斑点带子案 47多行不义必自毙(6)

"I had," said he, "come to an entirely¹ erroneous conclusion which shows, my dear Watson,

他说，"我曾经得出了一个错误的结论，亲爱的华生，

how dangerous it always is to reason from insufficient² data.

这说明依据不充分的材料进行推论总是多么的危险。

The presence of the gypsies, and the use of the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl,

那些吉卜赛人的存在，那可怜的小姐使用了'band'这个词，

no doubt to explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of by the light of her match,

这无疑是表示她在火柴光下仓惶一气所见到的东西，

were sufficient to put me upon an entirely wrong scent³.

这些情况足够引导我跟踪一个完全错误的线索。

I can only claim the merit that I instantly reconsidered my position when,

只有一点我觉得可以说是我的成绩，那就是我立即重新考虑我的想法，

however, it became clear to me that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not come either from the window or the door.

当我认清那威胁到室内居住的人的任何危险既不可能来自窗子，也不可能来自房门的时候。

My attention was speedily drawn⁴, as I have already remarked to you, to this ventilator,

正像我已经对你说过的那样，我的注意力迅速地被那个通气孔，

and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed.

那个悬挂在床头的铃绳所吸引。

The discovery that this was a dummy⁵, and that the bed was clamped to the floor,

当我发现那根绳子只不过是个幌子，那张床又是被螺钉固定在地板上的时候，

instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and coming to the bed.

这两件事立刻引起了我的怀疑，我怀疑那根绳子只不过是起个桥梁作用，是为了方便什么东西钻过洞孔到床上来。

The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me,

我立即就想到了蛇，

and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was furnished with a supply of creatures from India,

我知道医生豢养了一群从印度运来的动物，当我把这两件事联系起来时，

I felt that I was probably on the right track.

我感到很可能我的思路是对头的。

1 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

2 insufficient   

adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的

参考例句：

• There was insufficient evidence to convict him.没有足够证据给他定罪。
• In their day scientific knowledge was insufficient to settle the matter.在他们的时代，科学知识还不能足以解决这些问题。

3 scent   

n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉

参考例句：

• The air was filled with the scent of lilac.空气中弥漫着丁香花的芬芳。
• The flowers give off a heady scent at night.这些花晚上散发出醉人的芳香。

4 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

5 dummy   

n.假的东西；(哄婴儿的)橡皮奶头

参考例句：

• The police suspect that the device is not a real bomb but a dummy.警方怀疑那个装置不是真炸弹，只是一个假货。
• The boys played soldier with dummy swords made of wood.男孩们用木头做的假木剑玩打仗游戏。