血字的研究 90尾声（1）（在线收听）

Chapter 7 THE CONCLUSION

第七章 尾声

We had all been warned to appear before the magistrates upon the Thursday;

我们事先都接到了通知，要我们在本周星期四出庭。

but when the Thursday came there was no occasion for our testimony.

可是，到了星期四那天，再也用不着我们去作证了。

A higher Judge had taken the matter in hand,

一位更高级的法官已经受理了这个察件，

and Jefferson Hope had been summoned before a tribunal where strict justice would be meted out to him.

杰弗逊·侯波已被传唤到另一个法庭上去，对他进行一次极为公正的审判了。

On the very night after his capture the aneurism burst,

原来，就在他被捕的当天晚上，他的动脉血瘤就迸裂了。

and he was found in the morning stretched upon the floor of the cell, with a placid smile upon his face,

第二天早晨，发现他躺在监狱中的地板上死了。他的脸上流露着平静的笑容，

as though he had been able in his dying moments to look back upon a useful life, and on work well done.

好象在他临死的时候，他回顾过去的年华并未虚度，报仇大业已经如愿以偿了。

"Gregson and Lestrade will be wild about his death," Holmes remarked, as we chatted it over next evening.

第二天傍晚，当我们闲谈着这件事情的时候，福尔摩斯说道："葛莱森和雷斯垂德知道这个人死了，他们一定要气得发疯。

"Where will their grand advertisement be now?"

这样一来，他们自吹自擂的本钱不就完蛋了吗？"

"I don't see that they had very much to do with his capture," I answered.

我回答说："我看不出，他们两个人在捉拿凶手这件事上，究竟干了多少工作。"

"What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence," returned my companion, bitterly.

我的伙伴尖酸地说道："在这个世界上，你到底做了些什么，这倒不关紧要。

"The question is, what can you make people believe that you have done? Never mind," he continued, more brightly, after a pause.

要紧的是，你如何能够使人相信你做了些什么。"停了一会，他又轻松地说："没关系。

"I would not have missed the investigation for anything.

不管怎样，我也不会放过这件案子的。

There has been no better case within my recollection.

在我的记忆中，再没有比这件案子更为精采的了。

Simple as it was, there were several most instructive points about it."

它虽然简单，但是其中有几点却是值得深以为训的。"

"Simple!" I ejaculated.

"简单！"我情不自禁地叫了起来。

"Well, really, it can hardly be described as otherwise," said Sherlock Holmes, smiling at my surprise.

"是的，的确是简单。除此以外，很难用别的字眼来形容它。"歇洛克·福尔摩斯说。他看到我满脸惊讶的神色，不觉微笑了起来。

"The proof of its intrinsic simplicity is,

"证明案子实质上是非常简单的是，

that without any help save a few very ordinary deductions I was able to lay my hand upon the criminal within three days."

你想，没有任何人的帮助，只是经过一番寻常的推理，我居然在三天之内捉到了这个罪犯。"

"That is true," said I.

我说："这倒是实在的。"

"I have already explained to you that what is out of the common is usually a guide rather than a hindrance.

"我已经对你说过，凡是异乎寻常的事物，一般都不是什么阻碍，反而是一种线索。

In solving a problem of this sort, the grand thing is to be able to reason backward.

在解决这类问题时，最主要的事情就是能够用推理的方法，一层层地回溯推理。

That is a very useful accomplishment, and a very easy one,

这是一种很有用的本领，而且也是很容易的，

but people do not practise it much.

不过，人们在实践中却不常应用它。

In the everyday affairs of life it is more useful to reason forward,

在日常生活中，向前推理的方法用处大些，

and so the other comes to be neglected.

因此人们也就往往容易忽略回溯推理这一层。

There are fifty who can reason synthetically for one who can reason analytically."

如果说有五十个人能够从事务的各个方面加以综合推理的话，那么，能够用分析的方法推理的，不过是个把人而已。"