The carriage stopped outside John's Textile Mill.?

Zhang Heng and Sherlock Holmes got out of the car, and at this time, a man with a mouth full of rotten teeth and sharp-mouthed monkey cheeks walked up, "Two gentlemen, is there anything I can help you with?" ”

"We're going to go in and find someone." Holmes spoke.

"I'm afraid this is not very regular, there are girls inside, you two old men ......" The sharp-beaked monkey-cheeked man shook his head and said, "It's too unusual, it's too unusual." ”

Sherlock Holmes reached out and took a half-pound gold coin from his pocket and threw it into the hand of the sharp-beaked monkey-cheeked man, "It will only take a quarter of an hour." ”

The latter frowned, pretending to be embarrassed.

Holmes didn't bother to act with him, and reached out to get the gold coin back.

"Don't, don't, it's just that the boss is not here, I can find a way to help you be accommodating...... But let's say it first, it's only a quarter of an hour, and it can't be any longer. The sharp-beaked monkey-cheeked man hurriedly said, quickly retracting the gold coin into his pocket.

Then he led the two into the textile factory.

Since Watt's invention of the steam engine opened the prelude to the industrial revolution, the steam engine gradually replaced the previous water-powered spinning, and the textile mill did not need to be built by the river, but because the John textile factory was founded relatively early, it was not relocated in the middle, and it was still in the original site, but the equipment was updated.

Zhang Heng also saw such a scene for the first time, the huge factory was full of machines, pipelines passed under the ceiling, the tracks rotated with the pulleys, pulling sewing machines, and the female workers wore hats and aprons to stand in front of the machines repeating boring work, like marionettes.

Here, there is no difference between man and machine.

The sharp-beaked monkey-cheeked man asked, "Who are you looking for?" I may be able to help you, there is no one here I don't know. ”

Sherlock Holmes and Zhang Heng exchanged a look, Zhang Heng grabbed the shoulder of the sharp-beaked monkey-cheeked man, "I won't tell you, in fact, we also want to open a textile factory, and this time we are here to learn from your factory." ”

The sharp-beaked monkey-cheeked man immediately became vigilant when he heard this, "That's not good, if you had said that earlier, I wouldn't have let you in!" ”

"Don't say it so absolutely," Zhang Heng said, "We want to recruit a group of skilled workers, if you can help us, the price is negotiable." ”

The sharp-beaked monkey-cheeked man was moved when he heard this, but he said, "No, how can I betray Mr. Stotts, you must know that my job was given by Mr. Stotts, and he is still a distant relative of mine, so I can't do anything bad for him." ”

"If you do it well, this is a lot of money," Zhang Heng said, "It's enough for you to eat, drink and be merry for a long time." ”

…………

While the two were talking, Holmes quietly left the place.

Twenty minutes later, Zhang Heng and Sherlock Holmes met again outside the textile factory, and the sharp-beaked monkey-cheeked man kept sending the two of them to the road, and said excitedly, "I will make a list soon, and I guarantee that they are all honest people who work hard and don't have any careful thoughts." ”

"That's a good feeling, I'll come back to you when we decide on the location." Zhang Hengdao.

Seeing the sharp-beaked monkey-cheeked man turn back to the mill with satisfaction, Holmes re-spoke, "Yes, I didn't misunderstand you, you were born to do this business, and with a little training, those fools at Scotland Yard are no match for you at all." ”

"What about you?"

Sherlock Holmes laughed twice, "I've almost determined who the killer is." ”

"Oh? Who is it. ”

"Don't worry, when I collect enough evidence, I will naturally announce the conclusion, in a sense, Gregerson's guy is not bad, and it is a taboo in our industry to infer when we don't collect enough evidence, once you preconceived that someone is the murderer, you will subconsciously ignore the evidence that is not conducive to your inference, Gregerson himself made such a mistake, he was bent on believing that the kid named Paul killed Molly, so all he collected was evidence that was unfavorable to that kid."

Holmeston paused, and then added, "The basis of deduction is observation, and first you need to see the little details that have been overlooked by you with great observation, and each little detail is like a dot on a blank piece of paper, and finally you draw a circle on the paper, framing all the dots, and that's the answer you're looking for." ”

"The image is vivid," Zhang Heng asked, "it just so happens that the chemical plant where Paul works is next door, should we also take a look?" ”

"It couldn't be better." "I do have someone to look for there," Holmes said. ”

The two then went to the chemical factory on the side, where the people working were mainly men, so it was not as strict as the textile factory, but there were also overseers, and Holmes spent another half a pound, and took the time to chat with a few people in the factory about Paul, and when he came back, he touched his chin and said, "Interesting." ”

"How?"

"Different people here have very different opinions about Paul, but it's also normal, I guessed a little before, Gregerson has been here before, he asked the factory manager, and he came to the conclusion that Paul is an old fritter, messing around all day, lazy, insidious and cunning, but I asked his co-workers, and they thought highly of him, saying that he had a good heart, always helpful, and would stand up for others...... And this may be why he is not liked by the factory managers. Sherlock Holmes said.

"Where was he on the night of the incident?" Zhang Heng asked.

"That's the problem, the chemical factory gets off work half an hour later than the textile factory, and after the chemical factory gets off work, Paul goes to Molly as usual, which is a well-known thing, but no one is with him for the rest of the time, and no one can testify against him, but it doesn't matter, we can naturally return his innocence after we catch the murderer."

"Where do we go next?"

"We've done all the research we can do, and we'll leave the rest to the Baker Street team." "We call it a day and go home." ”

…………

Zhang Heng, the big name of the Baker Street detective team, is naturally no stranger, the group of dirty, smelly, noisy little ghosts every time Mrs. Hudson's face is guaranteed to become very bad, and he must keep an eye on them all the time, for fear that if he is not careful, something will be missing in the living room.

Holmes took out three shillings and gave it to the boy named Wiggins in the lead, "Your fares, keep an eye on the Pearson guy who works at the Wood Chemical Works, see what he's doing, and report back to me, and besides, you can come to me alone in the future, and let the others wait outside, or Mrs. Hudson will kill me." ”

"Yes, Commander!" The group of children shouted, standing up straight, and then laughing and parting.