住院的病人19（在线收听）

“You must surely remember the great Worthingdon bank business,” said Holmes.  “Five men were in it—these four and a fifth called Cartwright. Tobin, the  care-taker, was murdered, and the thieves got away with seven thousand pounds.  This was in 1875. They were all five arrested, but the evidence against them was  by no means conclusive. This Blessington or Sutton, who was the worst of the  gang, turned informer. On his evidence Cartwright was hanged and the other three  got fifteen years apiece. When they got out the other day, which was some years  before their full term, they set themselves, as you perceive, to hunt down the  traitor and to avenge the death of their comrade upon him. Twice they tried to  get at him and failed; a third time, you see, it came off. Is there anything  further which I can explain, Dr. Trevelyan?”

“I think you have made it all remarkable clear,” said the doctor. “No doubt  the day on which he was perturbed was the day when he had seen of their release  in the newspapers.”

“Quite so. His talk about a burglary was the merest blind.”

“But why could he not tell you this?”

“Well, my dear sir, knowing the vindictive character of his old associates, he  was trying to hide his own identity from everybody as long as he could. His  secret was a shameful one, and he could not bring himself to divulge it.  However, wretch as he was, he was still living under the shield of British law,  and I have no doubt, Inspector, that you will see that, though that shield may  fail to guard, the sword of justice is still there to avenge.”

Such were the singular circumstances in connection with the Resident Patient and  the Brook Street Doctor. From that night nothing has been seen of the three  murderers by the police, and it is surmised at Scotland Yard that they were  among the passengers of the ill-fated steamer Norah Creina, which was lost some  years ago with all hands upon the Portuguese coast, some leagues to the north of  Oporto. The proceedings against the page broke down for want of evidence, and  the Brook Street Mystery, as it was called, has never until now been fully dealt  with in any public print.

“你们一定记得那桩沃辛顿银行大抢劫案吧。”福尔摩斯说道，“案中一共有五个人——这 四个人，还有那个叫做卡特赖特的第五个人——银行看管员托宾被害，窃贼们抢了七千镑逃 走了。这案子发生在一八七五年。他们五个人全部被捕，但是证据不足，定不了案。这一伙 抢劫犯中最坏的那个布莱星顿也就是叫萨顿的，就告发了他们。由于他作证，卡特赖特被判 处绞刑，其他三个人每人被判了十五年徒刑。前几天他们被提前数年释放，你们可以想到， 他们下决心一定要把出卖他们的人找到，为他们死去的同伙报仇。他们两次设法找到他，都 未能得手，你们看，第三次成功了。特里维廉医生，还有什么需要说明的没有？”

“我想你已经把一切都说得非常清楚了，”医生说道，“毫无疑问，那一天他之所以那么惶 惶不安，就是因为他在报上看到了那几个人被释放的消息。”

“完全不错，他说什么盗窃案，纯粹是放烟幕弹。”

“可是他为什么不把这件事告诉你呢？”

“啊，我亲一爱一的先生，他知道他的那些老伙计报复心很强，便尽量向所有人隐瞒自己的 身份。他的秘密是可耻的，他不可能自己泄漏出来。但是，他虽然卑鄙，却依然处于英国法 律的保护之下，警长，我毫不怀疑，你可以看到，尽避那个盾没有起到保护作用，那把正义 的剑还是会替他复仇的。”

这就是关于那个住院病人和布鲁克街医生的情况。从那天夜晚起，警察再没有看到那三个凶 手的影子。苏格兰场推测，他们乘坐那艘不幸的“诺拉克列依那”号轮船逃跑了。那艘船和 全体船员数年以前在葡萄牙海岸距波尔图以北数十-的地方遇难。对那个小听差的起诉，因 证据不足，不能成立，而这件被称为布鲁克街疑案的案件，各报至今都没有详细报道过。