英文名著分集阅读 柯南·道尔《福尔摩斯与赛马》part3
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Sherlock Holmes and the Sport of Kings by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
单词提示
1.moor 荒原
2.matches 火柴
原文
Chapter 3: John Straker's Pockets
"Very interesting." I said.
I gave the papers back to Holmes, and he put them away.
"So,Watson, what can you tell me?" he asked.
I thought for a minute.
"This cut on Straker's leg, perhaps he did it with his own knife. When something hits you very hard on the head, and you have a knife in your hand… It can happen,you know."
"Very good, Watson, and that's bad news for Fitzroy Simpson."
"So,did Simpson do it? do you think?" I said.
"Perhaps,"said Holmes, "Let's look at it. Simpson puts opium in the boy's dinner. He goes away and comes back later in the night. He gets into the stables, takes the horse out, and leaves. But the trainer arrives at that moment, sees him,and follows him. The two men fight, and Simpson breaks Straker's head open with his stick. Then Simpson takes the horse. But where or did the horse run away? Is it still out on the moor? And how did Simpson get into the locked stables? I don't know, Watson, I don't know, we must wait and see."
When we arrived at Tavistock Station, two men came to meet us.
Inspector Gregory was a tall, slow-moving man with blue eyes.
And Mr. Ross was small and quick.
He was the first to speak, "Very pleased to see you, Mr. Holmes. The Inspector here is working hard, but we need help. We must find poor Straker's killer and I want to find my horse."
"Is there any news?" asked Holmes.
"Let's talk on the way," the Inspector said, "I'd like you to see everything in the daylight."
We were soon out of the little town and upon the brown hills of the moor.
Inspector Gregory thought that the killer was Fitzroy Simpson.
"Simpson was out in the rain that night. His suit was still wet on the Tuesday."he said, "He had a big stick, and his scarf was in the dead man's hand.That looks bad, Mr. Holmes, very bad."
Holmes smiled, "You need more than that, Inspector. The servant Edith,spoke of an envelope, did Simpson say anything about that?"
"Yes,he said it had money in it, a £10 note for the stable boy.
"What about this other training stables at Capleton?" asked Holmes, "Does Simpson have friends there?"
"No,we don't think so, we went to Capleton of course. Their horse Desbrough is the second favorite for the Wessex Cup, and Silas Brown, the trainer, was not friendly with Straker, but we found nothing when we arrived at King's Pyland."
Inspector Gregory took us into the trainer's house.
"Straker's body is upstairs," he said, "But we have here the things from his pockets and from the ground next to his body. Would you like to see them, Mr.Holmes?"
"Very much." said Holmes.
We went into the front room, and the Inspector opened a box and put things on a table.
There was a box of matches, a small piece of candle, some money, a watch, some papers and a small thin knife.
"This is a strange knife." Holmes said.
He looked at it carefully and then gave it to me.
"What is it, Watson?"
"It's an eye knife," I said, "Doctors use these when they cut into an eye. You don't usually see them outside a hospital."
"Mm,"said Holmes, "So why did Straker take this knife? It's no good for fighting,"
"His wife says it was in the bedroom for some days," said Inspector Gregory, "Perhaps he just took it, because it was there on the table."
"Perhaps,"said Holmes, "What about these papers?"
"One is a letter from Mr. Ross, the others are bills," the Inspector said, "Three of them are bills for the horse's food, and this one is a bill from a dressmaker in London for a Mr. William Derbyshire. He was a friend of Straker's, his wife tells us. His letters sometimes came here and Straker sent them on."
"Mrs.William Derbyshire is an expensive lady," said Holmes, looking at the bill, "£25 is a lot of money for just one dress and one hat."
He put the bill down and moved to the window.
"Inspector,can we go out on the moor now before the light begins to go?"
We left the room, and at the front door, we saw a woman.
She came up to Inspector Gregory, and put her hand on his arm.
"Is there any news?" She said.
"No,Mrs. Straker, but here is Mr. Holmes-the famous detective from London. We have him to help us now."
"I think I met you a month or two ago, Mrs. Straker," said Holmes, "Let me see… Yes, it was in Plymouth, at a garden party, do you remember?"
"No,sir, that wasn't me."
"But I remember so well… You had a blue dress and a dark blue hat with white flowers on it."
"I don't have a hat with flowers on it, sir. " Mrs. Straker said.
"Well,well, I am wrong, then. I am so sorry,"
Andwith that, Holmes followed the inspector outside.
Thefour of us, then walked past the stables and up onto the moor.
