On 18 March,1916, the thread of life was ablazed and it engulfed my family. I was twelve then and of course, for most of children, such type of incident would have left a very deep impact and a remorseful feeling in the heart. But I wasn't so aggrieved by it and now whenever I go anywhere, the incident doesn't flash before my eyes . Such a reaction maybe be absurd to many of you readers but as a wise man once said "No matter what the cause was or what the loss , if impact is good , then don't waste your life on thinking about it "

It was the time when our country was at war and thousands of injured garnished the dusty black lanes of London. My aunt was my only one living guardian and she was a very kind old lady . When she heard the news , at once she rushed to meet and soothe me. She was a tall dark lady with freckles a little scattered on her face . Her height was approximately six feet and good impression was imprinted on on-lookers when she pass. From her left ear , a little chaff is skin was burned and her eyes were yellowish pale. She was one of the rich heiress of London at that time and her name Mrs Rebecca Solenia was known by all in her city.

She asked me "William! Are you all right? Oh ! Indeed you are not. Poor child. You don't worry. You don't need to . I have carriage waiting in there and you can live with us now."

"Us" I exclaimed. As far as I knew my aunt lived with my uncle long time ago in a rich state of Sussex and since after his death, she was living with ger trustful housekeeper and cook in Stagon road.

"Oh! My nephew has come to stay with me these holidays and I think you will be glad to meet your distant but cousin." She told me as we walked towards carriage. The coachman whipped the horse and we proceeded to my aunt's house. The rain had poured down on the roads making it muddy and sticky. The horses galloped some times so violently when any stone protruding out of ground came, that it was wonder I managed to cling to my seat .

I was leaning out of window wondering what to do now. I had no friend there and it will be very miserable to live alone but then there was my cousin. I didn't know about him yet. What would he be like? Violent or short tempered or patient or docile or funny .

My thoughts came to halt with halting of horses and we stepped out of carriage . As I glanced at mansion of my aunt, I could see light in one of the room probably my distant cousin. The night was pitch dark and we were rushing towards the door as rain was pouring again.

"Now you go upstairs dear and sleep to your health." She said and kissed me goodnight.

However, I had no intention of going in my room and sleep like a mere horse. I knocked on the door of my cousin and a voice full of pride but pleasure answered "Come in"

I saw a guy of same age with blonde hair and hat on his head on which gleamed three gold letters "PSD" . His face was very pasty and a fair eyes with intense blue eyes and curved lips gazed at me intently. He wore a dark black shirt with blue coat and black green trouser. His boots were lying besides the bed. In his hands , I saw a book of Sherlock Holmes. He looked at me glancing over the book.

"Yes!I am quite interested in Sherlock Holmes and his invaluable wit. I know that I can never match him but I am sure if a chance comes, I would certainly be more efficient than police force in London."

"Indeed I chuckled if you got a chance and prove yourself wrong and victim of infatuation with mystery books."

"I see! You have arrived from carriage and clearly something has happened today which shook you completely . Something to do with fire. Ah ! You attempted to go in and save your parents but the firemen pulled you back and then my aunt saw you crying and offered her hanky to you which you recieved kindly ." He stated.

I was astonished to say anything at all . It seems all the minds of detective which I knew were embedded in him. Like a fool standing there , I was quite embarrassed and asked " I suppose you wouldn't care to tell me how did you know all that ?"

"Deduction from observation. Most of the things we observe can tell us all if we want but a deduction is necessary . Some people however mistook it as guess. It is probability and then there are also some idiots who say these two terms are same . However not to preach you anymore today after such a violente ride in carriage." He paused as I was completely shaken.

He glanced with piercing blue eyes and continued" Your clothes are burned and it smells of smoke. Now as you trundle the luggages, I heard louder rumbling sound of luggages than usually when you come for a little time which help me to deduce that you are gonna stay here for a long time and from your pocket, your handkerchief is protruding out wet which shows that after this incident, you cried and with initials of R.Solenio . I knew that she offered her handkerchief to you. Your one side of flannel jacket is torn like being pulled forcibly. Now you have cried and probably rushed to save someone . I assume parents . I hope I am making myself clear and as for your violent ride in carriage , the constant blow of it on head gas swelled positions a bit and it seems quite fresh." He finished.

