四签名 84大宗阿格拉宝物（3）

"You are under the charge of Mr. Athelney Jones, of Scotland Yard.

"你现在已经是在苏格兰场埃瑟尔尼·琼斯先生羁押之下。

He is going to bring you up to my rooms, and I shall ask you for a true account of the matter.

他准备把你带到我的家中，由我先问你的口供。

You must make a clean breast of it, for if you do I hope that I may be of use to you.

你必须向我句句实言，如果你能够老实，或者我还可以帮你的忙。

I think I can prove that the poison acts so quickly that the man was dead before ever you reached the room."

我想我有法子可以证明那毒刺的毒性很快，在你爬进屋里以前，舒尔托先生已经中毒身亡了。"

"That he was, sir. I never got such a turn in my life

"没错，先生，他已经先死了。我人生中从未遇到过这种转变，

as when I saw him grinning at me with his head on his shoulder as I climbed through the window.

当我爬进窗户一看见他那歪着头狞笑的样子，

It fairly shook me, sir. I'd have half killed Tonga for it if he had not scrambled¹ off.

真的把我吓坏了。要不是童格跑得快，当时我就把他宰了。

That was how he came to leave his club, and some of his darts² too, as he tells me,

这也就是到后来他告诉我，他如何在忙中丢落了那根木棒和一袋毒刺的原因，

which I dare say helped to put you on our track;

我想这件东西帮助了您追寻到我们。

though how you kept on it is more than I can tell.

至于您怎么把线索联系起来而捉到我的，那我就想不出来了。

I don't feel no malice³ against you for it.

这是我自己不好，不能怨恨您的。"

But it does seem a queer thing," he added with a bitter smile,

他又苦笑道，"可是这也真算一件怪事。

"that I, who have a fair claim to half a million of money,

您看，有权利享受这五十万傍的我，

should spend the first half of my life building a breakwater in the Andamans,

竟在安达曼群岛修筑防波堤度过了半生，

and am like to spend the other half digging drains at Dartmoor.

后半生恐怕又要到达特沼地去挖沟了。

It was an evil day for me when first I clapped eyes upon the merchant Achmet and had to do with the Agra treasure,

从头一天碰到那商人阿奇麦特因而和阿格拉宝物发生了关系之后，我就倒上了霉，

which never brought anything but a curse yet upon the man who owned it.

沾上这宝物的人也没有不倒霉的；

To him it brought murder, to Major Sholto it brought fear and guilt⁴, to me it has meant slavery for life."

那个商人因宝物丧了命，舒尔托少校因宝物给他带来了恐惧和罪恶，而我就要终身作苦役了。"

1 scrambled   

v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Each scrambled for the football at the football ground. 足球场上你争我夺。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He scrambled awkwardly to his feet. 他笨拙地爬起身来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 darts   

n.掷飞镖游戏；飞镖( dart的名词复数 )；急驰，飞奔v.投掷，投射( dart的第三人称单数 )；向前冲，飞奔

参考例句：

• His darts trophy takes pride of place on the mantelpiece. 他将掷镖奖杯放在壁炉顶上最显著的地方。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I never saw so many darts in a bodice! 我从没见过紧身胸衣上纳了这么多的缝褶！ 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 malice   

n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋

参考例句：

• I detected a suggestion of malice in his remarks.我觉察出他说的话略带恶意。
• There was a strong current of malice in many of his portraits.他的许多肖像画中都透着一股强烈的怨恨。

4 guilt   

n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责

参考例句：

• She tried to cover up her guilt by lying.她企图用谎言掩饰自己的罪行。
• Don't lay a guilt trip on your child about schoolwork.别因为功课责备孩子而使他觉得很内疚。