Afterten minutes, Inspector Gregory stopped.
"Herewe are," he said, "Straker's body was down there, his coat was hereon this small tree…"
"Onthe tree, not on the ground?" Holmes asked,
"Oh, no, it was on the tree, carefully away from the mud on the ground."
"Mm.Interesting," said Holmes. "Now I must look at the mud down there."
"Ah," said Inspector Gregory, "And to help you, I have here in this bag one of Straker's shoes, one of Fitzroy Simpson's shoes,and one of Silver Blaze's horseshoes."
"My dear inspector, well done!" Holmes was very pleased, "You'll think of everything for some minutes."
Holmes looked carefully at the ground, his eyes only centimeters away from the mud.
"Hello," he said suddenly, "What's this from out of the mud?"
He took a match, or a small piece of one.
"Now why didn't I find that?" said the inspector.
"I knew it was there, you see." said Holmes.
"You knew, but how could you know that?"
Holmes smiled, but did not answer.
He then took the shoes, got down on the ground, and began to look at all the tracks in the mud.
We stood and watched, but after five minutes Mr. Ross looked at his watch.
"This is very interesting, Mr. Holmes," he said, "But is it going to take a long time?"
"No."said Holmes, he got to his feet.
"I don't need to do any more here. Watson and I are going to take a little walk across the moor now with the horse shoe."
Mr.Ross looked at the Inspector.
"Can we go back to the house and talk? I must take Silver Blaze's name out of the Wessex Cup race, and do it today, I think."
"Don't do that," cried Holmes. "No, no, you must leave the horse's name in for the race."
"But…"Mr. Ross began, then he laughed a little angrily, "Well, thank you, Mr.Holmes, thank you for your help. See you later then at the house."
And he and the inspector walked away.
翻译
第三章：约翰·斯特雷克的口袋
"嗯，很有意思，"我说。我把卷案还给福尔摩斯，他将它们收了起来。
"那么，华生，你有什么看法?"他问。
我想了想。"斯特雷克腿上的那个伤口没准是他自己的刀划的。如果有什么东西猛撞你的头，你手上又正好拿着把刀......你知道，很有可能。"
"很好，华生。这对菲茨罗伊·辛普森来说可不是个好消息。"
"那你觉得是辛普森干的吗?"我问道。
"有可能。"福尔摩斯说，"让我们想想，辛普森在那个小马倌的晚餐里下了鸦片。他先离开，夜里晚些时候又回来，进入马厩，把马牵出来，然后逃走。但那时驯马师刚好赶到，看见了他，并紧追不舍。两个人打了起来，辛普森用手杖把斯特雷克的头打开了花。然后辛普森带走了那匹马--但带到哪里去了?还是马自己跑了?它是不是还在高沼地里?还有，辛普森怎么进到上了锁的马厩里的?我不知道，华生，我不知道。我们必须等等看。"
我们到塔维斯托克车站时，有两个人来接我们。
格雷戈里巡官个子高高的，动作缓慢，有一双蓝色的眼睛。
罗斯先生是小个子，性子很急。
他首先开口。"福尔摩斯先生，很高兴见到你。这位巡官很卖力，但我们需要帮助。我们必须找出杀害可怜的斯特雷克的凶手，我还想找到我的马。"
"有什么新的消息吗?"福尔摩斯问道。
"我们在路上说吧，"巡官说，"我想让你趁白天看看所有的情况。"
我们很快就出了小镇，到了沼泽地里的棕色小山上。
格雷戈里巡官认为凶手就是菲茨罗伊·辛普森。
"那天晚上下雨的时候辛普森在外面。他的外套到星期二还是湿的，"他说，"他有一根粗大的手杖，他的围巾又在死者手里。看上去不妙，福尔摩斯先生，非常不妙。"
福尔摩斯笑了笑。"你还需要更多证据，巡官。那个佣人，伊迪丝，提到了一个信封。辛普森对此说了什么吗?"
"说了，他说里边有钱--一张十英镑的钞票，给小马倌的。"
"卡普莱顿的另一个训练马厩情形怎么样?"福尔摩斯问道，"辛普森在那儿有没有什么朋友?"
"没有，我们以为没有。当然，我们也去了卡普莱顿。他们的马，德斯伯勒，是韦塞克斯杯的第二大热门，驯马师赛拉斯·布朗跟斯特雷克关系不好。但我们没发现什么。"
我们到达金斯皮兰以后，格雷戈里巡官把我们带到驯马师的家里。
"斯特雷克的尸体在楼上，"他说，"但我们把他口袋里的东西，还有在他身边地上找到的东西放在这儿。你想看看吗，福尔摩斯先生?"
