Page 385 - 血字的研究·四签名(外研社双语读库) (福尔摩斯探案全集)

“不过，这只是猜测。”我说。

"It is more than that. It is the only hypothesis which

covers the facts. Let us see how it fits in with the sequel.
Major Sholto remain sat peace for some years, happy in the
possession of his treasure. Then he receives a letter from

India which gives him a great fright. What was that?"

“不只是猜测，是唯一符合事实的假设。让我们看看，这些假设跟
后来所发生的事有多么吻合吧。肖尔托少校曾安稳地住了几年，对他

所拥有的财宝相当满意。然后，他收到了一封给他带来巨大恐慌的印
度来信。这是为什么呢？”

"A letter to say that the men whom he had wronged had
been set free."

“信里说，他所欺瞒的囚犯已经出狱了。”

"Or had escaped. That is much more likely, for he would
have known what their term of imprisonment was. It would
not have been a surprise to him. What does he do then? He
guards himself against a wooden-legged man—a white man,

mark you, for he mistakes a white trades-man for him and
actually fires a pistol at him. Now, only one white man's
name is on the chart. The others are Hindoos or
Mohammedans. There is no other white man. Therefore we

may say with confidence that the wooden legged man is
identical with Jonathan Small. Does the reasoning strike you
as being faulty?"

“或者已经越狱了。后者更有可能，因为他应该清楚他们的刑期有

多长。所以，刑满出狱并不会让他这么惊讶。他到底对他们做了些什

么呢？他很防备一个装有木腿的人——请注意，是一个白人，因为他
曾经开枪误伤了一个装有木腿的白人商人。图纸上只有一个白人的名
字。其他的都是印度人或者回教徒的名字。没有其他白种人了。因

此，我们可以肯定地说，那个装有木腿的人就是乔纳森·斯莫尔。你

看，这些理论有没有漏洞呢？”