The deputy sheriff's story continued, and the situation of the second victim was the one he focused on. Bobby Charlton, a buyer who travels between Hastings Forest and Edinburgh, and a small man who works for the buyers, always comes to Hastings Forest at this time to help his employer buy the harvest of local farmers. So there are many people who know him, this middle-aged short man is a cheerful and good man, he likes to joke, and everyone who knows him likes him very much. On this day, he also stayed in a room in a local hostel that he had been renting for a long time, and at 7 o'clock in the morning, the owner went to knock on the door to prepare breakfast for this regular customer, but there was no response to the knock on the door, and there was no response after several shouts.

Ferguson Sr. didn't think anything was wrong at the time, he just thought Bobby might have passed out, so he opened the door with the spare key and found that the chain behind the door was locked. He had to call Rooney, the helper, to break open the door, and then they called the police," the deputy sergeant took another sip of whiskey, and was already speaking more fluently and more relaxed.

"What was inside when they found the body?" Holmes didn't speak, he just sat in his rocking chair with his fingers crossed, thinking, and Watson asked. "The door was locked and chained from the inside, and the window was closed, and the pins were inside. The chimney of the fireplace is so narrow that one cannot climb out of it, and will get stuck in the middle. Bobby, on the other hand, was lying on the floor in the center of the room, headless. There was no sign of a struggle in the room, no mess on the bed, and Bobby's head was facing the bed, presumably as he was ready to go to bed, and it was supposed to be a sharp blade swung from behind. We didn't find the head of the body in the room," the deputy sergeant shuddered.

"And then your sheriff is completely out of options?" said Holmes, smirkingly. The deputy sergeant was a little frustrated and a little ashamed. "Yes. We couldn't find any evidence pointing to the prisoners."

Bo Fu looked at the scene in the picture, also picked up the cup in his hand and took a sip, then twisted his fingers to close the picture, and got up and walked out of the picture directly. "Check out" Bo Fu rang the call bell on the counter downstairs. "Help me get a carriage to the train station. This time, Bo Fu will also be watching this story up close.

In 221 Baker Street, when the deputy sheriff had finished speaking, Holmes only asked, "Is there still a scene left?" After receiving an affirmative answer from the deputy sheriff, Holmes turned and called, "Watson, go and book two train tickets." We're going to Hastings Forest. ”

Later in the day. Holmes got on the train with Watson and the deputy sheriff—but in reality they were on the same bus as Burfu, but not in the same car. Bo Fu still spread out a nasty tabloid and read it with relish in the box, and the other guests in the box, one of them was a black-haired and black-eyed traveler from a large East Asian country, and the other two were women from England, who were not very old, and watched Bo Fu read the tabloid intently, and they all covered their mouths with their fans and whispered

"The true meaning of life lies in boring tabloids, and when one day there is no interest in such erotic and boring tabloids, it is almost time to end. Bo Fu raised his head and saw the two young ladies opposite, and said something serious. The Englishman also had a sense of humor, and the two women laughed at the time, and the man from the same place, who was sitting next to Bo Fu, laughed knowingly. Under the matchmaking of jokes. Several people quickly became familiar with each other and began to chat happily. Once again, Böv's vast insight and knowledge far beyond his time became the center of the conversation. He didn't talk too much, just casually talked to the two women, told some stories from their topics by the way, and then used scientific knowledge to talk nonsense, and succeeded in attracting the attention of the other three. The atmosphere of conversation was very warm, and even attracted the conductors of the two boxes and even the carriage to come together, and five or six people listened together, and from time to time a low laughter broke out, and it should be said that everyone present - except Bo Fu, thought that their experience of taking the train this time was the most pleasant ever.

This time the train was longer, and at dusk it was finally at the station, and Bo Fu waved goodbye to the two ladies—as for the fellow countryman, he had already arrived at the station and got off the train halfway through. Then Bo Fu also let the carriage take him to one of the most comfortable hotels in the area, and set up a room, "Please give me whiskey, and a roast leg of lamb, and bring it to the room." He instructed the waiter.

After dinner, Bo Fu walked towards the Hastings Forest, which was nothing to Bo Fu, who could move through space at will, and he was soon standing in the abandoned manor in the forest. The dark forest in the moonlight, the shadows of the branches of the trees like the tentacles of ghosts, make this abandoned manor in the middle of the woods, but no trees grow in it, very strange and terrifying. Bo Fu stood in the middle of the manor and looked around, the main building of the manor had already collapsed, the ruins were scattered throughout the manor, and the only thing that remained basically intact was the gazebo that had been located in the garden - it was only a few large holes in the top. The fountain on one side was still intact below, but the walls were cracked, and the water from beneath the collapsed stone sculptures of the fountain flowed out of the cracks and meandered into a small stream of water into the woods outside the manor, where there was a pond covered with green algae. The whole manor exuded an air of decadence and desolation in the moonlight, but all this had no effect on Bo Fu, his eyes looked at the ruins of the original hall, there was a dark there, there was nothing unusual to the naked eye at first glance, but if you really looked closely, there was a feeling like the dark bottom of the water in the deepest nightmare would spread to the back of the person. The darkness has no fixed form, it looks like a normal moonlit shadow, but if someone takes two pictures in ten minutes apart. You will find that the form of darkness is completely different, it is constantly changing. It's just that if you use the naked eye, you will be confused.

