第一章: 演绎法的研究 The Science of Deduction
Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantelpiece, and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle and rolled back his left shirtcuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist, all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. Finally, he thrust the point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined armchair with a long sigh of satisfaction.
舍洛克·福尔摩斯从壁炉架子的角落里拿出他的药水，又把皮下注射器从整洁的山羊皮皮匣里取出来。他用苍白、细长而有力的手指把精细的针头调整好，然后卷起了他左边的衬衫袖口。他若有所思地注视了一小会儿自己肌肉发达并布满了针眼儿的前臂和手腕。终于，他把针尖刺入，向里推动细小的活塞阀门，然后躺回到绒面的躺椅里，满足地长长吁了一口气。
Three times a day for many months I had witnessed this performance, but custom had not reconciled my mind to it. On the contrary, from day to day I had become more irritable at the sight, and my conscience swelled nightly within me at the thought that I had lacked the courage to protest. Again and again I had registered a vow that I should deliver my soul upon the subject; but there was that in the cool, nonchalant air of my companion which made him the last man with whom one would care to take anything approaching to a liberty. His great powers, his masterly manner, and the experience which I had had of many extraordinary qualities, all made me diffident and backward in crossing him.
许多个月以来，我亲眼见证了他每天会做三次这样的行为，虽然已经习惯，但仍不能泰然处之。恰恰相反，随着日子一天天过去，这样的场景让我越来越焦急，但却无法鼓起勇气制止他，这让我每晚都良心不安。我一次又一次地下定决心要跟他谈这件事，但是，我的朋友性情冷漠孤僻，使人难以轻松、随意地与他交流。他强大的能力、娴熟的举止，以及我所体验过的他那各种独特的性格，都使我犹豫退缩，不敢惹他不高兴。
Yet upon that afternoon, whether it was the Beaune which I had taken with my lunch or the additional exasperation produced by the extreme deliberation of his manner, I suddenly felt that I could bold out no longer.
然而，在那个午后，也不知道是不是午饭的时候喝了葡萄酒的关系，抑或是他那极度从容的举止激怒了我，总之，我忽然之间觉得无法再继续容忍下去了。
“Which is it today,” I asked, “morphine or cocaine?”
“今天是什么，”我问道，“吗啡，还是可卡因？”
He raised his eyes languidly from the old black-letter volume which he had opened.
他懒散地从他翻开的一本旧书上抬起眼。
“It is cocaine,” he said, “a seven-percent solution. Would you care to try it?”
“是可卡因，”他回答，“百分之七的溶液。你要试试看吗？”
“No, indeed,” I answered brusquely. “My constitution has not got over the Afghan campaign yet. I cannot afford to throw any extra strain upon it.”
“不要，”我粗鲁地拒绝道，“我的体质因为阿富汗战役，到现在也没有恢复，无法承受任何多余的痛苦和负担了。”
He smiled at my vehemence. “Perhaps you are right, Watson,” he said. “I suppose that its influence is physically a bad one. I find it, however, so transcendently stimulating and clarifying to the mind that its secondary action is a matter of small moment.”
他对于我的恼怒报以微微一笑。“也许你是对的，沃森，”他说，“也许这药物对身体是有害的。不过，无论如何，当我发现它有如此卓越的刺激和醒脑功能时，它的副作用就不那么重要了。”
“But consider!” I said earnestly. “Count the cost! Your brain may, as you say, be roused and excited, but it is a pathological and morbid process which involves increased tissue-change and may at least leave a permanent weakness. You know, too, what a black reaction comes upon you. Surely the game is hardly worth the candle. Why should you, for a mere passing pleasure, risk the loss of those great powers with which you have been endowed? Remember that I speak not only as one comrade to another but as a medical man to one for whose constitution he is to some extent answerable.”
