赖盖特之谜14（在线收听）

Sherlock Holmes was as good as his word, for about one o'clock he rejoined us in  the Colonel's smoking-room. He was accompanied by a little elderly gentleman,  who was introduced to me as the Mr. Acton whose house had been the scene of the  original burglary.

“I wished Mr. Acton to be present while I demonstrated this small matter to  you,” said Holmes, “for it is natural that he should take a keen interest in  the details. I am afraid, my dear Colonel, that you must regret the hour that  you took in such a stormy petrel as I am.”

“On the contrary,” answered the Colonel, warmly, “I consider it the greatest  privilege to have been permitted to study your methods of working. I confess  that they quite surpass my expectations, and that I am utterly unable to account  for your result. I have not yet seen the vestige of a clue.”

“I am afraid that my explanation may disillusion you but it has always been my  habit to hide none of my methods, either from my friend Watson or from any one  who might take an intelligent interest in them. But, first, as I am rather  shaken by the knocking about which I had in the dressing-room, I think that I  shall help myself to a dash of your brandy, Colonel. My strength had been rather  tried of late.”

“I trust that you had no more of those nervous attacks.”

Sherlock Holmes laughed heartily. “We will come to that in its turn,” said he.  “I will lay an account of the case before you in its due order, showing you the  various points which guided me in my decision. Pray interrupt me if there is any  inference which is not perfectly clear to you.

“It is of the highest importance in the art of detection to be able to  recognize, out of a number of facts, which are incidental and which vital.  Otherwise your energy and attention must be dissipated instead of being  concentrated. Now, in this case there was not the slightest doubt in my mind  from the first that the key of the whole matter must be looked for in the scrap  of paper in the dead man's hand.

福尔摩斯非常守约，一小时以后，他同我们在上校的吸烟室里又会面了。他由一个矮小的老 绅士陪伴前来。福尔摩斯向我介绍，这就是阿克顿先生，头一件盗窃案就发生在他的家里。

“我向你们说明这件小案子时，我希望阿克顿先生也在场听一听，”福尔摩斯说道，“自然 ，他对案子的详情也很感兴趣。我亲一爱一的上校，接待了象我这样一个一爱一闯祸的人， 我恐怕你一定感到后悔吧。”

“恰恰相反，”上校热情地答道，“我认为有机会学一习一你的侦探方法，是我最大的荣幸 。我承认，这是完全出乎我意料之外的，我也完全不能解释你所获得的结果。我连一点儿线 索也没有看出来。”

“我恐怕我的解释会使你们失望的，可是无论对于我的朋友华生，还是对于任何认真关心我 的工作方法的人，我的工作方法是一点也不保密的。不过，因为我在更衣室里遭到袭击，我 想喝一点白兰地定定神，上校。刚才我的气力已经用尽了。”

“我相信你的神经一痛不会再这样突然发作了。”

歇洛克-福尔摩斯放声大笑起来。“我们待会儿再谈这件事，”福尔摩斯说道，“我把这件 案子按顺序给你们讲一讲，并把促使我下决心的几点告诉你们。如果有不十分清楚的地方， 请随时问我。

“在侦探艺术中，最主要的就在于能够从众多的事实中，看出哪些是要害问题，哪些是次要 问题。否则，你的一精一力不但不能集中，反而会被分散。所以，这个案子从一开始，我就 毫不怀疑，全案的关键一定在于死者手中那张碎纸片。