Bo Fu looked at the darkness. Watch as it keeps twisting and deforming, getting bigger, and getting darker and darker. The darkness had swelled to the point where it enveloped the ruins of the hall, and now even ordinary people could see unusual places, and from the darkness came the neighing of horses, not loud but penetrating. "Great horse," said Bo Fu, and then he watched as a huge black horse rushed out of the darkness, a heavily armed black horse carrying a knight in black armor. He carried a huge knight's heavy sword in his hand, and he was truly imposing - but he had no head

The headless knight urged the black horse to gallop through the manor, and the dull sound of the horse's hooves spread far away in the quiet night, but the sound was so low that it seemed to be stepping on the heart of a man, and unless the average person listened very carefully, it was only a faint vibration. Bo Fu stood in the middle of the courtyard, watching the Headless Horseman run around, blue sparks burning from the horse's hoof prints on the ground, and the sound of the horse's hooves became more and more dense. The earth of the manor cracked, and from within crawled skeletal warriors in armor. These skeleton warriors are burned with transparent blue flames. Red fireballs burned in the dark eye sockets, and the yellow bones held sharp swords in their hands, and the skeleton warriors lined up in a neat line with the click of the joints. Bo Fu clapped softly, but the Headless Horsemann and his skeletal soldiers seemed to be completely unaware, their figures moving forward, blending into the darkness like smoke as they went

Bo Fu smiled and looked in one direction, "There was no hunting tonight, but someone seems to be a little unbearable." ”

Holmes and Watson stayed in a separate hotel, and the local sheriff didn't show up at all, but the deputy sheriff accompanied them to the second crime scene. The corpses in the room had long since been removed, and the remaining blood stains on the floor had been cleaned, but nothing else had been touched. Holmes took out a magnifying glass, and Watson held a kerosene lamp to help him illuminate it—although the kerosene lamp in the room was turned on, Holmes lay on his stomach where Bobby had fallen, and carefully examined the floor with a magnifying glass, and then he stood up and looked up at the lamp and window overhead, where he looked carefully with the magnifying glass again, and finally he motioned for Watson to turn off the kerosene lamp in his hand. In the lighting of the room, Holmes looked at the fireplace, then turned and walked out of the room, saying to the deputy sheriff as he went, "Can I talk to the owner of the inn and the helper?"

Ten minutes later, the innkeeper Ferguson was already sitting across from Sherlock Holmes, a little nervous, with a pair of eyes fixed on Holmes' mouth. "Please don't get too nervous, Mr. Ferguson. Take a sip first, I have a few questions I want to ask you. Holmes lit his pipe, took a puff, and pointed to a glass of whiskey in front of Ferguson.

"Mr. Ferguson, do you know the victim, Mr. Bobby Charlton?"

"Yes, sir. I've known him for twelve years, and he stays with me every year when he comes here on errands, and it's in the same room. ”

"So you know what he's doing here?"

"Yes, sir. He comes here every year to buy local specialties, and the amount is very large. Mr. "Ferguson, the owner of the inn, is starting to relax a bit.

"Do you know how much money he brought?" asked Holmes, smiling, taking out his pipe from his mouth.

"I'm sorry, I don't know, sir. He never showed us what he brought. But I know that when he bought here, he sometimes paid in cash, and sometimes he paid a cashier's check. ”

"When did you find his body?"

"Every morning at seven o'clock I have to bring breakfast to Mr. Bobby. This has been the case for twelve years. I did the same breakfast that morning, but the door was locked, and there was a chain in it, and I called Mr. Bobby but he didn't answer, so I called Rooney downstairs, opened the door with the key, and together with Rooney, broke the chain, and then we found Mr. Bobby lying on the ground. With that, Ferguson picked up his glass and took a big sip.

"When was the last time you saw Mr. Bobby?"

"Nine o'clock in the evening the day before. Mr. Mr. Bobby has a habit of always coming back to his room at nine o'clock. Lock the door. ”

"What did you do after you found the body?"

"I told Rooney to call the police. Mr. I'm here and nothing moves!" replied Ferguson, the innkeeper, fluently.