“不过，想想吧！”我诚恳地说道，“考虑考虑利害得失吧！如同你说的那样，你的脑子也许会因为这样的刺激而兴奋起来，但这毕竟是一个会引起疾病和伤害的过程，会致使器官组织变质不断加剧，最起码也会造成永远的体质孱弱。你也知道，它将会带来多么严重的后果。很明显，这个游戏是得不偿失的。你又何必只为了一时的快感，而赌上老天赋予你的强健体魄呢？记住，我对你说这些，不仅仅是作为一个朋友，而且也是作为一名从某种程度上该为你的健康负责任的医生。”
He did not seem offended. On the contrary, he put his finger-tips together, and leaned his elbows on the arms of his chair, like one who has a relish for conversation.
他看起来并没有被激怒。与此相反，他把十指扣在一起，把两肘斜倚在躺椅的把手上，对这段谈话表现出浓厚的兴趣。
“My mind,” he said, “rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. That is why I have chosen my own particular profession, or rather created it, for I am the only one in the world.”
“我的头脑，”他说，“遇到停滞的时候，往往会反抗。给我一些难题，给我最深奥的密码，或者是最繁复的分析工作，这才是我最适应的氛围。也只有在这时，我才不需要任何人工的刺激物。不过，我憎恶平淡无奇的生活。我追求的是精神上的兴奋。这也正是我选择这个职业的原因，或者说，创造这个职业的原因——我是世界上的唯一一个。”
“The only unofficial detective?” I said, raising my eyebrows.
“唯一的私人侦探？”我抬眼问道。
“The only unofficial consulting detective,” he answered. “I am the last and highest court of appeal in detection. When Gregson, or Lestrade, or Athelney Jones are out of their depths — which, by the way, is their normal state — the matter is laid before me. I examine the data, as an expert, and pronounce a specialist’s opinion. I claim no credit in such cases. My name figures in no newspaper. The work itself, the pleasure of finding a field for my peculiar powers, is my highest reward. But you have yourself had some experience of my methods of work in the Jefferson Hope case.”
“唯一的私家咨询侦探，”他回答，“我是侦探的最高及最后裁决机关。当格雷格森、莱斯特雷德或阿特尼·琼斯遇到困难的时候——这是他们通常的状态——事情就留给我解决了。我作为一名专家，审查材料，并提供专业的意见。我在这样的案件里从不居功。我的名字也不在任何报纸上出现。这工作本身为我奇特的精力寻找到一片天地，是对我最高的奖赏。你应该还记得在杰斐逊·霍普案里，我的工作方法为你带来的经验吧？”
“Yes, indeed,” said I cordially. “I was never so struck by anything in my life. I even embodied it in a small brochure, with the somewhat fantastic title of ‘A Study in Scarlet.'”
“是的，我记得，”我诚挚地说道，“我这辈子从来没有见过这样的破案方式。我已经把案件的经过写成了一本小册子，并用了一个绝妙的标题‘血字的研究’。”
He shook his head sadly.
他哀伤地摇了摇头。
“I glanced over it,” said he. “Honestly, I cannot congratulate you upon it. Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner. You have attempted to tinge it with romanticism, which produces much the same effect as if you worked a love-story or an elopement into the fifth proposition of Euclid.”
“我粗略地扫过一遍，”他说，“老实说，实在无法恭维。侦查工作是一门，或者说应该是一门精确的科学，应该受到同样冷静、客观的对待。你用浪漫主义为其渲染出色彩，这就像是在欧几里得的第五公设里掺杂了爱情故事或私奔段子。”
“But the romance was there,” I remonstrated. “I could not tamper with the facts.”
“但浪漫情节确实存在，”我反驳道，“我不能扭曲事实。”
“Some facts should be suppressed, or, at least, a just sense of proportion should be observed in treating them. The only point in the case which deserved mention was the curious analytical reasoning from effects to causes, by which I succeeded in unravelling it.”
