Sherlock Holmes and the Sport of Kings by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
单词提示
1.curry 咖喱
2.stick 手杖
3.opium 鸦片
原文
Chapter 2: Monday night at King's Pyland
Notes by Inspector Gregory, after talking to Edith Baxter, Ned Hunter, Mrs. John Straker and Mr. Fitzroy Simpson.
On Monday evening, Straker locked the stables at nine o'clock the usual time.
Two of the boys then walked up to the trainer's house for their dinner.
But the third boy, Ned Hunter, stayed in the stables to watch the horses.
At five past nine, the Strakers' servant, a girl called Edith Baxter, carried Ned Hunter's dinner down to the stables.
The dinner that night was a hot meat curry.
Edith was nearly at the stables, when a man called out to her.
He came up to her, and she saw a tall man in a gray suit and a hat, and a red and black scarf.
He carried a big walking stick, and Edith felt afraid of him.
"Where am I?" the man asked, "What is this place?"
"This is King's Pyland, training stables." she said.
"Good," said the man, "Now, a stable boy sleeps here every night, is that right? And I think you're taking his dinner to him now."
He took an envelope out of his pocket.
"Please give the boy this and you can have some money for a beautiful new dress."
Edith did not take the envelope.
She ran past the man to the stables and up to a small open window.
She always put the boy's dinner through this window, and Ned Hunter was there,ready to take it.
"Oh, Ned!" Edith cried, but before she could say any more, the stranger came up behind her.
"Good evening," he said through the window to the boy, "I want to talk to you."
"Who are you, what do you want?" Ned Hunter said.
"I want to make you rich, boy," the stranger said, "You help me and I help you. You have two horses in for the Wessex Cup- silver Blaze and Bayard. I hear that Bayard is the better horse and that you stable boys are putting your bets on him to win, am I right?"
"I'm not saying anything," cried Ned Hunter, "We don't talk about our horses at King's Pyland. So get out, I'm getting the dog now."
Ned ran across the stables to get the dog, and Edith began to run back to the house.
But she looked back after about 30 meters and saw the man at the little window with his head and one arm inside the room.
Edith ran on, and a minute later, Ned came out of the building and locked the door behind him.
He ran all-round the stables with the dog, but the man was gone.
Ned Hunter told the trainer and the other boys about the stranger, but no one saw him again.
The next thing happened at one o'clock in the morning, when John Straker got out of bed.
"What's the matter," said his wife, "Where are you going?"
"To the stables," Straker said, "I can't stop thinking about that stranger, I just want to have a look around."
"But it's raining, wait until the rain stops." she said.
"No,no," Straker said, "I want to go now."
He left the house and Mrs. Straker went back to sleep.
At seven in the morning, she woke up, but her husband was not there.
She quickly got up, called the servant-Edith, and they ran down to the stables.
They found the stables unlocked, Straker was not there.
And inside on a chair, Ned Hunter slept like a dead man.
Silver Blaze was gone and his stable door was open.
They called the other two boys from the room over the stables.
They were good sleepers and heard nothing in the night.
Nobody could wake Ned Hunter, so the two women and the boys ran out to look for the trainer and the horse.
Five hundred from the stables, they saw Straker's coat on a small tree.
Down the hill, just past the tree, they found the trainer. He was dead.
There was a long cut in his leg, and his head was broken in three places.
In his right hand, he had a small knife with blood all over it.
And in his left hand, he had a red and black scarf.
Edith Baxter knew the scarf at once, and later so did Ned Hunter.
"It's the strangest scarf," he told us, "When I went to get the dog, that stranger was still at the stable window. He put something in my meat curry to make me sleep, I know he did.Edith saw him with his arm through the window."
Ned Hunter was right about his meat curry.
There were some of his dinner left, and we found a lot of opium in it, that's why Ned slept like a dead man.
What about the horse?
We found his tracks in the mud next to Straker's dead body.
