"Doyle, Arthur Conan - Sherlock Holmes 07 - The Valley of Fear" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doyle Arthur Conan)

schemer of all time, the organizer of every deviltry, the control-
ling 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 charac-
ter. 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."
"May I be there to see!" I exclaimed devoutly. "But you
were speaking of this man Porlock."
"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."
"But no chain is stronger than its weakest link."
"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."
Again Holmes flattened out the paper upon his unused plate. I
rose and, leaning over him, stared down at the curious inscrip-
tion, which ran as follows:

534 C2 13 127 36 31 4 17 21 41
DOUGLAS 109 293 5 37 BIRLSTONE
26 BIRLSTONE 9 47 171

"What do you make of it, Holmes?"
"It is obviously an attempt to convey secret information."
"But what is the use of a cipher message without the cipher?"
"In this instance, none at all."
"Why do you say 'in this instance'?"
"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."
"But why 'Douglas' and 'Birlstone'?"
"Clearly because those are words which were not contained in