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The Engineer's Thumb
工程師大拇指案
Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy,
在我們交往很密切的那些年月里，提供我朋友歇洛克·福爾摩斯解決的所有問題中，
there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his notice
只有兩件案子是通過我介紹而引其他注意的：
that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel Warburton's madness.
一件是哈瑟利先生大拇指案，另一件是沃伯頓上校發瘋案。
Of these the latter may have afforded a finer field for an acute and original observer,
在這兩件案子中，對一位機敏而又有獨到見解的讀者來說，后一件可能更值得探討，
but the other was so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details
但是，前一件一開頭就十分奇特，事情的細節又非常富有戲劇性，
that it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record,
因此它也許更值得記述，
even if it gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results.
雖然它很少用得上我朋友取得卓越成就所運用的那些進行推理的演繹法。
The story has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers,
我相信，這個故事在報紙上已經登載過不止一次了，
but, like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print
但是，就象所有其它諸如此類的敘述那樣，只用半欄篇幅籠統地登出來，結果遠未引仆人們的注意，
than when the facts slowly evolve before your own eyes,
因此，還不如讓事實慢慢地在你眼前展開，
and the mystery clears gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads on to the complete truth.
并且讓案情之謎隨著每一項有助于進一步使人了解全部事實真相的新發現而逐漸得到解決，這樣更加引人入勝。
At the time the circumstances made a deep impression upon me,
當時的情景，給我的印象很深，
and the lapse of two years has hardly served to weaken the effect.
盡管時光流逝，兩年過去了，我似乎還記憶猶新。
