【英文听力原声】夏洛克福尔摩斯：四签名 Chapter 4 第四章

Day 4

In the cab we found Miss Morstan, dressed in black. She was calm, but her face was white. She seemed happy to answer the questions that Holmes asked her on our journey.

'Were your father and Major Sholto close friends?'

'Very close,' she replied. 'Father wrote about the Major in every letter he sent me. They worked together as officers in the Andaman Islands for some time, you see.'

Holmes looked thoughtful.

'Do you have any of your father's letters with you?' he asked.

'No, but I have a very strange paper, which I found in my father's desk. It probably isn't important.'

Miss Morstan took the paper from her bag and gave it to Holmes, who looked at it very carefully.

'It was made in India,' he told us, 'and it seems to be a plan of a very big house with several halls and passages and a large number of rooms. There's a red cross, which perhaps shows where something important is, and four black crosses in a line with the words, 'The Sign of Four' – Jonathan Small, Mahomet Singh, Abdullah Khan, Dost Akbar. No, I don't understand the importance of this paper, but I'm sure it is important. Keep it safe, Miss Morstan, it may be useful to us.'

As we drove to the Lyceum, Miss Morstan and I spoke quietly together, but Holmes said nothing more. He was thinking.

It was a strangely cold evening, and the sky was grey and full of clouds. There was thick fog in the streets of London and it was difficult to see the street lamps as we drove along. Everything seemed unreal in their strange, yellow light. The grey, wet evening made me feel sad. Miss Morstan, too, looked serious and lost in thought.

When we arrived at the theatre, the street was full of people. I paid our driver, and we walked to the main door of the theatre. It was exactly seven o'clock.

Immediately a small, dark man came towards us, and asked, 'Are you the gentlemen who have come with Miss Morstan?'

'I am Miss Morstan, and these are my friends.' she replied.

The man studied her carefully.

'I'm sorry, Miss Morstan,' he said, 'but I have to ask you if these gentlemen are police officers.'

'I promise you they aren't,' Miss Morstan answered him. 'Then will you please follow me?' he said.

We followed him to a cab and got inside. He climbed into the driver's seat and whipped the horse, and soon we were travelling quickly through the foggy streets. We had, of course, no idea where we were going or what we would find there. I told Miss Morstan stories of my time in Afghanistan, but I was so excited that I soon realized she was finding it difficult to follow me.

Holmes looked out of the window and from time to time he told us where we were at that moment on our long journey.

'We're crossing the Thames now,' he said as we drove over Vauxhall Bridge.

I looked out and saw the silent water of the river below us through the fog. Our cab moved quickly on and soon we were in one of the poorest parts of south London. There were streets of tall, grey houses with brightly lit pubs on every corner.