福尔摩斯探案主要内容 福尔摩斯探案经典:《恐怖谷》第2章Part4

福尔摩斯探案经典:《恐怖谷》第2章Part4  

"Surely the inference is plain."
"You mean that he has a great ine and that he must earn it in an illegal fashion?"
"Exactly. Of course I have other reasons for thinking so--dozens of exiguous threads which lead vaguely up towards the centre of the web where the poisonous
motionless creature is lurking. I only mention the Greuze because it brings the matter within the range of your own observation."
"Well
Mr. Holmes
I admit that what you say is interesting: it's more than interesting--it's just wonderful. But let us have it a little clearer if you can. Is it fery
coining
burglary--where does the money e from?"
"Have you ever read of Jonathan Wild?"
"Well
the name has a familiar sound. Someone in a novel
was he not? I don't take much stock of detectives in novels--chaps that do things and never let you see how they do them. That's just inspiration: not business."
"Jonathan Wild wasn't a detective
and he wasn't in a novel. He was a master criminal
and he lived last century--1750 or thereabouts."
"Then he's no use to me. I'm a practical man."
"Mr. Mac
the most practical thing that you ever did in your life would be to shut yourself up for three months and read elve hours a day at the annals of crime. Everything es in circles--even Professor Moriarty. Jonathan Wild was the hidden force of the London criminals
to whom he sold his brains and his anization on a fifteen per cent. mission. The old wheel turns
and the same spoke es up. It's all been done before
and will be again. I'll tell you one or o things about Moriarty which may interest you."
"You'll interest me
right enough."
"I happen to know who is the first link in his chain--a chain with this Napoleon-gone-wrong at one end
and a hundred broken fighting men
pickpockets
blackmailers
and card sharpers at the other
with every sort of crime in beeen. His chief of staff is Colonel Sebastian Moran
as aloof and guarded and inaccessible to the law as himself. What do you think he pays him?"
"I'd like to hear."
"Six thousand a year. That's paying for brains
you see--the American business principle. I learned that detail quite by chance. It's more than the Prime Minister gets. That gives you an idea of Moriarty's gains and of the scale on which he works. Another point: I made it my business to hunt down some of Moriarty's checks lately--just mon innocent checks that he pays his household bills with. They were drawn on six different banks. Does that make any impression on your mind?"
"Queer
certainly! But what do you gather from it?"