“有些事实可以压缩，或者，在处理这些事实的比例分配上，要有合理的观念。在这个案子里，唯一值得被提及的，就是我如何从事实结果中找出原因，并根据它来成功破案。”
I was annoyed at this criticism of a work which had been specially designed to please him. I confess, too, that I was irritated by the egotism which seemed to demand that every line of my pamphlet should be devoted to his own special doings. More than once during the years that I had lived with him in Baker Street I had observed that a small vanity underlay my companion’s quiet and didactic manner. I made no remark, however, but sat nursing my wounded leg. I had had a Jezail bullet through it some time before, and though it did not prevent me from walking it ached wearily at every change of the weather.
我的作品是专门为了取悦他而创作的，所以，听到他的批评后，我被惹恼了。我也承认，是他的自负激怒了我，他似乎是在要求我，册子里的每一句话都应该用来描述他一个人的特殊行为。在我和他共同居住在贝克街的这些年里，我不止一次地发觉，在我那伙伴安静的说教行为之下，隐藏着一点儿高傲自负。我没有再说什么，只是坐下来，抚摸我受伤的腿。我的腿曾经被子弹打穿过，尽管这并未妨碍我正常行走，但它在每次气候变化的时候疼得厉害。
“My practice has extended recently to the Continent,” said Holmes after a while, filling up his old brier-root pipe. “I was consulted last week by Francois le Villard, who, as you probably know, has come rather to the front lately in the French detective service. He has all the Celtic power of quick intuition, but he is deficient in the wide range of exact knowledge which is essential to the higher developments of his art. The case was concerned with a will and possessed some features of interest. I was able to refer him to two parallel cases, the one at Riga in 1857, and the other at St. Louis in 1871, which have suggested to him the true solution. Here is the letter which I had this morning acknowledging my assistance.”
“最近，我的业务扩展到了欧洲大陆，”过了一会儿，福尔摩斯说道，一边说，一边填满了他的殴石南烟斗，“上星期就有一个叫做弗朗索瓦·勒·维拉尔的人来向我咨询，可能你也知道，这个人最近在法国侦探界已经崭露头角。他具有凯尔特民族的敏感性，可是缺乏提高他自身侦探艺术所必需的宽泛的知识面。这个案子与遗嘱有关，很有意思。我介绍了两个类似的案件给他作参考，一件是一八五七年里加城的案件，另一件是一八七一年圣路易斯城的案子，给他提供了寻找真正解决方法的思路。这是我今天早上收到的他的感谢信。”
He tossed over, as he spoke, a crumpled sheet of foreign notepaper. I glanced my eyes down it, catching a profusion of notes of admiration, with stray magnifiques, coup-de-maîtres and tours-de-force, all testifying to the ardent admiration of the Frenchman.
他一边说，一边把一张皱巴巴的、写满外文的纸递给了我。我扫了几眼，信里夹杂着许多溢美之词，充满了“伟大”，“高超的手段”，“有力的行动”等等话语，充分表达了这位法国人的崇敬之情。
“He speaks as a pupil to his master,” said I.
“他就像是一个在跟自己的校长说话的小学生。”我说。
“Oh, he rates my assistance too highly,” said Sherlock Holme slightly. “He has considerable gifts himself. He possesses two out of the three qualities necessary for the ideal detective. He has the power of observation and that of deduction. He is only wanting in knowledge, and that may come in time. He is now translating my small works into French.”
“噢，他把我的帮助看得太高了，”舍洛克·福尔摩斯轻轻地说道，“他自己也具备一定的天赋。他拥有作为一个理想侦探必需的三项条件中的两项——观察和推理的能力。他只是缺乏一些学识，而随着时间的推移，他也一定会得到。他现在正把我的几篇小作品译成法文。”
“Your works?”
“你的作品？”
“Oh, didn’t you know?” he cried, laughing. “Yes, I have been guilty of several monographs. They are all upon technical subjects. Here, for example, is one ‘Upon the Distinction between the Ashes of the Various Tobaccos.’ In it I enumerate a hundred and forty forms of cigar, cigarette, and pipe tobacco, with coloured plates illus- trating the difference in the ash. It is a point which is continually turning up in criminal trials, and which is sometimes of supreme importance as a clue. If you can say definitely, for example, that some murder had been done by a man who was smoking an Indian lunkah, it obviously narrows your field of search. To the trained eye there is as much difference between the black ash of a Trichinopoly and the white fluff of bird’s-eye as there is between a cabbage and a potato.”
