

PT “Dear Inspector Macdonald,” said the letter which he read to us—“Official requisition for your services is in separate envelope. This is for your private eye. Wire me what train in the morning you can get for Birlstone, and I will meet it—or have it met if I am too occupied. This case is a snorter. Don’t waste a moment in getting started. If you can bring Mr. Holmes, please do so; for he will find something after his own heart. We would think the whole thing had been fixed up for theatrical effect if there wasn’t a dead man in the middle of it. My word! it is a snorter.”

PT “Your friend seems to be no fool,” remarked Holmes.

PT “No, sir, White Mason is a very live man, if I am any judge.”

PT “Well, have you anything more?”

PT “Only that he will give us every detail when we meet.”

PT “Then how did you get at Mr. Douglas and the fact that he had been horribly murdered?”

PT “That was in the enclosed official report. It didn’t say ‘horrible’: that’s not a recognized official term. It gave the name John Douglas. It mentioned that his injuries had been in the head, from the discharge of a shotgun. It also mentioned the hour of the alarm, which was close on to midnight last night. It added that the case was undoubtedly one of murder, but that no arrest had been made, and that the case was one which presented some very perplexing and extraordinary features. That’s absolutely all we have at present, Mr. Holmes.”

PT “Then, with your permission, we will leave it at that, Mr. Mac. The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession. I can see only two things for certain at present—a great brain in London, and a dead man in Sussex. It’s the chain between that we are going to trace.”

III — The Tragedy of Birlstone

PT Now for a moment I will ask leave to remove my own insignificant personality and to describe events which occurred before we arrived upon the scene by the light of knowledge which came to us afterwards. Only in this way can I make the reader appreciate the people concerned and the strange setting in which their fate was cast.

PT The village of Birlstone is a small and very ancient cluster of half-timbered cottages on the northern border of the county of Sussex. For centuries it had remained unchanged; but within the last few years its picturesque appearance and situation have attracted a number of well-to-do residents, whose villas peep out from the woods around. These woods are locally supposed to be the extreme fringe of the great Weald forest, which thins away until it reaches the northern chalk downs. A number of small shops have come into being to meet the wants of the increased population; so there seems some prospect that Birlstone may soon grow from an ancient village into a modern town. It is the centre for a considerable area of country, since Tunbridge Wells, the nearest place of importance, is ten or twelve miles to the eastward, over the borders of Kent.

PT About half a mile from the town, standing in an old park famous for its huge beech trees, is the ancient Manor House of Birlstone. Part of this venerable building dates back to the time of the first crusade, when Hugo de Capus built a fortalice in the centre of the estate, which had been granted to him by the Red King. This was destroyed by fire in 1543, and some of its smoke-blackened corner stones were used when, in Jacobean times, a brick country house rose upon the ruins of the feudal castle.

PT The Manor House, with its many gables and its small diamond-paned windows, was still much as the builder had left it in the early seventeenth century. Of the double moats which had guarded its more warlike predecessor, the outer had been allowed to dry up, and served the humble function of a kitchen garden. The inner one was still there, and lay forty feet in breadth, though now only a few feet in depth, round the whole house. A small stream fed it and continued beyond it, so that the sheet of water, though turbid, was never ditch-like or unhealthy. The ground floor windows were within a foot of the surface of the water.

PT The only approach to the house was over a drawbridge, the chains and windlass of which had long been rusted and broken. The latest tenants of the Manor House had, however, with characteristic energy, set this right, and the drawbridge was not only capable of being raised, but actually was raised every evening and lowered every morning. By thus renewing the custom of the old feudal days the Manor House was converted into an island during the night—a fact which had a very direct bearing upon the mystery which was soon to engage the attention of all England.

PT The house had been untenanted for some years and was threatening to moulder into a picturesque decay when the Douglases took possession of it. This family consisted of only two individuals—John Douglas and his wife. Douglas was a remarkable man, both in character and in person. In age he may have been about fifty, with a strong-jawed, rugged face, a grizzling moustache, peculiarly keen gray eyes, and a wiry, vigorous figure which had lost nothing of the strength and activity of youth. He was cheery and genial to all, but somewhat offhand in his manners, giving the impression that he had seen life in social strata on some far lower horizon than the county society of Sussex.

PT Yet, though looked at with some curiosity and reserve by his more cultivated neighbours, he soon acquired a great popularity among the villagers, subscribing handsomely to all local objects, and attending their smoking concerts and other functions, where, having a remarkably rich tenor voice, he was always ready to oblige with an excellent song. He appeared to have plenty of money, which was said to have been gained in the California gold fields, and it was clear from his own talk and that of his wife that he had spent a part of his life in America.

PT The good impression which had been produced by his generosity and by his democratic manners was increased by a reputation gained for utter indifference to danger. Though a wretched rider, he turned out at every meet, and took the most amazing falls in his determination to hold his own with the best. When the vicarage caught fire he distinguished himself also by the fearlessness with which he reentered the building to save property, after the local fire brigade had given it up as impossible. Thus it came about that John Douglas of the Manor House had within five years won himself quite a reputation in Birlstone.

PT His wife, too, was popular with those who had made her acquaintance; though, after the English fashion, the callers upon a stranger who settled in the county without introductions were few and far between. This mattered the less to her, as she was retiring by disposition, and very much absorbed, to all appearance, in her husband and her domestic duties. It was known that she was an English lady who had met Mr. Douglas in London, he being at that time a widower. She was a beautiful woman, tall, dark, and slender, some twenty years younger than her husband, a disparity which seemed in no wise to mar the contentment of their family life.

PT It was remarked sometimes, however, by those who knew them best, that the confidence between the two did not appear to be complete, since the wife was either very reticent about her husband’s past life, or else, as seemed more likely, was imperfectly informed about it. It had also been noted and commented upon by a few observant people that there were signs sometimes of some nerve-strain upon the part of Mrs. Douglas, and that she would display acute uneasiness if her absent husband should ever be particularly late in his return. On a quiet countryside, where all gossip is welcome, this weakness of the lady of the Manor House did not pass without remark, and it bulked larger upon people’s memory when the events arose which gave it a very special significance.

PT There was yet another individual whose residence under that roof was, it is true, only an intermittent one, but whose presence at the time of the strange happenings which will now be narrated brought his name prominently before the public. This was Cecil James Barker, of Hales Lodge, Hampstead.

PT Cecil Barker’s tall, loose-jointed figure was a familiar one in the main street of Birlstone village; for he was a frequent and welcome visitor at the Manor House. He was the more noticed as being the only friend of the past unknown life of Mr. Douglas who was ever seen in his new English surroundings. Barker was himself an undoubted Englishman; but by his remarks it was clear that he had first known Douglas in America and had there lived on intimate terms with him. He appeared to be a man of considerable wealth, and was reputed to be a bachelor.

PT In age he was rather younger than Douglas—forty-five at the most—a tall, straight, broad-chested fellow with a clean-shaved, prizefighter face, thick, strong, black eyebrows, and a pair of masterful black eyes which might, even without the aid of his very capable hands, clear a way for him through a hostile crowd. He neither rode nor shot, but spent his days in wandering round the old village with his pipe in his mouth, or in driving with his host, or in his absence with his hostess, over the beautiful countryside. “An easygoing, freehanded gentleman,” said Ames, the butler. “But, my word! I had rather not be the man that crossed him!” He was cordial and intimate with Douglas, and he was no less friendly with his wife—a friendship which more than once seemed to cause some irritation to the husband, so that even the servants were able to perceive his annoyance. Such was the third person who was one of the family when the catastrophe occurred.

PT As to the other denizens of the old building, it will suffice out of a large household to mention the prim, respectable, and capable Ames, and Mrs. Allen, a buxom and cheerful person, who relieved the lady of some of her household cares. The other six servants in the house bear no relation to the events of the night of January 6th.

PT It was at eleven forty-five that the first alarm reached the small local police station, in charge of Sergeant Wilson of the Sussex Constabulary. Cecil Barker, much excited, had rushed up to the door and pealed furiously upon the bell. A terrible tragedy had occurred at the Manor House, and John Douglas had been murdered. That was the breathless burden of his message. He had hurried back to the house, followed within a few minutes by the police sergeant, who arrived at the scene of the crime a little after twelve o’clock, after taking prompt steps to warn the county authorities that something serious was afoot.

PT On reaching the Manor House, the sergeant had found the drawbridge down, the windows lighted up, and the whole household in a state of wild confusion and alarm. The white-faced servants were huddling together in the hall, with the frightened butler wringing his hands in the doorway. Only Cecil Barker seemed to be master of himself and his emotions; he had opened the door which was nearest to the entrance and he had beckoned to the sergeant to follow him. At that moment there arrived Dr. Wood, a brisk and capable general practitioner from the village. The three men entered the fatal room together, while the horror-stricken butler followed at their heels, closing the door behind him to shut out the terrible scene from the maid servants.

PT The dead man lay on his back, sprawling with outstretched limbs in the centre of the room. He was clad only in a pink dressing gown, which covered his night clothes. There were carpet slippers on his bare feet. The doctor knelt beside him and held down the hand lamp which had stood on the table. One glance at the victim was enough to show the healer that his presence could be dispensed with. The man had been horribly injured. Lying across his chest was a curious weapon, a shotgun with the barrel sawed off a foot in front of the triggers. It was clear that this had been fired at close range and that he had received the whole charge in the face, blowing his head almost to pieces. The triggers had been wired together, so as to make the simultaneous discharge more destructive.

PT The country policeman was unnerved and troubled by the tremendous responsibility which had come so suddenly upon him. “We will touch nothing until my superiors arrive,” he said in a hushed voice, staring in horror at the dreadful head.

PT “Nothing has been touched up to now,” said Cecil Barker. “I’ll answer for that. You see it all exactly as I found it.”

PT “When was that?” The sergeant had drawn out his notebook.

PT “It was just half-past eleven. I had not begun to undress, and I was sitting by the fire in my bedroom when I heard the report. It was not very loud—it seemed to be muffled. I rushed down—I don’t suppose it was thirty seconds before I was in the room.”

PT “Was the door open?”

PT “Yes, it was open. Poor Douglas was lying as you see him. His bedroom candle was burning on the table. It was I who lit the lamp some minutes afterward.”

PT “Did you see no one?”

PT “No. I heard Mrs. Douglas coming down the stair behind me, and I rushed out to prevent her from seeing this dreadful sight. Mrs. Allen, the housekeeper, came and took her away. Ames had arrived, and we ran back into the room once more.”

PT “But surely I have heard that the drawbridge is kept up all night.”

PT “Yes, it was up until I lowered it.”

PT “Then how could any murderer have got away? It is out of the question! Mr. Douglas must have shot himself.”

PT “That was our first idea. But see!” Barker drew aside the curtain, and showed that the long, diamond-paned window was open to its full extent. “And look at this!” He held the lamp down and illuminated a smudge of blood like the mark of a boot-sole upon the wooden sill. “Someone has stood there in getting out.”

PT “You mean that someone waded across the moat?”

PT “Exactly!”

PT “Then if you were in the room within half a minute of the crime, he must have been in the water at that very moment.”

PT “I have not a doubt of it. I wish to heaven that I had rushed to the window! But the curtain screened it, as you can see, and so it never occurred to me. Then I heard the step of Mrs. Douglas, and I could not let her enter the room. It would have been too horrible.”

PT “Horrible enough!” said the doctor, looking at the shattered head and the terrible marks which surrounded it. “I’ve never seen such injuries since the Birlstone railway smash.”

PT “But, I say,” remarked the police sergeant, whose slow, bucolic common sense was still pondering the open window. “It’s all very well your saying that a man escaped by wading this moat, but what I ask you is, how did he ever get into the house at all if the bridge was up?”

PT “Ah, that’s the question,” said Barker.

PT “At what o’clock was it raised?”

PT “It was nearly six o’clock,” said Ames, the butler.

PT “I’ve heard,” said the sergeant, “that it was usually raised at sunset. That would be nearer half-past four than six at this time of year.”

PT “Mrs. Douglas had visitors to tea,” said Ames. “I couldn’t raise it until they went. Then I wound it up myself.”

PT “Then it comes to this,” said the sergeant: “If anyone came from outside—if they did—they must have got in across the bridge before six and been in hiding ever since, until Mr. Douglas came into the room after eleven.”

PT “That is so! Mr. Douglas went round the house every night the last thing before he turned in to see that the lights were right. That brought him in here. The man was waiting and shot him. Then he got away through the window and left his gun behind him. That’s how I read it; for nothing else will fit the facts.”

PT The sergeant picked up a card which lay beside the dead man on the floor. The initials V. V. and under them the number 341 were rudely scrawled in ink upon it.

PT “What’s this?” he asked, holding it up.

PT Barker looked at it with curiosity. “I never noticed it before,” he said. “The murderer must have left it behind him.”

PT “V. V.—341. I can make no sense of that.”

PT The sergeant kept turning it over in his big fingers. “What’s V. V.? Somebody’s initials, maybe. What have you got there, Dr. Wood?”

PT It was a good-sized hammer which had been lying on the rug in front of the fireplace—a substantial, workmanlike hammer. Cecil Barker pointed to a box of brass-headed nails upon the mantelpiece.

PT “Mr. Douglas was altering the pictures yesterday,” he said. “I saw him myself, standing upon that chair and fixing the big picture above it. That accounts for the hammer.”

PT “We’d best put it back on the rug where we found it,” said the sergeant, scratching his puzzled head in his perplexity. “It will want the best brains in the force to get to the bottom of this thing. It will be a London job before it is finished.” He raised the hand lamp and walked slowly round the room. “Hullo!” he cried, excitedly, drawing the window curtain to one side. “What o’clock were those curtains drawn?”

PT “When the lamps were lit,” said the butler. “It would be shortly after four.”

PT “Someone had been hiding here, sure enough.” He held down the light, and the marks of muddy boots were very visible in the corner. “I’m bound to say this bears out your theory, Mr. Barker. It looks as if the man got into the house after four when the curtains were drawn and before six when the bridge was raised. He slipped into this room, because it was the first that he saw. There was no other place where he could hide, so he popped in behind this curtain. That all seems clear enough. It is likely that his main idea was to burgle the house; but Mr. Douglas chanced to come upon him, so he murdered him and escaped.”

PT “That’s how I read it,” said Barker. “But, I say, aren’t we wasting precious time? Couldn’t we start out and scour the country before the fellow gets away?”

PT The sergeant considered for a moment.

PT “There are no trains before six in the morning; so he can’t get away by rail. If he goes by road with his legs all dripping, it’s odds that someone will notice him. Anyhow, I can’t leave here myself until I am relieved. But I think none of you should go until we see more clearly how we all stand.”

PT The doctor had taken the lamp and was narrowly scrutinizing the body. “What’s this mark?” he asked. “Could this have any connection with the crime?”

PT The dead man’s right arm was thrust out from his dressing gown, and exposed as high as the elbow. About halfway up the forearm was a curious brown design, a triangle inside a circle, standing out in vivid relief upon the lard-coloured skin.

PT “It’s not tattooed,” said the doctor, peering through his glasses. “I never saw anything like it. The man has been branded at some time as they brand cattle. What is the meaning of this?”

PT “I don’t profess to know the meaning of it,” said Cecil Barker; “but I have seen the mark on Douglas many times this last ten years.”

PT “And so have I,” said the butler. “Many a time when the master has rolled up his sleeves I have noticed that very mark. I’ve often wondered what it could be.”

PT “Then it has nothing to do with the crime, anyhow,” said the sergeant. “But it’s a rum thing all the same. Everything about this case is rum. Well, what is it now?”

PT The butler had given an exclamation of astonishment and was pointing at the dead man’s outstretched hand.

PT “They’ve taken his wedding ring!” he gasped.

PT “What!”

PT “Yes, indeed. Master always wore his plain gold wedding ring on the little finger of his left hand. That ring with the rough nugget on it was above it, and the twisted snake ring on the third finger. There’s the nugget and there’s the snake, but the wedding ring is gone.”

PT “He’s right,” said Barker.

PT “Do you tell me,” said the sergeant, “that the wedding ring was below the other?”

Versão em Português

2 - I — O Aviso

3 - II — Sherlock Holmes Discorre

4 - III — A Tragédia de Birlstone

I — O Aviso

En O narrador começou a expressar uma opinião, dizendo que estava inclinado a pensar em algo.

En Sherlock Holmes observou impacientemente que ele deveria fazê-lo.

En O narrador se considerava muito paciente, mas admitiu que estava irritado com a interrupção sarcástica de Holmes.

En O narrador disse severamente a Holmes que ele poderia ser difícil às vezes.

En Holmes estava absorto demais em seus pensamentos para responder imediatamente. Ele se apoiou na mão, com o café da manhã intocado, olhando para um pedaço de papel que tirara de um envelope. Então, segurou o envelope contra a luz e examinou cuidadosamente tanto a frente quanto a aba.

En Ele disse pensativamente que era a caligrafia de Porlock, da qual ele mal podia duvidar, embora a tivesse visto apenas duas vezes antes. Ele observou que a letra grega 'e' com um floreio peculiar no topo era distintiva. Ele acrescentou que, se fosse realmente Porlock, a mensagem deveria ser da mais alta importância.

En Ele estava falando consigo mesmo, não comigo; no entanto, meu aborrecimento desapareceu quando fui cativado pelo interesse que suas palavras despertaram.

En Perguntei quem era Porlock.

En Ele explicou que Porlock era um pseudônimo, meramente uma marca de identificação, atrás da qual se escondia uma personalidade astuta e evasiva. Em uma carta anterior, Porlock havia admitido francamente que o nome não era seu e o desafiou a rastreá-lo entre os milhões da cidade. Porlock era importante não por si mesmo, mas pelo grande homem a quem estava ligado. Ele descreveu a relação como a de um peixe-piloto com um tubarão, ou de um chacal com um leão — algo insignificante acompanhando algo formidável e, de fato, sinistro ao mais alto grau. Ele acrescentou que era por isso que Porlock chamava sua atenção, e perguntou se eu já tinha ouvido falar do Professor Moriarty.

En Comecei a dizer que ele era o famoso criminoso científico, tão conhecido entre os criminosos quanto—

En Holmes expressou vergonha discretamente, alegando que estava corando.

En Holmes quase mencionou que o homem não era conhecido do público.

En Holmes notou o crescente humor de Watson, mas alertou que chamar Moriarty de criminoso era legalmente calunioso. Ele descreveu Moriarty como o maior gênio do crime, tão inteligente e oculto que poderia processar Watson por difamação. Moriarty também era autor de um livro difícil de matemática. Holmes expressou esperança de que o dia deles chegaria se ele sobrevivesse.

En Watson esperou fervorosamente testemunhar aquele evento, e então pediu que Holmes continuasse falando sobre Porlock.

En Holmes explicou que Porlock era um elo distante, mas fraco na corrente, a única falha que ele havia descoberto.

En Holmes observou que nenhuma corrente pode ser mais forte do que seu elo mais fraco.

En Holmes concordou, enfatizando a importância de Porlock. Porlock, movido por impulsos morais ocasionais e encorajado por pagamentos secretos, havia fornecido anteriormente informações antecipadas que permitiram a Holmes evitar crimes. Holmes acreditava que, uma vez que a cifra fosse decodificada, esta mensagem se mostraria um aviso semelhante.

En Holmes alisou o papel em seu prato não utilizado. Eu me levantei e me inclinei para examinar a estranha inscrição.

