Chapter 13 Scrooge's Gold in the Treasure Sector

In the history of Metro Baghdad, perhaps there has never been a story that has more boredom than Uncle Malachy.The story is atmospheric and irrational, as is the theme, and the whole story is full of pathos and irony, and even has an unexpected ending. From birth to death, Uncle Malachy lived in the shadow of the rusted sign on Third Avenue.Because he was a pawnbroker, lived in his crumbling building with peeling walls and owned title, everyone said he was wealthy.And because he's a surly old man who doesn't trust banks and lives like a mouse, everyone says he's a miser. And because one of his notable hobbies was collecting books—not just rare books, or first editions, or books in perfect condition; he collected any book in any condition—everyone said he was a weirdo.

It's all true—he's rich, he's a miser, he's a freak; but it's not that simple.His fortune was in real estate—the Manhattan estate his great-grandfather bought; he was a miser, for all pawnbrokers were born collectors, and his eccentricity lay not in his collection of books but in his reading. His pawn shop and upstairs living space consisted of two impossibly crowded dens, both of which were overwhelmed by the influx of books.Dumas, Scott, Cooper, Dickens, Poe, Stevenson, Kipling, Conrad, Mark Twain, O. The complete works of Henry, Conan Doyle, Wells, Jack London, and others - low-cost wholesale reading.All the time Malachy didn't spend tending the shop was devoted to flickering kerosene lamps, just to glimpse treasures of world literature.As he grew older and his eyesight failed, he gradually picked up the pace of his reading; this was because old Malachy had set himself a great goal: to start with the more exciting books and eventually finish the All masterpieces.What a terrific madness to match his spidery mind and mysterious sense of humor - he's always laughing, chuckling or laughing, though no one ever knows what he's laughing at.

Uncle Malachy's clients were fond of saying that the old miser had no heart, which was a slander.He had a heart—Dr. Ben Bernard, two houses away, could attest—and he had one of the worst hearts of all.Dr. Ben said that he had never seen such a strange, dark valve like a devil.But Uncle Malachy just chuckled back: "You're a fool, Doctor!" Doctor Ben shot back with a sigh: If it weren't for the fool, he wouldn't be running a practice on Third Avenue.He continues to heal the aging pawnbroker, and the monthly bills seem to be taken care of. As for Eve Warren, she entered Uncle Malachy's life the same way most people do.Eve runs a small greeting card shop and public library across the street.In order to avoid too much pressure from her creditors, she became one of Malachy's clients.His eyes gradually became blurred, and she felt a serious sense of responsibility; after all, there are very few book lovers in this world.So she started visiting him after the shop closed and reading to him.He was suspicious at first, but then he realized that she was a fool like Dr. Ben.Old Malachy laughed, and he'd even do some ancient ritual for her after that, giving her a cup of hot water and insisting it was tea.

One night, while Eve was reading Treasure Island to him, Uncle Malachy's black heart finally killed him.Lost in the world of the black dog's wound and Dr. Livesey's scalpel, she looked up to find the pawnbroker on the floor, his head stuck between two piles of books, his eyeballs bulging, his distorted face blue. "Lawyer...witness...will..." Franky Paglovich went to Murray Hill Law Firm for the first time.He's on the next door porch talking to a group of neighbors about the latest Supreme Court ruling.Eve yelled for him to pass, and ran off into the street to find Dr. Ben.When she returned with the young doctor, Uncle Malachy's head was on the red burlap cover of Richard Harding Davis, and Lawyer Paglovich knelt beside him, frantically recording with.

"All my possessions, both estate and personal ... including stashed cash ... are divided equally among the few ... who have shown me the mercy of Christ ..." Doctor Ben looked up at Eve, shaking his head sadly. "...they are Eve Warren and Dr. Ben Bernard." "Oh!" Eve said.Tears welled up in her eyes immediately. Grocer Svensson, Constable Pat Clichy and Dry Goods Store Joe Littman signed as witnesses.Franky, Paglovich bent down and said loudly to the panting old man: "You have to explain the hidden cash. How much is there?" Old Malachy's purple lips muttered, but he didn't say anything. Come on. "Five thousand? Ten thousand?"

"Four million." He finally whispered, "It's all 10,000 yuan bills." "Millions." The young lawyer swallowed. "Four million? Four million? Where? Where? Where have you been hiding, Mr. Malachy?" Uncle Malachy tried to speak. "In this building?" "Yes," said Old Man Chuan's voice that suddenly faded, "yes. Just when—" But then he suddenly noticed something and looked into the distance.Not long after, Dr. Ben announced his death. Ellery took on the case not just because he had an appetite for riddles, but because he could clearly see his two visitors swooning over each other.Love and treasure - who can resist such a delicacy?

