In Paris, one freezing winter evening, I was having dinner with my friend, Mr. Dupin, the famous detective. We had just finished our meal, when there was a loud knocking at the door. Dupin opened it. There stood Mr. Germain, the chief警长）of the Paris Police.
We welcomed him warmly, for he was an old acquaintance（熟人）whom we hadn't seen for a great time.
"I need your assistance," said Germain. "I met a case（案件）that has been giving me a great deal of trouble. It is very simple but very strange."
“Also, please keep this secret. If anyone found out that I told you this. I would certainly lose my job.”
“Well, then,” said the Chief,” I have learned that a very important letter has been stolen from the king. We are sure who stole it and that the letter is in his house."
"But who would dare do such a thing" I cried.
"The thief," said Germain softly, "He's a man who darers do many dangerous things. He is one of the most powerful and important ministers in the government. He is Minister Danton.”
"A lot of times, while Minister Danton was out, a lot of well-trained police officers carefully searched the entire house, room by room. In fact, we examined everything in the house but found nothing."…
A month later, Dupin asked Germain and me to his house. There he took out a letter and handed it to the Chief. We were both very surprised.
Dupin explained, "I know Minister Danton very well. He could not hide the letter in any of the usual hiding places. I realized that he might have left the letter out in the open, right under everyone's nose, where no one would search for it."
"Then I visited him with my dark glasses on to help me observe（观察）better. While we were chatting, a dirty, torn letter in the letter holder suddenly caught my eyes-unusual for the Minister, who is careful and neat."
"I was sure it was the letter."
"Then I purposely left my gloves behind so I could come back again."
"The next morning, I hired a man to fire a gun on the street, while the Minister went to see what happened, I stole the letter by replacing it with a similar one, On it Dupin wrote these words:
Your plan was good, but mine was better
As you can see, I took the letter.
—-Based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe
