马斯格雷夫礼典12（在线收听）

“The same afternoon saw us both at Hurlstone. Possibly you have seen pictures  and read descriptions of the famous old building, so I will confine my account  of it to saying that it is built in the shape of an L, the long arm being the  more modern portion, and the shorter the ancient nucleus, from which the other  had developed. Over the low, heavily-lintelled door, in the centre of this old  part, is chiseled the date, 1607, but experts are agreed that the beams and  stone-work are really much older than this. The enormously thick walls and tiny  windows of this part had in the last century driven the family into building the  new wing, and the old one was used now as a store-house and a cellar, when it  was used at all. A splendid park with fine old timber surrounds the house, and  the lake, to which my client had referred, lay close to the avenue, about two  hundred yards from the building.

“I was already firmly convinced, Watson, that there were not three separate  mysteries here, but one only, and that if I could read the Musgrave Ritual  aright I should hold in my hand the clue which would lead me to the truth  concerning both the butler Brunton and the maid Howells. To that then I turned  all my energies. Why should this servant be so anxious to master this old  formula? Evidently because he saw something in it which had escaped all those  generations of country squires, and from which he expected some personal  advantage. What was it then, and how had it affected his fate?

“It was perfectly obvious to me, on reading the ritual, that the measurements  must refer to some spot to which the rest of the document alluded, and that if  we could find that spot, we should be in a fair way towards finding what the  secret was which the old Musgraves had thought it necessary to embalm in so  curious a fashion. There were two guides given us to start with, an oak and an  elm. As to the oak there could be no question at all. Right in front of the  house, upon the left-hand side of the drive, there stood a patriarch among oaks,  one of the most magnificent trees that I have ever seen.

“‘That was there when your ritual was drawn up,’ said I, as we drove past it.

“‘It was there at the Norman Conquest in all probability,’ he answered. ‘It  has a girth of twenty-three feet.’

“我们两个人当天下午就到了赫尔斯通。可能你早已见过这座著名的古老建筑物的照片和记 载，所以我不详加介绍了，只想说明那是一座Ｌ形的建筑物。长的一排房是比较近代样式的 ，短的一排房是古代遗留的房屋中心，其他房屋都是从这里扩展出去的。在旧式房屋中部的 低矮笨重的门楣上，刻着一六○七年这个日期。不过行家们都认为，那屋梁和石造构件的实 际年代还要久远些。旧式房屋的墙壁又高又厚，窗户都很小，使得这一家人在上一世纪就盖 了那一排新房。现在旧房已用做库房和酒窖，此外别无用途。房子四周环绕着茂密的古树， 形成一个幽雅的小花园，我的委托人提到的那个小湖紧挨着林荫路，离房屋约有二百码。

“华生，我已经确信，这不是孤立的三个谜，而只是一个谜，如果我能正确地理解‘马斯格 雷夫礼典’，就一定能抓住线索，借以查明与管家布伦顿和女仆豪厄尔斯两人有关的事实真 相。于是我全力以赴地干这件事。为什么那个管家那样急于掌握那些古老仪式的语句？显然 是因为他看出了其中的奥秘，这种奥秘却从来没有受到这家乡绅历代人的注意。布伦顿正在 指望从这种奥秘中牟取私利。那么，这奥秘到底是什么？它对管家的命运又有什么影响呢？

“我把礼典读了一遍，便觉得一清二楚了，这种测量法一定是指礼典中某些语句暗示的某个 地点，如果能够找到这个地点，我们就走上了揭穿秘密的正确道路，而马斯格雷夫的先人认 为必须用这种奇妙方式才能使后代不忘这个秘密。要开始动手，我们得知两个方位标竿：一 棵橡树和一棵榆树。橡树根本不成问题，就在房屋的正前方，车道的左侧，橡树丛中有一棵 最古老的，是我平生见过的最高大的树。

“‘起草你家礼典的时候就有了这棵橡树吗？’当我们驾车经过橡树时，我说道。

“‘八成在诺耳曼人征服英国时［指一○六六年——译者注］，就有这棵树了，’马斯格雷 夫答道，‘这棵橡树有二十三英尺粗呢。’