Page 148 - 血字的研究·四签名(外研社双语读库) (福尔摩斯探案全集)

parchment-like skin was drawn tightly over the projecting
bones; his long, brown hair and beard were all flecked and

dashed with white; his eyes were sunken in his head, and
burned with an unnatural lustre; while the hand which
grasped his rifle was hardly more fleshy than that of a
skeleton. As he stood, he leaned upon his weapon for
support, and yet his tall figure and the massive framework

of his bones suggested a wiry and vigorous constitution. His
gaunt face, however, and his clothes, which hung so baggily
over his shrivelled limbs, proclaimed what it was that gave

him that senile and decrepit appearance. The man was
dying—dying from hunger and from thirst.

一八四七年五月四日，一个孤单的旅客伫立着，向下俯视这片景

象。从外貌来看,他简直就像是这个地区的鬼怪或精灵。即便是一个富
有观察力的人，也很难猜出他究竟是四十岁还是六十岁。他的脸憔悴

瘦削，干羊皮似的棕色皮肤紧紧地包着突出的骨头；他长长的棕色须
发已经有了点点斑白；他的眼睛深陷，闪耀着不自然的光泽，握着来

复枪的手并不比骷髅多几两肉。他站在那里，依靠武器支撑着身体，
可是，从他高高的个子和庞大的骨架能看出，他曾经是一个筋骨强

壮、精力旺盛的人。但是，他那憔悴的面容和松松垮垮地罩在干瘦的
四肢上的衣服，使他看起来衰老不堪。这个人就快死了——因为饥渴

难耐。

He had toiled painfully down the ravine, and on to this

little elevation, in the vain hope of seeing some signs of
water. Now the great salt plain stretched before his eyes,
and the distant belt of savage mountains, without a sign
anywhere of plant or tree, which might indicate the
presence of moisture. In all that broad landscape there was

no gleam of hope. North, and east, and west he looked with
wild questioning eyes, and then he realised that his
wanderings had come to an end, and that there, on that

barren crag, he was about to die. "Why not here, as well as