福爾摩斯探案經典:《恐怖谷》第4章Part4
"Then you.can go home. You've had enough. We can send for you if we want you. The butler had better wait outside. Tell him to warn Mr. Cecil Barker, Mrs. Douglas, and the housekeeper that we may want a word with them presently. Now, gentlemen, perhaps you will allow me to give you the views I have formed first, and then you will be able to arrive at your own."
He impressed me, this country specialist. He had a solid grip of fact and a cool, clear, common-sense brain, which should take him some way in his profession. Holmes listened to him intently, with no sign of that impatience which the official exponent too often produced.
"Is it suicide, or is it murder--that's our first question, gentlemen, is it not? If it were suicide, then we have to believe that this man began by taking off his wedding ring and concealing it; that he then came down here in his dressing gown, trampled mud into a corner behind the curtain in order to give the idea someone had waited for him, opened the window, put blood on the--"
"We can surely dismiss that," said MacDonald.
"So I think. Suicide is out of the question. Then a murder has been done. What we have to determine is, whether it was done by someone outside or inside the house."
"Well, let's hear the argument."
"There are considerable difficulties both ways, and yet one or the other it must be. We will suppose first that some person or persons inside the house did the crime. They got this man down here at a time when everything was still and yet no one was asleep. They then did the deed with the queerest and noisiest weapon in the world so as to tell everyone what had happened--a weapon that was never seen in the house before. That does not seem a very likely start, does it?"
"No, it does not."
"Well, then, everyone is agreed that after the alarm was given only a minute at the most had passed before the whole household--not Mr. Cecil Barker alone, though he claims to have been the first, but Ames and all of them were on the spot. Do you tell me that in that time the guilty person managed to make footmarks in the corner, open the window, mark the sill with blood, take the wedding ring off the dead man's finger, and all the rest of it? It's impossible!"
"You put it very clearly," said Holmes. "I am inclined to agree with you."
"Well, then, we are driven back to the theory that it was done by someone from outside. We are still faced with some big difficulties; but anyhow they have ceased to be impossibilities. The man got into the house between four-thirty and six; that is to say, between dusk and the time when the bridge was raised. There had been some visitors, and the door was open; so there was nothing to prevent him. He may have been a common burglar, or he may have had some private grudge against Mr. Douglas. Since Mr. Douglas has spent most of his life in America, and this shotgun seems to be an American weapon, it would seem that the private grudge is the more likely theory. He slipped into this room because it was the first he came to, and he hid behind the curtain. There he remained until past eleven at night. At that time Mr. Douglas entered the room. It was a short interview, if there were any interview at all; for Mrs. Douglas declares that her husband had not left her more than a few minutes when she heard the shot."
"The candle shows that," said Holmes.
"Exactly. The candle, which was a new one, is not burned more than half an inch. He must have placed it on the table before he was attacked; otherwise, of course, it would have fallen when he fell. This shows that he was not attacked the instant that he entered the room. When Mr. Barker arrived the candle was lit and the lamp was out."
"That's all clear enough."
“那麼，你可以回去了。你已經夠辛苦的了。假如有需要你的地方，我們再派人去請你。管家最好在門外等着。讓他通知塞西爾·巴克先生、道格拉斯太太和女管家，我們現在有些話要問他們。先生們，現在請允許我先把我的看法告訴你們，然後你們將得出自己的看法。”
這個鄉鎮專家給我留下的印象很深。他着着實實地掌握着事實，他有冷靜、清楚的頭腦和豐富的常識。就憑這些，在他的本行事業裏，他就應當是很有發展的。福爾摩斯專心致志地聽他講話，絲毫沒有這位官方解說人經常流露出來的那種不耐煩的樣子。
“我們現在的第一個問題，就是這案子究竟是自殺還是他殺？先生們，對嗎？假如說是自殺，那麼我們不得不相信，這個人開始先把結婚戒指摘下藏起來，然後他穿着睡衣，走到這裏，在窗簾後面的牆角上踩上泥印，以便使人產生印象：有人曾在這裏等候他，打開窗戶，把血跡弄到……”
“我們決不會這樣想的，"麥克唐納說道。
“所以我想，決不會是自殺。那麼必然是他殺了。我們所要決定的就是，兇手是外來人呢，還是莊園裏面的人？”
“好，讓我們聽聽你的高論。”
“這兩種可能要下結論都相當困難，可是兩者必居其一。我們先假定是莊園內部的一個或幾個人作案。在萬籟俱寂、但人們還沒就寢的時候，他們在這裏抓到了這個道格拉斯，然後用這種世上最古怪而聲音最響的武器去作案，以便搞得盡人皆知發生了什麼事，而武器又是莊園內從沒見過的。這個理由看來不是那麼令人信服，對嗎？”
“是啊，不會是這樣的。”
“好，那麼，這裏的人都說，在聽到槍聲以後，至多不過一分鐘，住宅裏所有的人都到了現場。雖然塞西爾·巴克先生自稱是第一個趕到的，但艾姆斯和所有的僕人也都到了。您難道能說，在那段時間，罪犯竟能做出在牆角留腳印、打開窗戶、在窗臺上留血跡、從死者手指上取結婚戒指等等那許多事麼？這是不可能的！”
“你分析得很透徹，我倒有點同意你的見解。"福爾摩斯說道。
“好，那麼，我們回過頭來說，這是外來的人作案。可是我們仍然面對許多大難題。不過，無論如何，不是那麼不可能的了。這個人是在四點半到六點鐘之間進入莊園的，也就是說，是在黃昏和吊橋吊起之間這段時間裏。曾經來過一些客人，房門是打開的，所以這個人沒有遇到什麼阻礙，就溜了進來。他可能只是一般的盜竊犯，也許他和道格拉斯先生有什麼私怨。既然道格拉斯先生大半生都住在美洲，而這支獵槍又象是一種美國武器，那麼，看來出於私怨是最有可能的了。他溜進了這間屋子，因爲他首先看到了它。他藏到窗簾後面，一直藏到夜晚十一點以後。這時，道格拉斯先生進到屋裏。交談時間很短——如果真地交談過的話——因爲道格拉斯太太說，她丈夫離開她沒有幾分鐘，她就聽到槍聲了。”
“那支蠟燭，可以說明這一點。"福爾摩斯說道。
“不錯，這支蠟燭是新的，燒了還不到半英寸。道格拉斯先生一定是先把蠟燭放在桌上，然後才遭到襲擊的。否則，他一跌倒，蠟燭一定會掉在地上。這說明在他剛走進屋時沒有遭到襲擊。巴克先生到這裏時，把燈點上，把蠟燭熄滅了。”
“這一點很清楚。”