“噢，你不知道吗？”他大声笑起来，“是的，很惭愧，我写过几篇专论。全部都是技术方面的。嗯，比如说那篇《论各种烟草的烟灰辨认》。在那篇文章里，我列举了一百四十种雪茄、烟卷和烟斗丝的烟灰，还用彩色的插图来说明各种烟灰的区别。这是一个在罪案中常常出现的要点，而许多时候会成为极其重要的线索。比如，如果你可以确切地说，某件凶案是一个抽印度雪茄烟的人犯下的，这很显然就可以把你的侦查范围缩小了。对于训练有素的人来说，印度特里奇雪茄烟的黑灰和‘鸟眼’烟的白灰之间的区别，就跟白菜和土豆一样显著。”
“You have an extraordinary genius for minutiae,” I remarked.
“你对细微事物的洞察确实有独特的才能。”我说。
“I appreciate their importance. Here is my monograph upon the tracing of footsteps, with some remarks upon the uses of plaster of Paris as a preserver of impresses. Here, too, is a curious little work upon the influence of a trade upon the form of the hand, with lithotypes of the hands of slaters, sailors, cork-cutters, compositors, weavers, and diamond-polishers. That is a matter of great practical interest to the scientific detective — especially in cases of unclaimed bodies, or in discovering the antecedents of criminals. But I weary you with my hobby.”
“我认为它们非常重要。这是我写的关于追踪脚印的专论，里面还提及如何利用熟石灰来保存这些印记。这里还有一些新奇的小作品，是关于不同职业对人的手形的影响的，并附有石工、水手、木刻工人、排字工人、织布工人和磨钻工人的手形插图。这些对于科学侦探学有很大的实践意义——尤其是在遇上无名尸体和探究罪犯身份的时候。我的爱好可能让你生厌。”
“Not at all,” I answered earnestly. “It is of the greatest interest to me, especially since I have had the opportunity of observing your practical application of it. But you spoke just now of observation and deduction. Surely the one to some extent implies the other.”
“一点儿也不，”我真诚地说，“我对它非常感兴趣，特别是自从我有幸目睹你的亲身实践之后。不过，你刚才提到的观察和推理，很明显其中一个在某种程度上会影响另外一个。”
“Why, hardly,” he answered, leaning back luxuriously in his armchair and sending up thick blue wreaths from his pipe. “For example, observation shows me that you have been to the Wigmore Street Post-Office this morning, but deduction lets me know that when there you dispatched a telegram.”
“哦不，几乎没有什么关联，”他回答，很舒服地靠在躺椅里，从他的烟管里吐出浓浓的蓝色烟圈，“比如说，观察告诉我，你今天早上去了威格莫尔街邮局，而推理让我知道，你在那里发过一封电报。”
“Right!”said I. “Right on both points! But I confess that I don’t see how you arrived at it. It was a sudden impulse upon my part, and I have mentioned it to no one.”
“完全正确！”我说道，“二者都是正确的！不过，我承认我不知道你是怎么得出结论的。对于我来说，那只是一时冲动，我也没有对任何人提及这件事。”
“It is simplicity itself,” he remarked, chuckling at my surprise –“so absurdly simple that an explanation is superfluous; and yet it may serve to define the limits of observation and of deduction. Observation tells me that you have a little reddish mould adhering to your instep. Just opposite the Wigmore Street Office they have taken up the pavement and thrown up some earth, which lies in such a way that it is difficult to avoid treading in it in entering. The earth is of this peculiar reddish tint which is found, as far as I know, nowhere else in the neighbourhood. So much is observation. The rest is deduction.”