"Well I remarked at the extraordinary deduction of my cousin. "So what do you mean by it ? Means you are too small and probably can't be invited to spots of crime and let them to allow you to investigate. I think you should have a group like secret seven , famous five etc."

"What good will that do ?" He asked calmly.

I exclaimed in impatience "The more the members, the less the burden and quicker the work done"

"I think you are wrong, my dear fellow in both reasonings. Firstly, I don't want to form a silly group because it is not burden for me and after all, you wouldn't get full credit. As for quickness , you could certainly trust me on that." He shrugged.

I sighed " I suppose that you would at least care to introduce yourself. My name is William .If I could assist you , I would be glad to."

"Oh! I am Tricky X and certainly I would need a partner. I am willing to bet that you will soon learn deduction with me ."

Nearly four weeks had passed since my arrival in Stagon road. I usually stayed in my room alone studying anything . I prefer magazine, comics etc . I seldom went into Tricky's room and whenever I visit him , I found him lying sprawled on chair with his head gazing towards ceiling and eyes closed with hands knotted criss-crossly .

I always wonder that a man so drowsy could reach such fine conclusions. I had a little doubt . What if he knew already about me and just co-related the facts to prove himself inteligent. But that was less likely indeed and I had no such thoughts afterward.

One day , my cousin had gone to fair with my aunt. However I refused politely and waited for them to leave the home. It was 8'0 Clock in the morning and after breakfast, I went to Tricky' s chamber and a paper tugged out of the drawer. I was trying to catch it but it fluttered away to heaven knows where . I didn't search anymore and returned to my room.

Late evening, Tricky returned to his room and gave a horrific cry. Both me and aunt rushed to his took finding him drowned in thousands of paper clippings.

"What happened? Why are you shrieking?" Aunt asked.

"The report! My report is lost." Tricky replied somberly and then with a quick glance at me , shouted "which seems to be done by some other person or perhaps stolen." I turned red and looked away.

"Now! Now dear, why would William take your report card, Tricky. Be sensible!" Aunt told him.

"Not my report card but a newspaper report. The report of 8th April." Tricky replied.

"What are you talking about? I think I have two copies of that day's newspaper. Ah! Here it is. Now do what you want." I forwarded him newspaper.

Then my aunt left and in room , we were standing alone. Tricky with his hands crossed and a face demanding apology and me looking at clipping in curiosity.

"Well! Sorry." I said.

"Thanks for saying that petty word, William . It was certainly in need." He remarked.

The newspaper read

"The peculiar incident was described by and first discovered by an inspector in Liverpool. On 8 April, Inspector Catmill was going for his daily patrol when he heard a commotion when at Liverpool station, he heard a commotion among crowd. On that day many high people from United Arab Emirates had come for a wedding. Catmill tried to maintain order but the huge crowd of people was maddingly pushing and kicking. Just then a cry was heard and the crowd scattered . A man had fallen down from train being dead. No traces of violence or wound or bullet or poison was discovered except a prick in neck. The man was identified as Blen Zhang, a resident of 11/2 A Rohtang Dong Lu , Beijing by card in his pocket. On the back of the card was printed "Plot no C-34, Sector E-9, Afana-opco, Khalifa Bin Zayed Street , P.O." The places was an embassy of China in UAE and it is believed that it is a mere coincidence that man possesed it .

Till date , nothing is known about his work or life. Blen is now kept in custody where traces are still being examined that may help to catch this culprit. Soon the case will be transferred to Inspector Hamprit of Sussex."

"Why in the world are you keeping this report? Tricky, are you all right?" I remarked.

"Yes, I am but I have an intuitive that the culprit will be rewarded in end ."

"What are you saying?" I asked.

"I will tell you but not now. Some matters are still not clear and accounting a story on unclear facts is not my style." With this, he crawled back in the chair and I thought him to be asleep for quite a while until he suddenly sprang out of chair and my tea cup flew away .

Ignoring my annoyed look, he said" how could I have been so dumb ? The embassy of course!"

"Will you explain or not?" I said tired.

"Very soon but let's investigate some facts, shall we ?" He said as I sighed.

