通译双语文库:福尔摩斯探案故事3. 深夜之死|3.Death in the Night

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我们一想起侦探，第一个想到的就是夏洛克·福尔摩斯。甚至在距离关于他的第一个故事已一百多年的今天，他仍然是我们心中伟大的侦探。游客们仍然会到伦敦的贝克街去看他的公寓。有很多关于他的电影和图片——我们都知道他的样子，知道他穿什么衣服。
When we think of a detective, we think first of Sherlock Holmes. Even now, more than a hundred years after the first story about him, he is still the greatest detective of all. Tourists still go to Baker Street, in London, to see the place where he had his flat. There are films about him, pictures of him — we all know what he looked like, we all know what kind of clothes he wore.
但是他从来就没存在过。他的故事仅仅是故事而已，那么我们为什么记住他了呢?
And yet he never existed. The stories about him are just stories. So, why do we remember him?
因为他喜欢抓罪犯。夏洛克·福尔摩斯追踪罪犯就像猎人追踪狐狸一样。他像猎犬和警犬一样，鼻子贴在地上——追踪罪犯到世界的尽头。罪犯可能试图藏匿——但只要夏洛克·福尔摩斯开始追踪，我们就知道他终会成功。
It is because he loves catching criminals. Sherlock Holmes chases the criminal as a hunter chases a fox. He is a bloodhound, a police dog, with his nose to the ground following the criminal to the end of the world. The criminal may try to hide — but when Sherlock Holmes has started the chase, we know that he will finish it with a ’kill’.

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当天晚上我们回到那所房子。看到海伦·斯托纳的灯亮起，福尔摩斯和我悄悄地从窗户进去。然后我们在中间的房间里静静地摸黑等着。我们等了3个小时，一动也没动。突然，我们看到一些亮光，听到罗伊洛特医生的房间里传来一点儿动静。但是什么事也没发生，我们继续在黑暗中等待。然后又有一个声音响起来，一个非常轻的声音……福尔摩斯立即跳起来，使劲抽打拉铃绳。

That night we went back to the house. When we saw Helen Stoner’s light, Holmes and I got in quietly through the window. Then we waited silently in the middle bedroom in the dark. We waited for three hours and did not move. Suddenly we saw a light and heard a sound from Dr Roylott’s room. But nothing happened, and again we waited in the dark. Then there was another sound, a very quiet sound...Immediately Holmes jumped up and hit the bell-rope hard.

“你能看见吗，华生？”他喊道。但是我什么也没看见。这时响起一个轻轻的口哨声。我们都抬头看向通风口，突然听到隔壁房间传来一声惨叫。然后房子又归于寂静了。

Can you see it, Watson?’ he shouted. But I saw nothing. There was a quiet whistle. We both looked up at the air-vent, and suddenly we heard a terrible cry in the next room. Then the house was silent again.

“这意味着什么？”我问。我的声音在颤抖。

What does it mean?’ I asked. My voice was shaking.

“结束了，”福尔摩斯回答，“我们去看看。”

It’s finished,’ answered Holmes. ’Let’s go and see.’

我们走进罗伊洛特医生的房间。金属箱子敞开着。罗伊洛特正坐在一把椅子上，眼睛盯着通风口。他的头上缠着一根奇怪的、有黄色斑点的带子。他死了。

We went into Dr Roylott’s room. The metal box was open. Roylott was sitting on a chair, and his eyes were fixed on the air-vent. Round his head was a strange, yellow speckled band. He was dead.

“带子！有斑点的带子！”福尔摩斯轻声说道。带子动了，开始转动它的头。“小心，华生！这是一条蛇，一条印度的蛇——它的毒可以让人倾刻毙命，”福尔摩斯喊道，“罗伊洛特被攻击后立刻就死了。我们必须把蛇放回箱子里。”福尔摩斯非常小心地拿起蛇，把它扔回金属箱子里。

The band! The speckled band!’ said Holmes very quietly. The band moved and began to turn its head. ’Be careful, Watson! It’s a snake, an Indian snake — and its poison can kill very quickly,’ Holmes cried. ’Roylott died immediately. We must put the snake back in its box.’ Very, very carefully, Holmes took the snake and threw it into the metal box.

“但你是怎么知道有这条蛇的呢，福尔摩斯？”我问。

But how did you know about the snake, Holmes?’ I asked.

“一开始，华生，我以为是吉普赛人干的。但是后来我明白了。我想可能是什么东西从通风口进来，顺着拉铃绳一直到床上。然后我们看到了牛奶——当然蛇喝牛奶。这位医生很容易弄到印度的动物。而且因为他是医生，他知道这种蛇毒很难在死尸上被发现。所以每天晚上他把蛇放到通风口那里，让它顺着拉铃绳爬到床上。当然不能有人看到这条蛇，所以每天晚上他吹口哨把它叫回去。金属落下的声音是金属箱子的盖被关上时发出的，蛇一直被关在那里。在杀死朱莉娅之前，它可能已经从通风口下来过很多次了。但是最后它终于杀死了她。海伦也差点儿死于这条蛇之口。

At first, Watson, I thought that it was the gipsies. But then I understood. I thought that perhaps something came through the air-vent, down the bell-rope and on to the bed. Then there was the milk — and of course, snakes drink milk. It was easy for the Doctor to get Indian animals. And because he was a doctor, he knew that this snake’s poison is difficult to find in a dead body. So every night he put the snake through the air-vent, and it went down the bell-rope onto the bed. Of course, nobody must see the snake, so every night he whistled to call it back. The sound of metal falling was the door of the metal box, which was the snake’s home. Perhaps the snake came through the air-vent many times before it killed Julia. But in the end it killed her. And Helen, too, nearly died because of this snake.

“但是今晚，我抽打绳子上的蛇，把它激怒了，它又从排气孔回去，杀死了医生。我并不为此感到抱歉。”

But tonight, when I hit the snake on the rope, it was angry and went back through the air-vent. And so it killed the Doctor. I’m not sorry about that.’

之后，海伦·斯托纳很快和向她求婚的年轻人结了婚，她尽力想忘掉姐姐和继父的惨死，但是她永远也没有真正忘记那条有斑点的带子。

Soon after this Helen Stoner married her young man and tried to forget the terrible deaths of her sister and stepfather. But she never really forgot the speckled band.

	Helen [’helən]	n.海伦(女子名)
	Holmes [həʊmz]	n.霍姆斯或福尔摩斯(人名)
	poison [’pɔɪzn]	n.毒药;毒害;败坏道德之事
	Stoner [’stəʊnə]	n.瘾君子;吸毒的人
	stepfather [’stepfɑːðə(r)]	n.继父