But what happened then?
Someone hit streak on the head and killed him.
Did that person take the horse away? Did the horse run away?
Everybody on Dartmoor is looking for Silver Blaze, but there is no news of him.
When I began work on the case on Tuesday, we looked for the stranger.
He was in Tavistock and we found him easily.
His name is Fitzroy Simpson, he lives mostly in London and makes his money at the races taking bets.
We looked in his betting book and found a number of big bets, £5000 against the favorite for the Wessex Cup.
These were his answers to my questions.
"Why did you come down to Dartmoor?"
"I'm a betting man, Inspector. I need to know about the horses for the Wessex Cupsilver blaze, Bayard, and Desborough-the horse at Silas Brown's stables. He is the second favorite for the race, you see."
"Did you go to the King's Pyland stables late on Monday evening?"
"Yes,I did. I just wanted to ask the stable boys some questions; they know the horses better than anyone."
"And is this your scarf?"
"Yes,yes, it is."
"And how did it get into the dead man's hand? Mr. Simpson, can you tell us that?"
"I don't know, Inspector, I don't know, I never saw the man. I lost my scarf in the dark. It wasn't me, Inspector, it wasn't me."
We asked many more questions, but Fitzroy Simpson did not change his story.
He was out at King's Pyland that night, his suit was still wet from the rain, and his big walking stick could break a man's head open, but there were no cuts on his body.
So where did the blood on Straker's knife come from? And where is the horse?
翻译
第二章：周一晚上的金斯皮兰
格雷戈里巡官与伊道丝·巴克斯特、内德·亨特、约翰·斯特雷克夫人以及菲茨罗伊·辛普森先生谈话以后的记录。
星期一晚上，斯特雷克跟平常一样9点就锁了马厩。然后有两个小马倌走到驯马师家里吃晚餐，而第三个小马倌内德·亨特留在马厩照看马匹。
9点5分，斯特雷克的佣人，一个名叫伊迪丝·巴克斯特的女孩子把内德·亨特的晚餐送到马厩。
那天晚上的晚餐是热的咖哩烧肉。
伊迪丝快到马厩的时候，一个人向她打招呼。
他走近她，伊迪丝看见一个高个子男人，穿着一件灰色外套，戴着帽子，围着一条黑红相间的围巾，手里拿着一根粗大的手杖。
伊迪丝觉得有点儿害怕。
"我这是在哪儿?"那个人问道，"这是什么地方?"
"这是金斯皮兰的训练马厩。"伊迪丝回答道。
"太好了!"那个人说。"那么，一个小马倌每天晚上睡在这儿--对吗?我猜你这是要去给他送晚餐吧。"
他从口袋里掏出一个信封。"请把这个交给那个男孩儿，你就可以得到一笔钱买身漂亮衣服了。"
伊迪丝没拿那个信封。
她从那个人身旁跑过去，跑到马厩那儿的一扇开着的小窗前。
她一般都从这扇窗户将小马倌的晚餐递进去，内德·亨特已经在那儿准备取饭了。
"噢，内德!"伊迪丝叫道，但她还没来得及说别的，那个陌生人已经来到了她身后。
"晚上好，"他隔着窗户对那个男孩说，"我想跟你谈谈。"
"你是谁?你想干什么?"内德·亨特说。
"我想让你发财，孩子，"那个陌生人说，"你要是帮我，我就会帮你。你们有两匹马要参加韦塞克斯杯--'银光'和贝亚德。我听说贝亚德更好，你们这帮小马倌都在它身上下了注。对吗?"
"我不会透露任何事!"内德·亨特叫道，"我们不会在金斯皮兰谈论自己的马，快走开!我要放狗了!"