“它本身就再简单明晰不过了，”看到我的讶异，他说，“简单到无需解释，但这番解释却能定义观察和推理的界限。观察告诉我，你的鞋面上粘了一小块红色泥巴。威格莫尔街邮局的对面正在修路，从中挖掘出来的泥巴铺在路上，进邮局的人很难不粘到它们。据我所知，这种带一点儿红色的特殊泥土，在附近只有邮局对面有。这些就是观察。剩下的则是推理。”
“How, then, did you deduce the telegram?”
“那么，你是怎么推断出电报的呢？”
“Why, of course I knew that you had not written a letter, since I sat opposite to you all morning. I see also in your open desk there that you have a sheet of stamps and a thick bundle of postcards. What could you go into the post-office for, then, but to send a wire? Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth.”
“这个嘛，那是当然了，一整个早上我都坐在你的对面，知道你并没有写信。我也从你敞开的桌子里看到，你有一整张的邮票，以及一捆明信片。那么你进邮局还能有什么目的呢？除了发电报以外？排除所有其他的原因，剩下的就是真相。”
“In this case it certainly is so,” I replied after a little thought. “The thing however, is, as you say, of the simplest. Would you think me impertinent if I were to put your theories to a more severe test?”
“在这个事情上，确实是这样的，”我想了一小会儿以后，回应道，“如你所说，这事情无论如何都是极其简单明了的。如果我把你的理论付诸更加严峻的考验，你会认为我无礼吗？”
“On the contrary,” he answered, “it would prevent me from taking a second dose of cocaine. I should be delighted to look into any problem which you might submit to me.”
“正相反，”他回答，“那我就不必再一次注射可卡因了。我将会愉快地对你提出的任何问题进行研究。”
“I have heard you say it is difficult for a man to have any object in daily use without leaving the impress of his individuality upon it in such a way that a trained observer might read it. Now, I have here a watch which has recently come into my possession. Would you have the kindness to let me have an opinion upon the character or habits of the late owner?”
“我记得你说过，一个人很难不在其日常用品上留下一些个人印记，而训练有素的观察者则能从中得到信息。现在，我这里有一块最近新得到的表。你能好心地让我知道它上一位使用者的性格或习惯吗？”
I handed him over the watch with some slight feeling of amusement in my heart, for the test was, as I thought, an impossible one, and I intended it as a lesson against the somewhat dogmatic tone which he occasionally assumed. He balanced the watch in his hand, gazed hard at the dial, opened the back, and examined the works, first with his naked eyes and then with a powerful convex lens. I could hardly keep from smiling at his crestfallen face when he finally snapped the case to and handed it back.
我递给他那块表，心里微微有些愉悦，因为我认为这个测试是不可能完成的。我想利用它来给这个偶尔言语独断的人上一课。他用手把玩着那块表，认真地观察标度盘，打开后盖，审视它的运作，先用肉眼，后来又用高倍放大镜。当他最后沮丧地把表盖合上，递还给我的时候，我几乎忍不住微笑起来。
“There are hardly any data,” he remarked. “The watch has been recently cleaned, which robs me of my most suggestive facts.”
“这上面几乎没有什么印记，”他说，“这块表最近被清洁过，把最能提供线索的痕迹都抹掉了。”
“You are right,” I answered. “It was cleaned before being sent to me.”
“你说对了，”我回答说，“这是清洁过之后才到我手上的。”
In my heart I accused my companion of putting forward a most lame and impotent excuse to cover his failure. What data could he expect from an uncleaned watch?
而在心里，对于我的伙伴用这种无力的借口来掩饰失败，我很不以为然。即便是一只未经过清洁的表，他又能发现什么呢？
“Though unsatisfactory, my research has not been entirely barren,” he observed, staring up at the ceiling with dreamy, lack-lustre eyes. “Subject to your correction, I should judge that the watch belonged to your elder brother, who inherited it from your father.”
“尽管不甚满意，我的研究也并没有完全失败，”他用迷蒙无神的双眼盯着天花板说道，“我说出来，请你指正吧，我可以判断出，这块表原本是你长兄的，并且他是从你父亲那里继承来的。”
“That you gather, no doubt, from the H. W. upon the back?”