"Firstly, is Blen Zhang a real name ?" He said. I took directory of China and found no person with such name existing.

"Ah! An alias. " He chuckled and then took out photo of Blen Zhang, from his pocket cut out from a newspaper apparently. He was a pale white faces man with grey eyes like a Russian, Swedish, Italian etc. The only thing making him Chinesse was very small opened eyes . (Not being racist)

"Enlarge eyes a bit and he will reveal his true Russian nationality.' He remarked.

I was quite startled. "How could you know that he is not Chinesse?"

"A very simple deduction, my fellow. On his neck you can see that is a very small letter 230263 in Latin is inscribed. Now most of the people would ignore it as a tattoo but a good detective rules out nothing until completely sure. I was learning latin and I saw at once the numbers two three zero two six three " inscribed.

I must say that he is clever chap to write them in words in dead language rather than numbers. Now this is the number of Russian Embassy. Moreover , why a real resident of any nation would fear to live under real name unless he is terrorist or faking his nationality.

Now being terrorist is not likely because if he was , then too he wouldn't roam so freely in that China. So the only possibly left is being Russian and posing as Chinesse. Now why is the man faking? That is the question." He finished.

"I was really impressed "However, we know the he is Russian doesn't change the fact that he is dead and we don't know a thing about his killer or cause"

"My dear fellow. Patience is a virtue to be inhibited in such trivial cases."

"Trivial! Really trivial for such unusual happening." I exclaimed.

"Leave me alone for few hours and then come when I call you ." I waited whole afternoon in fact but no call was given. I finally went to bed tired of day and at dark hour of night was awakened by Tricky X.

"What? I was sleeping" I complained.

"Even, I can see that . Dress up . If we are little late, then England might be in peril." He said.

We two quietly crept out of house and hired a carriage. I was still puzzled over strange behaviour of my companion. The carriage stopped at last . Tricky directed me to follow him .

He talked to sergeant standing outside the police station.

"Is the body of Blen Zhang transferred and about to be cremated ?" He asked.

"None of your business. Think of poking fun at this hour !" He scowled.

"I have very valuable information for Inspector Hamprit and if you don't allow us to come in , then don't regret after losing the war ." He said calmly. Both me and sergent were shocked. We finally went inside and sat on a chair near the fire. Inspector came with a serious look and looked at us suspiciously that our motive was to play prank.

"When I found out that you all were planning to cremate the body , then I had to come in quickly as I could. You must not do that yet." Tricky told him.

"Carry on! What do you want to say ?" Inspector Hamprit asked.

"Certainly! Now the happenings or such couldn't be a mere coincidence. It had to do something with war . Recently I had learned that England had promised UAE large sum of financial aid in exchange for sensitive information to be delivered about rival nations in war . This is what UAE did because England could help him raise its economy and they could annex territories together. Russians are historical betrayers. Therefore when they learned that Embassy of UAE has collected information about routes of oil transport from Saudi Arabia via Russia to German Empire, then a spy with alias Blen Zhang was sent. I had to do lot of research to find that but I figured it out by looking at world maps and war situation.

So anyway the spy was seen stealing documents and when he boarded the train by mixing among UAE citizens to escape, another man was sent to retrieve the material and kill him which happened as you know. A needle of poison derived from Indian red cobra extract was thrown and man was dead. It is one of the few poison to kill instantly and can't be discovered during autoposy.

Now it was mentioned that no signs of violence on Blen Zhang's body which means the man didn't have enough time to search him and escape with documents so the documents are still with him but where. So if you would kindly call a surgeon and cut the belly , then something of great importance to this nation will be in your hands." The surgeon was called and indeed the papers were there in form of squashed ball.

All three of us stood uprooted . Then Inspector shook his hand and congratulated Tricky. "The government is indebted to you and your deduction."

"There is something else too that I would like to have other than gratitude, sir."

"Indeed! You will be known by all in papers and rewarded 100 pounds." Inspector forwarded an envelope to him.

Taking it , he said" That is .. thank you sir. But don't you think that UAE should be acknowledged with this and ties being placed to stronghold."

"Yes! That remains"

Recorded -16 April, 1916