血字的研究-Chapter 17

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夏洛克•福尔摩斯用Lestrade警官带回的在案发现场找到的药丸，喂给小狗吃，小狗也抽搐着离奇死亡了。

Chapter 17

"All this seems strange to you," continued Holmes, "because you failed at the beginning of the inquiry to grasp（领会）the importance of the single real clue which was presented to you.

I had the good fortune to seize upon that, and everything which has occurred since then has served to confirm my original supposition, and, indeed, was the logical sequence of it.

Hence things which have perplexed you and made the case more obscure, have served to enlighten me and to strengthen my conclusions.

It is a mistake to confound strangeness with mystery.

The most commonplace crime is often the most mysterious because it presents no new or special features from which deductions may be drawn.

This murder would have been infinitely more difficult to unravel（解开）had the body of the victim been simply found lying in the roadway without any of those outré（奇怪的）and sensational accompaniments which have rendered it remarkable.

These strange details, far from making the case more difficult, have really had the effect of making it less so."

Mr. Gregson, who had listened to this address with considerable impatience, could contain himself no longer.

"Look here, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," he said, "we are all ready to acknowledge that you are a smart man, and that you have your own methods of working.

We want something more than mere theory and preaching（说教）now, though.

It is a case of taking the man. I have made my case out, and it seems I was wrong.

Young Charpentier could not have been engaged in this second affair.

Lestrade went after his man, Stangerson, and it appears that he was wrong too.

You have thrown out hints here, and hints there, and seem to know more than we do, but the time has come when we feel that we have a right to ask you straight how much you do know of the business.

Can you name the man who did it?"

"I cannot help feeling that Gregson is right, sir," remarked Lestrade.

"We have both tried, and we have both failed. You have remarked more than once since I have been in the room that you had all the evidence which you require.

Surely you will not withhold it any longer."

"Any delay in arresting the assassin," I observed, "might give him time to perpetrate some fresh atrocity."

Thus pressed by us all, Holmes showed signs of irresolution（优柔寡断）.

He continued to walk up and down the room with his head sunk on his chest and his brows drawn down, as was his habit when lost in thought.

"There will be no more murders," he said at last, stopping abruptly and facing us.

"You can put that consideration out of the question. You have asked me if I know the name of the assassin. I do.

The mere knowing of his name is a small thing, however, compared with the power of laying our hands upon him. This I expect very shortly to do.

I have good hopes of managing it through my own arrangements; but it is a thing which needs delicate handling, for we have a shrewd（狡猾的）and desperate man to deal with, who is supported, as I have had occasion to prove, by another who is as clever as himself.

As long as this man has no idea that anyone can have a clue there is some chance of securing him; but if he had the slightest suspicion, he would change his name, and vanish in an instant among the four million inhabitants of this great city.

Without meaning to hurt either of your feelings, I am bound to say that I consider these men to be more than a match for the official force, and that is why I have not asked your assistance.

If I fail I shall, of course, incur（承担）all the blame due to this omission; but that I am prepared for.

At present I am ready to promise that the instant that I can communicate with you without endangering my own combinations, I shall do so."

Gregson and Lestrade seemed to be far from satisfied by this assurance, or by the depreciating allusion（暗指）to the detective police.

The former had flushed up to the roots of his flaxen hair, while the other's beady eyes glistened with curiosity and resentment.

Neither of them had time to speak, however, before there was a tap at the door, and the spokesman of the street Arabs, young Wiggins, introduced his insignificant and unsavoury（令人不快的）person.

"Please, sir," he said, touching his forelock（额发）, "I have the cab downstairs."

"Good boy," said Holmes, blandly（温和地）. "Why don't you introduce this pattern at Scotland Yard?"

he continued, taking a pair of steel handcuffs from a drawer. "See how beautifully the spring works. They fasten in an instant."

"The old pattern is good enough," remarked Lestrade, "if we can only find the man to put them on."

"Very good, very good," said Holmes, smiling. "The cabman may as well help me with my boxes. Just ask him to step up, Wiggins."

I was surprised to find my companion speaking as though he were about to set out on a journey, since he had not said anything to me about it.

There was a small portmanteau（旅行皮包）in the room, and this he pulled out and began to strap. He was busily engaged at it when the cabman entered the room.

"Just give me a help with this buckle（扣子）, cabman," he said, kneeling over his task, and never turning his head.

The fellow came forward with a somewhat sullen, defiant air, and put down his hands to assist. At that instant there was a sharp click, the jangling（刺耳声）of metal, and Sherlock Holmes sprang to his feet again.

"Gentlemen," he cried, with flashing eyes, "let me introduce you to Mr. Jefferson Hope, the murderer of Enoch Drebber and of Joseph Stangerson."

The whole thing occurred in a moment—so quickly that I had no time to realize it.

I have a vivid recollection of that instant, of Holmes' triumphant expression and the ring of his voice, of the cabman's dazed, savage face, as he glared at the glittering handcuffs, which had appeared as if by magic upon his wrists.

For a second or two we might have been a group of statues.

Then, with an inarticulate roar of fury, the prisoner wrenched（挣脱）himself free from Holmes's grasp, and hurled himself through the window.

Woodwork and glass gave way before him; but before he got quite through, Gregson, Lestrade, and Holmes sprang upon him like so many staghounds（狩鹿用猎犬）.

He was dragged back into the room, and then commenced a terrific conflict.

So powerful and so fierce was he, that the four of us were shaken off again and again.

He appeared to have the convulsive strength of a man in an epileptic fit（癫痫病）.

His face and hands were terribly mangled by his passage through the glass, but loss of blood had no effect in diminishing his resistance.

It was not until Lestrade succeeded in getting his hand inside his neckcloth and half-strangling（使快要窒息）him that we made him realize that his struggles were of no avail; and even then we felt no security until we had pinioned（绑住）his feet as well as his hands.

That done, we rose to our feet breathless and panting.

"We have his cab," said Sherlock Holmes. "It will serve to take him to Scotland Yard. And now, gentlemen,"

he continued, with a pleasant smile, "we have reached the end of our little mystery.

You are very welcome to put any questions that you like to me now, and there is no danger that I will refuse to answer them."（1278 words）

-今日短语-

1. confound with混淆

2. serve to用来

3. pull out拿出

4. give way倒塌

5. shake off摆脱

6. epileptic fit癫痫的毛病

breathless and panting气喘吁吁

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