"很想。"福尔摩斯说。
我们走进前厅，巡官打开一个盒子，把里边的东西放到一张桌子上。有一盒火柴，一小段蜡烛，一些钱，一块表，几张纸，还有一把很薄的小刀。
"这把刀很奇怪，"福尔摩斯说。他仔细地看了看，然后把刀递给我。"这是什么，华生?"
"这是一把眼科手术刀，"我说，"医生给眼睛动手术的时候就用这样的刀。一般在医院外面见不到这样的刀。"
"嗯，"福尔摩斯说，"那斯特雷克拿这刀做什么呢?它并不适合打斗。"
"他妻子说这把刀在卧室里已经放了一段时间了，"格雷戈里巡官说，"也许只是因为它在桌子上，他就顺手拿了。"
"也许，"福尔摩斯说，"那些纸是什么?"
"一张是罗斯先生的信，其他的是账单，"巡官说，"其中有三张是马饲料的账单，这张是伦敦的一个裁缝寄来的账单，是给一个名叫威廉·达比希雷的人的。斯特雷克的妻子告诉我们，他是斯特雷克的朋友。有时他的信会寄到这儿，斯特雷克再转寄出去。"
"威廉·达比希雷夫人是位出手阔绰的女士，"福尔摩斯看着账单说，"一件衣服和一顶帽子就花了25英镑，这可是一大笔钱呢。"
他放下账单，走到窗户边。"巡官，趁着天色还没暗下去，我们能现在去高沼地吗?"
我们离开了房间。在大门口，我们看见一个女人。她走向格雷戈里巡官，拉住他的手臂。
"有什么消息吗?"她问。
"没有，斯特雷克夫人，不过福尔摩斯先生在这儿，他是伦敦来的著名侦探。我们现在有他帮忙了。"
"我想一两个月前我曾经见过你，斯特雷克夫人。"福尔摩斯说，"让我想想......对，是在普利茅斯的一个游园会上。你还记得吗?"
"没有，先生，那不是我。"
"但我记得很清楚......你穿着蓝色的衣服，戴着一顶深蓝色的帽子，上面有白色的花。"
"我没有上面带花的帽子，先生。"斯特雷克夫人说。
"哦，那是我记错了。对不起。"福尔摩斯说着，跟着巡官出了门。
然后，我们四个人经过马厩，走到高沼地上。十分钟后，格雷戈里巡官停了下来。
"就是这儿，"他说，"斯特雷克的尸体就在这儿，他的外套在这边，挂在这棵小树上。"
"在树上?不在地上?"福尔摩斯问道。
"哦，不是。是在树上，小心地避开了地上的泥泞。"
"嗯，真有意思，"福尔摩斯说，"现在，我必须看看那边的泥地。"
"啊，"格雷戈里巡官说，"为了协助你，我在这个包里装了一只斯特雷克的鞋，一只菲茨罗伊的鞋，还有一只'银光'的蹄铁。"
"亲爱的巡官，太棒了!"福尔摩斯非常高兴。"你考虑得真周到。"
福尔摩斯仔细地检查了地面足足几分钟，他的眼睛离泥地只有几厘米。
"噢!"他突然说道，"这是什么?"
他从泥里捡起一根火柴，或者说是一小截火柴棍。
"我怎么就没发现呢?"巡官说。
"我知道它会在这儿，你瞧。"福尔摩斯说。
"你知道?但你怎么可能知道呢?"
福尔摩斯笑了笑，但没回答。
然后他拿起那些鞋，趴在地上，开始查看地上所有的痕迹。
我们站在那儿看着他，但五分钟后，罗斯先生看了看表。
"呃，这很有意思，福尔摩斯先生，"他说，"但是不是还要很长时间?"
"不会。"福尔摩斯说。
他站了起来。"我不用再在这儿做什么了。现在华生和我要在高沼地里走走，带着这块马蹄铁。"
罗斯先生看着巡官，"我们能回房子里谈谈吗?我得把'银光'的名字从韦塞克斯杯的参赛名单里撤下来--我想，今天就得这么做。"
"别那么做!"福尔摩斯叫道，"不，不，你必须把马的名字留在参赛名单里。"
"但是......"罗斯先生开了个头，然后有点儿恼火地笑了起来。"啊，谢谢，福尔摩斯先生。谢谢你的帮助。那就过一会儿在家里见。"
然后他跟巡官一起走了。
