银色马 24

“We scratched our other one and put all hopes on your word,” said the colonel. “Why, what is that? Silver Blaze favourite?”

“Five to four against Silver Blaze!” roared the ring. “Five to four against Silver Blaze! Five to fifteen against Desborough! Five to four on the field!”

“There are the numbers up,” I cried. “They are all six there.”

“All six there? Then my horse is running,” cried the colonel in great agitation¹. “But I don’t see him. My colours have not passed.”

“Only five have passed. This must be he.”

As I spoke² a powerful bay horse swept out from the weighing enclosure and cantered past us, bearing on its back the well-known black and red of the colonel.

“That’s not my horse,” cried the owner. “That beast has not a white hair upon its body. What is this that you have done, Mr. Holmes?”

“Well, well, let us see how he gets on,” said my friend imperturbably³. For a few minutes he gazed through my fieldglass. “Capital! An excellent start!” he cried suddenly. “There they are, coming round the curve!”

From our drag we had a superb view as they came up the straight. The six horses were so close together that a carpet could have covered them, but halfway⁴ up the yellow of the Mapleton stable showed to the front. Before they reached us, however, Desborough’s bolt was shot, and the colonel’s horse, coming away with a rush, passed the post a good six lengths before its rival, the Duke of Balmoral’s Iris⁵ making a bad third.

“我们把一切希望都寄托在你的话上了，把准备好的另一骑马也撤出了比赛，”上校说道，“什么，那是什么？名驹银色白额马？”

“银色白额马，五比四！”赛马赌客高声喊道，”银色白额马，五比四！德斯巴勒，五比十五！其余赛马，五比四！”

“所有的赛马都编了号，”我大声说道，“六七马都出场了。”

“六七马都出场了？那么说，我的马也出来了，”上校异常焦急不安地喊道，”可是我没看到它，没有我那种颜色的马过来。”

“刚跑过五匹，那匹一定是你的。”

我正说着，有一匹矫健的栗色马-悍地从磅马围栏内跑出来，从我们面前缓辔而过，马背上坐着上校那位众所周知的黑帽红衣骑师。

“那不是我的马，”马主人高喊道，”这骑马身上一根白毛也没有。你到底搞了什么鬼，福尔摩斯先生？”

“喂，喂，我们来看它跑得怎样，”我的朋友沉着冷静地说道，他用我的双筒望远镜注意观看了几分钟，”太好了！开始得太好了！”他又突然喊道，”它们过来了，已经拐弯了！”

我们从马车上望过去，赛马一直跑过来，情景异常壮观。六七马原来紧挨在一起，甚至一条地毯可以把六七马一铺盖上，可是跑到中途，梅普里通马厩的黄帽骑师就跑到前面。可是，在它们跑过我们面前时，德斯巴勒的力气已经耗尽了，而罗斯上校的名驹却一冲而上，驰过终点，比它的对手早到六马身长，巴尔莫拉尔公爵的艾里斯名列第三。

1 agitation   

n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动

参考例句：

• Small shopkeepers carried on a long agitation against the big department stores.小店主们长期以来一直在煽动人们反对大型百货商店。
• These materials require constant agitation to keep them in suspension.这些药剂要经常搅动以保持悬浮状态。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 imperturbably   

adv.泰然地，镇静地，平静地

参考例句：

• She was excellently, imperturbably good; affectionate, docile, obedient, and much addicted to speaking the truth. 她绝对善良，脾气也好到了极点；温柔、谦和、恭顺一贯爱说真话。 来自辞典例句
• We could face imperturbably the and find out the best countermeasure only iffind the real origin. 只有找出贸易摩擦的根源，才能更加冷静地面对这一困扰，找出最佳的解决方法。 来自互联网

4 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

5 iris   

n.虹膜，彩虹

参考例句：

• The opening of the iris is called the pupil.虹膜的开口处叫做瞳孔。
• This incredible human eye,complete with retina and iris,can be found in the Maldives.又是在马尔代夫，有这样一只难以置信的眼睛，连视网膜和虹膜都刻画齐全了。