En A mensagem dizia: 534 C2 13 127 36 31 4 17 21 41.

En Também continha os nomes Douglas e Birlstone, cada um seguido por números: Douglas 109 293 5 37 Birlstone.

En A mensagem consistia nos números 26 Birlstone 9 47 171.

En Watson perguntou o que Holmes achava da mensagem.

En Holmes declarou que era evidentemente uma tentativa de comunicar algo secreto.

En Watson questionou o propósito de uma mensagem codificada quando a chave para decifrá-la estava faltando.

En Holmes admitiu que, neste caso específico, era completamente inútil.

En Ele perguntou por que o falante havia mencionado aquela instância em particular.

En Ele explicou que conseguia ler facilmente muitas cifras simples, mas esta era diferente. Referia-se claramente a palavras de uma página específica de um livro. Ele disse que não podia fazer nada até saber qual página e qual livro.

En Ele perguntou por que os nomes Douglas e Birlstone haviam sido usados.

En O falante respondeu que era porque aquelas palavras não estavam na página em questão.

En Ele então perguntou por que o próprio livro não havia sido indicado.

En Holmes comentou a Watson que sua sagacidade natural o impediria de colocar tanto a cifra quanto a mensagem no mesmo envelope, pois um acidente seria desastroso. Da forma como estava, ambos precisariam dar errado para que algum dano ocorresse. A segunda correspondência estava atrasada, e Holmes esperava que trouxesse mais explicações ou, mais provavelmente, o livro ao qual os números se referiam.

En A previsão de Holmes se concretizou em poucos minutos quando Billy, o mensageiro, chegou com a própria carta que esperavam.

En Holmes observou que a caligrafia era a mesma e, ao desdobrar a carta, notou com satisfação que ela estava realmente assinada. Ele declarou que estavam progredindo. No entanto, ao ler o conteúdo, sua expressão se tornou sombria.

En Holmes expressou sua decepção, dizendo que todas as suas expectativas pareciam ter sido em vão. Ele confiava que o homem Porlock não sofreria nenhum dano.

En A carta começava com um cumprimento respeitoso ao Sr. Holmes.

En Ele declarou que não prosseguiria com o assunto, pois era perigoso demais e acreditava que alguém desconfiava dele. Explicou que a pessoa o visitara inesperadamente logo depois que ele havia endereçado o envelope para enviar a chave da cifra. Ele conseguira escondê-la, mas lera suspeita nos olhos do visitante. Exortou o destinatário a queimar a mensagem cifrada, pois já não poderia ser útil.

En A mensagem foi assinada por Fred Porlock.

En Holmes sentou-se por um momento, torcendo a carta entre os dedos, franzindo a testa enquanto fitava o fogo.

En Finalmente, ele disse que talvez não houvesse nada demais — poderia ser apenas a consciência culpada de Porlock. Sabendo-se um traidor, ele poderia ter imaginado acusação nos olhos do outro homem.

En Holmes presumiu que o outro homem era o Professor Moriarty.

En O orador confirmou isso, explicando que quando membros daquele grupo falam sobre 'Ele', todos sabem exatamente quem é; há uma figura dominante a quem todos se referem como 'Ele'.

En Foi feita uma pergunta sobre o que essa pessoa poderia possivelmente fazer.

En O orador comentou que era uma grande questão. Com uma das mentes mais brilhantes da Europa contra você, apoiada por forças das trevas, muitas coisas são possíveis. Ele observou que Porlock estava claramente aterrorizado, apontando que sua escrita no bilhete era clara e firme, mas o envelope, escrito antes da visita, estava quase ilegível.

En Alguém perguntou por que Porlock se deu ao trabalho de escrever em vez de simplesmente deixar o bilhete.

En O orador explicou que Porlock estava com medo de que, se ele simplesmente o tivesse deixado, o orador pudesse fazer perguntas sobre ele e causar problemas.

En Eu concordei plenamente. Peguei a mensagem codificada original e a estudava atentamente. Comentei como era frustrante que um segredo vital pudesse estar contido naquele pedaço de papel, mas permanecer completamente inacessível ao entendimento humano.

En Sherlock Holmes afastou seu café da manhã intocado e acendeu seu cachimbo fedorento, companheiro constante de seus pensamentos mais profundos. Ele recostou-se e olhou para o teto, expressando dúvida. Sugeriu que talvez a mente afiada de seu companheiro tivesse deixado passar certos pontos. Propôs que examinassem o problema por meio da lógica pura. A referência do remetente a um livro, disse ele, era seu ponto de partida.

En Eu respondi que tal pista era bastante vaga.

En Holmes então disse que deveriam tentar reduzir o escopo. Ele sentiu que, ao se concentrar, o problema parecia menos impossível. Perguntou que pistas tinham sobre a natureza do livro.

En Eu admiti que não tínhamos nenhuma.

En Holmes comentou que a situação não era tão ruim quanto parecia. Ele observou que a mensagem cifrada começava com o número 534, que eles poderiam supor indicar a página 534 de um livro. Isso significava que o livro que procuravam era bastante grande. Ele então perguntou a Watson o que ele achava das letras C2.

En Watson sugeriu que poderia significar capítulo dois.

En Holmes discordou, apontando que, se o número da página fosse dado, o número do capítulo era irrelevante. Ele acrescentou que, se a página 534 caísse dentro do segundo capítulo, o primeiro capítulo deveria ser extremamente longo.

En Watson exclamou que poderia ser coluna.

En Holmes elogiou a perspicácia de Watson, concordando que C2 provavelmente significava coluna. Ele explicou que isso os levava a imaginar um livro grande impresso em colunas duplas, cada coluna sendo bastante longa, já que uma palavra era numerada 293 na cifra. Ele então perguntou se eles haviam esgotado tudo que a razão poderia fornecer.

En Ele admitiu que sua apreensão anterior havia se mostrado precisa.

En Holmes tranquilizou Watson, dizendo que ele estava sendo muito duro consigo mesmo e que outra ideia lhe ocorrera. Ele observou que, se o livro fosse incomum, o remetente teria enviado o próprio livro, em vez de apenas uma pista. Como o remetente esperava que Holmes o encontrasse facilmente, tratava-se de um livro muito comum.

En Watson respondeu que o raciocínio de Holmes parecia convincente.

En Holmes concluiu que eles haviam restringido a busca a um livro grande, impresso em colunas duplas e de uso comum.

En Watson declarou triunfantemente que o livro só podia ser a Bíblia.

En Holmes reconheceu que a sugestão de Watson era boa, mas não totalmente precisa. Ele destacou que um livro religioso normalmente não seria encontrado perto de um dos homens de Moriarty. Além disso, como diferentes edições de textos religiosos têm numerações de páginas distintas, o código deve se referir a um livro padronizado que todos possuem, garantindo que a página 534 seja a mesma em cada cópia.

En Watson observou que apenas um número limitado de livros atenderia a esse critério.

En Holmes concordou, observando que isso restringia a busca. Eles precisavam se concentrar em livros padronizados que qualquer pessoa poderia possuir.

En Watson propôs Bradshaw como uma possibilidade.

En Holmes explicou que Bradshaw era problemático porque sua linguagem era muito simples e limitada para transmitir mensagens complexas. Ele também descartou um dicionário por razões semelhantes. Em seguida, perguntou a Watson que alternativas restavam.

En Holmes exclamou que era um almanaque.

En Holmes elogiou a percepção de Watson e considerou o Almanaque de Whitaker. Ele observou que era comumente usado, tinha o número necessário de páginas, era em coluna dupla e se tornava mais prolixo no final. Ele pegou o volume e foi para a página 534, coluna dois, que discutia o comércio e os recursos da Índia Britânica. Ele leu as palavras: 'Mahratta', 'Government' e 'pig's-bristles', concluindo que seu esforço havia falhado.

En Holmes falou em tom de brincadeira, mas suas sobrancelhas contraídas mostravam decepção e irritação. Watson se sentiu impotente e infeliz, olhando para o fogo. Após um longo silêncio, Holmes exclamou de repente, correu até um armário e saiu com outro volume de capa amarela.

En Holmes explicou que eram modernos demais; eles tinham o novo almanaque, mas Porlock provavelmente havia usado o antigo. Ele então verificou a página 534 no novo almanaque e encontrou as palavras 'There is danger—may—come—very—soon—one', seguidas do nome 'Douglas' e detalhes sobre um homem rico do campo em Birlstone House que pedia confiança. Holmes estava animado e pediu a Watson que anotasse.

En Watson estava olhando para a estranha mensagem que havia escrito em uma folha de papel almaço em seu colo enquanto Holmes a decifrava.

En O narrador comentou que a maneira como a pessoa se expressava era estranha e desorganizada.

En Holmes discordou, afirmando que o escritor havia se saído notavelmente bem. Ele explicou que, ao selecionar palavras de uma única coluna, não se pode esperar perfeição; o destinatário deve usar sua inteligência. A mensagem era clara: algum mal era pretendido contra um rico cavalheiro do campo chamado Douglas, e era urgente. O escritor havia feito uma análise profissional.

En Holmes experimentou a alegria impessoal de um artista quando seu trabalho era bem-sucedido e ficava desapontado quando ficava aquém. Ele ainda estava rindo baixinho quando Billy abriu a porta e o inspetor MacDonald da Scotland Yard entrou.

En Isso foi no final dos anos 1880, quando Alec MacDonald ainda não era famoso nacionalmente. Ele era um detetive jovem, mas confiável, bem-sucedido em vários casos. Era alto e magro, sugerindo força física, e tinha uma cabeça grande e olhos profundos e brilhantes que revelavam inteligência aguçada por trás de suas sobrancelhas espessas. Era um homem silencioso e preciso, de natureza severa e forte sotaque de Aberdeen.

En Holmes havia ajudado MacDonald a ter sucesso duas vezes antes, sendo sua única recompensa o prazer intelectual do problema. Consequentemente, o escocês sentia profunda afeição e respeito por Holmes e o consultava abertamente em toda dificuldade. A mediocridade não pode superar a si mesma, mas o talento reconhece o gênio; MacDonald tinha talento suficiente para não ver vergonha em buscar ajuda de alguém que se destacava sozinho na Europa em dons e experiência. Holmes não era dado à amizade, mas tolerava o grande escocês e sorria com sua chegada.

En O inspetor cumprimentou o Sr. Mac, observando que ele era um madrugador e desejou-lhe boa sorte. Ele admitiu que um começo tão cedo sugeria que algum problema estava se formando.

En O inspetor respondeu com um sorriso cúmplice, dizendo que o Sr. Holmes deveria usar a palavra 'esperança' em vez de 'medo', pois isso seria mais preciso. Ele recusou uma bebida e afirmou que precisava prosseguir, porque as primeiras horas de um caso eram as mais importantes, como o Sr. Holmes bem sabia. Então ele hesitou.

En O inspetor parou abruptamente e fitou com total espanto um papel sobre a mesa. Era a folha na qual eu tinha rabiscado a mensagem enigmática.

En Ele gaguejou, 'Douglas! Birlstone!', e perguntou ao Sr. Holmes onde ele tinha obtido aqueles nomes, chamando aquilo de feitiçaria e expressando admiração.

En Holmes explicou que era uma cifra que ele e o Dr. Watson haviam resolvido anteriormente. Então perguntou por que aqueles nomes estavam causando problemas.

En O inspetor olhou para eles, atordoado. Ele relatou que o Sr. Douglas, de Birlstone Manor, havia sido horrivelmente assassinado na noite anterior.

II — Sherlock Holmes Discorre

En Era o tipo de momento dramático em que Holmes prosperava. Ele não ficou chocado nem animado; a longa exposição a eventos extremos o tornara indiferente. Suas emoções estavam amortecidas, mas sua mente era aguçada. Ele não demonstrou medo, apenas o interesse calmo de um cientista observando um processo de cristalização.

En Ele comentou que era notável.

En Perguntaram-lhe se ele não estava surpreso.

En Ele respondeu que estava interessado, mas não surpreso. Ele havia recebido um aviso anônimo sobre um perigo para uma certa pessoa e, dentro de uma hora, soube que o perigo se concretizara e a pessoa morrera. Então, interesse sim, mas surpresa não.

En Ele contou rapidamente ao inspetor os detalhes da carta e do código. MacDonald apoiou o queixo nas mãos, com as grossas sobrancelhas sardentas franzidas.

En Ele mencionou que planejava ir a Birlstone naquela manhã e pretendia convidar o inspetor e seu amigo para acompanhá-lo. No entanto, com base no que o inspetor dissera, achou que poderiam realizar mais ficando em Londres.

En Holmes discordou, sugerindo que não era o melhor curso de ação.

En O inspetor exclamou que logo os jornais estariam cheios do mistério de Birlstone, mas questionou que mistério restaria se alguém em Londres tivesse previsto o crime antes de acontecer. Ele argumentou que, se pudessem encontrar aquele homem, o resto do caso seria resolvido.

En Holmes concordou, mas perguntou como o inspetor pretendia capturar o homem conhecido como Porlock.

En MacDonald examinou a carta que Holmes lhe dera. Observou que ela fora enviada de Camberwell, o que oferecia pouca ajuda. O nome era claramente falso, fornecendo poucas informações. Ele perguntou se Holmes realmente havia enviado dinheiro para essa pessoa.

En Holmes respondeu que havia enviado em duas ocasiões.

En MacDonald perguntou sobre o método de pagamento.

En Holmes explicou que havia enviado notas bancárias para a agência dos correios de Camberwell.

En MacDonald então perguntou se Holmes já havia se dado ao trabalho de descobrir quem recolhia o dinheiro.

En Holmes simplesmente respondeu que não.

En O inspetor, parecendo surpreso e um tanto chocado, perguntou o motivo.

En Holmes explicou que sempre cumpria sua palavra; ele havia prometido ao correspondente desde a primeira carta não tentar rastreá-lo.

En O inspetor perguntou se Holmes acreditava que alguém estava apoiando o correspondente.

En Holmes afirmou que sabia que havia.

En Ele perguntou se era o professor que Holmes havia mencionado.

En Holmes afirmou que isso estava correto.

En O inspetor MacDonald sorriu e disse a Holmes que a C.I.D. achava que ele tinha uma obsessão por aquele professor. MacDonald mencionou que havia feito suas próprias investigações e considerava o professor uma pessoa muito respeitável, culta e talentosa.

En Holmes expressou satisfação por MacDonald ter pelo menos reconhecido o talento do professor.

En MacDonald continuou, dizendo que após ouvir a opinião de Holmes, ele fez questão de conhecer o professor. Eles conversaram sobre eclipses; o professor usou uma lanterna refletora e um globo para explicar claramente. Ele emprestou um livro a MacDonald, mas MacDonald o achou bastante difícil, apesar de sua boa educação em Aberdeen. MacDonald descreveu o professor como tendo rosto magro, cabelos grisalhos e um jeito solene de falar, sugerindo que ele teria sido um excelente ministro. Ao se despedirem, o professor colocou a mão no ombro de MacDonald, o que pareceu uma bênção paterna antes de enfrentar o mundo cruel.

En Holmes riu com satisfação e esfregou as mãos. Ele exclamou que estava excelente, e então perguntou a MacDonald se aquela reunião agradável e emocionante havia ocorrido no escritório do professor.

En MacDonald confirmou que estava correto.

En Holmes perguntou se a sala não era bonita.

En MacDonald respondeu que era, de fato, muito bonita e elegante.

En Holmes então perguntou se MacDonald havia se sentado em frente à escrivaninha do professor.

En Holmes confirmou que era exatamente como foi dito.

En Holmes perguntou se o sol havia estado nos olhos do ouvinte enquanto o rosto da outra pessoa permanecia na sombra.

En O ouvinte respondeu que era noite, mas lembrou que a lâmpada estava direcionada para o seu rosto.

En Holmes observou que seria o caso, e então perguntou se o ouvinte havia notado um quadro pendurado acima da cabeça do professor.

En O ouvinte respondeu que raramente perdia detalhes, possivelmente tendo aprendido isso com Holmes. Ele confirmou que tinha visto o quadro, descrevendo-o como uma jovem com a cabeça apoiada nas mãos, espiando de lado.

En Holmes afirmou que a pintura era de Jean Baptiste Greuze.

En O inspetor tentou parecer interessado.

En Holmes continuou, explicando que Jean Baptiste Greuze foi um artista francês que floresceu entre 1750 e 1800, e que a crítica moderna endossou a alta opinião formada por seus contemporâneos.

En Os olhos do inspetor se distanciaram, e ele começou a sugerir que talvez devessem prosseguir.

En Holmes interrompeu, dizendo que já estavam fazendo isso, e que tudo o que ele estava dizendo tinha uma relação direta e vital com o Mistério de Birlstone, sendo de fato o seu próprio centro.

En MacDonald sorriu fracamente e olhou para mim em busca de apoio. Disse a Holmes que suas ideias avançavam rápido demais para ele, pulando etapas, de modo que não conseguia acompanhar. Perguntou que possível conexão poderia haver entre o pintor morto e o caso Birlstone.

En Holmes observou que todo conhecimento é útil para um detetive. Ele notou que até mesmo um pequeno fato, como uma pintura de Greuze chamada La Jeune Fille à l'Agneau vendida por mais de quarenta mil libras em um leilão em 1865, poderia desencadear uma linha de pensamento.

En Era óbvio que o fato realmente o fizera pensar. O inspetor parecia genuinamente interessado.

En Holmes continuou lembrando-os de que o salário do professor podia ser encontrado em livros de referência confiáveis; era de setecentas libras por ano.

En O inspetor começou a perguntar como o professor podia pagar por tal pintura.

En Holmes concordou e questionou como isso poderia ser possível.

En O inspetor achou notável e incentivou Holmes a continuar, dizendo que estava gostando muito da discussão.

En Holmes sorriu, satisfeito com a admiração genuína, que ele valorizava como um verdadeiro artista. Ele então direcionou a conversa para Birlstone.

En O inspetor verificou seu relógio, observando que tinham tempo suficiente. Ele lembrou Holmes de que este já havia afirmado nunca ter encontrado o Professor Moriarty.

En Holmes confirmou que nunca havia encontrado Moriarty.

En Ele queria saber como o interlocutor sabia sobre os quartos do homem.

En Ele explicou que havia visitado os quartos do homem três vezes. Em duas dessas ocasiões, esperou por ele com falsas desculpas e foi embora antes de ele chegar. A terceira visita, no entanto, ele não pôde descrever completamente a um detetive oficial. Durante essa última visita, ele examinou os papéis do homem e descobriu algo completamente inesperado.

En Perguntaram-lhe se ele havia descoberto algo prejudicial.

En Ele respondeu que não havia encontrado nada, o que o surpreendeu. Em seguida, apontou que o homem era claramente muito rico, como mostrava o quadro. Ele era solteiro, seu irmão mais novo era chefe de estação ganhando um salário modesto, mas o próprio homem possuía uma valiosa pintura de Greuze e seu cargo oficial pagava setecentos por ano. A questão era como ele havia adquirido tanta riqueza.

En A outra pessoa o incentivou a continuar.

En Holmes afirmou que a inferência era óbvia.

En Watson perguntou se Holmes queria dizer que o homem tinha uma grande renda e a ganhava ilegalmente.

En Holmes concordou e explicou que tinha muitas pequenas pistas apontando para o centro onde uma pessoa perigosa se escondia. Ele mencionou a pintura de Greuze para ajudar Watson a entender seu raciocínio.

