孤身骑车人（10）

The Thursday brought us another letter from our client.

You will not be surprised, Mr. Holmes [said she] to  hear that I am leaving Mr. Carruthers's employment.  Even the high pay cannot reconcile me to the  discomforts of my situation. On Saturday I come up to  town and I do not intend to return. Mr. Carruthers has  got a trap, and so the dangers of the lonely road, if  there ever were any dangers, are now over.

As to the special cause of my leaving, it is not merely  the strained situation with Mr. Carruthers, but it is  the reappearance of that odious man, Mr. Woodley. He  was always hideous, but he looks more awful than ever  now, for he appears to have had an accident and he is  much disfigured. I saw him out of the window, but I am  glad to say I did not meet him. He had a long talk with  Mr. Carruthers, who seemed much excited afterwards.  Woodley must be staying in the neighbourhood, for he  did not sleep here, and yet I caught a glimpse of him  again this morning slinking about in the shrubbery. I  would sooner have a savage wild animal loose about the  place. I loathe and fear him more than I can say. How  can Mr. Carruthers endure such a creature for a moment?  However, all my troubles will be over on Saturday.

“So I trust, Watson; so I trust,” said Holmes,  gravely. “There is some deep intrigue going on round  that little woman, and it is our duty to see that no  one molests her upon that last journey. I think,  Watson, that we must spare time to run down together on  Saturday morning, and make sure that this curious and  inconclusive investigation has no untoward ending.”

I confess that I had not up to now taken a very serious  view of the case, which had seemed to me rather  grotesque and bizarre than dangerous. That a man should  lie in wait for and follow a very handsome woman is no  unheard-of thing, and if he had so little audacity that  he not only dared not address her, but even fled from  her approach, he was not a very formidable assailant.  The ruffian Woodley was a very different person, but,  except on one occasion, he had not molested our client,  and now he visited the house of Carruthers without  intruding upon her presence. The man on the bicycle was  doubtless a member of those week-end parties at the  Hall of which the publican had spoken; but who he was  or what he wanted was as obscure as ever. It was the  severity of Holmes's manner and the fact that he  slipped a revolver into his pocket before leaving our  rooms which impressed me with the feeling that tragedy  might prove to lurk behind this curious train of  events.

星期四那天我们又收到那位委托人的一封信。她写道：

福尔摩斯先生，你听到我就要辞去卡拉瑟斯先生的雇聘，不会感到惊奇吧。即使报酬优厚，我也不甘心忍受这尴尬的处境。我在星期六回城里，不打算再回来了。卡拉瑟斯先生已备好一辆马车，因此，如果说过去路上有什么危险的话，那么偏僻车路上的危险现在已经不存在了。

至于我辞聘的具体原因，不单是我和卡拉瑟斯先生的尴尬处境，而且是那个令人嫌恶的人伍德利先生又来了。他本来可怕，现在的嘴脸更可怕了。因为他好象出了什么事，所以更加不象样子了。我是从窗子里面看到他的，我很高兴说，我并没有碰上他。他和卡拉瑟斯先生谈了很长时间，从此以后卡拉瑟斯先生非常激动。伍德利一定居住在附近，因为他并没有住在卡拉瑟斯家里。今早我又看到他在灌木丛中鬼鬼祟祟地活动。我不久就会在这地方碰到这头凶猛的吃人野兽，简直说不出是多么憎恨和害怕了。卡拉瑟斯先生怎么竟能容忍这样的一个家伙？一刻也容忍不得啊！不过，我的一切麻烦到星期六就要结束了。

“我相信是这样的，华生，我相信是这样的，"福尔摩斯严肃地说道，“围绕着这位小泵一娘一正进行着一场极为隐秘的一陰一谋，我们有责任去一趟，不让任何人在她最后一次旅行中一騷一扰她。华生，我想星期六早晨我们一定一抽一时间一起去，以便保证我们这次奇异而广泛的调查不致遭受不幸的结局。”

我承认直到现在我还没有十分看重这件案子，在我看来其中并没有什么危险，只不过有些荒诞、古怪而已。男人埋伏着等待漂亮的女人并且尾随她，这并不是什么闻所未闻的事，如果他只有那么一点点放肆，不仅不敢向她求一爱一，而在她接近他的时候，反而逃跑，那他就不是十分可怕的暴徒。那个恶棍伍德利则又当别论。可是，除了那一次之外，他再没有一騷一扰过我们的委托人，近来他到过卡拉瑟斯家，可也没有闯到她面前。那个骑车人无疑是酒店老板所说的周末聚会的成员。可他是什么人呢，他要干什么呢？却依然模糊不清。福尔摩斯的严肃表情，他离开我们房间以前，把一只手槍塞到衣袋里，这些都使我感到，这一连串怪事后面可能隐藏着悲剧。