"Alright, thank you, thank you for telling me so much. Holmes motioned for Ferguson to leave. Then a stout young man walked in, "Are you looking for me?" My name is Rooney. ”

"You may be seated, Mr. Rooney. Take a sip. I have a question for you. Rooney was very nervous, he looked at the deputy sheriff standing to the side, and then nodded that he was okay.

Holmes repeated the question he had asked Ferguson, and Rooney replied the same as Ferguson, except that he didn't know much about Mr. Bobby. He had also seen Mr. Bobby the night before—only at eight o'clock. Then he went to the back kitchen to help with the potatoes for tomorrow, and then at 9:05 the next morning, the boss, Mr. Ferguson, called him up and helped him break down the door of Mr. Bobby's house, and then he saw Mr. Bobby's headless body, and then Mr. Ferguson told him to go to the local police station to call someone.

When Rooney also left, Holmes stretched, "Deputy Sheriff, there's no problem now." I think we're going to have a night's rest, and then I'll check out the first one tomorrow, and I should be able to give you an answer by then. Oh! That's right. The homeless man can let him go, he's not a prisoner. ”

Bo Fu had already returned from a stroll in the moonlight at this time. The faint sound of horses' hooves accompanied him all the way until he stepped out of the Hastings Forest and onto the road to the nearest farm. Bo Fu turned a corner, and when he stepped again, he was already at the door of the inn. Bo Fu nodded to the waiter behind the counter, and then went up the stairs into his room.

At dawn the next day, Bo Fu was still asleep in bed, but Holmes and Watson were already in the police carriage and headed to the first scene of the crime. The carriage ran for about half an hour and stopped. The deputy sheriff jumped out of the car and walked ahead, and when he came to a ditch on the side of a highway, he signaled that Sherlock Holmes was the first scene of the crime.

Holmes walked to the edge of the ditch, which was a dry and very shallow ditch, about the width of a man, and only about an inch deep, with rough gravel underneath and ordinary weeds on either side of the ditch. The ditch was parallel to the road, and the road was about three inches higher than the ground of the ditch, and the ditch was about three feet from the road, and the deputy sheriff lay down in the ditch, despite the dew on the ground, indicating that this was where the body was lying when they arrived. Holmes smiled and asked the deputy sheriff to stand up, then asked the deputy sheriff about the height of the deceased, and then took out a magnifying glass again and looked carefully at the ditch. "Are there many locals on this road?" asked Holmes, straightening up.

"Not much, because the road goes halfway around the edge of the Hastings Forest, and there used to be only one farm of pigs, so there were only a few local farmers who came and went, bringing fodder or caring for the pigs. And Old Terry was one of those people. The deputy sheriff replied.

Holmes straightened up and watched the road stretch into the distance, with vast, undulating meadows on one side and dense almost blackened woods on the other. "That fork in the road," Holmes gestinated, "where does that fork in the road lead?"

"Oh, that's the way to Hastings Manor. That place has long been abandoned, abandoned for hundreds of years. All that was left was a mess of rocks and a half-collapsed house, and no one lived there. Because the locals say that it is the territory of the Headless Horseman. The deputy sheriff said, and then he muttered, "Nonsense"

But Holmes had already begun to make his way to the fork in the road, and Watson followed him, and Holmes's eagle eyes looked left and right, and suddenly he fell down and looked carefully at the "interesting horseshoe prints" on the ground with a magnifying glass

"What did you say? ”

"Nothing, Watson. Just something insignificant."

For the rest of the trip, Holmes kept his eyes on a certain direction on the ground, but his steps were fast, and soon they were in Hastings Forest. The forest obscured most of the sunlight, but there were not many shrubs and weeds on the fork in the road, and it was very clear that it led to the depths of the forest. The three of them soon came to the end of the fork in the road, which was a rather large manor with an ancient atmosphere, but the plants growing on the ruins of the manor indicated that it had been abandoned for a long time.

Sherlock Holmes took Watson around the manor, but it didn't take a closer look to feel that there was no human breath at all, the manor was clearly burned by fire, and what could have been taken away for hundreds of years had already been taken, all that was left was the stone and some wood that were part of the building. The scale of the manor's heyday can be seen in the scattered stones and the half-collapsed houses, "The locals say it was Sir Hastings' manor long ago, and he was a local fiefdom nobleman for at least two hundred years," the deputy sergeant, who was a local, whispered to Holmes. Holmes didn't take out his magnifying glass, he looked at the collapsed buildings, and quickly turned back.

Out of the forest, and standing by the carriage, Holmes said to the deputy sheriff, "Get us back to the hotel first, I need time to tidy up, and when tomorrow I think I can give you an answer." ”

Bo Fu was just eating his breakfast in high spirits—lots of bacon and a large bottle of milk and slices of bread and jam. (To be continued......)