《巴斯克威尔猎犬》 61搜寻杀人凶手(5)

From time to time one of us stepped from the path and sank up to his waist¹ in the marsh². One man on his own could not hope to escape the pull of the marsh；without help he would sink to his death.

我们不时从小路旁走歪，陷入了泥潭，直到齐腰那么深。独自一人是不敢奢求自己能逃脱泥潭的拖陷的；没有别人的帮助就会陷进去没命了。

But we did not find any sign of Stapleton. We searched and searched without success. There is no doubt that he lost his way in the fog, and sank in the marsh Somewhere, deep down, his body lies to this day.

但是，我们没有发现斯台普顿的任何迹象。我们搜啊搜，可是一无所获。勿庸置疑，他在大雾中迷了路，陷进泥潭中去了。在泥潭深处的某个地方，他的尸体将永远躺在那里。

We reached the island Miss Stapleton had described, and searched the old house.

我们到达了斯台普顿小姐描述过的那个小岛，还搜寻了一番那栋古老的屋子。

"This place tells us nothing that we do not already know, "said Holmes. "These bones show that he hid the hound³ here, but he could not keep it quiet, so people heard its cries. Here is the bottle of phosphorous paint. Stapleton used it very cleverly on the hound. After what we saw and felt last night, we cannot be surprised that Sir Charles died of fright⁴. And now I understand how Selden knew that the hound was following him in the dark. It's not surprising the poor man screamed and ran as he did. The old story of the supernatural hound probably gave Stapleton the idea of using phosphorus. Very clever. I said it in London and I say it again, Watson. We have never had a more dangerous enemy than the one who is lying out there"—and he pointed⁵ to the great marsh that was all round us.

“这个地方告诉我们我们已知晓的一切详情，”福尔摩斯说道。“这些骨头表明他曾把猎犬藏在这儿，可是他不能使它默不出声，所以人们听到了它的叫声。这儿是瓶含磷的涂料。斯台普顿狡猾地把它抹在了猎犬身上。有了我们昨晚的所见所感作铺叙以后，我们对查尔斯爵士因恐慌而暴死就不足为奇了。我现在也明白塞尔登是怎么知道那只猎犬在黑暗中跟在他后面的了。那个可怜的家伙就那么大叫着向前跑，这并不奇怪。关于那只魔狗的那个古老的故事使他萌发了使用磷的念头。十分狡猾。我曾在伦敦这么说过，我现在再这么说一遍，华生。咱们还从来没有一个比躺在那边的那个人更为危险的对手呢”——他指了指散布在我们四周的那片大泥潭。

1 waist   

n.腰，腰部，腰身，背心

参考例句：

• The coat is a bit tight at the waist.这件上衣腰身瘦了点。
• The sound is from the waist of a violin.声音是从小提琴的中间部分发出的。

2 marsh   

n.沼泽，湿地

参考例句：

• There are a lot of frogs in the marsh.沼泽里有许多青蛙。
• I made my way slowly out of the marsh.我缓慢地走出这片沼泽地。

3 hound   

n.猎狗，卑鄙的人；vt.用猎狗追，追逐

参考例句：

• The hound found the trail of the rabbit.猎狗发现了兔子的踪迹。
• The police have promised to hound down those responsible for the explosion.警方已保证要追查此次爆炸事件有责任的人员。

4 fright   

n.惊骇；吃惊

参考例句：

• A tree fell on the house and gave him a fright.一棵树倒在房子上，吓了他一大跳。
• She turned pale with fright.她吓得面色刷白。

5 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。