福爾摩斯探案經典:《恐怖谷》第12章Part5
"Because I fell into talk with him. I thought little of it at the time, nor would have given it a second thought but for this letter; but now I'm sure it's the man. I met him on the cars when I went down the line on Wednesday--a hard case if ever there was one. He said he was a reporter. I believed it for the moment. Wanted to know all he could about the Scowrers and what he called 'the outrages' for a New York paper. Asked me every kind of question so as to get something. You bet I was giving nothing away. 'I'd pay for it and pay well,' said he, 'if I could get some stuff that would suit my editor.' I said what I thought would please him best, and he handed me a twenty-dollar bill for my information. 'There's ten times that for you,' said he, 'if you can find me all that I want.'"
"What did you tell him, then?"
"Any stuff I could make up."
"How do you know he wasn't a newspaper man?"
"I'll tell you. He got out at Hobson's Patch, and so did I. I chanced into the telegraph bureau, and he was leaving it.
"'See here,' said the operator after he'd gone out, 'I guess we should charge double rates for this.'--'I guess you should,' said I. He had filled the form with stuff that might have been Chinese, for all we could make of it. 'He fires a sheet of this off every day,' said the clerk. 'Yes,' said I; 'it's special news for his paper, and he's scared that the others should tap it.' That was what the operator thought and what I thought at the time; but I think differently now."
"By Gar! I believe you are right," said McGinty. "But what do you allow that we should do about it?"
"Why not go right down now and fix him?" someone suggested.
"Ay, the sooner the better."
"I'd start this next minute if I knew where we could find him," said McMurdo. "He's in Hobson's Patch; but I don't know the house. I've got a plan, though, if you'll only take my advice."
"Well, what is it?"
"I'll go to the Patch to-morrow morning. I'll find him through the operator. He can locate him, I guess. Well, then I'll tell him that I'm a Freeman myself. I'll offer him all the secrets of the lodge for a price. You bet he'll tumble to it. I'll tell him the papers are at my house, and that it's as much as my life would be worth to let him come while folk were about. He'll see that that's horse sense. Let him come at ten o'clock at night, and he shall see everything. That will fetch him sure."
"Well?"
"You can plan the rest for yourselves. Widow MacNamara's is a lonely house. She's as true as steel and as deaf as a post. There's only Scanlan and me in the house. If I get his promise--and I'll let you know if I do--I'd have the whole seven of you come to me by nine o'clock. We'll get him in. If ever he gets out alive--well, he can talk of Birdy Edwards's luck for the rest of his days!"
"There's going to be a vacancy at Pinkerton's or I'm mistaken. Leave it at that, McMurdo. At nine to-morrow we'll be with you. You once get the door shut behind him, and you can leave the rest with us."
“因爲我和他講過話。那時我沒有想到這些，要不是收到這封信，我連想也不會再想這件事了。可是現在我深信這就是那個人了。星期三我有事到霍布森領地去，在車上遇到他。他說他是一個記者，那時我相信了他的話。他說他要爲紐約一家報紙寫稿，想知道有關死酷黨人的一切情況，還要了解他所謂的'暴行'，他向我問了各種各樣問題，打算弄到一些情況。你們可以相信，我什麼也沒有泄露。他說，‘如果我能得到對我編輯工作有用的材料，我願出重金酬謝，'我揀我認爲他最愛聽的話說了一遍，他便付給我一張二十元紙幣作酬金。他又說，'如果你能把我所需要的一切告訴給我，那我就再加十倍酬金。'”
“那麼，你告訴他些什麼？”
“我可以虛構出任何材料。”
“你怎麼知道他不是一個報館的人呢？”
“我可以告訴你們，他在霍布森領地下了車，我也隨着下了車。我走進了電報局，他剛從那裏離開。
“'喂，'在他走出去以後，報務員說道，‘這種電文，我想我們應當加倍收費纔對。'我說，‘我想你們是應當加倍收的。'我們都覺得他填寫的電報單象中文那麼難懂。這個職員又說：'他每天都來發一份電報。'我說，‘對，這是他報紙的特別新聞，他怕別人知道。'這就是那時候那個報務員和我所想到的。可是現在我想的卻截然不同了。”
“天哪！我相信你的話是真的，"麥金蒂說道，“可是你認爲我們應該怎樣對付這件事呢？”
“爲什麼不立刻去收拾他呢？"有一個黨徒提議說。
“哎，不錯，愈早愈好。”
“如果我知道他住在哪裏，我就立刻這樣去做了，"麥克默多說道，“我只知道他在霍布森領地，可不知道他的寓所。不過，只要你們接受我的建議，我倒有一個計劃。”
“好，什麼計劃？”
“明天早晨我就到霍布森領地去，我通過報務員去找他。我想，他能打聽出這個人的住處。好，那麼，我可以告訴他我自己就是一個自由人會會員。我告訴他，只要他肯出高價，我就把分會的祕密告訴他。他一定會同意。那時我就告訴他，材料在我家裏。因爲到處都有人，不便讓他白天到我家去。他自然知道這是一種起碼的常識。我讓他夜晚十點鐘來我家看那些材料，那時我們一定可以抓住他了。”
“這樣好嗎？”
“其餘的事，你們可以自己去籌劃。寡婦麥克娜瑪拉家是一座孤零零的住宅。她絕對可靠而且聾得象一根木樁。只有斯坎倫和我住在她寓所。假如他答應來的話，我就告訴你們，我會讓你們七個人九點鐘到我這裏來。我們就把他搞進屋。假如他還能活着出去，嗯，那他後半輩子就可以大吹伯爾弟·愛德華的運氣了。”
“這麼說，平克頓偵探公司該有一個空缺了。要不，就是我弄錯了，"麥金蒂說道，“就談到這裏吧，麥克默多。明天九點鐘我們到你那兒去。他走進來以後，你只要把門關上，其它的事就由我們處理好了。”
