Baker Street Charterers

Not long ago, Adolf, who was still alive, had taken a cheap counterfeit candlestick from them and claimed to have pawned it.Since he is not a true connoisseur, his move seems meaningless.

Unless, while pawning the candlestick, he also took away some other more valuable things.

For example, certain important pieces of evidence related to Moriarty's criminal empire.

Apart from this, Nora couldn't think of any other big cards that could make Adolf have the courage to make a deal with Moriarty.

And the place they are going now is the pawnshop closest to finding Adolf.

Holmes has a profound understanding of London. He took Nora through the remote alleys very familiarly, starting from the most remote pawn shop. He was very patient and described the appearance of the candlestick to the boss over and over again. Finally found the familiar candlestick in a pawnshop called "mute".

When talking about this thing, the boss looked disapproving, "What good things can a beggar bring... If it weren't for the fact that the workmanship of this thing is not bad, I wouldn't even give him a penny."

"Can we redeem this thing?" Nora asked.

"Of course!" The boss immediately put on a warm smile when he heard that the item could be sold, "I can give you a little cheaper... Look at this exquisite workmanship, and the gorgeous texture from abroad, and the gold plating on the surface... ...I'll sell it to you for fifty pounds, how about it?"

fifty pounds? !She bet she could buy all the handmade shoddy goods in this little pawnshop for that price!

Seeing that Holmes looked like he was about to agree after deep thought, Nora immediately said before him, "Fifty pounds? Sir, this thing was stolen from us by the 'beggar' you call it. No one can compare it to the truth. We know better... Besides, it's not gold plating, it's just a layer of copper plating. If you want to bully us for ignorance... Oh yes, Holmes, isn't Mr. Alcott Barton coming to have dinner with us? , in that 'Calamari' restaurant?"

Alcott Barton?have dinner?

Holmes immediately nodded seriously, "That's right, I've made a reservation a long time ago, and when Mr. Barton arrives, he will serve us food...Sir, how much did you say we need to pay?"

The boss was silent for a moment.

"Fifteen pounds, sir," said he.

Nora raised her eyebrows, "Fifteen? But the price I heard just now seems to be different from this?"

"You heard it wrong, miss." The boss smiled bitterly, "Fifteen pounds... oh no, since you are the owner of this candlestick, it must be of great significance to you, ten pounds . . . No, no, eight pounds—take it, please, and have a pleasant day."

This sentence carried deep resentment, until Nora and Holmes walked out of this street, they seemed to feel the boss's silently watching the sinister eyes behind them.

"You know how to manage money better than I imagined." Although Holmes said this, he did not show the slightest surprise.

"This is our common wealth." Nora shrugged, "There is always someone who must learn 'how to live in London'... At present, my choice is undoubtedly very reasonable."

"I'm glad you've been making the right choice...from the very beginning," said Holmes without shame, and Nora knew him too well for her to realize at once that he was referring to "Norah." La Sharp picked him right".

"...Let's study this candlestick." Nora immediately changed the subject.

Speaking of this, Holmes, as one might expect, immediately turned his attention away.He held up the beautifully crafted fake and observed it carefully, ignoring that he was standing in the middle of the street, surrounded by passing carriages and pedestrians, and cast a strange look at this well-dressed man with strange behavior.

Nora stood beside him silently, being baptized by the eyes of passers-by together.

"Look here!" Holmes finally noticed the strangeness. He was about to speak excitedly, but Nora suddenly hissed at him, and he stopped abruptly, allowing Nora to drag him to a remote corner.

"Don't forget what Mr. Barton said... We are surrounded by eyes and ears." Nora reminded, "Although Adolf is dead, there is nothing to lose... But I don't want Moriarty Bring back this evidence again."

"To be honest, I hope he will come to 'take back' this evidence... Otherwise, with the brains of the London Metropolitan Police, I am afraid that when the sun never sets when the Empire welcomes Elizabeth II, they will not be able to catch Mo Riati."

"..." Not to mention, Holmes' words are very prophetic, because more than 100 years later, Britain really ushered in Queen Elizabeth II.

"However..." Holmes changed the subject, with an obvious look of regret on his face, "Although Moriarty is indeed a good opponent, for the sake of a greater future...such as some problems that we should have solved long ago... Things, it would be better to solve this case sooner."

Nora raised her eyebrows, "Are you expressing dissatisfaction with me now?"

Holmes, "—I think Mrs. Hudson has already prepared supper. Would you mind dining with me, ma'am?"

