孤身骑车人（1）

The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist

Arthur Conan Doyle

From the years 1894 to 1901 inclusive Mr. Sherlock  Holmes was a very busy man. It is safe to say that  there was no public case of any difficulty in which he  was not consulted during those eight years, and there  were hundreds of private cases, some of them of the  most intricate and extraordinary character, in which he  played a prominent part. Many startling successes and a  few unavoidable failures were the outcome of this long  period of continuous work. As I have preserved very  full notes of all these cases, and was myself  personally engaged in many of them, it may be imagined  that it is no easy task to know which I should select  to lay before the public. I shall, however, preserve my  former rule, and give the preference to those cases  which derive their interest not so much from the  brutality of the crime as from the ingenuity and  dramatic quality of the solution. For this reason I  will now lay before the reader the facts connected with  Miss Violet Smith, the solitary cyclist of Charlington,  and the curious sequel of our investigation, which  culminated in unexpected tragedy. It is true that the  circumstances did not admit of any striking  illustration of those powers for which my friend was  famous, but there were some points about the case which  made it stand out in those long records of crime from  which I gather the material for these little  narratives.

On referring to my note-book for the year 1895 I find  that it was upon Saturday, the 23rd of April, that we  first heard of Miss Violet Smith. Her visit was, I  remember, extremely unwelcome to Holmes, for he was  immersed at the moment in a very abstruse and  complicated problem concerning the peculiar persecution  to which John Vincent Harden, the well-known tobacco  millionaire, had been subjected. My friend, who loved  above all things precision and concentration of  thought, resented anything which distracted his  attention from the matter in hand. And yet without a  harshness which was foreign to his nature it was  impossible to refuse to listen to the story of the  young and beautiful woman, tall, graceful, and queenly,  who presented herself at Baker Street late in the  evening and implored his assistance and advice. It was  vain to urge that his time was already fully occupied,  for the young lady had come with the determination to  tell her story, and it was evident that nothing short  of force could get her out of the room until she had  done so. With a resigne d air and a somewhat weary smile, Holmes begged the beautiful intruder to take a seat and to inform us what it was that was troubling her.

从一八九四年到一九○一年期间，歇洛克·福尔摩斯先生异常繁忙。完全可以说，这八年来各种公办的疑难著名案件，没有一件不请教福尔摩斯的。还有千百件私人案件，其中许多是十分错综复杂并具有特色的，福尔摩斯也在其中起了重要作用。许多惊人的成就和一些不可避免的失败是这一漫长时期连续工作的结果。由于我对这些案件有闻必录，其中的许多案件我自己也亲身参加过，可以想象，要弄清我应该选择哪些来公之于众，这不是一件容易的事。然而，我可以按照我从前的作法，优先选择那些不是以犯罪的凶残著称，而是以结案的巧妙和戏剧一性一而引人入胜的案件。由于这个原因，我就选择了有关维奥莱特·史密斯小一姐，查林顿的孤身骑车人一事，以及我们调查到的奇异结局，这个结局以出人意料的悲剧而告终。现在我就把情况介绍给读者。诚然，这些事对我朋友那因以扬名的才能并没有增添什么异彩，可是这件案子却有几点非常突出，不同于我从中收集资料写成了这些小笔事的那些长期犯罪记录。

我翻阅了一八九五年的笔记，查出是四月二十三日，星期六，我们第一次听维奥莱特·史密斯谈自己的事。我记得福尔摩斯对她的来访极不欢迎，因为那时他正全神贯注于一件十分难解的错综复杂的问题，这个问题涉及著名的烟草大王约翰·文森特·哈登所遭遇的特殊难题。我的朋友最喜欢的事就是准确和思想集中，在办手头的事情时，最厌烦别的事来打扰他。尽避如此，但他生一性一并不固执生硬，不可能拒绝那位身材苗条、仪态万方、神色庄重的美貌姑一娘一来讲述她的遭遇，何况她又是在这么晚的晚上亲自来贝克街恳请他帮助和指点的。尽避福尔摩斯声明时间已经排满，但也无济于事，因为那姑一娘一下定决心非讲不可。很明显，她不达到目的，要想使她离开除非动武。福尔摩斯显出无可奈何的神色，勉强地笑了笑，请那位美丽的不速之客坐下，把她遇到的麻烦事如实地讲给我们听。