Detective Mary

Chapter 37

"You must help me, sir, or my life may not be safe!"

These words, uttered by a factory owner of great wealth and position, startled almost everyone-except Sherlock Holmes.

The detective remains calm in the face of Mr. Hamp's desperate plea for help, probably used to all kinds of people coming to his door.

"In that case," spoke Holmes, "you will have to give me the information you have."

"I will tell," responded Mr. Hamp, hastily, "I know everything."

"Who is that 'professor'?"

"......"

On one foot he said he knew everything, but on the next he was silent when the detective asked the key question. Mr. Hamp was a little hesitant: "'The Professor' is not a key person ......"

Hearing this, Ms. Morstein was the first to hold her tongue, "If he's not the key person, why did you fire Henry?"

Mr. Hamp: "It's - it's not that simple, how did you get in here, Morstan?!"

There are hundreds of workers at Hamp's factory in London, and the factory owner remembers who Mary Morstan is, so it seems that the Irish girl is a figure of speech among the workers.

Morstan: "I've come to make a case for Henry."

Hamp: "You get out!"

Sherlock Holmes: "Mr. Humble! You don't look as if your life was in danger, but as if you thought you were capable of handling the trouble on your own."

Hamp: "......"

Mary, seeing Mr. Hamp's flickering expression, struck while the iron was hot, "Miss Mostyn and Henry Decker have told us everything, sir, and if you're really afraid of losing your family or your life, won't you at least let the detectives know what's going on?"

Mr. Hamp sniffed, sighed, and finally chose to give up the struggle.

He wiped his forehead, and with a note of haste in his voice: "It is not that I am unwilling to appeal to the whole, Holmes, but I know no more than you do."

"But you know the name of the 'professor' at least." Mary pressed, wanting nothing more than to confirm that it was not Professor Moriarty who was behind the manipulation of the raw cotton market.

But without expecting to hear Mary's question, Mr. Hamp shook his head.

"I really don't know."

He responded regretfully, "All I know is that everyone calls him 'Professor' - nothing about his exact name, gender, how old he is, what nationality."

Mr. Bentley looked odd, "So you still trust him, and even tried to rope me in?"

Mr. Hamp: "I have no law!"

Mr. Hamp: "I can't do anything about it!" Mr. Hamp: "I can't do anything about it!" Mr. Hamp: "I can't do anything about it!" Mr. Hamp: "I can't do anything about it! He rubbed his hands repeatedly in front of his desk, and finally said directly as if he had gone out of his way, "Most of the factories that have switched to cheap cotton from abroad over the past two years have closed down because the source of their raw materials suddenly went bankrupt, or simply disappeared without being able to turn over their capital."

Mary: "But there are always exceptions."

Mr. Hamp: "And most of the exceptions are people who are sheltered by the 'Professor'."

Mary flinched.

The factory owner, who had just been agitated, finally calmed down.

His face was full of gravity, looking at Holmes: "The high price of cotton raw materials in this country, want to compete with other cotton spinning mills will be difficult. I made many inquiries, and only then got the news - sir, at present, the Caribbean, Egypt and other foreign cheap cotton origin, most of them are controlled by that 'professor'. With the exception of a few factories which he has sheltered and recognized, the other merchants are but playthings in the hands of the 'Professor'!"

Holmes, upon hearing this sensationalized statement, merely spoke with an expressionless face, "He's manipulating the cotton spinning industry, so?"

Mr. Hamp: "That's why I've put in a lot of favors to finally get access to the 'Professor's' agents."

"Captain Carter?" Mary asked.

"Yes," Mr. Hamp nodded, "he said that the 'Professor' admired me as a man and was willing to introduce me to safe foreign suppliers ...... so I was then prepared to draw Mr. Bingley and Mr. Thornton into the business. I swear I really mean well, Holmes, I would never victimize my own partners!"

This was true. Although it was strictly Mr. Bentley's mill in which he had invested, Mr. Hamp and Mr. Thornton's mill at Milton were very close together. Whether it was the price of cotton or the labor pool, the two mills were so closely intertwined that it could be said that they were one and the same.

At this point in Mr. Hamp's discourse, Mr. Holmes sidled his head and fell into deep thought.

His light-colored eyes flickered before he spoke, "But the 'Professor's' agents unilaterally tore up this collaboration."

"Yes."

"Captain Carter sent someone to steal Mr. Bentley's contract, trying to destroy the evidence."

"Yes, yes," Mr. Hamp nodded desperately, "the unsigned contracts were left with the names of the cotton suppliers, which was tantamount to exposing their own men."

"What led him to intend to break the contract?"

"It was you."

Mr. Hamp replied heavily.