“这是你从表背面的缩写H. W。看出来的吧？”
“Quite so. The W. suggests your own name. The date of the watch is nearly fifty years back, and the initials are as old as the watch: so it was made for the last generation. Jewellery usually descends to the eldest son, and he is most likely to have the same name as the father. Your father has, if I remember right, been dead many years. It has, therefore, been in the hands of your eldest brother.”
“差不多。W代表你自己的姓氏。这块表差不多是50年前生产的，而表上刻的字跟表一样古旧，所以我认为是上一辈传下来的。珠宝一般传给最年长的儿子，而他最有可能跟你的父亲拥有同样的姓名。你的父亲，如果我记得没错的话，许多年前就过世了。那么，这块表就应该在你长兄手中了。”
“Right, so far,” said I. “Anything else?” “He was a man of untidy habits — very untidy and careless. He was left with good prospects, but he threw away his chances, lived for some time in poverty with occasional short intervals of prosperity, and finally, taking to drink, he died. That is all I can gather.”
“到目前为止，都是正确的，”我说，“还有什么吗？”“他是一个作风邋遢的人——非常邋遢、马虎。他本被寄予厚望，但他断送了自己的前程，有一段时间在贫困中度过，偶尔会富有一把，最后由于酗酒而死。这是我得到的全部信息。”
I sprang from my chair and limped impatiently about the room with considerable bitterness in my heart.
我从椅子上跳起来，在房间里不耐烦地踱着步，内心充满了挫败感。
“This is unworthy of you, Holmes,” I said. “I could not have believed that you would have descended to this. You have made inquiries into the history of my unhappy brother, and you now pretend to deduce this knowledge in some fanciful way. You cannot expect me to believe that you have read all this from his old watch! It is unkind and, to speak plainly, has a touch of charlatanism in it.”
“福尔摩斯，你这样就太不对了，”我说，“我不敢相信，你竟做出如此卑劣的事。你肯定调查过我的过往，以及我那不幸的哥哥，而现在却假装这一切都是以某种神奇的方式推理出来的。你不能指望我相信，仅仅从这块表上，你就能知道这一切！坦白地说，你这种行为很不厚道，而且有招摇撞骗之嫌。”
“My dear doctor,” said he kindly, “pray accept my apologies. Viewing the matter as an abstract problem, I had forgotten how personal and painful a thing it might be to you. I assure you, however, that I never even knew that you had a brother until you handed me the watch.”
“我亲爱的医生，”他友善地说，“请接受我的道歉。当我仅仅把它看作一个抽象的难题时，我忘记了这对你来说是一件多么隐私、痛楚的事情。我向你保证，在你给我这块表之前，我根本不知道你有一个哥哥。”
“Then how in the name of all that is wonderful did you get these facts? They are absolutely correct in every particular.”
“那么，你究竟是如何知晓这些事实的呢？每一点都是绝对正确的。”
“Ah, that is good luck. I could only say what was the balance of probability. I did not at all expect to be so accurate.”
“啊，那只是运气好罢了。我只是说出了一些可能的情况。我并不指望它们都是准确的。”
“But it was not mere guesswork?”
“但是，这不仅仅是猜测而已吧？”
“No, no: I never guess. It is a shocking habit — destructive to the logical faculty. What seems strange to you is only so because you do not follow my train of thought or observe the small facts upon which large inferences may depend. For example, I began by stating that your brother was careless. When you observe the lower part of that watch-case you notice that it is not only dinted in two places but it is cut and marked all over from the habit of keeping other hard objects, such as coins or keys, in the same pocket. Surely it is no great feat to assume that a man who treats a fifty-guinea watch so cavalierly must be a careless man. Neither is it a very far-fetched inference that a man who inherits one article of such value is pretty well provided for in other respects.”