En Watson admitiu que as ideias de Holmes eram fascinantes e pediu esclarecimentos. Ele se perguntou se o dinheiro vinha de falsificação, moeda falsa ou roubo.

En Holmes perguntou se Watson já tinha lido sobre Jonathan Wild.

En Ele comentou que o nome parecia familiar, talvez de um romance. Ele expressou pouca consideração por detetives fictícios, pois eles realizam coisas sem revelar seus métodos; isso, ele achava, era meramente inspiração, não um verdadeiro trabalho.

En Ele esclareceu que Jonathan Wild não era um detetive nem um personagem de romance; ele era um criminoso mestre que viveu no século anterior, por volta de 1750.

En O outro homem respondeu que se Jonathan Wild não lhe fosse útil, então ele não estava interessado, pois se considerava um homem prático.

En Holmes aconselhou que a coisa mais prática que o homem poderia fazer seria se isolar por três meses, lendo a história do crime por doze horas por dia. Ele explicou que tudo ocorre em ciclos, até mesmo o Professor Moriarty, e que Jonathan Wild havia sido a força oculta por trás dos criminosos de Londres, vendendo seu cérebro e organização por uma comissão de quinze por cento. A velha roda gira e o mesmo raio aparece; tudo já foi feito antes e será novamente. Ele então se ofereceu para contar ao homem algumas coisas sobre Moriarty que poderiam interessá-lo.

En O homem garantiu a Holmes que ele certamente o interessaria.

En Holmes disse que sabia quem era o primeiro elo na corrente criminosa de Moriarty. Essa corrente tinha Moriarty em uma ponta e muitos homens arruinados, batedores de carteira, chantagistas e trapaceiros de cartas na outra, com todos os tipos de crime no meio. Ele explicou que o chefe de gabinete de Moriarty era o Coronel Sebastian Moran, que era tão distante e inacessível à lei quanto o próprio Moriarty. Então Holmes perguntou o que o ouvinte achava que Moriarty lhe pagava.

En O ouvinte expressou o desejo de ouvir a resposta.

En Holmes revelou que o salário de Moran era de seis mil libras por ano, o que era mais do que o Primeiro-Ministro recebia. Ele observou que isso demonstrava a escala das operações de Moriarty. Ele também mencionou que havia recentemente examinado alguns dos cheques de Moriarty para contas domésticas, que foram emitidos em seis bancos diferentes. Ele perguntou se esse fato causava impressão.

En O ouvinte achou estranho e perguntou o que Holmes deduziu disso.

En Holmes explicou que Moriarty queria manter sua riqueza em segredo, para que nenhuma pessoa soubesse quanto ele tinha. Ele acreditava que Moriarty tinha cerca de vinte contas bancárias, com a maior parte de sua fortuna provavelmente mantida em bancos estrangeiros, como o Deutsche Bank ou o Crédit Lyonnais. Ele sugeriu que estudar o Professor Moriarty seria um empreendimento valioso se alguém tivesse tempo.

En Ao longo da conversa, o inspetor MacDonald ficou cada vez mais impressionado. Ele estava completamente absorto em seu interesse. Então, sua mente prática escocesa o trouxe de volta de repente à questão em questão.

En MacDonald disse que a história de Holmes poderia esperar. Ele observou que Holmes os havia desviado com contos interessantes. O ponto importante era a sugestão de Holmes de uma conexão entre o professor e o crime, derivada do aviso de Porlock. Ele perguntou se poderiam ir mais longe para fins práticos.

En Holmes disse que poderiam ter uma ideia dos motivos do crime. Ele entendeu, pelos comentários de MacDonald, que o assassinato era inexplicável, ou pelo menos não explicado. Supondo que a origem do crime fosse como suspeitavam, poderia haver dois motivos diferentes. Primeiro, Holmes explicou que Moriarty governava seu povo com mão de ferro, com disciplina tremenda. Em seu código, a única punição era a morte. Poderiam supor que Douglas, cujo destino era conhecido por um dos subordinados de Moriarty, de alguma forma traíra o chefe. Sua punição veio e seria conhecida por todos, para incutir medo.

En MacDonald reconheceu que era uma sugestão.

En Holmes propôs outra possibilidade: que Moriarty tivesse organizado o assassinato como parte de suas atividades criminosas habituais. Ele perguntou se algum roubo havia ocorrido.

En Holmes disse que não tinha ouvido.

En Holmes raciocinou que, se fosse o caso, isso apoiaria a segunda hipótese em vez da primeira. Ele considerou que Moriarty poderia ter sido contratado para organizar o crime por uma parte dos lucros, ou poderia ter recebido um valor fixo para gerenciá-lo. Ambas as possibilidades existiam. Independentemente disso, ou se houvesse um terceiro cenário, a solução estava em Birlstone. Holmes conhecia muito bem seu adversário para acreditar que ele havia deixado pistas naquele local.

En MacDonald exclamou que eles deviam ir para Birlstone. Ele percebeu que era mais tarde do que pensava e deu a Holmes e Watson apenas cinco minutos para se preparar.

En Holmes concordou que cinco minutos era suficiente para ambos. Ele trocou rapidamente seu roupão pelo casaco e pediu a MacDonald que lhe contasse tudo sobre o caso durante a viagem.

En A informação que MacDonald forneceu revelou-se decepcionantemente escassa, mas foi o suficiente para convencê-los de que o caso merecia toda a atenção de Holmes. Holmes animou-se e esfregou as mãos finas enquanto ouvia os poucos, porém notáveis detalhes. Após muitas semanas estéreis, havia finalmente um desafio digno para suas habilidades extraordinárias, que, como qualquer dom especial, tornam-se tediosas quando não usadas. Sua mente afiada havia se tornado obtusa e enferrujada pela inatividade.

En Os olhos de Sherlock Holmes brilharam e seu rosto demonstrou antecipação ansiosa ao saber do novo caso. No táxi, ele se inclinou para frente e ouviu atentamente enquanto o inspetor MacDonald descrevia o problema em Sussex. MacDonald explicou que havia recebido uma breve nota no início da manhã pelo trem do leite de seu amigo White Mason, o oficial local. Por causa de sua amizade, MacDonald foi alertado muito antes do que a Scotland Yard normalmente ouve da polícia provincial. O caso era uma pista fria, como acontece frequentemente quando o especialista metropolitano é chamado.

En A carta que MacDonald leu em voz alta afirmava que a solicitação oficial por seus serviços estava em um envelope separado, enquanto esta nota era para sua informação particular. Mason pediu que MacDonald telegrafasse o trem matinal que poderia pegar para Birlstone, e ele o encontraria ou enviaria alguém se estivesse ocupado. Ele descreveu o caso como extremamente desafiador, instando MacDonald a não atrasar. Ele solicitou particularmente que, se possível, MacDonald trouxesse o Sr. Holmes, pois o caso o interessaria. Mason observou que todo o caso parecia encenado para efeito dramático, não fosse pelo homem morto no centro. Ele reiterou que era um caso notável.

En Holmes comentou que White Mason parecia ser bastante inteligente.

En MacDonald concordou, dizendo que, em sua opinião, White Mason era um oficial muito capaz e ativo.

En Holmes então perguntou a MacDonald se ele tinha mais alguma informação para compartilhar.

En Holmes respondeu que a única coisa que sabia era que a pessoa forneceria todos os detalhes quando se encontrassem.

En O questionador perguntou como Holmes havia sabido do Sr. Douglas e do fato de que ele havia sido brutalmente assassinado.

En O orador explicou que a informação veio do relatório oficial. Ele dava o nome de John Douglas, afirmava que seus ferimentos na cabeça foram causados por um tiro de espingarda e observava que o alarme foi dado perto da meia-noite. O relatório também descrevia o caso como indiscutivelmente homicídio, sem nenhuma prisão ainda, e mencionava algumas características perplexas e extraordinárias. Essa era toda a informação que eles tinham.

En Holmes concordou em parar por aí. Ele observou que formar teorias prematuras com base em dados insuficientes era a ruína de sua profissão. Ele via apenas duas certezas: uma grande mente em Londres e um homem morto em Sussex. A tarefa deles era traçar o elo entre eles.

III — A Tragédia de Birlstone

En O narrador pediu permissão para deixar de lado seu próprio papel por um momento e descrever eventos que haviam ocorrido antes de sua chegada, usando conhecimento adquirido posteriormente. Somente assim o leitor poderia apreciar as pessoas envolvidas e o cenário estranho que moldou seu destino.

En A vila de Birlstone é um pequeno e antigo povoado de casas de enxaimel na fronteira norte de Sussex. Durante séculos permaneceu inalterada, mas nos últimos anos sua beleza atraiu moradores ricos que construíram vilas nas florestas ao redor. Acredita-se que essas florestas sejam o limite da grande floresta de Weald, que se afina até os contrafortes de giz do norte. Pequenas lojas foram abertas para atender à crescente população, então Birlstone parece prestes a se tornar uma cidade moderna. É um centro para a região, já que a cidade importante mais próxima, Tunbridge Wells, fica a cerca de dez ou doze milhas a leste, além da fronteira de Kent.

En A cerca de meio quilômetro da vila, em um parque antigo famoso por suas enormes faias, ergue-se a antiga Casa Senhorial de Birlstone. Parte deste velho edifício remonta à época da primeira cruzada, quando Hugo de Capus construiu um forte no centro da propriedade, concedida a ele pelo Rei Vermelho. Esse forte foi destruído por um incêndio em 1543, e algumas de suas pedras angulares enegrecidas pela fumaça foram usadas quando uma casa de campo de tijolos foi construída sobre as ruínas do castelo feudal na era jacobina.

En A Casa Senhorial, com seus muitos frontões e pequenas janelas de vidros em forma de losango, ainda estava muito como o construtor a deixou no início do século XVII. Dos dois fossos que protegiam seu predecessor mais guerreiro, o externo havia secado e agora servia como horta. O fosso interno ainda estava lá, com quarenta pés de largura, mas apenas alguns pés de profundidade, circundando toda a casa. Um pequeno riacho o alimentava e continuava além, de modo que a água, embora turva, nunca era estagnada ou insalubre. As janelas do andar térreo ficavam a menos de um pé da superfície da água.

En A única entrada para a casa era por uma ponte levadiça, cujas correntes e molinete estavam há muito tempo enferrujados e quebrados. Os últimos inquilinos, no entanto, a haviam reparado com energia característica, e a ponte levadiça não só podia ser levantada como era de fato erguida todas as noites e abaixada todas as manhãs. Ao reviver esse antigo costume feudal, a Mansão tornou-se uma ilha durante a noite — um fato que influenciou diretamente o mistério que logo envolveria toda a Inglaterra.

En A casa estava vazia há alguns anos e estava caindo em ruínas pitorescas quando os Douglas tomaram posse. A família consistia em apenas duas pessoas: John Douglas e sua esposa. Douglas era um homem notável, tanto em caráter quanto em aparência. Ele tinha cerca de cinquenta anos, com um rosto forte e marcado, bigode grisalho, olhos cinzentos excepcionalmente vivos e uma figura magra e vigorosa que não havia perdido a força e a atividade da juventude. Ele era alegre e amigável com todos, mas um tanto brusco em seus modos, dando a impressão de que havia vivido em círculos sociais muito mais baixos do que a sociedade do condado de Sussex.

En Embora seus vizinhos mais instruídos inicialmente o vissem com certa curiosidade e reserva, John Douglas rapidamente ganhou popularidade entre os aldeões. Ele fazia contribuições generosas para causas locais e frequentava regularmente eventos sociais, como concertos de fumo, onde prontamente cantava uma canção com sua forte voz de tenor. Rumores sugeriam que ele havia acumulado sua riqueza nos campos de ouro da Califórnia, e tanto ele quanto sua esposa mencionavam frequentemente que haviam passado parte de suas vidas na América.

En A reputação de John Douglas por generosidade e maneiras democráticas foi ainda mais fortalecida por sua atitude destemida diante do perigo. Embora fosse um cavaleiro medíocre, ele comparecia a todos os eventos de caça e sofria quedas perigosas em seu esforço para acompanhar os melhores. Quando a casa paroquial pegou fogo, ele se destacou ao reentrar no prédio em chamas para salvar propriedades, depois que o corpo de bombeiros local considerou a missão impossível. Em cinco anos, John Douglas, da Casa Solar, havia conquistado uma forte reputação em Birlstone.

En A Sra. Douglas era muito querida por aqueles que a conheciam, mas, como era uma estranha no condado sem nenhuma apresentação, poucas pessoas a visitavam, como era típico na sociedade inglesa. Isso não a incomodava muito, pois ela era naturalmente quieta e parecia inteiramente dedicada ao marido e às tarefas domésticas. Sabia-se que ela era uma inglesa que conhecera o Sr. Douglas em Londres quando ele era viúvo. Ela era uma bela mulher, alta, morena e esbelta, cerca de vinte anos mais nova que o marido, mas essa diferença de idade não parecia perturbar a felicidade conjugal.

En Os conhecidos mais próximos do casal observavam por vezes que sua confiança mútua não era absoluta. A Sra. Douglas ou optava por não discutir o passado do marido ou, como parecia mais plausível, não tinha pleno conhecimento dele. Alguns indivíduos atentos também notaram sinais de tensão nervosa na Sra. Douglas, especialmente quando o marido se atrasava em uma viagem. Nesta tranquila comunidade rural, onde qualquer fofoca era avidamente recebida, tal característica na senhora da Casa Senhorial não passou despercebida. Além disso, essas observações mais tarde assumiriam uma importância muito maior à luz dos eventos subsequentes.

En Havia outra pessoa que vivia na casa apenas de vez em quando, mas seu envolvimento nos estranhos eventos que serão agora descritos o tornou famoso. Essa pessoa era Cecil James Barker, de Hales Lodge, em Hampstead.

En Cecil Barker era uma figura familiar na vila de Birlstone, um homem alto e desengonçado que frequentemente visitava a Casa Senhorial. Ele era o único amigo do Sr. Douglas de sua vida passada e, embora claramente inglês, conhecera Douglas intimamente na América. Barker parecia ser rico e era considerado solteiro.

En Barker tinha cerca de quarenta e cinco anos, mais novo que Douglas, com uma constituição alta e forte e um rosto de pugilista. Ele não montava a cavalo nem atirava, mas passava os dias caminhando pela vila ou dirigindo com seu anfitrião ou, quando Douglas estava ausente, com sua anfitriã. O mordomo, Ames, o descreveu como descontraído, mas não alguém para se enfrentar. Barker era próximo tanto de Douglas quanto de sua esposa, embora essa amizade às vezes irritasse Douglas, como até mesmo os criados notaram. Ele era a terceira pessoa na casa quando a catástrofe ocorreu.

En Entre os outros habitantes da antiga casa estavam o mordomo sério e capaz, Ames, e a alegre Sra. Allen, que ajudava a senhora da casa. Os outros seis empregados não tinham nenhuma relação com os eventos da noite de 6 de janeiro.

En O primeiro alarme chegou às onze e quarenta e cinco à delegacia local, sob o comando do Sargento Wilson da Polícia de Sussex. O excitado Cecil Barker correu até a porta e tocou a campainha furiosamente. Ele relatou sem fôlego que John Douglas havia sido assassinado na Mansão. Após entregar a notícia, ele voltou apressadamente para a casa, seguido em poucos minutos pelo sargento da polícia, que chegou pouco depois da meia-noite, tendo alertado as autoridades do condado.

En Quando o sargento chegou à Mansão, encontrou a ponte levadiça abaixada, as janelas iluminadas e a casa em completa confusão. Os criados, de rostos pálidos, aglomeravam-se no hall, e o mordomo assustado torcia as mãos na porta. Apenas Cecil Barker parecia calmo; ele abriu a porta mais próxima e fez sinal para o sargento segui-lo. Naquele momento, o Dr. Wood, um médico de aldeia competente, chegou. Os três homens entraram no quarto fatal, enquanto o mordomo horrorizado os seguia, fechando a porta atrás de si para proteger as empregadas da terrível cena.

En O falecido foi encontrado deitado de costas no centro da sala. Ele usava apenas um roupão rosa sobre a roupa de dormir, com chinelos de carpete nos pés descalços. O médico ajoelhou-se ao lado dele e o examinou com a lâmpada da mesa. O homem havia sofrido ferimentos terríveis; sobre o peito repousava uma espingarda de cano serrado, com os gatilhos amarrados juntos, indicando que a arma havia sido disparada a curta distância, destruindo sua cabeça.

En O policial local ficou sobrecarregado pela responsabilidade repentina. Ele sussurrou que não deveriam tocar em nada até que seus superiores chegassem, olhando horrorizado para a cabeça da vítima.

En Cecil Barker garantiu a ele que nada havia sido mexido e que a cena estava exatamente como ele a havia encontrado.

En O sargento perguntou quando isso havia ocorrido e tirou seu caderno de anotações.

En Cecil Barker afirmou que era exatamente onze e meia. Ele estava sentado perto do fogo em seu quarto, ainda vestido, quando ouviu um estrondo abafado. Ele desceu correndo e afirmou ter chegado ao quarto em menos de trinta segundos.

En Ele perguntou se a porta tinha estado aberta.

En Ele confirmou que a porta estava aberta. Disse que o pobre Douglas estava deitado como o viram, com a vela do quarto acesa sobre a mesa. Acrescentou que tinha acendido a lâmpada alguns minutos depois.

En Ele perguntou se alguém tinha sido visto.

En Ele respondeu que não tinha visto ninguém. Ouviu a Sra. Douglas descendo as escadas atrás dele e saiu apressado para impedi-la de testemunhar a terrível cena. A Sra. Allen, a governanta, chegou e a levou embora. Ames também tinha chegado, e todos voltaram para o quarto.

En Ele observou que tinha entendido que a ponte levadiça permanecia erguida durante a noite.

En Ele disse que estava levantada até que ele a abaixou.

En Ele argumentou que era impossível um assassino ter escapado naquelas circunstâncias, então o Sr. Douglas deve ter atirado em si mesmo.

En Ele disse que essa tinha sido a teoria inicial deles, mas então ele demonstrou que a janela estava totalmente aberta. Ele também mostrou uma mancha de sangue semelhante a uma pegada de bota no parapeito, indicando que alguém tinha ficado ali enquanto escapava.

En Ele perguntou se Barker estava sugerindo que alguém atravessou o fosso a pé.

En Barker afirmou que era exatamente esse o caso.

En O orador raciocinou que, se alguém estivesse no quarto dentro de trinta segundos após o crime, essa pessoa devia estar na água naquele exato momento.

En O orador disse que não tinha dúvidas e desejou ter corrido para a janela, mas a cortina a havia escondido, então ele não pensou nisso. Então ouviu os passos da Sra. Douglas e não pôde deixá-la entrar no quarto, pois teria sido horrível demais.

En O médico observou que os ferimentos eram realmente horríveis, olhando para a cabeça despedaçada e as terríveis marcas ao redor, e acrescentou que não via ferimentos tão graves desde o acidente ferroviário de Birlstone.

En O sargento da polícia, usando seu lento e prático senso comum, ainda duvidava da teoria da janela aberta. Ele argumentou que tudo bem dizer que um homem escapou atravessando o fosso a pé, mas queria saber como o homem havia entrado na casa em primeiro lugar se a ponte estava levantada.

En Barker concordou que essa era de fato a questão-chave.

En Alguém perguntou a que horas a ponte havia sido levantada.

