福尔摩斯探案全集哪个版本最好 福尔摩斯探案经典:《恐怖谷》第4章Part4

福尔摩斯探案经典:《恐怖谷》第4章Part4  

"Then you can go home. You've had enough. We can send for you if we want you. The butler had better wait outside. Tell him to warn Mr. Cecil Barker
Mrs. Douglas
and the housekeeper that we may want a word with them presently. Now
gentlemen
perhaps you will allow me to give you the views I have formed first
and then you will be able to arrive at your own."
He impressed me
this country specialist. He had a solid grip of fact and a cool
clear
mon-sense brain
which should take him some way in his profession. Holmes listened to him intently
with no sign of that impatience which the official exponent too often produced.
"Is it suicide
or is it murder--that's our first question
gentlemen
is it not? If it were suicide
then we have to believe that this man began by taking off his wedding ring and concealing it; that he then came down here in his dressing gown
trampled mud into a corner behind the curtain in order to give the idea someone had waited for him
opened the window
put blood on the--"
"We can surely dismiss that
" said MacDonald.
"So I think. Suicide is out of the question. Then a murder has been done. What we have to determine is
whether it was done by someone outside or inside the house."
"Well
let's hear the argument."
"There are considerable difficulties both ways
and yet one or the other it must be. We will suppose first that some person or persons inside the house did the crime. They got this man down here at a time when everything was still and yet no one was asleep. They then did the deed with the queerest and noisiest weapon in the world so as to tell everyone what had happened--a weapon that was never seen in the house before. That does not seem a very likely start
does it?"
"No
it does not."
"Well
then
everyone is agreed that after the alarm was given only a minute at the most had passed before the whole household--not Mr. Cecil Barker alone
though he claims to have been the first
but Ames and all of them were on the spot. Do you tell me that in that time the guilty person managed to make footmarks in the corner
open the window
mark the sill with blood
take the wedding ring off the dead man's finger
and all the rest of it? It's impossible!"
"You put it very clearly
" said Holmes. "I am inclined to agree with you."
"Well
then
we are driven back to the theory that it was done by someone from outside. We are still faced with some big difficulties; but anyhow they have ceased to be impossibilities. The man got into the house beeen four-thirty and six; that is to say
beeen dusk and the time when the bridge was raised. There had been some visitors
and the door was open; so there was nothing to prevent him. He may have been a mon burglar
or he may have had some private grudge against Mr. Douglas. Since Mr. Douglas has spent most of his life in America
and this shotgun seems to be an American weapon
it would seem that the private grudge is the more likely theory. He slipped into this room because it was the first he came to
and he hid behind the curtain. There he remained until past eleven at night. At that time Mr. Douglas entered the room. It was a short interview
if there were any interview at all; for Mrs. Douglas declares that her husband had not left her more than a few minutes when she heard the shot."
"The candle shows that
" said Holmes.
"Exactly. The candle
which was a new one
is not burned more than half an inch. He must have placed it on the table before he was attacked; otherwise
of course
it would have fallen when he fell. This shows that he was not attacked the instant that he entered the room. When Mr. Barker arrived the candle was lit and the lamp was out."
"That's all clear enough."