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Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips.
賴德用舌頭舔了舔他那干裂的嘴唇。
"I will tell you it just as it happened, sir," said he.
"我一定將實際情況告訴你，先生，"他說，
"When Horner had been arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get away with the stone at once,
"霍納被捕以后，對我來說似乎最好是攜帶寶石立即逃走，
for I did not know at what moment the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my room.
因為我不知道什么時候警察也許就會想起搜查我和我的房間。
There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe.
可是旅館里沒有一個安全的地方。
I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's house.
我假裝受人差遣走出旅館，乘機到我姐姐家跑了一趟。
She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton Road, where she fattened fowls for the market.
她和一個名叫奧克肖特的人結了婚，住在布里克斯頓路，她在那里以把鵝喂肥供應市場為職業。
All the way there every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective;
對我來說一路上碰到的每一個人都好象是警察或偵探；
and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down my face before I came to the Brixton Road.
因此，盡管那天晚上十分寒冷，但在我到達布里克斯頓路之前，已經是汗流滿面了。
My sister asked me what was the matter, and why I was so pale;
我姐姐問我出了什么事，又問我為什么臉色這么蒼白；
but I told her that I had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel.
但是我告訴她說我是被旅館發生的那一樁珍寶盜竊案弄得心煩意亂。
Then I went into the back yard and smoked a pipe, and wondered what it would be best to do.
緊接著我走進后院，抽著煙斗，盤算著怎樣做才是萬全之計。
I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and has just been serving his time in Pentonville.
"我從前有過一個叫莫茲利的朋友，他曾經干過壞事，剛在培恩頓威爾服刑期滿。
One day he had met me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they could get rid of what they stole.
有一天他碰到我并和我談起盜竊的門徑以及如何把贓物出手的方法。
I knew that he would be true to me, for I knew one or two things about him;
我相信他不致出賣我，因為我知道一兩件有關他的事，
so I made up my mind to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my confidence.
于是我打定主意去基爾伯恩他的住處找他，并向他吐露我的秘密。
He would show me how to turn the stone into money.
他一定會教我怎樣把寶石變換成錢。
But how to get to him in safety?
但是怎樣才能安全到達他那里呢？
I thought of the agonies I had gone through in coming from the hotel.
我想起了我從旅館來的路上惶恐不安的心情。
I might at any moment be seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat pocket.
我也許隨時都會遭到逮捕和搜查，而寶石就在我背心的口袋里。
I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at the geese which were waddling about round my feet,
當時我正倚著墻看著一群鵝在我身邊搖搖擺擺地走來走去，
and suddenly an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the best detective that ever lived.
我突然心生一計，我想此計一定能瞞過舉世無雙的偵探。