En Ames, o mordomo, respondeu que eram quase seis horas.

En O sargento mencionou que ouvira dizer que era costume levantá-la ao pôr do sol, o que, naquela época do ano, seria mais perto das quatro e meia do que das seis.

En Ames explicou que a Sra. Douglas tinha convidados para o chá, por isso ele não pôde levantar a ponte até que eles partissem, e então a levantou ele mesmo.

En O sargento raciocinou que se alguém tivesse vindo de fora, deveria ter cruzado a ponte antes das seis e permanecido escondido até o Sr. Douglas entrar na sala depois das onze.

En O orador confirmou que o Sr. Douglas verificava as luzes todas as noites antes de se recolher. Essa rotina o levou até aquela sala, onde um agressor o esperava e atirou nele. O assassino então escapou pela janela, deixando sua arma para trás. O orador acreditava que essa interpretação era a única consistente com as evidências.

En O sargento pegou um cartão do chão ao lado do falecido. Nele, as iniciais V. V. e o número 341 estavam escritos de forma grosseira a tinta.

En Ele ergueu o cartão e perguntou sobre seu significado.

En Barker examinou o cartão com interesse. Ele comentou que não o havia notado anteriormente e sugeriu que o assassino devia tê-lo deixado para trás.

En O sargento afirmou que não conseguia decifrar o significado da inscrição 'V. V.—341'.

En O sargento examinou o objeto em suas grandes mãos e se perguntou em voz alta o que "V. V." poderia significar, sugerindo que poderiam ser iniciais de alguém. Ele então perguntou ao Dr. Wood o que ele estava segurando.

En Um martelo grande e robusto estava sobre o tapete em frente à lareira. Cecil Barker apontou para uma caixa de pregos de cabeça de latão na prateleira da lareira.

En Cecil Barker explicou que o Sr. Douglas estivera reorganizando os quadros no dia anterior, e ele mesmo o vira de pé naquela cadeira ajustando o quadro grande, o que explicava a presença do martelo.

En O sargento, coçando a cabeça confuso, sugeriu devolver o martelo ao seu lugar original no tapete. Ele comentou que resolver o caso exigiria as melhores mentes da polícia e que acabaria se tornando uma investigação de Londres. Então, erguendo a lamparina, ele lentamente circulou a sala. De repente, puxou a cortina da janela e perguntou animadamente a que horas as cortinas haviam sido fechadas.

En O mordomo respondeu que as cortinas haviam sido fechadas quando as lâmpadas foram acesas, o que foi logo depois das quatro horas.

En O detetive apontou para o canto onde pegadas enlameadas estavam claramente visíveis. Ele observou que essa evidência apoiava a teoria de Barker: alguém havia entrado na casa entre quatro e seis horas, quando as cortinas estavam fechadas e a ponte estava levantada. O intruso se escondeu naquele quarto, provavelmente com a intenção de roubar a casa, mas o Sr. Douglas o descobriu, resultando no assassinato.

En Barker concordou com a interpretação do detetive, mas questionou se estavam perdendo tempo. Ele insistiu que deveriam começar a vasculhar a região imediatamente antes que o suspeito escapasse.

En O sargento fez uma pausa para refletir.

En O sargento explicou que nenhum trem partia antes das seis da manhã, então o suspeito não poderia fugir de trem. Se ele saísse pela estrada com as pernas molhadas, provavelmente seria notado. Incapaz de deixar seu posto até ser substituído, o sargento aconselhou todos a ficarem até que a situação ficasse mais clara.

En Pegando a lâmpada, o médico examinou o corpo de perto. Ele perguntou sobre uma marca específica e se ela poderia estar relacionada ao crime.

En O braço direito do falecido homem projetava-se para fora de seu roupão, exposto até o cotovelo. Na metade do antebraço havia uma curiosa marca marrom—um triângulo dentro de um círculo—destacando-se nitidamente contra sua pele pálida.

En O médico examinou através de seus óculos e declarou que não era uma tatuagem; nunca tinha visto nada semelhante. Ele sugeriu que o homem havia sido marcado como gado e perguntou o que aquilo significava.

En Cecil Barker admitiu não saber o significado, mas observara a marca em Douglas repetidamente ao longo da última década.

En O mordomo concordou; ele também notara a marca sempre que o patrão arregaçava as mangas e frequentemente se perguntara sobre seu significado.

En O sargento concluiu que a marca não estava relacionada ao crime, mas era peculiar—como tudo o mais neste caso. Ele então perguntou qual seria o próximo passo.

En O mordomo gritou de choque e apontou para a mão do morto, que estava estendida.

En Ele ofegou que alguém havia levado a aliança de casamento do morto.

En Barker exclamou surpreso, perguntando o que o mordomo queria dizer.

En O mordomo confirmou isso, explicando que o patrão sempre usava uma aliança de ouro lisa no dedo mínimo da mão esquerda, com um anel contendo um nugget bruto acima dela e um anel de cobra torcida no terceiro dedo. Ele destacou que tanto o anel de nugget quanto o de cobra ainda estavam presentes, mas a aliança de casamento havia desaparecido.

En Barker reconheceu que o mordomo estava correto.

En O sargento perguntou se a aliança de casamento havia sido encontrada debaixo do outro anel.

I — The Warning

Português

O narrador começou a expressar uma opinião, dizendo que estava inclinado a pensar em algo.

Original English

“I am inclined to think—” said I.

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Português

Sherlock Holmes observou impacientemente que ele deveria fazê-lo.

Original English

“I should do so,” Sherlock Holmes remarked impatiently.

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Português

O narrador se considerava muito paciente, mas admitiu que estava irritado com a interrupção sarcástica de Holmes.

Original English

I believe that I am one of the most long-suffering of mortals; but I’ll admit that I was annoyed at the sardonic interruption.

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Português

O narrador disse severamente a Holmes que ele poderia ser difícil às vezes.

Original English

“Really, Holmes,” said I severely, “you are a little trying at times.”

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Português

Holmes estava absorto demais em seus pensamentos para responder imediatamente. Ele se apoiou na mão, com o café da manhã intocado, olhando para um pedaço de papel que tirara de um envelope. Então, segurou o envelope contra a luz e examinou cuidadosamente tanto a frente quanto a aba.

Original English

He was too much absorbed with his own thoughts to give any immediate answer to my remonstrance. He leaned upon his hand, with his untasted breakfast before him, and he stared at the slip of paper which he had just drawn from its envelope. Then he took the envelope itself, held it up to the light, and very carefully studied both the exterior and the flap.

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Português

Ele disse pensativamente que era a caligrafia de Porlock, da qual ele mal podia duvidar, embora a tivesse visto apenas duas vezes antes. Ele observou que a letra grega 'e' com um floreio peculiar no topo era distintiva. Ele acrescentou que, se fosse realmente Porlock, a mensagem deveria ser da mais alta importância.

Original English

“It is Porlock’s writing,” said he thoughtfully. “I can hardly doubt that it is Porlock’s writing, though I have seen it only twice before. The Greek e with the peculiar top flourish is distinctive. But if it is Porlock, then it must be something of the very first importance.”

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Português

Ele estava falando consigo mesmo, não comigo; no entanto, meu aborrecimento desapareceu quando fui cativado pelo interesse que suas palavras despertaram.

Original English

He was speaking to himself rather than to me; but my vexation disappeared in the interest which the words awakened.

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Português

Perguntei quem era Porlock.

Original English

“Who then is Porlock?” I asked.

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Português

Ele explicou que Porlock era um pseudônimo, meramente uma marca de identificação, atrás da qual se escondia uma personalidade astuta e evasiva. Em uma carta anterior, Porlock havia admitido francamente que o nome não era seu e o desafiou a rastreá-lo entre os milhões da cidade. Porlock era importante não por si mesmo, mas pelo grande homem a quem estava ligado. Ele descreveu a relação como a de um peixe-piloto com um tubarão, ou de um chacal com um leão — algo insignificante acompanhando algo formidável e, de fato, sinistro ao mais alto grau. Ele acrescentou que era por isso que Porlock chamava sua atenção, e perguntou se eu já tinha ouvido falar do Professor Moriarty.

Original English

“Porlock, Watson, is a nom-de-plume, a mere identification mark; but behind it lies a shifty and evasive personality. In a former letter he frankly informed me that the name was not his own, and defied me ever to trace him among the teeming millions of this great city. Porlock is important, not for himself, but for the great man with whom he is in touch. Picture to yourself the pilot fish with the shark, the jackal with the lion—anything that is insignificant in companionship with what is formidable: not only formidable, Watson, but sinister—in the highest degree sinister. That is where he comes within my purview. You have heard me speak of Professor Moriarty?”

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Português

Comecei a dizer que ele era o famoso criminoso científico, tão conhecido entre os criminosos quanto—

Original English

“The famous scientific criminal, as famous among crooks as—”

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Português

Holmes expressou vergonha discretamente, alegando que estava corando.

Original English

“My blushes, Watson!” Holmes murmured in a deprecating voice.

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Português

Holmes quase mencionou que o homem não era conhecido do público.

Original English

“I was about to say, as he is unknown to the public.”

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Português

Holmes notou o crescente humor de Watson, mas alertou que chamar Moriarty de criminoso era legalmente calunioso. Ele descreveu Moriarty como o maior gênio do crime, tão inteligente e oculto que poderia processar Watson por difamação. Moriarty também era autor de um livro difícil de matemática. Holmes expressou esperança de que o dia deles chegaria se ele sobrevivesse.

Original English

“A touch! A distinct touch!” cried Holmes. “You are developing a certain unexpected vein of pawky humour, Watson, against which I must learn to guard myself. But in calling Moriarty a criminal you are uttering libel in the eyes of the law—and there lie the glory and the wonder of it! The greatest schemer of all time, the organizer of every deviltry, the controlling brain of the underworld, a brain which might have made or marred the destiny of nations—that’s the man! But so aloof is he from general suspicion, so immune from criticism, so admirable in his management and self-effacement, that for those very words that you have uttered he could hale you to a court and emerge with your year’s pension as a solatium for his wounded character. Is he not the celebrated author of The Dynamics of an Asteroid, a book which ascends to such rarefied heights of pure mathematics that it is said that there was no man in the scientific press capable of criticizing it? Is this a man to traduce? Foul-mouthed doctor and slandered professor—such would be your respective roles! That’s genius, Watson. But if I am spared by lesser men, our day will surely come.”

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Português

Watson esperou fervorosamente testemunhar aquele evento, e então pediu que Holmes continuasse falando sobre Porlock.

Original English

“May I be there to see!” I exclaimed devoutly. “But you were speaking of this man Porlock.”

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Português

Holmes explicou que Porlock era um elo distante, mas fraco na corrente, a única falha que ele havia descoberto.

Original English

“Ah, yes—the so-called Porlock is a link in the chain some little way from its great attachment. Porlock is not quite a sound link—between ourselves. He is the only flaw in that chain so far as I have been able to test it.”

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Português

Holmes observou que nenhuma corrente pode ser mais forte do que seu elo mais fraco.

Original English

“But no chain is stronger than its weakest link.”

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Português

Holmes concordou, enfatizando a importância de Porlock. Porlock, movido por impulsos morais ocasionais e encorajado por pagamentos secretos, havia fornecido anteriormente informações antecipadas que permitiram a Holmes evitar crimes. Holmes acreditava que, uma vez que a cifra fosse decodificada, esta mensagem se mostraria um aviso semelhante.

Original English

“Exactly, my dear Watson! Hence the extreme importance of Porlock. Led on by some rudimentary aspirations towards right, and encouraged by the judicious stimulation of an occasional ten-pound note sent to him by devious methods, he has once or twice given me advance information which has been of value—that highest value which anticipates and prevents rather than avenges crime. I cannot doubt that, if we had the cipher, we should find that this communication is of the nature that I indicate.”

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Português

Holmes alisou o papel em seu prato não utilizado. Eu me levantei e me inclinei para examinar a estranha inscrição.

Original English

Again Holmes flattened out the paper upon his unused plate. I rose and, leaning over him, stared down at the curious inscription, which ran as follows:

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Português

A mensagem dizia: 534 C2 13 127 36 31 4 17 21 41.

Original English

534 C2 13 127 36 31 4 17 21 41

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Português

Também continha os nomes Douglas e Birlstone, cada um seguido por números: Douglas 109 293 5 37 Birlstone.

Original English

Douglas 109 293 5 37 Birlstone

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Português

A mensagem consistia nos números 26 Birlstone 9 47 171.

Original English

26 Birlstone 9 47 171

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Português

Watson perguntou o que Holmes achava da mensagem.

Original English

“What do you make of it, Holmes?”

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Português

Holmes declarou que era evidentemente uma tentativa de comunicar algo secreto.

Original English

“It is obviously an attempt to convey secret information.”

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Português

Watson questionou o propósito de uma mensagem codificada quando a chave para decifrá-la estava faltando.

Original English

“But what is the use of a cipher message without the cipher?”

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Português

Holmes admitiu que, neste caso específico, era completamente inútil.

Original English

“In this instance, none at all.”

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Português

Ele perguntou por que o falante havia mencionado aquela instância em particular.

Original English

“Why do you say ‘in this instance’?”

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Português

Ele explicou que conseguia ler facilmente muitas cifras simples, mas esta era diferente. Referia-se claramente a palavras de uma página específica de um livro. Ele disse que não podia fazer nada até saber qual página e qual livro.

Original English

“Because there are many ciphers which I would read as easily as I do the apocrypha of the agony column: such crude devices amuse the intelligence without fatiguing it. But this is different. It is clearly a reference to the words in a page of some book. Until I am told which page and which book I am powerless.”

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Português

Ele perguntou por que os nomes Douglas e Birlstone haviam sido usados.

Original English

“But why ‘Douglas’ and ‘Birlstone’?”

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Português

O falante respondeu que era porque aquelas palavras não estavam na página em questão.

Original English

“Clearly because those are words which were not contained in the page in question.”

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Português

Ele então perguntou por que o próprio livro não havia sido indicado.

Original English

“Then why has he not indicated the book?”

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Português

Holmes comentou a Watson que sua sagacidade natural o impediria de colocar tanto a cifra quanto a mensagem no mesmo envelope, pois um acidente seria desastroso. Da forma como estava, ambos precisariam dar errado para que algum dano ocorresse. A segunda correspondência estava atrasada, e Holmes esperava que trouxesse mais explicações ou, mais provavelmente, o livro ao qual os números se referiam.

Original English

“Your native shrewdness, my dear Watson, that innate cunning which is the delight of your friends, would surely prevent you from enclosing cipher and message in the same envelope. Should it miscarry, you are undone. As it is, both have to go wrong before any harm comes from it. Our second post is now overdue, and I shall be surprised if it does not bring us either a further letter of explanation, or, as is more probable, the very volume to which these figures refer.”

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Português

A previsão de Holmes se concretizou em poucos minutos quando Billy, o mensageiro, chegou com a própria carta que esperavam.

Original English

Holmes’s calculation was fulfilled within a very few minutes by the appearance of Billy, the page, with the very letter which we were expecting.

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Português

Holmes observou que a caligrafia era a mesma e, ao desdobrar a carta, notou com satisfação que ela estava realmente assinada. Ele declarou que estavam progredindo. No entanto, ao ler o conteúdo, sua expressão se tornou sombria.

Original English

“The same writing,” remarked Holmes, as he opened the envelope, “and actually signed,” he added in an exultant voice as he unfolded the epistle. “Come, we are getting on, Watson.” His brow clouded, however, as he glanced over the contents.

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Português

Holmes expressou sua decepção, dizendo que todas as suas expectativas pareciam ter sido em vão. Ele confiava que o homem Porlock não sofreria nenhum dano.

Original English

“Dear me, this is very disappointing! I fear, Watson, that all our expectations come to nothing. I trust that the man Porlock will come to no harm.

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Português

A carta começava com um cumprimento respeitoso ao Sr. Holmes.

Original English

“Dear Mr. Holmes [he says]:

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Português

Ele declarou que não prosseguiria com o assunto, pois era perigoso demais e acreditava que alguém desconfiava dele. Explicou que a pessoa o visitara inesperadamente logo depois que ele havia endereçado o envelope para enviar a chave da cifra. Ele conseguira escondê-la, mas lera suspeita nos olhos do visitante. Exortou o destinatário a queimar a mensagem cifrada, pois já não poderia ser útil.

Original English

“I will go no further in this matter. It is too dangerous—he suspects me. I can see that he suspects me. He came to me quite unexpectedly after I had actually addressed this envelope with the intention of sending you the key to the cipher. I was able to cover it up. If he had seen it, it would have gone hard with me. But I read suspicion in his eyes. Please burn the cipher message, which can now be of no use to you.

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Português

A mensagem foi assinada por Fred Porlock.

Original English

Fred Porlock.”

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Português

Holmes sentou-se por um momento, torcendo a carta entre os dedos, franzindo a testa enquanto fitava o fogo.

Original English

Holmes sat for some little time twisting this letter between his fingers, and frowning, as he stared into the fire.

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Português

Finalmente, ele disse que talvez não houvesse nada demais — poderia ser apenas a consciência culpada de Porlock. Sabendo-se um traidor, ele poderia ter imaginado acusação nos olhos do outro homem.

Original English

“After all,” he said at last, “there may be nothing in it. It may be only his guilty conscience. Knowing himself to be a traitor, he may have read the accusation in the other’s eyes.”

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Português

Holmes presumiu que o outro homem era o Professor Moriarty.

Original English

“The other being, I presume, Professor Moriarty.”

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Português

O orador confirmou isso, explicando que quando membros daquele grupo falam sobre 'Ele', todos sabem exatamente quem é; há uma figura dominante a quem todos se referem como 'Ele'.

Original English

“No less! When any of that party talk about ‘He’ you know whom they mean. There is one predominant ‘He’ for all of them.”

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Português

Foi feita uma pergunta sobre o que essa pessoa poderia possivelmente fazer.

Original English

“But what can he do?”

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Português

O orador comentou que era uma grande questão. Com uma das mentes mais brilhantes da Europa contra você, apoiada por forças das trevas, muitas coisas são possíveis. Ele observou que Porlock estava claramente aterrorizado, apontando que sua escrita no bilhete era clara e firme, mas o envelope, escrito antes da visita, estava quase ilegível.

Original English

“Hum! That’s a large question. When you have one of the first brains of Europe up against you, and all the powers of darkness at his back, there are infinite possibilities. Anyhow, Friend Porlock is evidently scared out of his senses—kindly compare the writing in the note to that upon its envelope; which was done, he tells us, before this ill-omened visit. The one is clear and firm. The other hardly legible.”

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Português

Alguém perguntou por que Porlock se deu ao trabalho de escrever em vez de simplesmente deixar o bilhete.

Original English

“Why did he write at all? Why did he not simply drop it?”

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Português

O orador explicou que Porlock estava com medo de que, se ele simplesmente o tivesse deixado, o orador pudesse fazer perguntas sobre ele e causar problemas.

Original English

“Because he feared I would make some inquiry after him in that case, and possibly bring trouble on him.”

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Português

Eu concordei plenamente. Peguei a mensagem codificada original e a estudava atentamente. Comentei como era frustrante que um segredo vital pudesse estar contido naquele pedaço de papel, mas permanecer completamente inacessível ao entendimento humano.

Original English

“No doubt,” said I. “Of course.” I had picked up the original cipher message and was bending my brows over it. “It’s pretty maddening to think that an important secret may lie here on this slip of paper, and that it is beyond human power to penetrate it.”

