Sherlock Holmes and the Duke's Son by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
单词提示
1.cloven 分趾的
原文
Chapter 7: The Duke's Son
When the duke said this, I was very surprised,but Holmes was surprised too.
"This is news to me," he said, "can you tell me more? "
The duke stood up and walked round the room for a minute.
"I must tell you everything," he said, "I didn't want to talk about it, but I must. I see that now."
He sat down again and began his story.
"When I was a young man, Mr. Holmes, I was in love, no so much in love. It only happens to you once, and this woman was the love of my life.
I wanted her to be my wife, but she died. She left me this one child, and I loved him because of her.
When I look in his face, I see her and remember her and can't stop loving her.
I must have the boy near me because of this, but a government minister cannot tell the world about a love child like this.
So, to the world, James is my young secretary, not my son.
He knows that I am his father.
He hates the duchess,because she is not his mother, and he hates my younger son, Arthur, because Arthur has everything.
Arthur has a name, a famous father, houses, money, everything.
James has nothing.
Well, he has some money, of course, but he is just Mr. James Wilder and he wants to be the Duke of Holderness one day.
That's not possible, of course, but James can't understand that.
And so you see, I was afraid for Arthur, and that's why I sent him to Dr Huxtable's school.
And what does James do next?
He kidnaps my poor Arthur, it changes nothing, but James can't see that, he wants me to say.
'Yes, James,now you can be my first son, you can have everything, Arthur can be the number two son.'
But I can't do that. Of course I can't.
James knew this man, Hayes.
You see,because Hayes worked for me once, James asked for Hayes's help and the man was happy to do it.
You remember my letter to Arthur on that last day?
Well, James opened the letter and put in a note from him.
That evening,he cycled across the moor and met Arthur in Ragged Shore.
He talked about the duchess——Arthur's mother.
'She wants to see you,' he told Arthur,'she's waiting on the moor. Come back at midnight, and a man with a horse can take you to her.'
Of course,poor Arthur wanted to see his mother, so he came.
Hayes was there with two horses, and they rode across the moor, but the German teacher followed them, and Hayes killed him.
Hayes then took Arthur to the Green Man.
Well, Mr.Holmes, I knew nothing about any of this until the murder.
James is a bad boy, but he does not murder people.
When he heard the news, he came to me at once crying, 'what could I do?'
I didn't want the world to know about this, so James went down to the Green Man.
He told Hayes to run away, because everybody knew about the murder now and knew the murderer's name, too.
Hayes left at once.
Later, I went down and saw Arthur.
I left him there with Mrs. Hayes, because I couldn't say anything to the police just then.
So Mr. Holmes,now you know everything."
"Hmm,"said Holmes, "you help a murderer, you say nothing to the police, you leave your young son in a dirty inn, and you ask for my help."
People never spoke to the Duke of Holderness like this usually.
His face was red, but he said nothing.
"First,"said Holmes, "we must bring Arthur home."
"Yes,"the duke said quietly.
Holmes quickly wrote a note and took it out of the room.
A minute later,he was back.
"Now what are you going to do about Mr. James Wilder?" He said.
"I understand you, Mr. Holmes," said the duke, "James is leaving me and going to Australia next week."
"Good,"said Holmes, "and the duchess, perhaps without James in the house, you and she…"
"Yes, I wrote to the duchess this morning."
Holmes stood up. "Well," he said, "Watson and I can go home now. I think there is just one other small thing. This man,Hayes, took two horses across the moor, but the horse's feet made the tracks of a cow in the mud. How was this possible?"
The duke looked surprised and thought for a minute.
Then he went away and came back two minutes later with a glass box in his hands.
In the box were some horseshoes.
"We found these shoes under the ground in the garden," the duke said, "they are about 500 years old. We think the Holderness family has a long and interesting past."
Holmes opened the box and took out one shoe.
It was a shoe for a horse's foot, but it looked like a cloven cow's foot.
Holmes wet his finger and ran it round the bottom of the shoe.
A little mud came off on his finger.
"Thank you," said Holmes.
He put the horse shoe back in its box.
"That shoe is the second most interesting thing in the north of England," he said, "and the first asked the duke."
Holmes took the check for 12000 pounds from the table and slowly put it into his notebook.
"I am a poor man," he said.
He looked lovingly at the notebook, then put it carefully in his pocket.
翻译
第七章:公爵的儿子
当公爵说出这句话时,我非常惊讶,但福尔摩斯也很惊讶。
“这对我来说是新闻,”他说,“你能告诉我更多吗?”