内德穿过马厩去牵狗，伊迪丝开始回头往房子里跑。
但她跑了大约30米后，回头看见那个人站在那扇小窗子边，头和一只胳膊伸进了房间里。
伊迪丝继续往回跑，很快内德就出来了，顺手锁了门。
他带着狗绕马厩跑了一圈，但那个人已经不见了。
内德·亨特跟驯马师和其他的马倌说了那个陌生人的事，但再没人看到那个人。
第二件事发生在凌晨1点。约翰·斯特雷克从床上爬了起来。
"怎么了?"他妻子说，"你要去哪儿?"
"去马厩看看，"斯特雷克说，"我老想着那个陌生人。我想去看看。"
"可天在下雨呢。等雨停了再去吧。"她说。
"不，不，"斯特雷克说，"我就想现在去。"
他离开了房子，斯特雷克夫人接着睡觉。
早上7点，她醒了过来，但她丈夫不在。
她马上起床，叫来了佣人伊迪丝，一起往马厩跑去。
她们发现马厩没锁。
斯特雷克不在，内德·亨特在里边一张椅子上睡得跟死人一样。
"银光"也不见了，它所在的马厩开着门。
她们叫醒了睡在马厩顶上房间里的另外两个小马倌。
他俩都睡得很死，没听见夜里有任何动静。
没人能叫醒内德·亨特，于是那两个女人和两个小马倌跑出去找驯马师和那匹马。
在离马厩500米的地方，他们看见斯特雷克的外套挂在一棵小树上。
就在树边的山脚下，他们找到了驯马师。他死了。
他腿上有一道长长的伤口，脑袋有三处破了。
他右手拿着一把小刀，上面满是血，左手拽着一条黑红相间的围巾。
伊迪丝·巴克斯特马上就认出了那条围巾，后来，内德·亨德也认出来了。
"是那个陌生人的围巾，"他告诉我们，"我去牵狗的时候，那个人还在马厩的窗户边。他放了什么东西在我的咖哩烧肉里，让我昏昏入睡--我知道一定是他。伊迪丝看见他了，他的手伸进了窗户里。"
内德·亨特关于他的咖哩烧肉的判断是对的。
他的晚餐还剩下一点儿，我们在里边发现大量的鸦片。
这就是内德睡得那么死的原因。
那匹马呢?
我们在泥地里发现了它的脚印，就在斯特雷克的尸体旁边。
但是随后发生了什么事?
有人打中了斯特雷克的头，杀死了他。
那个人把马带走了吗?还是马自己跑了?
达特穆尔的每个人都在找"银光"，但没有关于它的任何消息。
星期二我开始调查这个案子，我们就着手寻找那个陌生人。
他在塔维斯托克，我们轻而易举地找到了他。
他名叫菲茨罗伊·辛普森。他大部分时间住在伦敦，靠在赛马中赌马赚钱。
我们查看了他的赌金簿，发现他在韦塞克斯杯上下了重注--5000英镑--买"银光"输。
以下是他回答我的问题的记录。
"你为什么去达特穆尔?"
"巡官，我是个赌徒。我得了解参加韦塞克斯杯的马--'银光'、贝亚德，还有德斯伯勒——赛拉斯·布朗家的马。你知道，那是这次比赛的第二大热门。"
"星期一晚上你是不是去了金斯皮兰的马厩?"
"对。我只想向着马厩的马倌打听点儿事情。他们比任何人都了解马的状况。"
"这是你的围巾吗?"
"对......是我的。"
"那它是怎么到被害人的手里的，辛普森先生?你能向我们解释一下吗?"
"我不知道，巡官，我不知道!我从来没见过那个人，那天夜里我的围巾丢了。不是我干的，巡官，不是我!"
我们还问了很多问题，但菲茨罗伊·辛普森坚持他的说法。他那天晚上确实在金斯皮兰，他的外套淋了雨，还是湿的，他那条粗大的手杖足以打破人的脑袋。但他身上没有伤口，那斯特雷克手里那把刀上的血迹又是从哪儿来的呢?
还有，那匹马哪儿去了?
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