赖盖特之谜17（在线收听）

“And now I have to consider the motive of this singular crime. To get at this,  I endeavored first of all to solve the reason of the original burglary at Mr.  Acton's. I understood, from something which the Colonel told us, that a lawsuit  had been going on between you, Mr. Acton, and the Cunninghams. Of course, it  instantly occurred to me that they had broken into your library with the  intention of getting at some document which might be of importance in the case. ”

“Precisely so,” said Mr. Acton. “There can be no possible doubt as to their  intentions. I have the clearest claim upon half of their present estate, and if  they could have found a single paper—which, fortunately, was in the strong-box  of my solicitors—they would undoubtedly have crippled our case.”

“There you are,” said Holmes, smiling. “It was a dangerous, reckless attempt,  in which I seem to trace the influence of young Alec. Having found nothing they  tried to divert suspicion by making it appear to be an ordinary burglary, to  which end they carried off whatever they could lay their hands upon. That is all  clear enough, but there was much that was still obscure. What I wanted above all  was to get the missing part of that note. I was certain that Alec had torn it  out of the dead man's hand, and almost certain that he must have thrust it into  the pocket of his dressing-gown. Where else could he have put it? The only  question was whether it was still there. It was worth an effort to find out, and  for that object we all went up to the house.

“The Cunninghams joined us, as you doubtless remember, outside the kitchen  door. It was, of course, of the very first importance that they should not be  reminded of the existence of this paper, otherwise they would naturally destroy  it without delay. The Inspector was about to tell them the importance which we  attached to it when, by the luckiest chance in the world, I tumbled down in a  sort of fit and so changed the conversation.”

“Good heavens!” cried the Colonel, laughing, “do you mean to say all our  sympathy was wasted and your fit an imposture?”

“Speaking professionally, it was admirably done,” cried I, looking in  amazement at this man who was forever confounding me with some new phase of his  astuteness.

“It is an art which is often useful,” said he. “When I recovered I managed,  by a device which had perhaps some little merit of ingenuity, to get old  Cunningham to write the word ‘twelve,’ so that I might compare it with the  ‘twelve’ upon the paper.”

“Oh, what an ass I have been!” I exclaimed.

“I could see that you were commiserating with me over my weakness,” said  Holmes, laughing. “I was sorry to cause you the sympathetic pain which I know  that you felt. We then went upstairs together, and having entered the room and  seen the dressing-gown hanging up behind the door, I contrived, by upsetting a  table, to engage their attention for the moment, and slipped back to examine the  pockets. I had hardly got the paper, however—which was, as I had expected, in  one of them—when the two Cunninghams were on me, and would, I verily believe,  have murdered me then and there but for your prompt and friendly aid. As it is,  I feel that young man's grip on my throat now, and the father has twisted my  wrist round in the effort to get the paper out of my hand. They saw that I must  know all about it, you see, and the sudden change from absolute security to  complete despair made them perfectly desperate.

“现在我必须考虑这件奇案的犯罪动机了。为了达到这一点，我首先要搞清在阿克顿先生家 发生的头一件盗窃案的起因。从上校告诉我们的某些事情里，我了解到，阿克顿先生，你和 坎宁安家正打着一场辟司。当然，我立即想到，他们闯到你书房里去，一定是想偷取有关此 案的某个重要文件。”

“一点也不错，”阿克顿先生说道，“毫无疑问，他们是想这样干的。我完全有权要求获得 他们现有财产的一半。可是如果他们能找到我那一纸证据，他们就一定能够胜诉，不过，幸 运得很，我已经把这张证据放在我律师的保险箱里了。”

“你看怎么样，”福尔摩斯微笑着说，“这是一次危险而鲁莽的尝试，我似乎觉得这是亚历 克做的。他们找不到什么，就故布疑阵，顺手牵羊地拿走一些东西，使人把它当做一件普通 的盗窃案。这一点是再清楚不过了，但是还有不少地方仍然模糊不清。首先，我要找到被撕 走的那半张纸条。我确信它是亚历克从死者手中撕下的，也确信他一定把它塞一进了睡衣的 口袋里。不然，他能把它放到别的什么地方呢？唯一的问题是，它是否还在衣袋里。这是很 值得下功夫去把它找到的。为了这个目的，我们大家一同到他们家里去了。

“你们大概还记得，坎宁安父子是在厨房门外跟我们碰上的。当然，头等重要的是，不能在 他们面前提及这张纸的事，否则他们就会毫不迟延地把它毁掉。在警官正要把我们对这张纸 的重视告诉他们时，我装做突然发病晕倒在地，才把话题岔开。”

“哎呀！”上校笑着喊道，“你是说，我们大家都白为你着急了，你突然发病原来是装的？ ”

“从职业观点上说，这一手做得太漂亮了，”我大声地说道，一边惊奇地望着这位经常运用 变幻莫测的手法把我搞得晕头转向的人。

“这是一种艺术，经常用得着的，”福尔摩斯说道，“我恢复常态以后，便又略施小计，让 老坎宁安写上了‘ｔｗｅｌｖｅ’［英文的十二。英文十一点三刻，写为差一刻十二点。福 尔摩斯故意将时间写为差一刻一点，以使坎宁安于更正时留下他的笔迹——译者注］这个字 ，这样，我就可以和写在密约信上的‘ｔｗｅｌｖｅ’进行对比了。”

“哎呀，我是多么蠢笨啊！”我喊叫道。

“我可以看出，你出时对我的身一体虚弱很同情，”福尔摩斯微笑着说道，“我知道你当时 一定感到非常着急，我很过意不去。后来我们一同上楼。我进了那间屋子，看到睡衣挂在门 后，便有意弄翻了一张桌子，设法吸引住他们的注意力，然后溜回去检查那件睡衣的口袋。 我刚刚拿到那张纸——它不出我所料，在他们当中的一个人的睡衣兜里——坎宁安父子二人 就扑到我身上，我相信，如果不是你们及时来救我，他们就一定会当场把我弄死的。事实上 ，我感到那个年轻人已经掐住我的喉咙，他父亲把我的手腕扭过去，要从我手里夺回那张纸 。你瞧，他们知道我已经了解了事情的全部真相，他们原来觉得绝对保险，可是一下子完全 陷入了绝境，于是就铤而走险了。