48 Hours a Day

Holmes came back at dusk, he didn't say a word and rushed directly into the room, after a moment of sudden and low violin sound came out of his bedroom, he completely ignored the audience's feelings, probably tormented the outside people's ears for a minute, this was enough to stop, put down the violin satisfactorily, then to Zhang Hengdao beside him, “Tonight's meeting with Vial was cancelled, I informed him that I didn't get much useful information in the afternoon, and there was nothing to talk about at the meeting. ”

“Just in time, I want to tell you that I may not be able to make it tonight.” Zhang Heng took out those two opera tickets, "a friend gave me two tickets to see her perform at night. ”

“Ha, Queen's Theatre is showing another opera?” Holmes, as usual, “do you have company? ”

“You know, I haven't been in London long, I'm not familiar with it, I don't know anyone, so...”

“That's a coincidence. I'm going to Queen's Theatre tonight.” Holmes laughed.

“In addition to your interest in violins, do you like opera? ”

“I like opera a lot, but it's not just for the opera tonight.” Holmes Road, "if we want to catch that Mr. M, we need to know who he's after, who's been in France for a long time, and suddenly he's gone all the way to London, and obviously it can't be some kind of small business. ”

“So you got a range? ”

“Well, I went to visit a few friends this afternoon, put together a list, in order from top to bottom, all the people he might be after, although he hasn't done it yet, but if I were him, I'd have started studying the target, and the person on my list, number one and three and five, would be at Queen's Theatre tonight, and I had a relationship with the chief makeup artist at the theatre, and I would have asked him to get me a ticket in, but now that you have a ticket, it would be great. ”

…………

After dinner, Holmes and Zhang Heng changed into gowns.

Holmes, after scratching and cleaning up the mess, the whole person seemed quite spirited, and with his eagle hook nose and stubborn facial lines, perhaps still not a pretty man, but definitely not ugly.

Then Holmes picked another tortoise as the handle, and rosewood as the cane for his body, and said to Zhang Hengdao, “My Eastern friend, now that you have money, you should also go buy a cane that suits you. ”

Zhang Heng probably has some difficulty understanding the craziness of European men's love of canes. In the so-called gentlemen's class in London, there is hardly anyone without a cane, and there is generally more than one cane. For example, walking dogs in the morning they will go out with full wood canes, and in the evening they will be replaced with silver canes, while the rich will hold gold canes at dinner.

Also similar to office, there are also special corresponding canes for such occasions as the opera. At a time when the novelist Balzac was the most depressed and heavily indebted, he still did not hesitate to throw down 700 francs to buy a luxury cane set in onion stone. Most of this consumer desire has exploded 618, which in today's view even means selling kidneys to buy apples.

But entering the country has always been a virtue for Zhang Heng.

The 19th century is about the golden age of canes, and even many famous jewellery brands can't help but share a spoon. Tiffany and Cartier all have corresponding canes, Zhang Hengdu brand canes are not very interested, besides because they are expensive, but also because Zhang Heng's selection criteria and the vast majority of people are different. The canes, in addition to being symbols of identity, can also be used as a defensive weapon when necessary.

Therefore, Zhang Heng puts more emphasis on the weight and firmness of the cane as a weapon, rather than appearance. He intends to go to the old goods market tomorrow.

When they arrived at the Queen's Theatre, the show was half an hour away. Eileen Adler sent the tickets in a very good position, right in the middle of the second row, and a few of the targets Holmes was following were in the box on the second floor.

Zhang Heng also learned that one of them was the Marquis of Salisbury, now Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who walked into the compartment with a cigar in his stomach before the show.

Holmes is also on the watch list or, more precisely, by the Prime Minister, but so far he has found nothing.

As the audience continued to enter, the lights of the theatre dimmed, the music sounded and the curtain slowly opened.

In the last two minutes before the opera began, Zhang Heng spoke to Holmes Road, "I think I understand. ”

“Well, what do you got? ”

“Find out where the painting is. ”

“Oh?” Holmes laughed. “Tell me. ”

“The point is that the canvas of the oil painting disappears, but the frame is still in the room," Zhang Heng analyzed, "which is also something that I felt a little surprised about before. It's easier to take the painting away directly than to take it off the frame, so my previous reasoning was problematic. If it was a conspiracy between a housekeeper and a maid, the former could bring the painting out and put it there completely first, but the maid still took the painting apart, indicating that the housekeeper really had no suspicions in this matter, she did it to make it easier to hide the painting. Since she had not been searched, the painting was not hidden from her, so there was only one possibility left, and the painting was still in the room.

“Many people have a misconception that Mr. M has to get something in order to blackmail the owner, but in fact he doesn't have to do this, and there is an easier way to do it, just let the other person think that he stole the object, which is also the role of the apparently arrogant letter of title. In the morning, the Viscount wakes up and finds that the painting is missing, while leaving Mr. M's autographed letter on the ground, which, when combined, of course, makes sense for everyone to think that Mr. M stole the painting. ”

“Exactly.” Holmes applauds, "it does not rule out the deliberate disruption of the scene by some criminals, but most of the time everything that criminals leave behind is purposeful, especially this clever old thief, like an artist, who hardly adds a few extra pieces to an already perfect painting… So, if I go further, can you deduce where the oil painting is hidden in the room? ”

“In that porcelain bottle,” Zhang Heng said decisively, "Ville was indeed a very diligent detective, he gathered more information, basically turned every corner of the room, the only porcelain bottle, I looked at the portrait on the notebook, the porcelain bottle had a small mouth and a large stomach, if you put the oil painting in and it was close to the bottle below, then you couldn't find it from above. ”