住院的病人19

“You must surely remember the great Worthingdon bank business,” said Holmes.  “Five men were in it—these four and a fifth called Cartwright. Tobin, the  care-taker, was murdered, and the thieves got away with seven thousand pounds.  This was in 1875. They were all five arrested, but the evidence against them was  by no means conclusive¹. This Blessington or Sutton, who was the worst of the  gang, turned informer. On his evidence Cartwright was hanged and the other three  got fifteen years apiece. When they got out the other day, which was some years  before their full term, they set themselves, as you perceive, to hunt down the  traitor² and to avenge³ the death of their comrade upon him. Twice they tried to  get at him and failed; a third time, you see, it came off. Is there anything  further which I can explain, Dr. Trevelyan?”

“I think you have made it all remarkable⁴ clear,” said the doctor. “No doubt  the day on which he was perturbed⁵ was the day when he had seen of their release  in the newspapers.”

“Quite so. His talk about a burglary was the merest blind.”

“But why could he not tell you this?”

“Well, my dear sir, knowing the vindictive⁶ character of his old associates, he  was trying to hide his own identity from everybody as long as he could. His  secret was a shameful⁷ one, and he could not bring himself to divulge⁸ it.  However, wretch⁹ as he was, he was still living under the shield of British law,  and I have no doubt, Inspector¹⁰, that you will see that, though that shield may  fail to guard, the sword of justice is still there to avenge.”

Such were the singular circumstances in connection with the Resident Patient and  the Brook¹¹ Street Doctor. From that night nothing has been seen of the three  murderers by the police, and it is surmised¹² at Scotland Yard that they were  among the passengers of the ill-fated steamer Norah Creina, which was lost some  years ago with all hands upon the Portuguese¹³ coast, some leagues to the north of  Oporto. The proceedings¹⁴ against the page broke down for want of evidence, and  the Brook Street Mystery, as it was called, has never until now been fully¹⁵ dealt  with in any public print.

“你们一定记得那桩沃辛顿银行大抢劫案吧。”福尔摩斯说道，“案中一共有五个人——这 四个人，还有那个叫做卡特赖特的第五个人——银行看管员托宾被害，窃贼们抢了七千镑逃 走了。这案子发生在一八七五年。他们五个人全部被捕，但是证据不足，定不了案。这一伙 抢劫犯中最坏的那个布莱星顿也就是叫萨顿的，就告发了他们。由于他作证，卡特赖特被判 处绞刑，其他三个人每人被判了十五年徒刑。前几天他们被提前数年释放，你们可以想到， 他们下决心一定要把出卖他们的人找到，为他们死去的同伙报仇。他们两次设法找到他，都 未能得手，你们看，第三次成功了。特里维廉医生，还有什么需要说明的没有？”

“我想你已经把一切都说得非常清楚了，”医生说道，“毫无疑问，那一天他之所以那么惶 惶不安，就是因为他在报上看到了那几个人被释放的消息。”

“完全不错，他说什么盗窃案，纯粹是放烟幕弹。”

“可是他为什么不把这件事告诉你呢？”

“啊，我亲一爱一的先生，他知道他的那些老伙计报复心很强，便尽量向所有人隐瞒自己的 身份。他的秘密是可耻的，他不可能自己泄漏出来。但是，他虽然卑鄙，却依然处于英国法 律的保护之下，警长，我毫不怀疑，你可以看到，尽避那个盾没有起到保护作用，那把正义 的剑还是会替他复仇的。”

这就是关于那个住院病人和布鲁克街医生的情况。从那天夜晚起，警察再没有看到那三个凶 手的影子。苏格兰场推测，他们乘坐那艘不幸的“诺拉克列依那”号轮船逃跑了。那艘船和 全体船员数年以前在葡萄牙海岸距波尔图以北数十-的地方遇难。对那个小听差的起诉，因 证据不足，不能成立，而这件被称为布鲁克街疑案的案件，各报至今都没有详细报道过。

1 conclusive   

adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的

参考例句：

• They produced some fairly conclusive evidence.他们提供了一些相当确凿的证据。
• Franklin did not believe that the French tests were conclusive.富兰克林不相信这个法国人的实验是结论性的。

2 traitor   

n.叛徒，卖国贼

参考例句：

• The traitor was finally found out and put in prison.那个卖国贼终于被人发现并被监禁了起来。
• He was sold out by a traitor and arrested.他被叛徒出卖而被捕了。

3 avenge   

v.为...复仇，为...报仇

参考例句：

• He swore to avenge himself on the mafia.他发誓说要向黑手党报仇。
• He will avenge the people on their oppressor.他将为人民向压迫者报仇。

4 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

5 perturbed   

adj.烦燥不安的v.使（某人）烦恼，不安( perturb的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I am deeply perturbed by the alarming way the situation developing. 我对形势令人忧虑的发展深感不安。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mother was much perturbed by my illness. 母亲为我的病甚感烦恼不安。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

6 vindictive   

adj.有报仇心的，怀恨的，惩罚的

参考例句：

• I have no vindictive feelings about it.我对此没有恶意。
• The vindictive little girl tore up her sister's papers.那个充满报复心的小女孩撕破了她姐姐的作业。

7 shameful   

adj.可耻的，不道德的

参考例句：

• It is very shameful of him to show off.他向人炫耀自己，真不害臊。
• We must expose this shameful activity to the newspapers.我们一定要向报社揭露这一无耻行径。

8 divulge   

v.泄漏(秘密等)；宣布，公布

参考例句：

• They refused to divulge where they had hidden the money.他们拒绝说出他们把钱藏在什么地方。
• He swore never to divulge the secret.他立誓决不泄露秘密。

9 wretch   

n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人

参考例句：

• You are really an ungrateful wretch to complain instead of thanking him.你不但不谢他，还埋怨他，真不知好歹。
• The dead husband is not the dishonoured wretch they fancied him.死去的丈夫不是他们所想象的不光彩的坏蛋。

10 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。

11 brook   

n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让

参考例句：

• In our room we could hear the murmur of a distant brook.在我们房间能听到远处小溪汩汩的流水声。
• The brook trickled through the valley.小溪涓涓流过峡谷。

12 surmised   

v.臆测，推断( surmise的过去式和过去分词 )；揣测；猜想

参考例句：

• From the looks on their faces, I surmised that they had had an argument. 看他们的脸色，我猜想他们之间发生了争执。
• From his letter I surmised that he was unhappy. 我从他的信中推测他并不快乐。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 Portuguese   

n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语

参考例句：

• They styled their house in the Portuguese manner.他们仿照葡萄牙的风格设计自己的房子。
• Her family is Portuguese in origin.她的家族是葡萄牙血统。

14 proceedings   

n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼

15 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。