英文名著分集阅读 柯南·道尔《福尔摩斯和公爵的儿子》part4
高效磨耳朵 | 最好的英语听力资源
Sherlock Holmes and the Duke's Son by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
单词提示
1.centimeter 厘米
2.tires 车胎
原文
Chapter 4: The Body on the Moor
Very early the next morning, I opened my eyes and saw Holmes next to my bed.
He was already dressed.
"Come, Watson," he cried, "there is hot coffee ready for you."
We leave in 10 minutes by 6 o'clock.
We were through ragged shore, and half an hour later, we were on Lower Gilmore.
Across the middle of the moor was a small river, and the ground all around it was very wet.
"We can easily see tracks in this wet ground," said Holmes. "Look carefully,Watson."
We moved slowly across the moor, looking at every centimeter of mud.
We found hundreds of sheep tracks and once some cow tracks, but no bicycle tracks.
And then at last, we found something not far from the little river, right across some nice black mud, was the track of a bicycle.
"Hurrah,"I cried, "we have it."
But Holmes did not look happy.
"It's a bicycle, yes, but not the bicycle. Every bicycle has different tires, I know 42 different kinds of tires, this tire is a Dunlop, but Heidegger's bicycle had Palmer tires, the English teacher told me that, so this is not Heidegger, is it?"
"The boy?"Then I asked.
"Probably not, the boy didn't take a bicycle with him," said Holmes.
He looked again at the track in the mud.
"This track is going away from the school, or perhaps to the school?" I said.
"No, no,my dear Watson, look at the tracks of the two tires, are they the same?"
"No,"I said, "one tire makes a deeper track."
"And that's the back wheel," said Holmes, "because the rider, of course,sits over the back wheel. The deeper track is the one on top. So this bicycle went that way across the moor, away from the school. But who was the rider?Where did he come from?"
We followed the Dunlop track back nearly to Ragged Shore, then we lost it in some cow tracks.
Holmes sat down and thought for some minutes.
"No,"he said, "getting up. We must leave this question for now. Back to the mud by the river, Watson."
Two hours later, Holmes gave a happy cry.
I quickly ran over to him and looked down at a long, thin track in the mud.
"It was the Palmer Tiger. Here is Heidegger," cried Holmes, "let's follow him,Watson."
For a kilometer or more, we followed the Palmer tire north across the moor, losing the track, finding it again, losing it, and finding it.
Suddenly the track stopped.
"What happened here?" I said, "did he fall?"
Holmes looked carefully on the ground, then he moved to some small bushes with yellow flowers on them.
"Look,"he said quietly.
On one of the yellow flowers, there was something red, the dark brown red of blood.
"Bad,"said Holmes, "bad."
"What do I read here?"
"Something or someone hit him, he fell, he stood up, he got onto his bicycle again and rode away, but there is no other track, some cow tracks here, but no footprint.We must follow the blood, Watson."
We soon found the bicycle, and then behind a bush, we saw a shoe and found a body.
There was blood on the man's head and face, and he was very, very dead.
He had shoes on, but no socks.
And we saw a night shirt under his open coat.
"It was the German teacher? Poor man," Holmes said quietly, "what shall we do,Watson? We can't lose any more time."
"But we must tell someone about this poor man. Shall I run back to the school?" I said.
"No, I need you with me."
Holmes stood up and looked around.
"Look,"he said, "there's a workman over there, he can go back to the school for us."
I went and got the workman, and Holmes wrote a note for Dr Huxtable.
The poor workman took one look at the body and began to run quickly down the hill to Ragged Shore.
"Now,"said Holmes, "before we go on, let's think carefully for a minute. What do we know so far? First, the boy left freely. He was dressed, he did not leave suddenly.He wanted to go, perhaps with someone, perhaps not. But the German teacher left without his socks and without his shirt, so he left very suddenly."
"That's right," I said。
"And why did Heidegger go?"
"Because from his bedroom window, he saw the boy. Because he wanted to follow him and bring him back. "
"So far, so good. But why doesn't Heidegger just run after the boy? A man can easily run faster than a boy, but Heidegger doesn't do this. He gets his bicycle, he knows that he needs his bicycle, why?"
"Ah,"I said, "Because the boy has a bicycle."
"Not so fast, Watson, think about it. Heidegger dies 8 km from the school, so the boy is moving very fast, because it is 8 km before a man on a bicycle can get near him. And Heidegger dies because someone hits him very hard on the head. A boy can't do that, so there was someone with the boy, a man, let's say. But we looked very carefully at the mud all round, poor Heidegger's body, Watson. And what did we find? Some cow tracks, but nothing more, no footprints from people,no bicycle tracks."
"Holmes,"I cried, "this is not possible."
"Very good, Watson," he said, "it's not possible, so something is wrong with my thinking, what can it be?"
"Perhaps,"I said, "Heidegger broke his head in a fall in mud."
"Watson?Oh, I don't know, I just don't know. Come, come, Watson," said Holmes, "every mystery has an answer, but for now, the Palmer tire can tell us nothing more, so we must go back to the Dunlop tire."
We found the Dunlop track again and followed it north.
Here there was very little mud and we lost the track.
Across the moor, we could now see Holderness Hall some kilometers to our left.
And in front of us, we could see the Chesterfield Road.
We walked down to the road and along to the Green Man Inn.