"It was you, Mr. Holmes," he continued, "who, a few months ago, just as Mr. Bingley had purchased a house in the Southern country, and was preparing to move there, Captain Carter suddenly learned that his good friend, Mr. Darcy, was a world friend of your family."

"......"

Sense it's still Mr. Darcy's pot!

All the pieces were thus strung together, and without Mr. Hamp's further explanation, Mary quickly understood the general idea.

Early on at Netherfield Manor, Mr. Holmes had made it bluntly clear that his purpose in taking up the case of the country burglary was not, of course, to steal per se, but that a larger conspiracy lay behind the act of stealing the contract.

The London workmen were on good terms with him, and several of the Irish workmen heard the name of Sherlock Holmes as if they had met Marx and Engels. And Mr. Detective himself has said that it was from the workers that he learned of the inexplicable closure of many factories.

So it seems that the "professor" has long been found Sherlock Holmes in pursuit of this matter, but the past detective has no concrete clues, can not take the next step.

At this point, Captain Carter suddenly discovered that Mr. Bentley's social circle is interconnected with the social circle of Holmes himself.

For reasons still unknown, the "Professor" does not intend to let Holmes pursue the case - or at least does not intend to make his presence known - so he asks his agent to cut off the clues, but instead of destroying the contract, he leads the detective directly to Netherfield Manor and to the case itself.

So it seems that Mr. Hamp is really not an important part in it.

It was indeed that Captain Carter who was important.

Mary thought that, as an agent, he could not, like Mr. Hamp, not know the real name of the "Professor."

"Captain Carter was also close to my sister Lydia when he was in Meriden," Mary wrinkled her nose, "and thought to have picked up a number of useful clues."

That silly girl!

If you don't ask her to do any favors, at least don't drag your feet. The thought that Lydia had actually fought with the henchmen of the man behind the curtain at one point made Mary cringe.

I'll have to write to Lydia and tell her about this, and I'll have to make it scary, Mary thought in the back of her mind, to scare her so much that she'll still dare to flirt and flirt with officers everywhere.

"I know."

Mr. Holmes still had a cold look on his face, as if all these words of Mr. Hamp's were not expected of him.

"So it seems," spoke Mr. Holmes, rather unwillingly, "that Captain Carter must be met."

"Did you not want to see him in the first place, sir?" Mary wondered.

The detective glanced at her and answered Mary's question instead, "Once we get to his agent, the 'Professor' will know how far along we are in our investigation."

That was true.

It's all coming to him, and whether Captain Carter cooperates or doesn't, the man behind it will know that Holmes has gotten to his head.

"What if Captain Carter doesn't confess," Mr. Bentley threw out the worry, "and the Inspector of Police needs to be called in to take him into custody?"

"Not only arrest, but arrest him on the spot."

Holmes said with certainty, "Mr. Hamp! You want to save your reputation and position, don't you?"

Hamp shuddered at his words, "I would give my life."

Holmes was rather dismissive, "Unfortunately your life is of little value to the case."

It sounds like the detective doesn't like the factory owner very much. But just now he said he begged Holmes to save his life, and now he said he could give up his life, even a three year old could hear which sentence was true and which was false.

Mary lost her voice in laughter, "I don't think it seems to be that serious, right, detective?"

"It doesn't require the life of the mill owner," the detective picked up, "It only requires you to tell Captain Carter that Mr. Bentley felt there was a fraud, came to your door to argue with you, and returned the unsigned contract."

It seemed to be a case of catching fish in a barrel!

Mary's spirits lifted, "Are you going to set the trap, sir? When?"

Mr. Hamp glanced at Mary rather surprised.

Even though Sherlock Holmes had taken the unprecedented step of waiting for this Miss Mary Bennet before the opening, Mr. Hamp still hadn't taken Mary seriously; he had thought she was some kind of important witness.

But by the way she and the detective are familiar with each other, the two seem to be collaborating on a trail of clues.

"That," Mr. Hamp politely reminded, "Captain Carter character discreet, every secret meeting is about in the evening, this Miss Bennett ...... is not very suitable to be there."

For an unmarried lady to cross half of London after nightfall to come to the factory, the indignity and the rumors that would circulate were secondary to the importance of insecurity.

Mr. Bingley was as supportive of Mary as ever: "I'll take care of the ladies' safety, and rest assured, Hamp, she may be a young girl, but her talents may well surpass yours and mine. Miss Mary is extremely sensitive to cases, and her detective story has just passed the Seaside Magazine draft and will be published soon."

Holmes: "A detective story?"

The detective, who had been concentrating on the case, gave a start at the words, he turned his head and his sharp eyes fell on Mary, "You're working on a detective story?"