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Português

Sherlock Holmes afastou seu café da manhã intocado e acendeu seu cachimbo fedorento, companheiro constante de seus pensamentos mais profundos. Ele recostou-se e olhou para o teto, expressando dúvida. Sugeriu que talvez a mente afiada de seu companheiro tivesse deixado passar certos pontos. Propôs que examinassem o problema por meio da lógica pura. A referência do remetente a um livro, disse ele, era seu ponto de partida.

Original English

Sherlock Holmes had pushed away his untasted breakfast and lit the unsavoury pipe which was the companion of his deepest meditations. “I wonder!” said he, leaning back and staring at the ceiling. “Perhaps there are points which have escaped your Machiavellian intellect. Let us consider the problem in the light of pure reason. This man’s reference is to a book. That is our point of departure.”

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Português

Eu respondi que tal pista era bastante vaga.

Original English

“A somewhat vague one.”

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Português

Holmes então disse que deveriam tentar reduzir o escopo. Ele sentiu que, ao se concentrar, o problema parecia menos impossível. Perguntou que pistas tinham sobre a natureza do livro.

Original English

“Let us see then if we can narrow it down. As I focus my mind upon it, it seems rather less impenetrable. What indications have we as to this book?”

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Português

Eu admiti que não tínhamos nenhuma.

Original English

“None.”

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Português

Holmes comentou que a situação não era tão ruim quanto parecia. Ele observou que a mensagem cifrada começava com o número 534, que eles poderiam supor indicar a página 534 de um livro. Isso significava que o livro que procuravam era bastante grande. Ele então perguntou a Watson o que ele achava das letras C2.

Original English

“Well, well, it is surely not quite so bad as that. The cipher message begins with a large 534, does it not? We may take it as a working hypothesis that 534 is the particular page to which the cipher refers. So our book has already become a large book, which is surely something gained. What other indications have we as to the nature of this large book? The next sign is C2. What do you make of that, Watson?”

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Português

Watson sugeriu que poderia significar capítulo dois.

Original English

“Chapter the second, no doubt.”

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Português

Holmes discordou, apontando que, se o número da página fosse dado, o número do capítulo era irrelevante. Ele acrescentou que, se a página 534 caísse dentro do segundo capítulo, o primeiro capítulo deveria ser extremamente longo.

Original English

“Hardly that, Watson. You will, I am sure, agree with me that if the page be given, the number of the chapter is immaterial. Also that if page 534 finds us only in the second chapter, the length of the first one must have been really intolerable.”

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Português

Watson exclamou que poderia ser coluna.

Original English

“Column!” I cried.

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Português

Holmes elogiou a perspicácia de Watson, concordando que C2 provavelmente significava coluna. Ele explicou que isso os levava a imaginar um livro grande impresso em colunas duplas, cada coluna sendo bastante longa, já que uma palavra era numerada 293 na cifra. Ele então perguntou se eles haviam esgotado tudo que a razão poderia fornecer.

Original English

“Brilliant, Watson. You are scintillating this morning. If it is not column, then I am very much deceived. So now, you see, we begin to visualize a large book printed in double columns which are each of a considerable length, since one of the words is numbered in the document as the two hundred and ninety-third. Have we reached the limits of what reason can supply?”

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Português

Ele admitiu que sua apreensão anterior havia se mostrado precisa.

Original English

“I fear that we have.”

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Português

Holmes tranquilizou Watson, dizendo que ele estava sendo muito duro consigo mesmo e que outra ideia lhe ocorrera. Ele observou que, se o livro fosse incomum, o remetente teria enviado o próprio livro, em vez de apenas uma pista. Como o remetente esperava que Holmes o encontrasse facilmente, tratava-se de um livro muito comum.

Original English

“Surely you do yourself an injustice. One more coruscation, my dear Watson—yet another brain wave! Had the volume been an unusual one, he would have sent it to me. Instead of that, he had intended, before his plans were nipped, to send me the clue in this envelope. He says so in his note. This would seem to indicate that the book is one which he thought I would have no difficulty in finding for myself. He had it—and he imagined that I would have it, too. In short, Watson, it is a very common book.”

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Português

Watson respondeu que o raciocínio de Holmes parecia convincente.

Original English

“What you say certainly sounds plausible.”

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Português

Holmes concluiu que eles haviam restringido a busca a um livro grande, impresso em colunas duplas e de uso comum.

Original English

“So we have contracted our field of search to a large book, printed in double columns and in common use.”

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Português

Watson declarou triunfantemente que o livro só podia ser a Bíblia.

Original English

“The Bible!” I cried triumphantly.

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Português

Holmes reconheceu que a sugestão de Watson era boa, mas não totalmente precisa. Ele destacou que um livro religioso normalmente não seria encontrado perto de um dos homens de Moriarty. Além disso, como diferentes edições de textos religiosos têm numerações de páginas distintas, o código deve se referir a um livro padronizado que todos possuem, garantindo que a página 534 seja a mesma em cada cópia.

Original English

“Good, Watson, good! But not, if I may say so, quite good enough! Even if I accepted the compliment for myself I could hardly name any volume which would be less likely to lie at the elbow of one of Moriarty’s associates. Besides, the editions of Holy Writ are so numerous that he could hardly suppose that two copies would have the same pagination. This is clearly a book which is standardized. He knows for certain that his page 534 will exactly agree with my page 534.”

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Português

Watson observou que apenas um número limitado de livros atenderia a esse critério.

Original English

“But very few books would correspond with that.”

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Português

Holmes concordou, observando que isso restringia a busca. Eles precisavam se concentrar em livros padronizados que qualquer pessoa poderia possuir.

Original English

“Exactly. Therein lies our salvation. Our search is narrowed down to standardized books which anyone may be supposed to possess.”

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Português

Watson propôs Bradshaw como uma possibilidade.

Original English

“Bradshaw!”

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Português

Holmes explicou que Bradshaw era problemático porque sua linguagem era muito simples e limitada para transmitir mensagens complexas. Ele também descartou um dicionário por razões semelhantes. Em seguida, perguntou a Watson que alternativas restavam.

Original English

“There are difficulties, Watson. The vocabulary of Bradshaw is nervous and terse, but limited. The selection of words would hardly lend itself to the sending of general messages. We will eliminate Bradshaw. The dictionary is, I fear, inadmissible for the same reason. What then is left?”

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Português

Holmes exclamou que era um almanaque.

Original English

“An almanac!”

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Português

Holmes elogiou a percepção de Watson e considerou o Almanaque de Whitaker. Ele observou que era comumente usado, tinha o número necessário de páginas, era em coluna dupla e se tornava mais prolixo no final. Ele pegou o volume e foi para a página 534, coluna dois, que discutia o comércio e os recursos da Índia Britânica. Ele leu as palavras: 'Mahratta', 'Government' e 'pig's-bristles', concluindo que seu esforço havia falhado.

Original English

“Excellent, Watson! I am very much mistaken if you have not touched the spot. An almanac! Let us consider the claims of Whitaker’s Almanac. It is in common use. It has the requisite number of pages. It is in double column. Though reserved in its earlier vocabulary, it becomes, if I remember right, quite garrulous towards the end.” He picked the volume from his desk. “Here is page 534, column two, a substantial block of print dealing, I perceive, with the trade and resources of British India. Jot down the words, Watson! Number thirteen is ‘Mahratta.’ Not, I fear, a very auspicious beginning. Number one hundred and twenty-seven is ‘Government’; which at least makes sense, though somewhat irrelevant to ourselves and Professor Moriarty. Now let us try again. What does the Mahratta government do? Alas! the next word is ‘pig’s-bristles.’ We are undone, my good Watson! It is finished!”

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Português

Holmes falou em tom de brincadeira, mas suas sobrancelhas contraídas mostravam decepção e irritação. Watson se sentiu impotente e infeliz, olhando para o fogo. Após um longo silêncio, Holmes exclamou de repente, correu até um armário e saiu com outro volume de capa amarela.

Original English

He had spoken in jesting vein, but the twitching of his bushy eyebrows bespoke his disappointment and irritation. I sat helpless and unhappy, staring into the fire. A long silence was broken by a sudden exclamation from Holmes, who dashed at a cupboard, from which he emerged with a second yellow-covered volume in his hand.

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Português

Holmes explicou que eram modernos demais; eles tinham o novo almanaque, mas Porlock provavelmente havia usado o antigo. Ele então verificou a página 534 no novo almanaque e encontrou as palavras 'There is danger—may—come—very—soon—one', seguidas do nome 'Douglas' e detalhes sobre um homem rico do campo em Birlstone House que pedia confiança. Holmes estava animado e pediu a Watson que anotasse.

Original English

“We pay the price, Watson, for being too up-to-date!” he cried. “We are before our time, and suffer the usual penalties. Being the seventh of January, we have very properly laid in the new almanac. It is more than likely that Porlock took his message from the old one. No doubt he would have told us so had his letter of explanation been written. Now let us see what page 534 has in store for us. Number thirteen is ‘There,’ which is much more promising. Number one hundred and twenty-seven is ‘is’—‘There is’ ”—Holmes’s eyes were gleaming with excitement, and his thin, nervous fingers twitched as he counted the words—“ ‘danger.’ Ha! Ha! Capital! Put that down, Watson. ‘There is danger—may—come—very—soon—one.’ Then we have the name ‘Douglas’—‘rich—country—now—at—Birlstone—House—Birlstone—confidence—is—pressing.’ There, Watson! What do you think of pure reason and its fruit? If the greengrocer had such a thing as a laurel wreath, I should send Billy round for it.”

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Português

Watson estava olhando para a estranha mensagem que havia escrito em uma folha de papel almaço em seu colo enquanto Holmes a decifrava.

Original English

I was staring at the strange message which I had scrawled, as he deciphered it, upon a sheet of foolscap on my knee.

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Português

O narrador comentou que a maneira como a pessoa se expressava era estranha e desorganizada.

Original English

“What a queer, scrambling way of expressing his meaning!” said I.

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Português

Holmes discordou, afirmando que o escritor havia se saído notavelmente bem. Ele explicou que, ao selecionar palavras de uma única coluna, não se pode esperar perfeição; o destinatário deve usar sua inteligência. A mensagem era clara: algum mal era pretendido contra um rico cavalheiro do campo chamado Douglas, e era urgente. O escritor havia feito uma análise profissional.

Original English

“On the contrary, he has done quite remarkably well,” said Holmes. “When you search a single column for words with which to express your meaning, you can hardly expect to get everything you want. You are bound to leave something to the intelligence of your correspondent. The purport is perfectly clear. Some deviltry is intended against one Douglas, whoever he may be, residing as stated, a rich country gentleman. He is sure—‘confidence’ was as near as he could get to ‘confident’—that it is pressing. There is our result—and a very workmanlike little bit of analysis it was!”

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Português

Holmes experimentou a alegria impessoal de um artista quando seu trabalho era bem-sucedido e ficava desapontado quando ficava aquém. Ele ainda estava rindo baixinho quando Billy abriu a porta e o inspetor MacDonald da Scotland Yard entrou.

Original English

Holmes had the impersonal joy of the true artist in his better work, even as he mourned darkly when it fell below the high level to which he aspired. He was still chuckling over his success when Billy swung open the door and Inspector MacDonald of Scotland Yard was ushered into the room.

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Português

Isso foi no final dos anos 1880, quando Alec MacDonald ainda não era famoso nacionalmente. Ele era um detetive jovem, mas confiável, bem-sucedido em vários casos. Era alto e magro, sugerindo força física, e tinha uma cabeça grande e olhos profundos e brilhantes que revelavam inteligência aguçada por trás de suas sobrancelhas espessas. Era um homem silencioso e preciso, de natureza severa e forte sotaque de Aberdeen.

Original English

Those were the early days at the end of the ’80’s, when Alec MacDonald was far from having attained the national fame which he has now achieved. He was a young but trusted member of the detective force, who had distinguished himself in several cases which had been entrusted to him. His tall, bony figure gave promise of exceptional physical strength, while his great cranium and deep-set, lustrous eyes spoke no less clearly of the keen intelligence which twinkled out from behind his bushy eyebrows. He was a silent, precise man with a dour nature and a hard Aberdonian accent.

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Português

Holmes havia ajudado MacDonald a ter sucesso duas vezes antes, sendo sua única recompensa o prazer intelectual do problema. Consequentemente, o escocês sentia profunda afeição e respeito por Holmes e o consultava abertamente em toda dificuldade. A mediocridade não pode superar a si mesma, mas o talento reconhece o gênio; MacDonald tinha talento suficiente para não ver vergonha em buscar ajuda de alguém que se destacava sozinho na Europa em dons e experiência. Holmes não era dado à amizade, mas tolerava o grande escocês e sorria com sua chegada.

Original English

Twice already in his career had Holmes helped him to attain success, his own sole reward being the intellectual joy of the problem. For this reason the affection and respect of the Scotchman for his amateur colleague were profound, and he showed them by the frankness with which he consulted Holmes in every difficulty. Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius, and MacDonald had talent enough for his profession to enable him to perceive that there was no humiliation in seeking the assistance of one who already stood alone in Europe, both in his gifts and in his experience. Holmes was not prone to friendship, but he was tolerant of the big Scotchman, and smiled at the sight of him.

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Português

O inspetor cumprimentou o Sr. Mac, observando que ele era um madrugador e desejou-lhe boa sorte. Ele admitiu que um começo tão cedo sugeria que algum problema estava se formando.

Original English

“You are an early bird, Mr. Mac,” said he. “I wish you luck with your worm. I fear this means that there is some mischief afoot.”

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Português

O inspetor respondeu com um sorriso cúmplice, dizendo que o Sr. Holmes deveria usar a palavra 'esperança' em vez de 'medo', pois isso seria mais preciso. Ele recusou uma bebida e afirmou que precisava prosseguir, porque as primeiras horas de um caso eram as mais importantes, como o Sr. Holmes bem sabia. Então ele hesitou.

Original English

“If you said ‘hope’ instead of ‘fear,’ it would be nearer the truth, I’m thinking, Mr. Holmes,” the inspector answered, with a knowing grin. “Well, maybe a wee nip would keep out the raw morning chill. No, I won’t smoke, I thank you. I’ll have to be pushing on my way; for the early hours of a case are the precious ones, as no man knows better than your own self. But—but—”

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Português

O inspetor parou abruptamente e fitou com total espanto um papel sobre a mesa. Era a folha na qual eu tinha rabiscado a mensagem enigmática.

Original English

The inspector had stopped suddenly, and was staring with a look of absolute amazement at a paper upon the table. It was the sheet upon which I had scrawled the enigmatic message.

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Português

Ele gaguejou, 'Douglas! Birlstone!', e perguntou ao Sr. Holmes onde ele tinha obtido aqueles nomes, chamando aquilo de feitiçaria e expressando admiração.

Original English

“Douglas!” he stammered. “Birlstone! What’s this, Mr. Holmes? Man, it’s witchcraft! Where in the name of all that is wonderful did you get those names?”

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Português

Holmes explicou que era uma cifra que ele e o Dr. Watson haviam resolvido anteriormente. Então perguntou por que aqueles nomes estavam causando problemas.

Original English

“It is a cipher that Dr. Watson and I have had occasion to solve. But why—what’s amiss with the names?”

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Português

O inspetor olhou para eles, atordoado. Ele relatou que o Sr. Douglas, de Birlstone Manor, havia sido horrivelmente assassinado na noite anterior.

Original English

The inspector looked from one to the other of us in dazed astonishment. “Just this,” said he, “that Mr. Douglas of Birlstone Manor House was horribly murdered last night!”

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II — Sherlock Holmes Discourses

Português

Era o tipo de momento dramático em que Holmes prosperava. Ele não ficou chocado nem animado; a longa exposição a eventos extremos o tornara indiferente. Suas emoções estavam amortecidas, mas sua mente era aguçada. Ele não demonstrou medo, apenas o interesse calmo de um cientista observando um processo de cristalização.

Original English

It was one of those dramatic moments for which my friend existed. It would be an overstatement to say that he was shocked or even excited by the amazing announcement. Without having a tinge of cruelty in his singular composition, he was undoubtedly callous from long over-stimulation. Yet, if his emotions were dulled, his intellectual perceptions were exceedingly active. There was no trace then of the horror which I had myself felt at this curt declaration; but his face showed rather the quiet and interested composure of the chemist who sees the crystals falling into position from his oversaturated solution.

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Português

Ele comentou que era notável.

Original English

“Remarkable!” said he. “Remarkable!”

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Português

Perguntaram-lhe se ele não estava surpreso.

Original English

“You don’t seem surprised.”

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Português

Ele respondeu que estava interessado, mas não surpreso. Ele havia recebido um aviso anônimo sobre um perigo para uma certa pessoa e, dentro de uma hora, soube que o perigo se concretizara e a pessoa morrera. Então, interesse sim, mas surpresa não.

Original English

“Interested, Mr. Mac, but hardly surprised. Why should I be surprised? I receive an anonymous communication from a quarter which I know to be important, warning me that danger threatens a certain person. Within an hour I learn that this danger has actually materialized and that the person is dead. I am interested; but, as you observe, I am not surprised.”

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Português

Ele contou rapidamente ao inspetor os detalhes da carta e do código. MacDonald apoiou o queixo nas mãos, com as grossas sobrancelhas sardentas franzidas.

Original English

In a few short sentences he explained to the inspector the facts about the letter and the cipher. MacDonald sat with his chin on his hands and his great sandy eyebrows bunched into a yellow tangle.

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Português

Ele mencionou que planejava ir a Birlstone naquela manhã e pretendia convidar o inspetor e seu amigo para acompanhá-lo. No entanto, com base no que o inspetor dissera, achou que poderiam realizar mais ficando em Londres.

Original English

“I was going down to Birlstone this morning,” said he. “I had come to ask you if you cared to come with me—you and your friend here. But from what you say we might perhaps be doing better work in London.”

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Português

Holmes discordou, sugerindo que não era o melhor curso de ação.

Original English

“I rather think not,” said Holmes.

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Português

O inspetor exclamou que logo os jornais estariam cheios do mistério de Birlstone, mas questionou que mistério restaria se alguém em Londres tivesse previsto o crime antes de acontecer. Ele argumentou que, se pudessem encontrar aquele homem, o resto do caso seria resolvido.

Original English

“Hang it all, Mr. Holmes!” cried the inspector. “The papers will be full of the Birlstone mystery in a day or two; but where’s the mystery if there is a man in London who prophesied the crime before ever it occurred? We have only to lay our hands on that man, and the rest will follow.”

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Português

Holmes concordou, mas perguntou como o inspetor pretendia capturar o homem conhecido como Porlock.

Original English

“No doubt, Mr. Mac. But how do you propose to lay your hands on the so-called Porlock?”

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Português

MacDonald examinou a carta que Holmes lhe dera. Observou que ela fora enviada de Camberwell, o que oferecia pouca ajuda. O nome era claramente falso, fornecendo poucas informações. Ele perguntou se Holmes realmente havia enviado dinheiro para essa pessoa.

Original English

MacDonald turned over the letter which Holmes had handed him. “Posted in Camberwell—that doesn’t help us much. Name, you say, is assumed. Not much to go on, certainly. Didn’t you say that you have sent him money?”

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Português

Holmes respondeu que havia enviado em duas ocasiões.

Original English

“Twice.”

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Português

MacDonald perguntou sobre o método de pagamento.

