赖盖特之谜10

“In the first place,” said Holmes, “I should like you to offer a reward— coming from yourself, for the officials may take a little time before they would  agree upon the sum, and these things cannot be done too promptly¹. I have jotted  down the form here, if you would not mind signing it. Fifty pound was quite  enough, I thought.”

“I would willingly give five hundred,” said the J.P., taking the slip of paper  and the pencil which Holmes handed to him. “This is not quite correct, however, ” he added, glancing over the document.

“I wrote it rather hurriedly.”

“You see you begin, ‘Whereas, at about a quarter to one on Tuesday morning an  attempt was made,’ and so on. It was at a quarter to twelve, as a matter of  fact.”

I was pained at the mistake, for I knew how keenly Holmes would feel any slip of  the kind. It was his specialty² to be accurate as to fact, but his recent illness  had shaken him, and this one little incident was enough to show me that he was  still far from being himself. He was obviously embarrassed for an instant, while  the Inspector³ raised his eyebrows⁴, and Alec Cunningham burst into a laugh. The  old gentleman corrected the mistake, however, and handed the paper back to  Holmes.

“Get it printed as soon as possible,” he said; “I think your idea is an  excellent one.”

Holmes put the slip of paper carefully away into his pocket-book.

“And now,” said he, “it really would be a good thing that we should all go  over the house together and make certain that this rather erratic⁵ burglar did  not, after all, carry anything away with him.”

“首先，”福尔摩斯说道，“我想请你自己出一个赏格，因为官方要同意这笔款子，可能要 费一些时间，同时这些事情也不可能马上就给办。我已经起了个草，如果你不反对的话，请 你签字。我想，五十镑足够了。”

“我情愿出五百镑，”治安官接过福尔摩斯递给他的那张纸和铅笔，说道。“但是，这不完 全对，”他浏览了一下底稿，又补充了一句。

“我写得太仓促了。”

“你看你开头写的：‘鉴于星期二凌晨零点三刻发生了一次抢劫未遂案，’等等。事实上， 是发生在十一点三刻。”

我看到出了这个差错很痛心，因为我知道，福尔摩斯对这类疏忽，总是感到很尴尬。把事实 搞得很准确，是他的特长。可是他最近的病把他折腾得够呛，眼前这件小事，也足以向我表 明，他的身一体还远远没有复原。显然，他感到很窘。

警官扬了扬眉一毛一，亚历克-坎宁安则哈哈大笑起来。那个老绅士立即把写错的地方改正 了，把这张纸还给了福尔摩斯。

“尽快送去付印吧，”老坎宁安说道，“我认为你的想法是很高明的。”福尔摩斯却小心翼 翼地把这张纸收起来，夹在他的记事本里。

“现在，”他说道，“我们最好一起把这宅院仔细检查一下，弄清楚这个古怪的盗贼是否确 实没有偷走任何东西。”

1 promptly   

adv.及时地，敏捷地

参考例句：

• He paid the money back promptly.他立即还了钱。
• She promptly seized the opportunity his absence gave her.她立即抓住了因他不在场给她创造的机会。

2 specialty   

n.(speciality)特性，特质；专业，专长

参考例句：

• Shell carvings are a specialty of the town.贝雕是该城的特产。
• His specialty is English literature.他的专业是英国文学。

3 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

4 eyebrows   

眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Eyebrows stop sweat from coming down into the eyes. 眉毛挡住汗水使其不能流进眼睛。
• His eyebrows project noticeably. 他的眉毛特别突出。

5 erratic   

adj.古怪的，反复无常的，不稳定的

参考例句：

• The old man had always been cranky and erratic.那老头儿性情古怪,反复无常。
• The erratic fluctuation of market prices is in consequence of unstable economy.经济波动致使市场物价忽起忽落。