"Are you sure the old man didn't make up the four million in his head, Dr. Bernard?" But Dr. Ben assured him otherwise.The ledger was found in the pawnshop's safe, listing the numbers for these ten thousand dollar bills, which were confirmed by various banks.Eve says that Uncle Malachy would often cryptically mention his "cash hoard" to her—she said he had a penchant for puns and wordplay—and tease people to find it, even though it was hidden in the " inside the venue".In fact, she and Dr. Ben turned the small building upside down from cellar to roof and found nothing but cobwebs and vermin.Eve blushed and admitted that the process was not fruitless.Assisted by a mouse, she flings screaming into Dr. Ben's arms, and they make a marriage contract while digging the cellar.

"Okay, okay, let's look at that again," Ellery said cheerfully.He immediately accompanied them back to Third Avenue. Sixteen hours later, he was sinking into Uncle Malachy's only chair.The chair must have been from some Victorian house, red suede and fringed.Ellery bit his nails.Yiying sat sadly on Uncle Malachy's bed, and Doctor Ben sat on a pile of books, caught between the complete works of Bret Hart and the novels of Wilkie Collins.The gas flame flickered and danced. "No way," Ellery said about an hour later, "you can't hide four hundred bills . . . unless . . . "

"Unless you separate them. One here and one there," said Doctor Ben helpfully. "Hidden in four hundred different places." Eve shook her head. "No, Ben. From the hints he gave me, I'm pretty sure he kept them all in one place, in a bundle." "Hint," said Ellery. "Any hint, Miss Warren?" "Oh, I don't know—it's all enigmatic words. Something about clues—" "clue!" "Clue." Eve gasped guiltily, "My God!" "He left a clue?" "Think about it, Eve!" Dr. Ben pleaded. "In this room, when I read to him—"

"Read what?" Ellery asked sharply. "Edgar Allan Poe's... yes, The Purloined Letter. Uncle Malachy laughed and said—" "If you can remember, please tell him the exact words!" "He said: 'That Dupin guy is a clever villain. It's in the most obvious place, isn't it? Good! In fact, there's a clue where I hid the money, little Eve, and it's in the In this room—I mean the clues are here, not the money.' Then he covered his stomach with a laugh, 'in the most obvious place imaginable!' He laughed so hard I was afraid of him heart attack."

"The most obvious clue in the room... is the book. He must be referring to one of the thousands of books. But which one?" Ellery stared at Eve, then got up from the chair Jumping up, "Pun, you said that. Of course..." Then he started hunting frantically among the piles of books that fell like landslides, "But it's supposed to be here... wait, Doctor, You're sitting on it!" Doctor Ben jumped up from the passbook on which he sat. Ellery dropped to his knees and began rummaging through the different books in the set. "Ah!" He took one of the books and sat down on the floor, like holding the egg of a huge strange bird.He first checked the binding with his nose against the spine, and then turned the pages.Finally he turned to one of the previous pages and read it out to himself, muttering. When he raised his head, Eve and Doctor Ben asked in unison, "How is it?" "I have to ask a few questions. Please hold back your ecstasy and answer seriously—your future depends on it." Ellery flipped through the pages. "Are there any potted palms here?" "Pot palm?" said Dr. Ben feebly. "No," Eve said, glaring at her lover. "No potted palms. What about a room with a skylight?" "Skylight..." "No." "In all the art downstairs—ceramics, statues, vases—do you remember anything that had a dog in its shape or pattern? A yellow dog?" "There's a blue horse," began Doctor Ben, "and a—" "No, Mr. Quinn!" "Are there any bows? Archery targets? Portraits or statues of archers? Cupid statues? Green doors?" "Ben, stop talking. Mr. Quinn, none of these things!" "Where's the clock?" Ellery muttered, looking down at his book again. "There are," said Doctor Ben, "there are plenty of them!" "I've checked them all," Ellery said. "The money isn't in there. In that case," Ellery smiled, standing up, "If Uncle Malachy likes his little joke so much, there's only one possibility sex." "What is it?" said Uncle Malachy's heir at the same time. "Let's borrow Uncle Malachy's obvious law," Ellery continued. "Where would he hide the clues among the millions of books? Well, let's see what he hides first? Four million $. Four million--books. Among the complete works, there is O. Henry's complete works. One of O'Henry's most famous works is titled . . . "Four Millions." Ellery shook the book. Didn't find anything out of the ordinary in this book, so the clue must be in the content. The obvious next step: go to the table of contents. What are the titles of these short stories? Tobin's Palmistry—so I ask Potted Palm. The Skylight Room—but no skylight. Memories of the Yellow Dog—no Yellow Dog.——The Caliph, Cupid, and the Clock, all ruled out. Of these novels only one remains Possibility, that must be Malachy's lead on where the cash stash is: "Between Rounds." "Between rounds," said Doctor Ben, biting his nails, "what the hell does that mean? Malachy's not a boxer, or—" "But he is," Ellery laughed, "and he's a lover of puns, a lover of the obscure and the obvious. Round...that is, anything round. The pawn shop— —any pawn shop has it, big and round enough to hold four hundred bills, what is it?" Eve gasped in shock, and ran to the front window, looking out through the rusty window rails, pointing to Third Avenue, where the old sign of Uncle Malachy's practice hangs. "Get me some tools, doctor, and we'll pry these three gilded spheres apart!"