Original English

“And how?”

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Português

Holmes explicou que havia enviado notas bancárias para a agência dos correios de Camberwell.

Original English

“In notes to Camberwell post-office.”

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Português

MacDonald então perguntou se Holmes já havia se dado ao trabalho de descobrir quem recolhia o dinheiro.

Original English

“Did you ever trouble to see who called for them?”

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Português

Holmes simplesmente respondeu que não.

Original English

“No.”

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Português

O inspetor, parecendo surpreso e um tanto chocado, perguntou o motivo.

Original English

The inspector looked surprised and a little shocked. “Why not?”

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Português

Holmes explicou que sempre cumpria sua palavra; ele havia prometido ao correspondente desde a primeira carta não tentar rastreá-lo.

Original English

“Because I always keep faith. I had promised when he first wrote that I would not try to trace him.”

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Português

O inspetor perguntou se Holmes acreditava que alguém estava apoiando o correspondente.

Original English

“You think there is someone behind him?”

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Português

Holmes afirmou que sabia que havia.

Original English

“I know there is.”

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Português

Ele perguntou se era o professor que Holmes havia mencionado.

Original English

“This professor that I’ve heard you mention?”

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Português

Holmes afirmou que isso estava correto.

Original English

“Exactly!”

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Português

O inspetor MacDonald sorriu e disse a Holmes que a C.I.D. achava que ele tinha uma obsessão por aquele professor. MacDonald mencionou que havia feito suas próprias investigações e considerava o professor uma pessoa muito respeitável, culta e talentosa.

Original English

Inspector MacDonald smiled, and his eyelid quivered as he glanced towards me. “I won’t conceal from you, Mr. Holmes, that we think in the C.I.D. that you have a wee bit of a bee in your bonnet over this professor. I made some inquiries myself about the matter. He seems to be a very respectable, learned, and talented sort of man.”

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Português

Holmes expressou satisfação por MacDonald ter pelo menos reconhecido o talento do professor.

Original English

“I’m glad you’ve got so far as to recognize the talent.”

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Português

MacDonald continuou, dizendo que após ouvir a opinião de Holmes, ele fez questão de conhecer o professor. Eles conversaram sobre eclipses; o professor usou uma lanterna refletora e um globo para explicar claramente. Ele emprestou um livro a MacDonald, mas MacDonald o achou bastante difícil, apesar de sua boa educação em Aberdeen. MacDonald descreveu o professor como tendo rosto magro, cabelos grisalhos e um jeito solene de falar, sugerindo que ele teria sido um excelente ministro. Ao se despedirem, o professor colocou a mão no ombro de MacDonald, o que pareceu uma bênção paterna antes de enfrentar o mundo cruel.

Original English

“Man, you can’t but recognize it! After I heard your view I made it my business to see him. I had a chat with him on eclipses. How the talk got that way I canna think; but he had out a reflector lantern and a globe, and made it all clear in a minute. He lent me a book; but I don’t mind saying that it was a bit above my head, though I had a good Aberdeen upbringing. He’d have made a grand meenister with his thin face and gray hair and solemn-like way of talking. When he put his hand on my shoulder as we were parting, it was like a father’s blessing before you go out into the cold, cruel world.”

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Português

Holmes riu com satisfação e esfregou as mãos. Ele exclamou que estava excelente, e então perguntou a MacDonald se aquela reunião agradável e emocionante havia ocorrido no escritório do professor.

Original English

Holmes chuckled and rubbed his hands. “Great!” he said. “Great! Tell me, Friend MacDonald, this pleasing and touching interview was, I suppose, in the professor’s study?”

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Português

MacDonald confirmou que estava correto.

Original English

“That’s so.”

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Português

Holmes perguntou se a sala não era bonita.

Original English

“A fine room, is it not?”

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Português

MacDonald respondeu que era, de fato, muito bonita e elegante.

Original English

“Very fine—very handsome indeed, Mr. Holmes.”

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Português

Holmes então perguntou se MacDonald havia se sentado em frente à escrivaninha do professor.

Original English

“You sat in front of his writing desk?”

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Português

Holmes confirmou que era exatamente como foi dito.

Original English

“Just so.”

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Português

Holmes perguntou se o sol havia estado nos olhos do ouvinte enquanto o rosto da outra pessoa permanecia na sombra.

Original English

“Sun in your eyes and his face in the shadow?”

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Português

O ouvinte respondeu que era noite, mas lembrou que a lâmpada estava direcionada para o seu rosto.

Original English

“Well, it was evening; but I mind that the lamp was turned on my face.”

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Português

Holmes observou que seria o caso, e então perguntou se o ouvinte havia notado um quadro pendurado acima da cabeça do professor.

Original English

“It would be. Did you happen to observe a picture over the professor’s head?”

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Português

O ouvinte respondeu que raramente perdia detalhes, possivelmente tendo aprendido isso com Holmes. Ele confirmou que tinha visto o quadro, descrevendo-o como uma jovem com a cabeça apoiada nas mãos, espiando de lado.

Original English

“I don’t miss much, Mr. Holmes. Maybe I learned that from you. Yes, I saw the picture—a young woman with her head on her hands, peeping at you sideways.”

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Português

Holmes afirmou que a pintura era de Jean Baptiste Greuze.

Original English

“That painting was by Jean Baptiste Greuze.”

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Português

O inspetor tentou parecer interessado.

Original English

The inspector endeavoured to look interested.

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Português

Holmes continuou, explicando que Jean Baptiste Greuze foi um artista francês que floresceu entre 1750 e 1800, e que a crítica moderna endossou a alta opinião formada por seus contemporâneos.

Original English

“Jean Baptiste Greuze,” Holmes continued, joining his finger tips and leaning well back in his chair, “was a French artist who flourished between the years 1750 and 1800. I allude, of course to his working career. Modern criticism has more than endorsed the high opinion formed of him by his contemporaries.”

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Português

Os olhos do inspetor se distanciaram, e ele começou a sugerir que talvez devessem prosseguir.

Original English

The inspector’s eyes grew abstracted. “Hadn’t we better—” he said.

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Português

Holmes interrompeu, dizendo que já estavam fazendo isso, e que tudo o que ele estava dizendo tinha uma relação direta e vital com o Mistério de Birlstone, sendo de fato o seu próprio centro.

Original English

“We are doing so,” Holmes interrupted. “All that I am saying has a very direct and vital bearing upon what you have called the Birlstone Mystery. In fact, it may in a sense be called the very centre of it.”

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Português

MacDonald sorriu fracamente e olhou para mim em busca de apoio. Disse a Holmes que suas ideias avançavam rápido demais para ele, pulando etapas, de modo que não conseguia acompanhar. Perguntou que possível conexão poderia haver entre o pintor morto e o caso Birlstone.

Original English

MacDonald smiled feebly, and looked appealingly to me. “Your thoughts move a bit too quick for me, Mr. Holmes. You leave out a link or two, and I can’t get over the gap. What in the whole wide world can be the connection between this dead painting man and the affair at Birlstone?”

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Português

Holmes observou que todo conhecimento é útil para um detetive. Ele notou que até mesmo um pequeno fato, como uma pintura de Greuze chamada La Jeune Fille à l'Agneau vendida por mais de quarenta mil libras em um leilão em 1865, poderia desencadear uma linha de pensamento.

Original English

“All knowledge comes useful to the detective,” remarked Holmes. “Even the trivial fact that in the year 1865 a picture by Greuze entitled La Jeune Fille à l’Agneau fetched one million two hundred thousand francs—more than forty thousand pounds—at the Portalis sale may start a train of reflection in your mind.”

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Português

Era óbvio que o fato realmente o fizera pensar. O inspetor parecia genuinamente interessado.

Original English

It was clear that it did. The inspector looked honestly interested.

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Português

Holmes continuou lembrando-os de que o salário do professor podia ser encontrado em livros de referência confiáveis; era de setecentas libras por ano.

Original English

“I may remind you,” Holmes continued, “that the professor’s salary can be ascertained in several trustworthy books of reference. It is seven hundred a year.”

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Português

O inspetor começou a perguntar como o professor podia pagar por tal pintura.

Original English

“Then how could he buy—”

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Português

Holmes concordou e questionou como isso poderia ser possível.

Original English

“Quite so! How could he?”

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Português

O inspetor achou notável e incentivou Holmes a continuar, dizendo que estava gostando muito da discussão.

Original English

“Ay, that’s remarkable,” said the inspector thoughtfully. “Talk away, Mr. Holmes. I’m just loving it. It’s fine!”

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Português

Holmes sorriu, satisfeito com a admiração genuína, que ele valorizava como um verdadeiro artista. Ele então direcionou a conversa para Birlstone.

Original English

Holmes smiled. He was always warmed by genuine admiration—the characteristic of the real artist. “What about Birlstone?” he asked.

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Português

O inspetor verificou seu relógio, observando que tinham tempo suficiente. Ele lembrou Holmes de que este já havia afirmado nunca ter encontrado o Professor Moriarty.

Original English

“We’ve time yet,” said the inspector, glancing at his watch. “I’ve a cab at the door, and it won’t take us twenty minutes to Victoria. But about this picture: I thought you told me once, Mr. Holmes, that you had never met Professor Moriarty.”

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Português

Holmes confirmou que nunca havia encontrado Moriarty.

Original English

“No, I never have.”

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Português

Ele queria saber como o interlocutor sabia sobre os quartos do homem.

Original English

“Then how do you know about his rooms?”

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Português

Ele explicou que havia visitado os quartos do homem três vezes. Em duas dessas ocasiões, esperou por ele com falsas desculpas e foi embora antes de ele chegar. A terceira visita, no entanto, ele não pôde descrever completamente a um detetive oficial. Durante essa última visita, ele examinou os papéis do homem e descobriu algo completamente inesperado.

Original English

“Ah, that’s another matter. I have been three times in his rooms, twice waiting for him under different pretexts and leaving before he came. Once—well, I can hardly tell about the once to an official detective. It was on the last occasion that I took the liberty of running over his papers—with the most unexpected results.”

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Português

Perguntaram-lhe se ele havia descoberto algo prejudicial.

Original English

“You found something compromising?”

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Português

Ele respondeu que não havia encontrado nada, o que o surpreendeu. Em seguida, apontou que o homem era claramente muito rico, como mostrava o quadro. Ele era solteiro, seu irmão mais novo era chefe de estação ganhando um salário modesto, mas o próprio homem possuía uma valiosa pintura de Greuze e seu cargo oficial pagava setecentos por ano. A questão era como ele havia adquirido tanta riqueza.

Original English

“Absolutely nothing. That was what amazed me. However, you have now seen the point of the picture. It shows him to be a very wealthy man. How did he acquire wealth? He is unmarried. His younger brother is a station master in the west of England. His chair is worth seven hundred a year. And he owns a Greuze.”

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Português

A outra pessoa o incentivou a continuar.

Original English

“Well?”

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Português

Holmes afirmou que a inferência era óbvia.

Original English

“Surely the inference is plain.”

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Português

Watson perguntou se Holmes queria dizer que o homem tinha uma grande renda e a ganhava ilegalmente.

Original English

“You mean that he has a great income and that he must earn it in an illegal fashion?”

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Português

Holmes concordou e explicou que tinha muitas pequenas pistas apontando para o centro onde uma pessoa perigosa se escondia. Ele mencionou a pintura de Greuze para ajudar Watson a entender seu raciocínio.

Original English

“Exactly. Of course I have other reasons for thinking so—dozens of exiguous threads which lead vaguely up towards the centre of the web where the poisonous, motionless creature is lurking. I only mention the Greuze because it brings the matter within the range of your own observation.”

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Português

Watson admitiu que as ideias de Holmes eram fascinantes e pediu esclarecimentos. Ele se perguntou se o dinheiro vinha de falsificação, moeda falsa ou roubo.

Original English

“Well, Mr. Holmes, I admit that what you say is interesting: it’s more than interesting—it’s just wonderful. But let us have it a little clearer if you can. Is it forgery, coining, burglary—where does the money come from?”

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Português

Holmes perguntou se Watson já tinha lido sobre Jonathan Wild.

Original English

“Have you ever read of Jonathan Wild?”

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Português

Ele comentou que o nome parecia familiar, talvez de um romance. Ele expressou pouca consideração por detetives fictícios, pois eles realizam coisas sem revelar seus métodos; isso, ele achava, era meramente inspiração, não um verdadeiro trabalho.

Original English

“Well, the name has a familiar sound. Someone in a novel, was he not? I don’t take much stock of detectives in novels—chaps that do things and never let you see how they do them. That’s just inspiration: not business.”

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Português

Ele esclareceu que Jonathan Wild não era um detetive nem um personagem de romance; ele era um criminoso mestre que viveu no século anterior, por volta de 1750.

Original English

“Jonathan Wild wasn’t a detective, and he wasn’t in a novel. He was a master criminal, and he lived last century—1750 or thereabouts.”

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Português

O outro homem respondeu que se Jonathan Wild não lhe fosse útil, então ele não estava interessado, pois se considerava um homem prático.

Original English

“Then he’s no use to me. I’m a practical man.”

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Português

Holmes aconselhou que a coisa mais prática que o homem poderia fazer seria se isolar por três meses, lendo a história do crime por doze horas por dia. Ele explicou que tudo ocorre em ciclos, até mesmo o Professor Moriarty, e que Jonathan Wild havia sido a força oculta por trás dos criminosos de Londres, vendendo seu cérebro e organização por uma comissão de quinze por cento. A velha roda gira e o mesmo raio aparece; tudo já foi feito antes e será novamente. Ele então se ofereceu para contar ao homem algumas coisas sobre Moriarty que poderiam interessá-lo.

Original English

“Mr. Mac, the most practical thing that you ever did in your life would be to shut yourself up for three months and read twelve hours a day at the annals of crime. Everything comes in circles—even Professor Moriarty. Jonathan Wild was the hidden force of the London criminals, to whom he sold his brains and his organization on a fifteen percent commission. The old wheel turns, and the same spoke comes up. It’s all been done before, and will be again. I’ll tell you one or two things about Moriarty which may interest you.”

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Português

O homem garantiu a Holmes que ele certamente o interessaria.

Original English

“You’ll interest me, right enough.”

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Português

Holmes disse que sabia quem era o primeiro elo na corrente criminosa de Moriarty. Essa corrente tinha Moriarty em uma ponta e muitos homens arruinados, batedores de carteira, chantagistas e trapaceiros de cartas na outra, com todos os tipos de crime no meio. Ele explicou que o chefe de gabinete de Moriarty era o Coronel Sebastian Moran, que era tão distante e inacessível à lei quanto o próprio Moriarty. Então Holmes perguntou o que o ouvinte achava que Moriarty lhe pagava.

Original English

“I happen to know who is the first link in his chain—a chain with this Napoleon-gone-wrong at one end, and a hundred broken fighting men, pickpockets, blackmailers, and card sharpers at the other, with every sort of crime in between. His chief of staff is Colonel Sebastian Moran, as aloof and guarded and inaccessible to the law as himself. What do you think he pays him?”

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Português

O ouvinte expressou o desejo de ouvir a resposta.

Original English

“I’d like to hear.”

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Português

Holmes revelou que o salário de Moran era de seis mil libras por ano, o que era mais do que o Primeiro-Ministro recebia. Ele observou que isso demonstrava a escala das operações de Moriarty. Ele também mencionou que havia recentemente examinado alguns dos cheques de Moriarty para contas domésticas, que foram emitidos em seis bancos diferentes. Ele perguntou se esse fato causava impressão.

Original English

“Six thousand a year. That’s paying for brains, you see—the American business principle. I learned that detail quite by chance. It’s more than the Prime Minister gets. That gives you an idea of Moriarty’s gains and of the scale on which he works. Another point: I made it my business to hunt down some of Moriarty’s checks lately—just common innocent checks that he pays his household bills with. They were drawn on six different banks. Does that make any impression on your mind?”

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Português

O ouvinte achou estranho e perguntou o que Holmes deduziu disso.

Original English

“Queer, certainly! But what do you gather from it?”

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Português

Holmes explicou que Moriarty queria manter sua riqueza em segredo, para que nenhuma pessoa soubesse quanto ele tinha. Ele acreditava que Moriarty tinha cerca de vinte contas bancárias, com a maior parte de sua fortuna provavelmente mantida em bancos estrangeiros, como o Deutsche Bank ou o Crédit Lyonnais. Ele sugeriu que estudar o Professor Moriarty seria um empreendimento valioso se alguém tivesse tempo.

Original English

“That he wanted no gossip about his wealth. No single man should know what he had. I have no doubt that he has twenty banking accounts; the bulk of his fortune abroad in the Deutsche Bank or the Crédit Lyonnais as likely as not. Sometime when you have a year or two to spare I commend to you the study of Professor Moriarty.”

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Português

Ao longo da conversa, o inspetor MacDonald ficou cada vez mais impressionado. Ele estava completamente absorto em seu interesse. Então, sua mente prática escocesa o trouxe de volta de repente à questão em questão.

Original English

Inspector MacDonald had grown steadily more impressed as the conversation proceeded. He had lost himself in his interest. Now his practical Scotch intelligence brought him back with a snap to the matter in hand.

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Português

MacDonald disse que a história de Holmes poderia esperar. Ele observou que Holmes os havia desviado com contos interessantes. O ponto importante era a sugestão de Holmes de uma conexão entre o professor e o crime, derivada do aviso de Porlock. Ele perguntou se poderiam ir mais longe para fins práticos.

Original English

“He can keep, anyhow,” said he. “You’ve got us sidetracked with your interesting anecdotes, Mr. Holmes. What really counts is your remark that there is some connection between the professor and the crime. That you get from the warning received through the man Porlock. Can we for our present practical needs get any further than that?”

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Português

Holmes disse que poderiam ter uma ideia dos motivos do crime. Ele entendeu, pelos comentários de MacDonald, que o assassinato era inexplicável, ou pelo menos não explicado. Supondo que a origem do crime fosse como suspeitavam, poderia haver dois motivos diferentes. Primeiro, Holmes explicou que Moriarty governava seu povo com mão de ferro, com disciplina tremenda. Em seu código, a única punição era a morte. Poderiam supor que Douglas, cujo destino era conhecido por um dos subordinados de Moriarty, de alguma forma traíra o chefe. Sua punição veio e seria conhecida por todos, para incutir medo.

Original English

“We may form some conception as to the motives of the crime. It is, as I gather from your original remarks, an inexplicable, or at least an unexplained, murder. Now, presuming that the source of the crime is as we suspect it to be, there might be two different motives. In the first place, I may tell you that Moriarty rules with a rod of iron over his people. His discipline is tremendous. There is only one punishment in his code. It is death. Now we might suppose that this murdered man—this Douglas whose approaching fate was known by one of the arch-criminal’s subordinates—had in some way betrayed the chief. His punishment followed, and would be known to all—if only to put the fear of death into them.”

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Português

MacDonald reconheceu que era uma sugestão.

Original English

“Well, that is one suggestion, Mr. Holmes.”

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Português

Holmes propôs outra possibilidade: que Moriarty tivesse organizado o assassinato como parte de suas atividades criminosas habituais. Ele perguntou se algum roubo havia ocorrido.

Original English

“The other is that it has been engineered by Moriarty in the ordinary course of business. Was there any robbery?”

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Português

Holmes disse que não tinha ouvido.

Original English

“I have not heard.”