翻译
第四章：荒原上的尸体
第二天一大早，我睁开眼，看见福尔摩斯就站在我的床边。
他已经穿戴整齐了。
“来吧，华生，”他喊道，“热咖啡已经给你准备好了。”
我们在6点前10分钟出发。
我们穿过了拉格德肖尔，半小时后，我们就到了下吉尔莫荒原。
荒原中央有一条小河，周围的地面非常潮湿。
“在这片湿地上我们可以很容易地看到痕迹，”福尔摩斯说，“仔细看，华生。”
我们慢慢地穿过荒原，仔细检查每一寸泥土。
我们发现了成百上千个羊群的足迹，还有一次是牛的足迹，但没有自行车的痕迹。
最后，在离小河不远的地方，就在一片漂亮的黑泥地上，我们发现了一个自行车的轨迹。
“好哇，”我喊道，“我们要找到了。”
但福尔摩斯看起来并不高兴。
“是一辆自行车，没错，但不是那一辆。每辆自行车的轮胎都不一样，我知道42种不同的轮胎，这个轮胎是邓禄普牌的，但海德格尔的自行车是帕尔默牌的，英语老师告诉过我，所以这不是海德格尔的，对吧？”
“那男孩呢？”接着我问道。
“可能不是，那男孩没有带走自行车，”福尔摩斯说。
他又看了看泥地上的车辙印。
“这车辙是离开学校的方向，或者是去往学校的？”我说。
“不，不，我亲爱的华生，看看那两个轮胎的痕迹，它们一样吗？”
“不一样，”我说，“有一个轮胎压出的痕迹更深。”
“那是后轮，”福尔摩斯说，“因为骑车人当然是坐在后轮上方的。更深的痕迹在上面。所以这辆自行车是那样穿过荒原的，远离学校。但是骑车人是谁？他是从哪里来的？”
我们顺着邓禄普轮胎的痕迹往回走，几乎到了拉格德肖尔，然后在一堆牛蹄印中跟丢了它。
福尔摩斯坐下来思考了几分钟。
“不，”他说着站起身来，“我们必须暂时搁置这个问题。回到河边的泥地去，华生。”
两个小时后，福尔摩斯发出了一声欣喜的喊叫。
我赶紧跑到他身边，低头看着泥地里一道细长的痕迹。
“是帕尔默老虎牌轮胎。海德格尔在这儿，”福尔摩斯喊道，“我们跟上他，华生。”
有一公里多，我们顺着帕尔默轮胎的痕迹向北穿过荒原，跟丢了，又找到，再跟丢，再找到。
突然，痕迹消失了。
“这里发生了什么？”我说，“他摔倒了吗？”
福尔摩斯仔细地查看地面，然后走到一些开着黄花的小灌木丛旁。
“看，”他轻声说。
在一朵黄色的花上，有一些红色的东西，那是像深褐色的血一样的颜色。
“糟糕，”福尔摩斯说，“糟糕。”
“我在这里能读到了什么？”
“有什么东西或者什么人撞了他，他摔倒了，他站了起来，他又骑上自行车骑走了，但是没有别的痕迹，这里有些牛蹄印，但没有人的脚印。我们必须顺着血迹走，华生。”
我们很快就找到了那辆自行车，然后在一个灌木丛后面，我们看到了一只鞋，并发现了一具尸体。
那个男人的头上和脸上都有血，而且他已经死得很透很透了。
他穿着鞋子，但没有穿袜子。
我们在敞开的上衣下面看到了一件睡衣。
“是那个德语老师？可怜的人，”福尔摩斯轻声说，“我们该怎么办，华生？我们不能再浪费时间了。”
“但我们必须把这个可怜人的事告诉别人。要我跑回学校去吗？”我说。
“不，我需要你陪着我。”
福尔摩斯站起来环顾四周。
“看，”他说，“那边有个工人，他可以替我们回学校去。”
我去把那个工人找来，福尔摩斯给赫克斯特博士写了一张便条。
那个可怜的工人看了一眼尸体，就开始飞快地向山下跑去拉格德肖尔。
“现在，”福尔摩斯说，“在我们继续之前，让我们仔细想一分钟。到目前为止我们知道什么？首先，那男孩是自愿离开的。他穿戴整齐，他不是突然离开的。他想走，也许是和某人一起，也许不是。但是那个德语老师没穿袜子和衬衫就离开了，所以他走得非常突然。”
“没错，”我说。
“海德格尔为什么要走？”
“因为从卧室的窗户，他看见了那个男孩。因为他想跟着他并把他带回来。”
“目前为止还不错。但海德格尔为什么不直接跑去追那个男孩呢？一个成年人肯定能跑得比男孩快，但海德格尔没有这样做。他骑上了他的自行车，他知道他需要自行车，为什么？”
“啊，”我说，“因为那个男孩有一辆自行车。”
“别急着下结论，华生，想一想。海德格尔死在离学校8公里的地方，所以那男孩移动得非常快，因为要骑8公里自行车才能追上一个人。而且海德格尔死了是因为有人重重地击打他的头部。一个男孩做不到这一点，所以有人和那男孩在一起，一个男人，我们可以这么说。但是我们非常仔细地查看了周围所有的泥地，可怜的华德格尔的尸体周围，华生。我们发现了什么？一些牛蹄印，仅此而已，没有人的脚印，没有自行车的痕迹。”
“福尔摩斯，”我喊道，“这不可能。”
“很好，华生，”他说，“这是不可能的，所以我的思路哪里出错了，会是什么呢？”
“也许，”我说，“海德格尔是在泥地里摔倒时磕破了头。”
“华生？噢，我不知道，我就是不知道。来吧，来吧，华生，”福尔摩斯说，“每个谜团都有一个答案，但现在，帕尔默轮胎不能告诉我们更多了，所以我们必须回到邓禄普轮胎那里去。”
我们又找到了邓禄普轮胎的痕迹并向北跟随它。
这里的泥土很少，我们跟丢了痕迹。
穿过荒原，我们现在可以看到左边几公里外的霍尔德内斯府邸。
而在我们面前，我们可以看到切斯特菲尔德公路。
