蓝宝石案 05一顶奇怪的帽子(5)

"Which surely he restored to their owner?"

"他无疑是想把这些东西归还原主的吧？"

"My dear fellow, there lies the problem.

"我亲爱的伙伴，难题就出在这里。

It is true that 'For Mrs. Henry Baker¹' was printed upon a small card which was tied to the bird's left leg,

的确，这只鹅的左腿上系着一张写着'献给亨利·贝克夫人'的小卡片，

and it is also true that the initials 'H. B.' are legible upon the lining² of this hat;

而且这顶帽子的衬里也的确写着姓名缩写'H. B.'的字样，

but as there are some thousands of Bakers³, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in this city of ours,

但是，在我们这个城市里，姓贝克的人数以千计，而名叫亨利·贝克的人又何止数百，

it is not easy to restore lost property to any one of them."

所以要在这许多人中间找到失主，把东西归还给他，决不是一件容易的事。"

"What, then, did Peterson do?"

"那么，后来彼得森怎么办呢？"

"He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me.

"因为他知道我对那些即使是最细小的问题也是很感兴趣的，所以就在圣诞节早晨带着帽子和鹅到我这里来了。

The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs that, in spite of the slight frost,

这只鹅我们一直留到今天早晨。尽管天气较冷，

it would be well that it should be eaten without unnecessary delay.

但有些迹象表明最好还是把它吃掉，没有必要再拖延了。

Its finder has carried it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose,

因此彼得森带走它，去完成一只鹅的最终命运，

while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who lost his Christmas dinner."

而我则继续保留着这位失去了圣诞节佳馔的素未谋面的先生的帽子。"

"Did he not advertise?" "No."

"他没有在报纸上刊登寻找失物的启事吗？""没有。"

"Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?"

"那么，关于这个人的身份你有什么线索吗？"

"Only as much as we can deduce." "From his hat?" "Precisely⁴."

"只有尽我们所能去推测。""从这顶帽子上？""对。"

"But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered⁵ felt?"

"你真是会开玩笑，从这顶又破又旧的毡帽上你能推测出什么来？"

1 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

2 lining   

n.衬里，衬料

参考例句：

• The lining of my coat is torn.我的外套衬里破了。
• Moss makes an attractive lining to wire baskets.用苔藓垫在铁丝篮里很漂亮。

3 bakers   

n.面包师( baker的名词复数 )；面包店；面包店店主；十三

参考例句：

• The Bakers have invited us out for a meal tonight. 贝克一家今晚请我们到外面去吃饭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The bakers specialize in catering for large parties. 那些面包师专门负责为大型宴会提供食品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

5 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。