“不不，我从来不猜。猜测对于逻辑推理来说是很不好的习惯。你之所以会觉得奇怪，是因为你并没有跟上我的思维，也没有发现这些小细节中所隐藏的玄机。比如说，我从推断你的哥哥很粗心开始。当你观察这块表的下部时，你会发现，除了两块明显的凹痕以外，上面还布满各种各样的伤痕，从这能看出，它的主人曾习惯把它跟各种坚硬的物件放在同一个口袋里，比如说硬币、钥匙等。此人如此漫不经心地对待价值五十金币的手表，我由此断定他是一个粗心的人，这并不是什么巨大的成就吧。这个人继承了一件如此贵重的物件，那么，他在其他方面也应该得到了很好的供养，这样的推断不算牵强吧。”
I nodded to show that I followed his reasoning.
我点点头，表示我跟上了他的推理思路。
“It is very customary for pawnbrokers in England, when they take a watch, to scratch the numbers of the ticket with a pinpoint upon the inside of the case. It is more handy than a label as there is no risk of the number being lost or transposed. There are no less than four such numbers visible to my lens on the inside of this case. Inference — that your brother was often at low water. Secondary inference — that he had occasional bursts of prosperity, or he could not have redeemed the pledge. Finally, I ask you to look at the inner plate, which contains the key hole. Look at the thousands of scratches all round the hole — marks where the key has slipped. What sober man’s key could have scored those grooves? But you will never see a drunkard’s watch without them. He winds it at night, and he leaves these traces of his unsteady hand. Where is the mystery in all this?”
“英国当铺的惯例是，当他们收到一块手表时，就会用尖锐物把票据号码刻在表盖里。这比挂牌子更方便，可以免去牌子丢失或混乱的风险。用放大镜观察，可以看到，这里面起码有四个这样的号码。由此推断——你哥哥常常面临困窘的状况。进一步推断——他偶尔也会突然富一把，否则无法赎回手表。最后，我请你观察这个有钥匙孔的里盖。围绕着钥匙孔有上千条划痕——是钥匙划过的痕迹。清醒的人有可能划出这么多划痕吗？但在一个醉汉的表上，你却一定会看到这样的划痕。他晚上上弦，并留下了这些因手腕颤抖而造成的痕迹。这些推断里面有什么玄妙之处呢？”
“It is as clear as daylight,” I answered. “I regret the injustice which I did you. I should have had more faith in your marvellous faculty. May I ask whether you have any professional inquiry on foot at present?”
“这就如青天白日一般清楚，”我回答，“我很抱歉，刚对你说的话多有冒犯。我应该对你出众的才能更有信心才是。请问，你手里现在还有什么没侦破的案件吗？”
“None. Hence the cocaine. I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window here. Was ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the use of having powers, Doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them? Crime is commonplace, existence is commonplace, and no qualities save those which are commonplace have any function upon earth.”
“并没有。所以我才注射可卡因。我如果不动，脑子就活不下去。要不然活着还有什么意思呢？请站到床边来吧。难道曾经有过如此沉闷凄凉、百无聊赖的世界吗？看那黄色的烟雾如何旋转着飘下街道，在暗褐色的房屋之间飘过。还有比这个更俗、更乏味的东西吗？当一个人没有用武之地的时候，有这样的能力又有什么用呢，医生？犯罪是寻常之事，人的存在也是寻常之事，这世上除了寻常之事，便再无其他了。”
I had opened my mouth to reply to this tirade when, with a crisp knock, our landlady entered, bearing a card upon the brass salver.
正当我要开口回应他的偏激言论时，忽然传来了急促的敲门声，我们的房东太太走了进来，手上拿着一个放有名片的托盘。
“A young lady for you, sir,” she said, addressing my companion.
“一个年轻的女士想要见你，先生，”她对我的朋友说道。
“Miss Mary Morstan,” he read. “Hum! I have no recollection of the name. Ask the young lady to step up, Mrs. Hudson. Don’t go, Doctor. I should prefer that you remain.”
“玛丽·摩斯坦小姐，”他读着名片，“恩！我对这个名字没有任何印象。让这位年轻女士进来吧，赫德森太太。请别离开，医生。我希望你能留下来。”
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