評論
打印
"You are under the charge of Mr. Athelney Jones, of Scotland Yard.
"你現在已經是在蘇格蘭場埃瑟爾尼·瓊斯先生羈押之下。
He is going to bring you up to my rooms, and I shall ask you for a true account of the matter.
他準備把你帶到我的家中，由我先問你的口供。
You must make a clean breast of it, for if you do I hope that I may be of use to you.
你必須向我句句實言，如果你能夠老實，或者我還可以幫你的忙。
I think I can prove that the poison acts so quickly that the man was dead before ever you reached the room."
我想我有法子可以證明那毒刺的毒性很快，在你爬進屋里以前，舒爾托先生已經中毒身亡了。"
"That he was, sir. I never got such a turn in my life
"沒錯，先生，他已經先死了。我人生中從未遇到過這種轉變，
as when I saw him grinning at me with his head on his shoulder as I climbed through the window.
當我爬進窗戶一看見他那歪著頭獰笑的樣子，
It fairly shook me, sir. I'd have half killed Tonga for it if he had not scrambled off.
真的把我嚇壞了。要不是童格跑得快，當時我就把他宰了。
That was how he came to leave his club, and some of his darts too, as he tells me,
這也就是到后來他告訴我，他如何在忙中丟落了那根木棒和一袋毒刺的原因，
which I dare say helped to put you on our track;
我想這件東西幫助了您追尋到我們。
though how you kept on it is more than I can tell.
至于您怎么把線索聯系起來而捉到我的，那我就想不出來了。
I don't feel no malice against you for it.
這是我自己不好，不能怨恨您的。"
But it does seem a queer thing," he added with a bitter smile,
他又苦笑道，"可是這也真算一件怪事。
"that I, who have a fair claim to half a million of money,
您看，有權利享受這五十萬傍的我，
should spend the first half of my life building a breakwater in the Andamans,
竟在安達曼群島修筑防波堤度過了半生，
and am like to spend the other half digging drains at Dartmoor.
后半生恐怕又要到達特沼地去挖溝了。
It was an evil day for me when first I clapped eyes upon the merchant Achmet and had to do with the Agra treasure,
從頭一天碰到那商人阿奇麥特因而和阿格拉寶物發生了關系之后，我就倒上了霉，
which never brought anything but a curse yet upon the man who owned it.
沾上這寶物的人也沒有不倒霉的；
To him it brought murder, to Major Sholto it brought fear and guilt, to me it has meant slavery for life."
那個商人因寶物喪了命，舒爾托少校因寶物給他帶來了恐懼和罪惡，而我就要終身作苦役了。"
