6 Royal Treasure

Chapter 6 Royal Treasure The butler's body was brought out of the cellar and the local coroner was summoned. After examining him, he declared that the butler had been dead for some days, but there was no wound on his person to show how he had met his end. He suspected the man had died of suffocation due to the lack of air in the chamber. I admit I felt frustrated, Watson. True, I had found the missing butler, but I didn't yet know how or why he had ended up there, nor what had happened to the missing maid. You know my methods in such cases. I put myself in the man's place and tried to imagine how I would have acted in the same circumstances. Brunton was extremely intelligent, so this wasn't too difficult for me to do. He knew, from studying the Musgrave Ritual, that something valuable was concealed in this house. He found the place where it was buried,

管家的尸体被从地窖里带了出来，并请来了当地的验尸官。 在检查了他之后，他说管家已经死了好几天了，但是他身上没有任何伤口可以说明他是怎么死的。 他怀疑这个人是由于室内空气不足而窒息而死的。 我承认我很沮丧，华生 的确，我找到了失踪的男管家，但我还不知道他是如何或为什么会在那里，也不知道失踪的女仆发生了什么事。 你知道我处理这种事的方法。 我设身处地为他着想，试着想象在同样的情况下我会怎么做。 布伦顿非常聪明，所以这对我来说并不难。 通过研究马斯格雷夫仪式，他知道这所房子里藏着一些有价值的东西。 他找到了埋它的地方，

but then discovered that the stone covering it was too heavy for him to move by himself. He would need help. But who could he ask? Who could he trust? Brunton knew that Rachel Howells had been, until recently, utterly devoted to him. However badly he had treated her, he must have believed that, deep down, she still loved him. He must have won her over with charm and flattery, then invited her to become his accomplice in a treasure hunt. On that fateful night, they had gone down to the cellar, with Brunton hoping

但后来发现，盖在上面的石头太重了，他自己搬不动。 他需要帮助。但他能问谁呢？ 他能信任谁呢？布伦顿知道，直到最近，雷切尔·豪威尔斯一直对他忠心耿耿。 不管他对她有多坏，他一定相信，在内心深处，她仍然爱着他。 他一定是用魅力和奉承赢得了她的心，然后邀请她成为他寻宝的同伙。 在那个决定命运的夜晚，他们下到地窖里去了，布伦顿满怀希望

that together they could raise the stone. So far, it all made sense. What I couldn't understand was how just two of them—and one a woman—could have raised a stone that required the efforts of three men. They must have found something to help them. I returned to the cellar and searched for some tool they might have used. I thought about what I might do in these circumstances, and that's what made me think of the pieces of wood. I found several that had been flattened at the sides as if squeezed by a massive weight. One, about two feet long, had a deep indentation at one end. Now I understood what they had done. As Brunton had dragged up the stone, Howells had thrust chunks of wood into the gap to keep it open.

他们可以一起举起石头。 到目前为止，一切都说得通。 我无法理解的是，仅仅两个人——其中一个是女人——怎么能举起一块需要三个人努力才能举起的石头。 他们一定找到了帮助他们的东西。 我回到地窖，寻找他们可能用过的工具。 我想过在这种情况下我该怎么做，这让我想到了那些木头。 我发现有几个侧面被压扁了，好像被一个巨大的重量挤压过。 其中一个大约两英尺长，一端有一个很深的凹痕。 现在我明白他们做了什么。 在布伦顿把石头拖上来的时候，豪威尔斯把大块的木头塞进了缺口，以保持它的畅通。

When the opening was large enough to crawl through, she had placed the two-foot piece lengthwise into the gap. The weight of the slab had caused the indentation. Brunton must have climbed down into the chamber while Howells waited above. He unlocked the box and handed up the contents to Howells. And then? Then what happened? Was it the maid's plan all along to trap him in the chamber, or did the idea occur to her in that moment? Whichever it was, it's clear that

当洞口大到可以爬过去的时候，她把两英尺长的碎片纵向放进了缝隙里。 压痕是石板的重量造成的。 布伦顿一定是爬下了房间，豪厄尔斯在上面等着。 他打开箱子，把里面的东西交给豪威尔斯。 然后呢?然后发生了什么？ 是女仆一直计划把他困在房间里，还是她在那一刻才想到的？ 不管是什么原因，很明显

Brunton made a fatal miscalculation in trusting the young woman. She had certainly not forgiven him. In fact, she hated him, and here was her chance to take a very gruesome revenge. A simple kick to the piece of wood propping up the slab would have been enough to send it crashing back down into its place, turning the chamber into his tomb. I could imagine her clutching the treasure as she ran up the twisting staircase, her ears ringing with the butler's muffled screams coming from below that slab of stone.

布伦顿信任那个年轻女人犯了一个致命的错误。 她肯定没有原谅他。 事实上，她恨他，这是她复仇的好机会。 只要轻轻踢一下支撑石板的那块木头，就足以把它撞回原来的位置，把房间变成他的坟墓。 我可以想象她抓着财宝跑上旋转的楼梯，耳边回响着从石板下传来的男管家低沉的尖叫声。

This explained her pale face, her strange smile, and those shrieks of crazed laughter the following morning. As soon as she was able to, she threw the treasure in the lake to get rid of the evidence of her crime, and then escaped. Thinking all this over, I climbed the steps out of the cellar and was met by Musgrave at the top. He had with him some of the coins we'd retrieved from the box.

这就解释了她那苍白的脸，奇怪的微笑，以及第二天早上疯狂的尖叫。 一有机会，她就把财宝扔进湖里，以消除她犯罪的证据，然后逃走了。 把这一切想了一遍，我爬上了地窖的台阶，马斯格雷夫在顶上迎接了我。 他身上带着一些我们从盒子里捡到的硬币。