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We walked across the drawbridge, and were admitted by a quaint, gnarled, dried-up person, who was the butler, Ames.
我们走过吊桥，一个古怪乖戾而又骨瘦如柴的人把我们迎了进去。这就是管家艾姆斯。
The poor old fellow was white and quivering from the shock.
可怜的老人受到惊吓，面色苍白，浑身微颤。
The village sergeant, a tall, formal, melancholy man, still held his vigil in the room of Fate. The doctor had departed.
乡村警官威尔逊是个身材高大、郑重其事和心情抑郁的人，仍然守在现场屋中。医生已经离开了。
"Anything fresh, Sergeant Wilson?" asked White Mason.
"威尔逊警官，有什么新情况吗？"怀特·梅森问道。
"No, sir."
"没有，先生。"
"Then you can go home. You've had enough. We can send for you if we want you. The butler had better wait outside.
"那么，你可以回去了。你已经够辛苦的了。假如有需要你的地方，我们再派人去请你。管家最好在门外等着。
Tell him to warn Mr. Cecil Barker, Mrs. Douglas, and the housekeeper that we may want a word with them presently.
让他通知塞西尔·巴克先生、道格拉斯太太和女管家，我们现在有些话要问他们。
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."
先生们，现在请允许我先把我的看法告诉你们，然后你们将得出自己的看法。"
He impressed me, this country specialist.
这个乡镇专家给我留下的印象很深。
He had a solid grip of fact and a cool, clear, common-sense brain, which should take him some way in his profession.
他着着实实地掌握着事实，他有冷静、清楚的头脑和丰富的常识，就凭这些，在他的本行事业里，他就应当是很有发展的。
Holmes listened to him intently, with no sign of that impatience which the official exponent too often produced.
福尔摩斯专心致志地听他讲话，丝毫没有这位官方解说人经常流露出来的那种不耐烦的样子。
"Is it suicide, or is it murder -- that's our first question, gentlemen, is it not?
"我们现在的第一个问题，就是这案子究竟是自杀还是他杀？先生们，对吗？
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,
假如说是自杀，那么我们不得不相信，这个人开始先把结婚戒指摘下藏起来，然后他穿着睡衣，走到这里，
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..."
在窗帘后面的墙角上踩上泥印，以便使人产生印象：有人曾在这里等候他，打开窗户，把血迹弄到..."
"We can surely dismiss that," said MacDonald.
"我们决不会这样想的，"麦克唐纳说道。
"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."
"所以我想，决不会是自杀。那么必然是他杀了。我们所要决定的就是，凶手是外来人呢，还是庄园里面的人？"
"Well, let's hear the argument."
"好，让我们听听你的高论。"
"There are considerable difficulties both ways, and yet one or the other it must be.
"这两种可能要下结论都相当困难，可是两者必居其一。
We will suppose first that some person or persons inside the house did the crime.
我们先假定是庄园内部的一个或几个人作案。
They got this man down here at a time when everything was still and yet no one was asleep.
在万籁俱寂、但人们还没就寝的时候，他们在这里抓到了这个道格拉斯。
They then did the deed with the queerest and noisiest weapon in the world so as to tell everyone what had happened
然后用这种世上最古怪而声音最响的武器去作案，以便搞得尽人皆知发生了什么事，
a weapon that was never seen in the house before. That does not seem a very likely start, does it?"
而武器又是庄园内从没见过的。这个理由看来不是那么令人信服，对吗？"
"No, it does not."
"是啊，不会是这样的。"
"Well, then, everyone is agreed that after the alarm was given only a minute at the most had passed before the whole household
"好，那么，这里的人都说，在听到枪声以后，至多不过一分钟，住宅里所有的人都到了现场，
not Mr. Cecil Barker alone, though he claims to have been the first, but Ames and all ofthem were on the spot.
虽然塞西尔·巴克先生自称是第一个赶到的，但艾姆斯和所有的仆人也都到了。
Do you tell me that in that time the guilty person managed to make footmarks in the corner, open the window,
您难道能说，在那段时间，罪犯竟能做出在墙角留脚印、打开窗户、
mark the sill with blood, take the wedding ring off the dead man's finger, and all the rest of it? It's impossible!"
在窗台上留血迹、从死者手指上取结婚戒指等等那许多事么？这是不可能的！"
"You put it very clearly," said Holmes. "I am inclined to agree with you."
"你分析得很透彻，我倒有点同意你的见解。"福尔摩斯说道。
