Page 261 - 血字的研究·四签名(外研社双语读库) (福尔摩斯探案全集)

his height (as I calculated from the length of his stride), and
the other fashionably dressed, to judge from the small and

elegant impression left by his boots."

这就是我观察得出的第一点。接着，我就慢慢地走上了花园中的
小路，碰巧这条小路是一条黏土路，特别容易留下印迹。毫无疑问，

在你看起来，这条小路只不过是一条踩得一塌糊涂的烂泥路而已，可
是在我这双久经锻炼的眼睛看来，小路上的每个痕迹都有它的意义。

侦探学中所有的部分里，再没有比足迹学这一门艺术更重要，却又容
易被人忽略的了。幸而，我对于这门科学一向是十分重视的，经过多

次实践以后，它已成为我的第二天性了。我看到了警察们沉重的靴
印，但我同时也看到了最初经过花园的那两个人的脚印。很容易看

出，他们的脚印比其他人的更早，因为从一些地方来看，他们的脚印

被后来的人的脚印踩踏得已经完全消失了。这样，我的第二个环节就
构成了，这个环节告诉我，夜间来客一共有两个，一个非常高大（这

是我从他的步伐长度上推算出来的），另一个则是衣着入时，这是从
他留下的小巧、精致的靴印上判断出来的。”

"On entering the house this last inference was
confirmed. My well-booted man lay before me. The tall one,
then, had done the murder, if murder there was. There was
no wound upon the dead man's person, but the agitated

expression upon his face assured me that he had foreseen
his fate before it came upon him. Men who die from heart
disease, or any sudden natural cause, never by any chance
exhibit agitation upon their features. Having sniffed the

dead man's lips I detected a slightly sour smell, and I came
to the conclusion that he had had poison forced upon him.
Again, I argued that it had been forced upon him from the
hatred and fear expressed upon his face. By the method of

exclusion, I had arrived at this result, for no other
hypothesis would meet the facts. Do not imagine that it was
a very unheard of idea. The forcible administration of poison
is by no means a new thing in criminal annals. The cases of