評論
打印
"I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which shows,
他說，"我曾經得出了一個錯誤的結論，
my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from insufficient data.
親愛的華生，這說明依據不充分的材料進行推論總是多么的危險。
The presence of the gypsies, and the use of the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl,
那些吉卜賽人的存在，那可憐的小姐使用了'band'這個詞，
no doubt to explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of by the light of her match,
這無疑是表示她在火柴光下倉惶一氣所見到的東西，
were sufficient to put me upon an entirely wrong scent.
這些情況足夠引導我跟蹤一個完全錯誤的線索。
I can only claim the merit that I instantly reconsidered my position when,
只有一點我覺得可以說是我的成績，那就是我立即重新考慮我的想法，
however, it became clear to me that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not come either from the window or the door.
當我認清那威脅到室內居住的人的任何危險既不可能來自窗子，也不可能來自房門的時候。
My attention was speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this ventilator,
正像我已經對你說過的那樣，我的注意力迅速地被那個通氣孔，
and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed.
那個懸掛在床頭的鈴繩所吸引。
The discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to the floor,
當我發現那根繩子只不過是個幌子，那張床又是被螺釘固定在地板上的時候，
instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and coming to the bed.
這兩件事立刻引起了我的懷疑，我懷疑那根繩子只不過是起個橋梁作用，是為了方便什么東西鉆過洞孔到床上來。
The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me,
我立即就想到了蛇，
and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was furnished with a supply of creatures from India,
我知道醫生豢養了一群從印度運來的動物，當我把這兩件事聯系起來時，
I felt that I was probably on the right track.
我感到很可能我的思路是對頭的。