"You should learn more from Watson how to change the subject, Xiali."

"He is a man with a wife, which is different from me."

"..."

……

They returned to Baker Street, closed the door, and finally had time to take out the candlestick and look at it carefully.This time not only Holmes noticed the difference, but even Nora noticed something was wrong.

"This thing is—"

Holmes turned the candlestick upside down without hesitation, and slammed it against the wall gracefully and neatly——

"Sherlock!!!" Mrs. Hudson yelled from downstairs, "What did you do to my wall again??!"

Nora raised her forehead, and Holmes held the candlestick that was almost broken in two with his expression unchanged, and said calmly, "Look, there is a mystery hidden in it."

"I think you will have a secret in your dinner today." Nora was very helpless, and immediately poked her head over the next moment, carefully pulling out a thin piece of paper from the hole in the middle of the candlestick full of interest.

Holmes held the paper under the light and observed it carefully, changing the angle several times and shaking the surface of the paper.

This piece of paper was obviously torn from a notebook hastily, with jagged and jagged rips.But it has been very well preserved by the owner, with almost no wrinkle stains visible.Two long rows of English letters were neatly written on the paper——

spusehnhmsbl,

aeael.

Password again?

Holmes's first reaction when he saw these two lines was to pick up a pen and start deciphering. He tried all the forms of cipher records he knew, including Virginia cipher, Vigener cipher, Morse code converted into English, and even The Bill cipher just proposed... But it's all wrong, and all the results either don't make sense, or just a bunch of completely clueless gibberish.

"This piece of paper that Adolf sacrificed his life for...what is the important thing recorded?" Holmes frowned and muttered to himself, "It's not right...why it's not right...it's impossible, I still missed it what?"

Nora stared at the paper for a long time, she didn't even answer Holmes' words, she frowned tightly, her eyes were blank, as if she was thinking about something, she tilted her head slightly, hesitated for a while, then suddenly paused, her eyes lit up.

"Xiali, do you like playing Word Solitaire?"

Holmes turned his head suddenly, Nora snatched his pen, randomly pulled out a piece of paper, and began to quickly write and draw on it, with a very urgent tone, "It's just like Solitaire—this is the method of crossing the fence, or It can be called the fence encryption method, it is not difficult, many people, especially businessmen who hide some little secrets, like this encryption method very much, you see—”

"These two lines of English are very neatly arranged. If we try to do this - according to the one-on-one-down writing method, arrange the second line of text behind the first line, separate from the middle, and then insert-in the previous letter ..."

She focused on writing out her answer word by word: s, abell...

Holmes lowered his head and read softly, "St. Paul, Stephen, Thames, Abel..."

He suddenly realized, "No, no—it's a map! Nora—take out my copy of the most complete map of London in the UK, it's on the third row of bookshelves—"

He couldn't wait to spread out the detailed map of London that he made himself, and then pointed to a few of them, and said loudly, "St. Paul Street, Stephen Road, Thames River, Abel Street..."

He lightly used pen and ink to connect these four places with lines, and a cross was clearly drawn on the entire map, and the intersection point of the black cross was at...

Nora opened her eyes wide, her expression was a little strange, it seemed a little unbelievable, but also a little expected, she couldn't control her expression for a while——

"This is……"

"Whitehall?" Holmes frowned.

Where is Whitehall?This has always been the area of ​​the British government. It was the place where the British monarch once lived. The most famous thing is that its core is located at No. 10 Downing Street, which is the official residence of every prime minister.

prime minister?

Nora turned her head to look at Holmes. The man was obviously also surprised. He stared at the intersection for a long time before slowly raising his body and showing her a strange smile.

Nora couldn't help but twitch her cheeks.

"It seems that Mr. M has some intimate relationship with the second person from England..." Nora whispered.

Holmes frowned.

"It seems that we have to find a reliable and hated gentleman to help." Nora looked at Holmes' expressionless face with a half-smile, and said slowly, "For example... your big brother Holmes. "

"Reliable and hateful?" Holmes repeated these words heavily, with a look of "you are crazy", "You must be talking about the big Holmes? In my opinion, although reluctantly, I have nothing to do with him. Sharing the same surname, but that one has not inherited any of my virtues."

inherit?Nora's cheeks twitched again.

"Don't talk nonsense, little Holmes," she said bluntly. "Now, at once, at once—to find perhaps the most reliable member of the government of the British Empire, my future family, your own brother!"

"..."