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Português

Holmes raciocinou que, se fosse o caso, isso apoiaria a segunda hipótese em vez da primeira. Ele considerou que Moriarty poderia ter sido contratado para organizar o crime por uma parte dos lucros, ou poderia ter recebido um valor fixo para gerenciá-lo. Ambas as possibilidades existiam. Independentemente disso, ou se houvesse um terceiro cenário, a solução estava em Birlstone. Holmes conhecia muito bem seu adversário para acreditar que ele havia deixado pistas naquele local.

Original English

“If so, it would, of course, be against the first hypothesis and in favour of the second. Moriarty may have been engaged to engineer it on a promise of part spoils, or he may have been paid so much down to manage it. Either is possible. But whichever it may be, or if it is some third combination, it is down at Birlstone that we must seek the solution. I know our man too well to suppose that he has left anything up here which may lead us to him.”

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Português

MacDonald exclamou que eles deviam ir para Birlstone. Ele percebeu que era mais tarde do que pensava e deu a Holmes e Watson apenas cinco minutos para se preparar.

Original English

“Then to Birlstone we must go!” cried MacDonald, jumping from his chair. “My word! it’s later than I thought. I can give you, gentlemen, five minutes for preparation, and that is all.”

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Português

Holmes concordou que cinco minutos era suficiente para ambos. Ele trocou rapidamente seu roupão pelo casaco e pediu a MacDonald que lhe contasse tudo sobre o caso durante a viagem.

Original English

“And ample for us both,” said Holmes, as he sprang up and hastened to change from his dressing gown to his coat. “While we are on our way, Mr. Mac, I will ask you to be good enough to tell me all about it.”

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Português

A informação que MacDonald forneceu revelou-se decepcionantemente escassa, mas foi o suficiente para convencê-los de que o caso merecia toda a atenção de Holmes. Holmes animou-se e esfregou as mãos finas enquanto ouvia os poucos, porém notáveis detalhes. Após muitas semanas estéreis, havia finalmente um desafio digno para suas habilidades extraordinárias, que, como qualquer dom especial, tornam-se tediosas quando não usadas. Sua mente afiada havia se tornado obtusa e enferrujada pela inatividade.

Original English

“All about it” proved to be disappointingly little, and yet there was enough to assure us that the case before us might well be worthy of the expert’s closest attention. He brightened and rubbed his thin hands together as he listened to the meager but remarkable details. A long series of sterile weeks lay behind us, and here at last there was a fitting object for those remarkable powers which, like all special gifts, become irksome to their owner when they are not in use. That razor brain blunted and rusted with inaction.

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Português

Os olhos de Sherlock Holmes brilharam e seu rosto demonstrou antecipação ansiosa ao saber do novo caso. No táxi, ele se inclinou para frente e ouviu atentamente enquanto o inspetor MacDonald descrevia o problema em Sussex. MacDonald explicou que havia recebido uma breve nota no início da manhã pelo trem do leite de seu amigo White Mason, o oficial local. Por causa de sua amizade, MacDonald foi alertado muito antes do que a Scotland Yard normalmente ouve da polícia provincial. O caso era uma pista fria, como acontece frequentemente quando o especialista metropolitano é chamado.

Original English

Sherlock Holmes’s eyes glistened, his pale cheeks took a warmer hue, and his whole eager face shone with an inward light when the call for work reached him. Leaning forward in the cab, he listened intently to MacDonald’s short sketch of the problem which awaited us in Sussex. The inspector was himself dependent, as he explained to us, upon a scribbled account forwarded to him by the milk train in the early hours of the morning. White Mason, the local officer, was a personal friend, and hence MacDonald had been notified much more promptly than is usual at Scotland Yard when provincials need their assistance. It is a very cold scent upon which the Metropolitan expert is generally asked to run.

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Português

A carta que MacDonald leu em voz alta afirmava que a solicitação oficial por seus serviços estava em um envelope separado, enquanto esta nota era para sua informação particular. Mason pediu que MacDonald telegrafasse o trem matinal que poderia pegar para Birlstone, e ele o encontraria ou enviaria alguém se estivesse ocupado. Ele descreveu o caso como extremamente desafiador, instando MacDonald a não atrasar. Ele solicitou particularmente que, se possível, MacDonald trouxesse o Sr. Holmes, pois o caso o interessaria. Mason observou que todo o caso parecia encenado para efeito dramático, não fosse pelo homem morto no centro. Ele reiterou que era um caso notável.

Original English

“Dear Inspector Macdonald,” said the letter which he read to us—“Official requisition for your services is in separate envelope. This is for your private eye. Wire me what train in the morning you can get for Birlstone, and I will meet it—or have it met if I am too occupied. This case is a snorter. Don’t waste a moment in getting started. If you can bring Mr. Holmes, please do so; for he will find something after his own heart. We would think the whole thing had been fixed up for theatrical effect if there wasn’t a dead man in the middle of it. My word! it is a snorter.”

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Português

Holmes comentou que White Mason parecia ser bastante inteligente.

Original English

“Your friend seems to be no fool,” remarked Holmes.

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Português

MacDonald concordou, dizendo que, em sua opinião, White Mason era um oficial muito capaz e ativo.

Original English

“No, sir, White Mason is a very live man, if I am any judge.”

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Português

Holmes então perguntou a MacDonald se ele tinha mais alguma informação para compartilhar.

Original English

“Well, have you anything more?”

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Português

Holmes respondeu que a única coisa que sabia era que a pessoa forneceria todos os detalhes quando se encontrassem.

Original English

“Only that he will give us every detail when we meet.”

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Português

O questionador perguntou como Holmes havia sabido do Sr. Douglas e do fato de que ele havia sido brutalmente assassinado.

Original English

“Then how did you get at Mr. Douglas and the fact that he had been horribly murdered?”

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Português

O orador explicou que a informação veio do relatório oficial. Ele dava o nome de John Douglas, afirmava que seus ferimentos na cabeça foram causados por um tiro de espingarda e observava que o alarme foi dado perto da meia-noite. O relatório também descrevia o caso como indiscutivelmente homicídio, sem nenhuma prisão ainda, e mencionava algumas características perplexas e extraordinárias. Essa era toda a informação que eles tinham.

Original English

“That was in the enclosed official report. It didn’t say ‘horrible’: that’s not a recognized official term. It gave the name John Douglas. It mentioned that his injuries had been in the head, from the discharge of a shotgun. It also mentioned the hour of the alarm, which was close on to midnight last night. It added that the case was undoubtedly one of murder, but that no arrest had been made, and that the case was one which presented some very perplexing and extraordinary features. That’s absolutely all we have at present, Mr. Holmes.”

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Português

Holmes concordou em parar por aí. Ele observou que formar teorias prematuras com base em dados insuficientes era a ruína de sua profissão. Ele via apenas duas certezas: uma grande mente em Londres e um homem morto em Sussex. A tarefa deles era traçar o elo entre eles.

Original English

“Then, with your permission, we will leave it at that, Mr. Mac. The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession. I can see only two things for certain at present—a great brain in London, and a dead man in Sussex. It’s the chain between that we are going to trace.”

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III — The Tragedy of Birlstone

Português

O narrador pediu permissão para deixar de lado seu próprio papel por um momento e descrever eventos que haviam ocorrido antes de sua chegada, usando conhecimento adquirido posteriormente. Somente assim o leitor poderia apreciar as pessoas envolvidas e o cenário estranho que moldou seu destino.

Original English

Now for a moment I will ask leave to remove my own insignificant personality and to describe events which occurred before we arrived upon the scene by the light of knowledge which came to us afterwards. Only in this way can I make the reader appreciate the people concerned and the strange setting in which their fate was cast.

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Português

A vila de Birlstone é um pequeno e antigo povoado de casas de enxaimel na fronteira norte de Sussex. Durante séculos permaneceu inalterada, mas nos últimos anos sua beleza atraiu moradores ricos que construíram vilas nas florestas ao redor. Acredita-se que essas florestas sejam o limite da grande floresta de Weald, que se afina até os contrafortes de giz do norte. Pequenas lojas foram abertas para atender à crescente população, então Birlstone parece prestes a se tornar uma cidade moderna. É um centro para a região, já que a cidade importante mais próxima, Tunbridge Wells, fica a cerca de dez ou doze milhas a leste, além da fronteira de Kent.

Original English

The village of Birlstone is a small and very ancient cluster of half-timbered cottages on the northern border of the county of Sussex. For centuries it had remained unchanged; but within the last few years its picturesque appearance and situation have attracted a number of well-to-do residents, whose villas peep out from the woods around. These woods are locally supposed to be the extreme fringe of the great Weald forest, which thins away until it reaches the northern chalk downs. A number of small shops have come into being to meet the wants of the increased population; so there seems some prospect that Birlstone may soon grow from an ancient village into a modern town. It is the centre for a considerable area of country, since Tunbridge Wells, the nearest place of importance, is ten or twelve miles to the eastward, over the borders of Kent.

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Português

A cerca de meio quilômetro da vila, em um parque antigo famoso por suas enormes faias, ergue-se a antiga Casa Senhorial de Birlstone. Parte deste velho edifício remonta à época da primeira cruzada, quando Hugo de Capus construiu um forte no centro da propriedade, concedida a ele pelo Rei Vermelho. Esse forte foi destruído por um incêndio em 1543, e algumas de suas pedras angulares enegrecidas pela fumaça foram usadas quando uma casa de campo de tijolos foi construída sobre as ruínas do castelo feudal na era jacobina.

Original English

About half a mile from the town, standing in an old park famous for its huge beech trees, is the ancient Manor House of Birlstone. Part of this venerable building dates back to the time of the first crusade, when Hugo de Capus built a fortalice in the centre of the estate, which had been granted to him by the Red King. This was destroyed by fire in 1543, and some of its smoke-blackened corner stones were used when, in Jacobean times, a brick country house rose upon the ruins of the feudal castle.

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Português

A Casa Senhorial, com seus muitos frontões e pequenas janelas de vidros em forma de losango, ainda estava muito como o construtor a deixou no início do século XVII. Dos dois fossos que protegiam seu predecessor mais guerreiro, o externo havia secado e agora servia como horta. O fosso interno ainda estava lá, com quarenta pés de largura, mas apenas alguns pés de profundidade, circundando toda a casa. Um pequeno riacho o alimentava e continuava além, de modo que a água, embora turva, nunca era estagnada ou insalubre. As janelas do andar térreo ficavam a menos de um pé da superfície da água.

Original English

The Manor House, with its many gables and its small diamond-paned windows, was still much as the builder had left it in the early seventeenth century. Of the double moats which had guarded its more warlike predecessor, the outer had been allowed to dry up, and served the humble function of a kitchen garden. The inner one was still there, and lay forty feet in breadth, though now only a few feet in depth, round the whole house. A small stream fed it and continued beyond it, so that the sheet of water, though turbid, was never ditch-like or unhealthy. The ground floor windows were within a foot of the surface of the water.

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Português

A única entrada para a casa era por uma ponte levadiça, cujas correntes e molinete estavam há muito tempo enferrujados e quebrados. Os últimos inquilinos, no entanto, a haviam reparado com energia característica, e a ponte levadiça não só podia ser levantada como era de fato erguida todas as noites e abaixada todas as manhãs. Ao reviver esse antigo costume feudal, a Mansão tornou-se uma ilha durante a noite — um fato que influenciou diretamente o mistério que logo envolveria toda a Inglaterra.

Original English

The only approach to the house was over a drawbridge, the chains and windlass of which had long been rusted and broken. The latest tenants of the Manor House had, however, with characteristic energy, set this right, and the drawbridge was not only capable of being raised, but actually was raised every evening and lowered every morning. By thus renewing the custom of the old feudal days the Manor House was converted into an island during the night—a fact which had a very direct bearing upon the mystery which was soon to engage the attention of all England.

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Português

A casa estava vazia há alguns anos e estava caindo em ruínas pitorescas quando os Douglas tomaram posse. A família consistia em apenas duas pessoas: John Douglas e sua esposa. Douglas era um homem notável, tanto em caráter quanto em aparência. Ele tinha cerca de cinquenta anos, com um rosto forte e marcado, bigode grisalho, olhos cinzentos excepcionalmente vivos e uma figura magra e vigorosa que não havia perdido a força e a atividade da juventude. Ele era alegre e amigável com todos, mas um tanto brusco em seus modos, dando a impressão de que havia vivido em círculos sociais muito mais baixos do que a sociedade do condado de Sussex.

Original English

The house had been untenanted for some years and was threatening to moulder into a picturesque decay when the Douglases took possession of it. This family consisted of only two individuals—John Douglas and his wife. Douglas was a remarkable man, both in character and in person. In age he may have been about fifty, with a strong-jawed, rugged face, a grizzling moustache, peculiarly keen gray eyes, and a wiry, vigorous figure which had lost nothing of the strength and activity of youth. He was cheery and genial to all, but somewhat offhand in his manners, giving the impression that he had seen life in social strata on some far lower horizon than the county society of Sussex.

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Português

Embora seus vizinhos mais instruídos inicialmente o vissem com certa curiosidade e reserva, John Douglas rapidamente ganhou popularidade entre os aldeões. Ele fazia contribuições generosas para causas locais e frequentava regularmente eventos sociais, como concertos de fumo, onde prontamente cantava uma canção com sua forte voz de tenor. Rumores sugeriam que ele havia acumulado sua riqueza nos campos de ouro da Califórnia, e tanto ele quanto sua esposa mencionavam frequentemente que haviam passado parte de suas vidas na América.

Original English

Yet, though looked at with some curiosity and reserve by his more cultivated neighbours, he soon acquired a great popularity among the villagers, subscribing handsomely to all local objects, and attending their smoking concerts and other functions, where, having a remarkably rich tenor voice, he was always ready to oblige with an excellent song. He appeared to have plenty of money, which was said to have been gained in the California gold fields, and it was clear from his own talk and that of his wife that he had spent a part of his life in America.

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Português

A reputação de John Douglas por generosidade e maneiras democráticas foi ainda mais fortalecida por sua atitude destemida diante do perigo. Embora fosse um cavaleiro medíocre, ele comparecia a todos os eventos de caça e sofria quedas perigosas em seu esforço para acompanhar os melhores. Quando a casa paroquial pegou fogo, ele se destacou ao reentrar no prédio em chamas para salvar propriedades, depois que o corpo de bombeiros local considerou a missão impossível. Em cinco anos, John Douglas, da Casa Solar, havia conquistado uma forte reputação em Birlstone.

Original English

The good impression which had been produced by his generosity and by his democratic manners was increased by a reputation gained for utter indifference to danger. Though a wretched rider, he turned out at every meet, and took the most amazing falls in his determination to hold his own with the best. When the vicarage caught fire he distinguished himself also by the fearlessness with which he reentered the building to save property, after the local fire brigade had given it up as impossible. Thus it came about that John Douglas of the Manor House had within five years won himself quite a reputation in Birlstone.

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Português

A Sra. Douglas era muito querida por aqueles que a conheciam, mas, como era uma estranha no condado sem nenhuma apresentação, poucas pessoas a visitavam, como era típico na sociedade inglesa. Isso não a incomodava muito, pois ela era naturalmente quieta e parecia inteiramente dedicada ao marido e às tarefas domésticas. Sabia-se que ela era uma inglesa que conhecera o Sr. Douglas em Londres quando ele era viúvo. Ela era uma bela mulher, alta, morena e esbelta, cerca de vinte anos mais nova que o marido, mas essa diferença de idade não parecia perturbar a felicidade conjugal.

Original English

His wife, too, was popular with those who had made her acquaintance; though, after the English fashion, the callers upon a stranger who settled in the county without introductions were few and far between. This mattered the less to her, as she was retiring by disposition, and very much absorbed, to all appearance, in her husband and her domestic duties. It was known that she was an English lady who had met Mr. Douglas in London, he being at that time a widower. She was a beautiful woman, tall, dark, and slender, some twenty years younger than her husband, a disparity which seemed in no wise to mar the contentment of their family life.

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Português

Os conhecidos mais próximos do casal observavam por vezes que sua confiança mútua não era absoluta. A Sra. Douglas ou optava por não discutir o passado do marido ou, como parecia mais plausível, não tinha pleno conhecimento dele. Alguns indivíduos atentos também notaram sinais de tensão nervosa na Sra. Douglas, especialmente quando o marido se atrasava em uma viagem. Nesta tranquila comunidade rural, onde qualquer fofoca era avidamente recebida, tal característica na senhora da Casa Senhorial não passou despercebida. Além disso, essas observações mais tarde assumiriam uma importância muito maior à luz dos eventos subsequentes.

Original English

It was remarked sometimes, however, by those who knew them best, that the confidence between the two did not appear to be complete, since the wife was either very reticent about her husband’s past life, or else, as seemed more likely, was imperfectly informed about it. It had also been noted and commented upon by a few observant people that there were signs sometimes of some nerve-strain upon the part of Mrs. Douglas, and that she would display acute uneasiness if her absent husband should ever be particularly late in his return. On a quiet countryside, where all gossip is welcome, this weakness of the lady of the Manor House did not pass without remark, and it bulked larger upon people’s memory when the events arose which gave it a very special significance.

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Português

Havia outra pessoa que vivia na casa apenas de vez em quando, mas seu envolvimento nos estranhos eventos que serão agora descritos o tornou famoso. Essa pessoa era Cecil James Barker, de Hales Lodge, em Hampstead.

Original English

There was yet another individual whose residence under that roof was, it is true, only an intermittent one, but whose presence at the time of the strange happenings which will now be narrated brought his name prominently before the public. This was Cecil James Barker, of Hales Lodge, Hampstead.

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Português

Cecil Barker era uma figura familiar na vila de Birlstone, um homem alto e desengonçado que frequentemente visitava a Casa Senhorial. Ele era o único amigo do Sr. Douglas de sua vida passada e, embora claramente inglês, conhecera Douglas intimamente na América. Barker parecia ser rico e era considerado solteiro.

Original English

Cecil Barker’s tall, loose-jointed figure was a familiar one in the main street of Birlstone village; for he was a frequent and welcome visitor at the Manor House. He was the more noticed as being the only friend of the past unknown life of Mr. Douglas who was ever seen in his new English surroundings. Barker was himself an undoubted Englishman; but by his remarks it was clear that he had first known Douglas in America and had there lived on intimate terms with him. He appeared to be a man of considerable wealth, and was reputed to be a bachelor.

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Português

Barker tinha cerca de quarenta e cinco anos, mais novo que Douglas, com uma constituição alta e forte e um rosto de pugilista. Ele não montava a cavalo nem atirava, mas passava os dias caminhando pela vila ou dirigindo com seu anfitrião ou, quando Douglas estava ausente, com sua anfitriã. O mordomo, Ames, o descreveu como descontraído, mas não alguém para se enfrentar. Barker era próximo tanto de Douglas quanto de sua esposa, embora essa amizade às vezes irritasse Douglas, como até mesmo os criados notaram. Ele era a terceira pessoa na casa quando a catástrofe ocorreu.

Original English

In age he was rather younger than Douglas—forty-five at the most—a tall, straight, broad-chested fellow with a clean-shaved, prizefighter face, thick, strong, black eyebrows, and a pair of masterful black eyes which might, even without the aid of his very capable hands, clear a way for him through a hostile crowd. He neither rode nor shot, but spent his days in wandering round the old village with his pipe in his mouth, or in driving with his host, or in his absence with his hostess, over the beautiful countryside. “An easygoing, freehanded gentleman,” said Ames, the butler. “But, my word! I had rather not be the man that crossed him!” He was cordial and intimate with Douglas, and he was no less friendly with his wife—a friendship which more than once seemed to cause some irritation to the husband, so that even the servants were able to perceive his annoyance. Such was the third person who was one of the family when the catastrophe occurred.

