证券经纪人的书记员16（在线收听）

I stooped over him and examined him. His pulse was feeble and intermittent, but his breathing grew longer, and there was a little shivering of his eyelids, which showed a thin white slit of ball beneath.

“It has been touch and go with him,” said I, “but he’ll live now. Just open that window, and hand me the water carafe.” I undid his collar, poured the cold water over his face, and raised and sank his arms until he drew a long, natural breath. “It’s only a question of time now,” said I as I turned away from him.

Holmes stood by the table, with his hands deep in his trousers’ pockets and his chin upon his breast.

“I suppose we ought to call the police in now,” said he. “And yet I confess that I’d like to give them a complete case when they come.”

“It’s a blessed mystery to me,” cried Pycroft, scratching his head. “Whatever they wanted to bring me all the way up here for, and then —”

“Pooh! All that is clear enough,” said Holmes impatiently. “It is this last sudden move.”

“You understand the rest, then?”

“I think that it is fairly obvious. What do you say, Watson?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I must confess that I am out of my depths,” said I.

“Oh, surely if you consider the events at first they can only point to one conclusion.”

“What do you make of them?”

“Well, the whole thing hinges upon two points. The first is the making of Pycroft write a declaration by which he entered the service of this preposterous company. Do you not see how very suggestive that is?”

“I am afraid I miss the point.”

“Well, why did they want him to do it? Not as a business matter, for these arrangements are usually verbal, and there was no earthly business reason why this should be an exception. Don’t you see, my young friend, that they were very anxious to obtain a specimen of your handwriting, and had no other way of doing it?”

“And why?”

“Quite so. Why? When we answer that we have made some progress with our little problem. Why? There can be only one adequate reason. Someone wanted to learn to imitate your writing and had to procure a specimen of it first. And now if we pass on to the second point we find that each throws light upon the other. That point is the request made by Pinner that you should not resign your place, but should leave the manager of this important business in the full expectation that a Mr. Hall Pycroft, whom he had never seen, was about to enter the office upon the Monday morning.”

“My God!” cried our client, “what a blind beetle I have been!”

我俯下一身来，对这人进行检查。他的脉搏微弱而有间歇，可是呼吸却越来越长，他的眼睑微微颤一动，眼睑下露出白白的眼球。

“他本来很危险，”我说道，“可是现在已经救活了。请打开窗户，把冷水瓶给我，”我解一开他的衣领，在他脸上倒了一些冷水，给他做人工呼吸，直到他自然地长长呼了一口气。

“现在只是时间问题了，”我从他身旁走开，说道。

福尔摩斯站在桌旁，双手插在裤袋里，低着头。

“我想我们现在应当把警察找来了，”他说道，“等他们来后，我们就把全案一交一给他们。”

“见鬼，我还是一点也不明白，”派克罗夫特搔着头，叫喊道，”不管他们特地把我引到这里来干什么，可……”

“哼！这一切都很清楚！”福尔摩斯不耐烦地说道，“就是为了这最后的突然行动。”

“那么，你对其余的事都清楚了吗？”

“我想这是极为明显的，华生，你的意见怎样？”

我耸了耸双肩。”我必须承认我对此莫名片妙。”我说道。

“啊，如果你们先把这些事情仔细想一想，就能得出一个结论。”

“那你到底得出什么结论呢？”

“好，全案的关键有两点。第一点是他让派克罗夫特写了一份到这家荒诞的公司服务的声明，你还不明白这是多么发人深思吗？”

“恐怕我没有到这一点。”

“那么，他们为什么要他写这份声明呢？这不符常情，因为象这类安排通常都是口头约定的，这一次并没有什么理由一定要打破惯例。我年轻的朋友，你没有看出他们非常渴望弄到你的笔迹，而又没有别的办法弄到吗？”

“为什么要我的笔迹呢？”

“很好，为什么呢？回答了这个问题，我们的案子就有很大进展了。为什么呢？只能有一个适当的理由，就是有人要模仿你的笔迹，不得不花钱买你的笔迹样本。现在我们再看看第二点，就发现这两点可以相互说明了。这第二点就是平纳要你不要辞职，一定要让那家大片业的经理抱着希望，认为有一位他从未见过面的霍尔-派克罗夫特先生星期一早晨就要去上班了。”

“我的天哪！”我们的委托人喊道，”我是多么瞎啊！”