Page 279 - 血字的研究·四签名(外研社双语读库) (福尔摩斯探案全集)

去了威格莫尔街邮局，而推理让我知道，你在那里发过一封电报。”

"Right!"said I. "Right on both points! But I confess that I

don't see how you arrived at it. It was a sudden impulse
upon my part, and I have mentioned it to no one."

“完全正确！”我说道，“二者都是正确的！不过，我承认我不知

道你是怎么得出结论的。对于我来说，那只是一时冲动，我也没有对
任何人提及这件事。”

"It is simplicity itself," he remarked, chuckling at my
surprise—"so absurdly simple that an explanation is
superfluous; and yet it may serve to define the limits of

observation and of deduction. Observation tells me that you
have a little reddish mould adhering to your instep. Just
opposite the Wigmore Street Office they have taken up the
pavement and thrown up some earth, which lies in such a
way that it is difficult to avoid treading in it in entering. The

earth is of this peculiar reddish tint which is found, as far as
I know, nowhere else in the neighbourhood. So much is
observation. The rest is deduction."

“它本身就再简单明晰不过了，”看到我的讶异，他说，“简单到

无需解释，但这番解释却能定义观察和推理的界限。观察告诉我，你

的鞋面上粘了一小块红色泥巴。威格莫尔街邮局的对面正在修路，从
中挖掘出来的泥巴铺在路上，进邮局的人很难不粘到它们。据我所

知，这种带一点儿红色的特殊泥土，在附近只有邮局对面有。这些就
是观察。剩下的则是推理。”

"How, then, did you deduce the telegram?"

“那么，你是怎么推断出电报的呢？”

"Why, of course I knew that you had not written a letter,

since I sat opposite to you all morning. I see also in your
open desk there that you have a sheet of stamps and a
thick bundle of postcards. What could you go into the post-