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Português

Entre os outros habitantes da antiga casa estavam o mordomo sério e capaz, Ames, e a alegre Sra. Allen, que ajudava a senhora da casa. Os outros seis empregados não tinham nenhuma relação com os eventos da noite de 6 de janeiro.

Original English

As to the other denizens of the old building, it will suffice out of a large household to mention the prim, respectable, and capable Ames, and Mrs. Allen, a buxom and cheerful person, who relieved the lady of some of her household cares. The other six servants in the house bear no relation to the events of the night of January 6th.

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Português

O primeiro alarme chegou às onze e quarenta e cinco à delegacia local, sob o comando do Sargento Wilson da Polícia de Sussex. O excitado Cecil Barker correu até a porta e tocou a campainha furiosamente. Ele relatou sem fôlego que John Douglas havia sido assassinado na Mansão. Após entregar a notícia, ele voltou apressadamente para a casa, seguido em poucos minutos pelo sargento da polícia, que chegou pouco depois da meia-noite, tendo alertado as autoridades do condado.

Original English

It was at eleven forty-five that the first alarm reached the small local police station, in charge of Sergeant Wilson of the Sussex Constabulary. Cecil Barker, much excited, had rushed up to the door and pealed furiously upon the bell. A terrible tragedy had occurred at the Manor House, and John Douglas had been murdered. That was the breathless burden of his message. He had hurried back to the house, followed within a few minutes by the police sergeant, who arrived at the scene of the crime a little after twelve o’clock, after taking prompt steps to warn the county authorities that something serious was afoot.

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Português

Quando o sargento chegou à Mansão, encontrou a ponte levadiça abaixada, as janelas iluminadas e a casa em completa confusão. Os criados, de rostos pálidos, aglomeravam-se no hall, e o mordomo assustado torcia as mãos na porta. Apenas Cecil Barker parecia calmo; ele abriu a porta mais próxima e fez sinal para o sargento segui-lo. Naquele momento, o Dr. Wood, um médico de aldeia competente, chegou. Os três homens entraram no quarto fatal, enquanto o mordomo horrorizado os seguia, fechando a porta atrás de si para proteger as empregadas da terrível cena.

Original English

On reaching the Manor House, the sergeant had found the drawbridge down, the windows lighted up, and the whole household in a state of wild confusion and alarm. The white-faced servants were huddling together in the hall, with the frightened butler wringing his hands in the doorway. Only Cecil Barker seemed to be master of himself and his emotions; he had opened the door which was nearest to the entrance and he had beckoned to the sergeant to follow him. At that moment there arrived Dr. Wood, a brisk and capable general practitioner from the village. The three men entered the fatal room together, while the horror-stricken butler followed at their heels, closing the door behind him to shut out the terrible scene from the maid servants.

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Português

O falecido foi encontrado deitado de costas no centro da sala. Ele usava apenas um roupão rosa sobre a roupa de dormir, com chinelos de carpete nos pés descalços. O médico ajoelhou-se ao lado dele e o examinou com a lâmpada da mesa. O homem havia sofrido ferimentos terríveis; sobre o peito repousava uma espingarda de cano serrado, com os gatilhos amarrados juntos, indicando que a arma havia sido disparada a curta distância, destruindo sua cabeça.

Original English

The dead man lay on his back, sprawling with outstretched limbs in the centre of the room. He was clad only in a pink dressing gown, which covered his night clothes. There were carpet slippers on his bare feet. The doctor knelt beside him and held down the hand lamp which had stood on the table. One glance at the victim was enough to show the healer that his presence could be dispensed with. The man had been horribly injured. Lying across his chest was a curious weapon, a shotgun with the barrel sawed off a foot in front of the triggers. It was clear that this had been fired at close range and that he had received the whole charge in the face, blowing his head almost to pieces. The triggers had been wired together, so as to make the simultaneous discharge more destructive.

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Português

O policial local ficou sobrecarregado pela responsabilidade repentina. Ele sussurrou que não deveriam tocar em nada até que seus superiores chegassem, olhando horrorizado para a cabeça da vítima.

Original English

The country policeman was unnerved and troubled by the tremendous responsibility which had come so suddenly upon him. “We will touch nothing until my superiors arrive,” he said in a hushed voice, staring in horror at the dreadful head.

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Português

Cecil Barker garantiu a ele que nada havia sido mexido e que a cena estava exatamente como ele a havia encontrado.

Original English

“Nothing has been touched up to now,” said Cecil Barker. “I’ll answer for that. You see it all exactly as I found it.”

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Português

O sargento perguntou quando isso havia ocorrido e tirou seu caderno de anotações.

Original English

“When was that?” The sergeant had drawn out his notebook.

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Português

Cecil Barker afirmou que era exatamente onze e meia. Ele estava sentado perto do fogo em seu quarto, ainda vestido, quando ouviu um estrondo abafado. Ele desceu correndo e afirmou ter chegado ao quarto em menos de trinta segundos.

Original English

“It was just half-past eleven. I had not begun to undress, and I was sitting by the fire in my bedroom when I heard the report. It was not very loud—it seemed to be muffled. I rushed down—I don’t suppose it was thirty seconds before I was in the room.”

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Português

Ele perguntou se a porta tinha estado aberta.

Original English

“Was the door open?”

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Português

Ele confirmou que a porta estava aberta. Disse que o pobre Douglas estava deitado como o viram, com a vela do quarto acesa sobre a mesa. Acrescentou que tinha acendido a lâmpada alguns minutos depois.

Original English

“Yes, it was open. Poor Douglas was lying as you see him. His bedroom candle was burning on the table. It was I who lit the lamp some minutes afterward.”

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Português

Ele perguntou se alguém tinha sido visto.

Original English

“Did you see no one?”

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Português

Ele respondeu que não tinha visto ninguém. Ouviu a Sra. Douglas descendo as escadas atrás dele e saiu apressado para impedi-la de testemunhar a terrível cena. A Sra. Allen, a governanta, chegou e a levou embora. Ames também tinha chegado, e todos voltaram para o quarto.

Original English

“No. I heard Mrs. Douglas coming down the stair behind me, and I rushed out to prevent her from seeing this dreadful sight. Mrs. Allen, the housekeeper, came and took her away. Ames had arrived, and we ran back into the room once more.”

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Português

Ele observou que tinha entendido que a ponte levadiça permanecia erguida durante a noite.

Original English

“But surely I have heard that the drawbridge is kept up all night.”

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Português

Ele disse que estava levantada até que ele a abaixou.

Original English

“Yes, it was up until I lowered it.”

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Português

Ele argumentou que era impossível um assassino ter escapado naquelas circunstâncias, então o Sr. Douglas deve ter atirado em si mesmo.

Original English

“Then how could any murderer have got away? It is out of the question! Mr. Douglas must have shot himself.”

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Português

Ele disse que essa tinha sido a teoria inicial deles, mas então ele demonstrou que a janela estava totalmente aberta. Ele também mostrou uma mancha de sangue semelhante a uma pegada de bota no parapeito, indicando que alguém tinha ficado ali enquanto escapava.

Original English

“That was our first idea. But see!” Barker drew aside the curtain, and showed that the long, diamond-paned window was open to its full extent. “And look at this!” He held the lamp down and illuminated a smudge of blood like the mark of a boot-sole upon the wooden sill. “Someone has stood there in getting out.”

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Português

Ele perguntou se Barker estava sugerindo que alguém atravessou o fosso a pé.

Original English

“You mean that someone waded across the moat?”

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Português

Barker afirmou que era exatamente esse o caso.

Original English

“Exactly!”

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Português

O orador raciocinou que, se alguém estivesse no quarto dentro de trinta segundos após o crime, essa pessoa devia estar na água naquele exato momento.

Original English

“Then if you were in the room within half a minute of the crime, he must have been in the water at that very moment.”

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Português

O orador disse que não tinha dúvidas e desejou ter corrido para a janela, mas a cortina a havia escondido, então ele não pensou nisso. Então ouviu os passos da Sra. Douglas e não pôde deixá-la entrar no quarto, pois teria sido horrível demais.

Original English

“I have not a doubt of it. I wish to heaven that I had rushed to the window! But the curtain screened it, as you can see, and so it never occurred to me. Then I heard the step of Mrs. Douglas, and I could not let her enter the room. It would have been too horrible.”

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Português

O médico observou que os ferimentos eram realmente horríveis, olhando para a cabeça despedaçada e as terríveis marcas ao redor, e acrescentou que não via ferimentos tão graves desde o acidente ferroviário de Birlstone.

Original English

“Horrible enough!” said the doctor, looking at the shattered head and the terrible marks which surrounded it. “I’ve never seen such injuries since the Birlstone railway smash.”

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Português

O sargento da polícia, usando seu lento e prático senso comum, ainda duvidava da teoria da janela aberta. Ele argumentou que tudo bem dizer que um homem escapou atravessando o fosso a pé, mas queria saber como o homem havia entrado na casa em primeiro lugar se a ponte estava levantada.

Original English

“But, I say,” remarked the police sergeant, whose slow, bucolic common sense was still pondering the open window. “It’s all very well your saying that a man escaped by wading this moat, but what I ask you is, how did he ever get into the house at all if the bridge was up?”

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Português

Barker concordou que essa era de fato a questão-chave.

Original English

“Ah, that’s the question,” said Barker.

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Português

Alguém perguntou a que horas a ponte havia sido levantada.

Original English

“At what o’clock was it raised?”

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Português

Ames, o mordomo, respondeu que eram quase seis horas.

Original English

“It was nearly six o’clock,” said Ames, the butler.

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Português

O sargento mencionou que ouvira dizer que era costume levantá-la ao pôr do sol, o que, naquela época do ano, seria mais perto das quatro e meia do que das seis.

Original English

“I’ve heard,” said the sergeant, “that it was usually raised at sunset. That would be nearer half-past four than six at this time of year.”

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Português

Ames explicou que a Sra. Douglas tinha convidados para o chá, por isso ele não pôde levantar a ponte até que eles partissem, e então a levantou ele mesmo.

Original English

“Mrs. Douglas had visitors to tea,” said Ames. “I couldn’t raise it until they went. Then I wound it up myself.”

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Português

O sargento raciocinou que se alguém tivesse vindo de fora, deveria ter cruzado a ponte antes das seis e permanecido escondido até o Sr. Douglas entrar na sala depois das onze.

Original English

“Then it comes to this,” said the sergeant: “If anyone came from outside—if they did—they must have got in across the bridge before six and been in hiding ever since, until Mr. Douglas came into the room after eleven.”

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Português

O orador confirmou que o Sr. Douglas verificava as luzes todas as noites antes de se recolher. Essa rotina o levou até aquela sala, onde um agressor o esperava e atirou nele. O assassino então escapou pela janela, deixando sua arma para trás. O orador acreditava que essa interpretação era a única consistente com as evidências.

Original English

“That is so! Mr. Douglas went round the house every night the last thing before he turned in to see that the lights were right. That brought him in here. The man was waiting and shot him. Then he got away through the window and left his gun behind him. That’s how I read it; for nothing else will fit the facts.”

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Português

O sargento pegou um cartão do chão ao lado do falecido. Nele, as iniciais V. V. e o número 341 estavam escritos de forma grosseira a tinta.

Original English

The sergeant picked up a card which lay beside the dead man on the floor. The initials V. V. and under them the number 341 were rudely scrawled in ink upon it.

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Português

Ele ergueu o cartão e perguntou sobre seu significado.

Original English

“What’s this?” he asked, holding it up.

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Português

Barker examinou o cartão com interesse. Ele comentou que não o havia notado anteriormente e sugeriu que o assassino devia tê-lo deixado para trás.

Original English

Barker looked at it with curiosity. “I never noticed it before,” he said. “The murderer must have left it behind him.”

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Português

O sargento afirmou que não conseguia decifrar o significado da inscrição 'V. V.—341'.

Original English

“V. V.—341. I can make no sense of that.”

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Português

O sargento examinou o objeto em suas grandes mãos e se perguntou em voz alta o que "V. V." poderia significar, sugerindo que poderiam ser iniciais de alguém. Ele então perguntou ao Dr. Wood o que ele estava segurando.

Original English

The sergeant kept turning it over in his big fingers. “What’s V. V.? Somebody’s initials, maybe. What have you got there, Dr. Wood?”

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Português

Um martelo grande e robusto estava sobre o tapete em frente à lareira. Cecil Barker apontou para uma caixa de pregos de cabeça de latão na prateleira da lareira.

Original English

It was a good-sized hammer which had been lying on the rug in front of the fireplace—a substantial, workmanlike hammer. Cecil Barker pointed to a box of brass-headed nails upon the mantelpiece.

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Português

Cecil Barker explicou que o Sr. Douglas estivera reorganizando os quadros no dia anterior, e ele mesmo o vira de pé naquela cadeira ajustando o quadro grande, o que explicava a presença do martelo.

Original English

“Mr. Douglas was altering the pictures yesterday,” he said. “I saw him myself, standing upon that chair and fixing the big picture above it. That accounts for the hammer.”

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Português

O sargento, coçando a cabeça confuso, sugeriu devolver o martelo ao seu lugar original no tapete. Ele comentou que resolver o caso exigiria as melhores mentes da polícia e que acabaria se tornando uma investigação de Londres. Então, erguendo a lamparina, ele lentamente circulou a sala. De repente, puxou a cortina da janela e perguntou animadamente a que horas as cortinas haviam sido fechadas.

Original English

“We’d best put it back on the rug where we found it,” said the sergeant, scratching his puzzled head in his perplexity. “It will want the best brains in the force to get to the bottom of this thing. It will be a London job before it is finished.” He raised the hand lamp and walked slowly round the room. “Hullo!” he cried, excitedly, drawing the window curtain to one side. “What o’clock were those curtains drawn?”

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Português

O mordomo respondeu que as cortinas haviam sido fechadas quando as lâmpadas foram acesas, o que foi logo depois das quatro horas.

Original English

“When the lamps were lit,” said the butler. “It would be shortly after four.”

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Português

O detetive apontou para o canto onde pegadas enlameadas estavam claramente visíveis. Ele observou que essa evidência apoiava a teoria de Barker: alguém havia entrado na casa entre quatro e seis horas, quando as cortinas estavam fechadas e a ponte estava levantada. O intruso se escondeu naquele quarto, provavelmente com a intenção de roubar a casa, mas o Sr. Douglas o descobriu, resultando no assassinato.

Original English

“Someone had been hiding here, sure enough.” He held down the light, and the marks of muddy boots were very visible in the corner. “I’m bound to say this bears out your theory, Mr. Barker. It looks as if the man got into the house after four when the curtains were drawn and before six when the bridge was raised. He slipped into this room, because it was the first that he saw. There was no other place where he could hide, so he popped in behind this curtain. That all seems clear enough. It is likely that his main idea was to burgle the house; but Mr. Douglas chanced to come upon him, so he murdered him and escaped.”

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Português

Barker concordou com a interpretação do detetive, mas questionou se estavam perdendo tempo. Ele insistiu que deveriam começar a vasculhar a região imediatamente antes que o suspeito escapasse.

Original English

“That’s how I read it,” said Barker. “But, I say, aren’t we wasting precious time? Couldn’t we start out and scour the country before the fellow gets away?”

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Português

O sargento fez uma pausa para refletir.

Original English

The sergeant considered for a moment.

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Português

O sargento explicou que nenhum trem partia antes das seis da manhã, então o suspeito não poderia fugir de trem. Se ele saísse pela estrada com as pernas molhadas, provavelmente seria notado. Incapaz de deixar seu posto até ser substituído, o sargento aconselhou todos a ficarem até que a situação ficasse mais clara.

Original English

“There are no trains before six in the morning; so he can’t get away by rail. If he goes by road with his legs all dripping, it’s odds that someone will notice him. Anyhow, I can’t leave here myself until I am relieved. But I think none of you should go until we see more clearly how we all stand.”

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Português

Pegando a lâmpada, o médico examinou o corpo de perto. Ele perguntou sobre uma marca específica e se ela poderia estar relacionada ao crime.

Original English

The doctor had taken the lamp and was narrowly scrutinizing the body. “What’s this mark?” he asked. “Could this have any connection with the crime?”

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Português

O braço direito do falecido homem projetava-se para fora de seu roupão, exposto até o cotovelo. Na metade do antebraço havia uma curiosa marca marrom—um triângulo dentro de um círculo—destacando-se nitidamente contra sua pele pálida.

Original English

The dead man’s right arm was thrust out from his dressing gown, and exposed as high as the elbow. About halfway up the forearm was a curious brown design, a triangle inside a circle, standing out in vivid relief upon the lard-coloured skin.

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Português

O médico examinou através de seus óculos e declarou que não era uma tatuagem; nunca tinha visto nada semelhante. Ele sugeriu que o homem havia sido marcado como gado e perguntou o que aquilo significava.

Original English

“It’s not tattooed,” said the doctor, peering through his glasses. “I never saw anything like it. The man has been branded at some time as they brand cattle. What is the meaning of this?”

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Português

Cecil Barker admitiu não saber o significado, mas observara a marca em Douglas repetidamente ao longo da última década.

Original English

“I don’t profess to know the meaning of it,” said Cecil Barker; “but I have seen the mark on Douglas many times this last ten years.”

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Português

O mordomo concordou; ele também notara a marca sempre que o patrão arregaçava as mangas e frequentemente se perguntara sobre seu significado.

Original English

“And so have I,” said the butler. “Many a time when the master has rolled up his sleeves I have noticed that very mark. I’ve often wondered what it could be.”

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Português

O sargento concluiu que a marca não estava relacionada ao crime, mas era peculiar—como tudo o mais neste caso. Ele então perguntou qual seria o próximo passo.

Original English

“Then it has nothing to do with the crime, anyhow,” said the sergeant. “But it’s a rum thing all the same. Everything about this case is rum. Well, what is it now?”

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Português

O mordomo gritou de choque e apontou para a mão do morto, que estava estendida.

Original English

The butler had given an exclamation of astonishment and was pointing at the dead man’s outstretched hand.

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Português

Ele ofegou que alguém havia levado a aliança de casamento do morto.

Original English

“They’ve taken his wedding ring!” he gasped.

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Português

Barker exclamou surpreso, perguntando o que o mordomo queria dizer.

Original English

“What!”

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Português

O mordomo confirmou isso, explicando que o patrão sempre usava uma aliança de ouro lisa no dedo mínimo da mão esquerda, com um anel contendo um nugget bruto acima dela e um anel de cobra torcida no terceiro dedo. Ele destacou que tanto o anel de nugget quanto o de cobra ainda estavam presentes, mas a aliança de casamento havia desaparecido.

Original English

“Yes, indeed. Master always wore his plain gold wedding ring on the little finger of his left hand. That ring with the rough nugget on it was above it, and the twisted snake ring on the third finger. There’s the nugget and there’s the snake, but the wedding ring is gone.”

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Português

Barker reconheceu que o mordomo estava correto.

Original English

“He’s right,” said Barker.

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Português

O sargento perguntou se a aliança de casamento havia sido encontrada debaixo do outro anel.

Original English

“Do you tell me,” said the sergeant, “that the wedding ring was below the other?”

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