5 Holmes Explains Everything

Chapter 5 Holmes Explains Everything After we'd eaten, we retired to the drawing room, and Sherlock Holmes said to our host: "Colonel Hayter, I fear you must regret inviting a troublemaker like me into your home." "Not at all," replied the colonel warmly. "I consider it a great privilege to be able to study your methods up close, although I confess I am utterly unable to work out how you reached the conclusions you did." "Forgive me," said Holmes. "As Watson knows, it is my habit to give little or nothing away during the course of an investigation. Now that the case is solved, I'm happy to explain everything."

第五章福尔摩斯解释一切吃完饭后，我们回到客厅，歇洛克·福尔摩斯对主人说：“海特上校，我想你一定后悔邀请了我这样一个捣鬼到你家里来。” “一点也不，”上校热情地回答。 “我认为能够近距离研究您的方法是一种莫大的荣幸，尽管我承认我完全无法理解您是如何得出这些结论的。” “请原谅我，”福尔摩斯说道。 “华生知道，在调查过程中，我的习惯是很少或什么也不透露。 现在案子破了，我很乐意解释一切。”

And so, we settled back in our seats and listened. "Gentlemen," Holmes began, "one of the most important skills in the art of detection is the ability to recognize which clues are minor and which ones are vital. In this case, there wasn't the slightest doubt in my mind that the most vital clue—indeed the key to the entire problem—lay in that little scrap of paper found in the dead man's hand. "The first thing I realized was that it couldn't have been the burglar who tore the paper from Keegan's hand—not if the story the Cunninghams told us was correct. They said the burglar instantly fled after the shooting, so he wouldn't have had time.

于是，我们靠在座位上听着。 “先生们，”福尔摩斯开始说，“侦探艺术中最重要的技能之一就是能够辨别哪些线索是次要的，哪些线索是至关重要的。 在这种情况下，我毫不怀疑，最重要的线索——实际上是整个问题的关键——就在死者手中发现的那张小纸片上。 “我意识到的第一件事是，从基冈手中撕下那张纸的不可能是那个窃贼——如果坎宁安夫妇告诉我们的故事是真的的话。 他们说窃贼在枪击发生后立即逃跑了，所以他没有时间。

"If the burglar didn't tear away the paper, then the only person who could have done so was Alec Cunningham, who had a few moments alone with the corpse before his father and the servants arrived on the scene. "This possibility was ignored by Inspector Forrester because he assumed the wealthy and respectable Cunninghams couldn't possibly have been involved in the crime. I personally make a point of ruling nobody out of my investigations, no matter what their reputation. I am led only by the facts. So from the start, I found myself

“如果窃贼没有撕掉那张纸，那么唯一可能撕掉那张纸的人就是亚历克·坎宁安。在他父亲和仆人赶到现场之前，他和尸体单独呆了一会儿。 弗雷斯特探长忽略了这种可能性，因为他认为有钱有势的坎宁安不可能参与犯罪。 就我个人而言，我不会把任何人排除在我的调查之外，不管他们的名声如何。 我只以事实为指导。 所以从一开始，我就找到了自己

looking somewhat suspiciously at Mr. Alec Cunningham. "Now I turned my attention to the scrap of paper Inspector Forrester showed us. It was clear to me at once that this formed part of a remarkable document." Holmes opened his pocketbook, took out the scrap of paper, and showed it to us. "What do you notice about it?" he asked. "It has a very uneven look," said the colonel. "Well observed!" said Holmes. "There's no regularity to it, is there? It's as if every other word was written by a different person. And if you look closely, you'll see that this is indeed the case: the note was written by two people writing alternate words. Look at the firm handwriting of at, to, learn, and maybe, compared to the softer, weaker style of quarter, twelve, and what. Do you see what I mean?" "By Jove, now that you've pointed it out, it's as clear as day!" cried the colonel. "But why should two men write a letter in such a fashion?" "Because they were involved in some criminal deed. One of them didn't trust the other and was

有点怀疑地看着亚历克·坎宁安先生。 现在我把注意力转向福雷斯特探长给我们看的那张纸片。 我立刻明白了，这是一份了不起的文件的一部分。” 福尔摩斯打开他的皮夹，拿出那张小纸条给我们看。 “你注意到了什么？”他问。 “它看起来很不匀称，”上校说。 “说得好！”福尔摩斯说道。 “这是没有规律的，不是吗？” 好像每隔一个字都是另一个人写的。 如果你仔细观察，你会发现事实确实如此：这张纸条是由两个人交替写的。 看看at， to, learn， and maybe这些硬朗的笔迹，与quarter， twelve， what这些比较柔和的笔迹相比。 你明白我的意思吗？”“天哪，既然你已经指出来了，那就再清楚不过了！” “可是为什么两个男人要用这种方式写信呢？”“因为他们参与了一些犯罪行为。 其中一个不信任另一个，而且

determined that, whatever happened, his partner should take his share of responsibility for it. What better way of ensuring that than by making the partner write the letter jointly with him? "What's more, it was clear to me that of the pair of them, the one who wrote at, to, learn, and maybe, was the ringleader." "How could you tell that?" I asked. "Is it because his handwriting suggests a stronger, more forceful character?" "Possibly," said Holmes, "but there's also a more logical reason. If you look carefully at the writing, you'll see that the man with the stronger handwriting wrote his words first, leaving blank spaces for his partner to fill in. These blank spaces weren't always generous enough, forcing the second man to squeeze in the word quarter to make it fit between at and to."

下定决心，无论发生什么，他的伴侣都应该承担起他的那份责任。 还有什么比让合伙人和他一起写这封信更好的办法呢？ “更重要的是，我很清楚，在他们两人中，写at、to、learn的那个人，可能是罪魁祸首。” “你怎么知道的？”我问。 “是因为他的笔迹表明他是一个更坚强、更有力量的人吗？”“也许吧，”福尔摩斯说，"不过还有一个更合乎逻辑的原因。 如果你仔细看笔迹，你会发现笔迹较强的那个人先写了字，留了空白处让他的同伴填上。 这些空格并不总是足够大，迫使第二个人把单词quarter挤进去，使它适合at和to之间。”

"An astonishing piece of deduction, Mr. Holmes!" cried Mr. Acton. "Thank you," said Holmes. "I've studied handwriting for many years, and I once even wrote an academic paper on it. My expertise has allowed me to see more in this sample than would be obvious to the average person. For example, I'm certain that the bold, strong hand was written by a young man, whereas the weaker script was produced by someone elderly. I've also noticed similarities between these two styles that suggest the writers are related by blood. "In total, I made twenty-three deductions, but I won't trouble you with the details. All I'll say is

“福尔摩斯先生，你的推理真令人吃惊！”阿克顿先生叫道。 “谢谢你，”福尔摩斯说。“我研究书法很多年了，我甚至写过一篇关于书法的学术论文。 我的专业知识使我能够在这个样本中看到比普通人更明显的东西。 例如，我确信粗壮的笔迹是一个年轻人写的，而较弱的笔迹是一个老年人写的。 我还注意到这两种风格之间的相似之处，这表明作者是有血缘关系的。 “我总共做了二十三项扣除，但我不想用细节来麻烦你。 我要说的是