【英文听力原声】夏洛克福尔摩斯：四签名 Chapter 10 第十章

Day 10

In one corner of the room there was a ladder, and at the top of it there was a hole in the ceiling. At the bottom there was a rope. At the table on a wooden chair sat Bartholomew Sholto. We saw at once that he had been dead for some hours.

His hand lay on the table next to a sheet of paper. On the paper we read the words, 'The Sign of Four'.

'What can it mean?'  I asked.

'It means murder.' Holmes replied. 'Look at this.'

He showed me a long, dark thorn in the dead man's skin, just above the ear.

'It's a poisoned thorn, Watson.' he went on. 'You can take it out, but be very careful.'

I took the thorn between my finger and my thumb. There was a very small drop of blood on Bartholomew's face, where it had entered the skin.

Suddenly I remembered Thaddeus Sholto, who was still standing behind us. He looked terrified.

'Are you all right?' I asked.

'The treasure has gone!' he cried. 'Someone has stolen it! I helped my brother bring it down last night. I was the last person to see him. I left him here and I heard him lock the door as I went downstairs.'

'What time was that?' asked Holmes, suddenly interested.

'Ten o'clock,' replied Sholto. 'And now he's dead! The police will think I killed my brother. I'm sure they will! Mr Holmes, you don't think that I'm a murderer, do you?'

'I'm sure you didn't kill your brother,' said the detective, 'and I suggest that you go to the police station immediately and tell them what happened. Watson and I will wait here.'

At Holmes's words, Sholto became a little calmer.

'Thank you, Mr Holmes, I'll go now,' he said, and with that he went down the stairs and left the house.

Holmes turned to me.

'Watson,' he said, 'we have perhaps half an hour. Sit down. I have work to do. First, I'd like to know how the murderer entered and left the room. No one has opened the door since last night. But what about the window?'

Holmes crossed the room and looked carefully at the window.

'Yes!' he said. 'Someone has entered the room here. It rained a little last night and look, Watson, here's a footprint and a round, muddy mark. And here's another. Very interesting.'

'That isn't a footprint, Holmes,' I said.

'No,' he agreed, 'It's the mark of a wooden leg.'

'The man with the wooden leg!' I cried. 'Do you remember? Thaddeus Sholto told us that his father was terrified of men with wooden legs.'

'Of course,' my friend replied, 'but this man with a wooden leg didn't work alone. Could you climb this wall?'

I looked out of the open window. The moon shone on the side of the house.

'Impossible.' I said.

'Impossible without help,' answered Holmes, 'but with a friend at the window and a rope you could do it. A man with a wooden leg could do it.'

'Perhaps,' I agreed, 'but how then did this friend enter the room? The door was locked.'

'Think, Watson.' said Holmes. 'He didn't come through the door and he didn't come through the window.'

I looked around the room and then cried, 'He came down the ladder from the room under the roof!'

'Of course,' Holmes agreed. 'it's the only possible way that's left. Let's now examine the secret room, Watson.'