5 The Cellar

Chapter 5 The Cellar Standing there, Watson, I felt a bitter chill of disappointment. It seemed I'd made an error in my calculations. The worn flagstones beneath my feet were firmly cemented together without a crack or a crevice to be seen. They didn't look as if they'd been moved in centuries. Brunton had not been here. I tapped on the floor with my stick and it sounded solid. Then Musgrave, who had by now begun to understand what I was up to, snatched the paper from my hands and pointed at two words from the ritual: "'And under'!" he cried. "Holmes, you forgot the 'and under'!" I hadn't forgotten these words, but I thought they meant we'd have to dig. Now I comprehended their true meaning. "Is there a cellar under here?" I asked. "Yes," he said, "and it's one of the oldest parts of the house. It's down here, through this door."

第五章地窖华生，站在那里，我感到一阵失望的寒意。 看来我的计算出了一个错误。 我脚下的破旧石板被牢牢地粘在一起，看不见一丝裂缝。 它们看起来不像是几个世纪以来移动过的。 布伦顿没有到过这里。 我用棍子敲了敲地板，声音很结实。 这时，马斯格雷夫已经开始明白我的意图了，他从我手中抢过那张纸，指着仪式上的两个字喊道：“‘在下面’！” “福尔摩斯，你忘了说‘和下面’了！”我没有忘记这句话，但我想这句话的意思是我们得挖了。 现在我明白了它们的真正含义。 “这下面有地窖吗？”我问。 “是的，”他说，“这是房子里最古老的部分之一。 就在这下面，穿过这扇门。”

My companion struck a match, and we descended a winding stone stairway. At the bottom, he lit a large lantern that stood on a barrel in the corner. As we looked around us, it was immediately obvious that we'd reached the end of our journey, and we weren't the only people to have visited this place recently. The cellar had been used to store chopped wood. To judge from the mess and sawdust, the pieces of wood must have once littered the floor, but they were now piled up at the sides, leaving a

我的同伴划了一根火柴，我们下了一条蜿蜒的石阶。 在底部，他点燃了一盏大灯笼，它放在角落里的一个桶上。 当我们环顾四周时，很明显，我们已经到达了旅程的终点，我们并不是最近唯一参观过这个地方的人。 这个地窖曾被用来存放劈开的木头。 从残迹和锯屑来看，这些木片肯定曾经散落在地板上，但现在它们堆在了地板的两边，留下了一个

clear space in the middle. In this space lay a huge, heavy flagstone with a rusted iron ring in the middle. Attached by a knot to this ring was a brown scarf. "By Jove!" cried Musgrave. "That's Brunton's scarf! I've seen him wear it. What was the villain doing down here?" "If we can lift that flagstone, we may find out," I said. While I pulled on Brunton's scarf, Musgrave went down on his knees to try and lift the slab with his hands, but it proved too heavy for us. At my suggestion, Musgrave summoned a footman to lend a hand. Between the three of us, after much effort, we were able to raise the stone and drag it clear.

在中间留出空间。 在这个空间里放着一块巨大而沉重的石板，中间有一个生锈的铁环。 用一个结系在戒指上的是一条棕色围巾。 “天哪！”马斯格雷夫叫道。 “那是布伦顿的围巾！”我见过他戴过。 那个坏蛋到这里来干什么？”“如果我们能把那块石板抬起来，也许就能知道了，”我说。 当我拉上布伦顿的围巾时，马斯格雷夫跪下来，试图用手举起那块石板，但事实证明它对我们来说太重了。 在我的建议下，马斯格雷夫叫了一个男仆来帮忙。 我们三人合力，费了好大劲，才把那块石头抬起来，拖走了。

A black hole yawned beneath us. We kneeled at its edge. Then Musgrave lowered the lantern and we peered inside. What we saw was a small chamber about seven feet deep, with four walls, each about four feet wide. Against one wall was a wooden box bound in brass. The box's lid was open, and it had an old-fashioned key in its lock. The box was very old and covered with a thick layer of dust. Worms had eaten through the wood, and fungus grew inside it. Apart from

我们下面有一个黑洞。 我们跪在悬崖边。然后马斯格雷夫放下灯笼，我们向里面窥视。 我们看到的是一个大约七英尺深的小房间，有四面墙，每面墙大约四英尺宽。 靠墙放着一个用黄铜包起来的木箱。 箱子的盖子是开着的，锁上插着一把老式的钥匙。 这个盒子很旧，上面盖了一层厚厚的灰尘。 虫子啃穿了木头，里面长出了真菌。 除了

several rusty old coins lying at the bottom, the box was empty. At that moment, however, Musgrave and I paid no attention to the box, because we were both staring at the figure beside it. It was a man dressed in a black suit. He was seated on the floor in front of the box with his forehead resting on its edge and his arms and legs thrown out to either side of it. We couldn't see his face, but Musgrave immediately recognized him from his powerful

几个生锈的旧硬币躺在底部，盒子是空的。 然而，在那一刻，马斯格雷夫和我没有注意到盒子，因为我们都盯着它旁边的人影。 那是一个穿着黑色西装的男人。 他坐在包厢前的地板上，额头靠在包厢边缘，胳膊和腿伸向包厢两侧。 我们看不见他的脸，但马斯格雷夫立刻从他那强有力的

build, his clothing, and his hair. "It's Brunton," he murmured.

他的身材，他的衣服，他的头发。 “是布伦顿，”他喃喃地说。