公爵站了起来,在房间里踱步了一会儿。
“我必须告诉你一切,”他说,“我本不想谈论这件事,但我必须这么做。我现在明白了。”
他又坐了下来,开始讲述他的故事。
“当我年轻时,福尔摩斯先生,我曾恋爱过,不,是非常爱。这种事一生只发生一次,而这个女人是我一生的挚爱。
我想让她做我的妻子,但她去世了。她给我留下了这个孩子,因为她的缘故我爱他。
当我看着他的脸,我就看到了她,想起了她,无法停止爱她。
因为这个原因,我必须让这孩子待在我身边,但一位政府大臣不能向世人公开这样一个私生子。
所以,对世人来说,詹姆斯是我的年轻秘书,而不是我的儿子。
他知道我是他的父亲。
他憎恨公爵夫人,因为她不是他的母亲,他也憎恨我的小儿子亚瑟,因为亚瑟拥有一切。
亚瑟有名分,有著名的父亲,有宅邸,有钱,有一切。
詹姆斯一无所有。
好吧,他当然有一些钱,但他只是詹姆斯·怀尔德先生,他想有一天成为霍尔德内斯公爵。
那当然是不可能的,但詹姆斯无法理解这一点。
所以你明白,我为亚瑟感到担心,那就是为什么我把他送到了赫克斯特博士的学校。
接下来詹姆斯做了什么?
他绑架了我可怜的亚瑟,但这改变不了什么,但詹姆斯看不透这一点,他希望我说。
‘是的,詹姆斯,现在你可以做我的长子了,你可以拥有一切,亚瑟可以做次子。’
但我不能那样做。当然我不能。
詹姆斯认识这个人,海耶斯。
你看,因为海耶斯曾经为我工作过,詹姆斯请求海耶斯的帮助,那个人也很乐意去做。
你还记得最后一天我给亚瑟的信吗?
好吧,詹姆斯拆开了信并放进了他写的一张便条。
那天晚上,他骑自行车穿过荒原并在拉格德肖尔见到了亚瑟。
他谈到了公爵夫人——亚瑟的母亲。
‘她想见你,’他告诉亚瑟,‘她在荒原上等着。午夜回来,会有一个骑马的人带你去见她。’
当然,可怜的亚瑟想见他的母亲,所以他来了。
海耶斯带着两匹马在那里,他们骑马穿过荒原,但是那个德语老师跟踪了他们,海耶斯杀了他。
然后海耶斯把亚瑟带到了绿人旅馆。
好吧,福尔摩斯先生,直到谋杀案发生前,我对这一切都一无所知。
詹姆斯是个坏孩子,但他不会杀人。
当他听到这个消息时,他立刻哭着来找我,‘我能怎么办?’
我不想让世人知道这件事,所以詹姆斯去了绿人旅馆。
他告诉海耶斯逃跑,因为现在大家都知道了谋杀案,也知道了凶手的名字。
海耶斯立刻就走了。
后来,我下去看了亚瑟。
我把他和海耶斯太太留在那里,因为那时我还不能跟警察说什么。
所以福尔摩斯先生,现在你知道了一切。”
“嗯,”福尔摩斯说,“你包庇了一个凶手,你对警察只字不提,把你年幼的儿子留在一个肮脏的旅馆里,然后你还要寻求我的帮助。”
人们通常从不这样对霍尔德内斯公爵说话。
他的脸涨红了,但他什么也没说。
“首先,”福尔摩斯说,“我们必须把亚瑟带回家。”
“好的,”公爵轻声说。
福尔摩斯迅速写了一张便条并把它带出了房间。
一分钟后,他回来了。
“现在你打算怎么处理詹姆斯·怀尔德先生?”他说。
“我明白你的意思,福尔摩斯先生,”公爵说,“詹姆斯要离开我,下周去澳大利亚。”
“很好,”福尔摩斯说,“至于公爵夫人,也许家里没有了詹姆斯,你和……”
“是的,我今天早上给公爵夫人写了信。”
福尔摩斯站了起来。“好吧,”他说,“华生和我现在可以回家了。我想还有一件小事。这个人海耶斯,带着两匹马穿过荒原,但是马脚在泥地里留下了牛蹄印。这怎么可能呢?”
公爵看起来很惊讶,想了一分钟。
然后他走开,两分钟后拿着一个玻璃盒子回来了。
盒子里是一些马蹄铁。
“我们在花园的地下发现了这些蹄铁,”公爵说,“它们大约有500年的历史了。我们认为霍尔德内斯家族有着漫长而有趣的过去。”
福尔摩斯打开盒子,拿出一个蹄铁。
那是一个用于马脚的蹄铁,但看起来像分瓣的牛蹄。
福尔摩斯弄湿了他的手指,沿着蹄铁的底部抹了一圈。
一点泥土沾在了他的手指上。
“谢谢你,”福尔摩斯说。
他把马蹄铁放回盒子里。
“那个蹄铁是英格兰北部第二有趣的东西,”他说,“而第一是公爵。”
福尔摩斯从桌子上拿起那张12000英镑的支票,慢慢地把它放进他的笔记本里。
“我是一个穷人,”他说。
他深情地看着笔记本,然后小心翼翼地把它放进口袋里。