福爾摩斯探案經典:《恐怖谷》第6章Part1
"Dear me, Watson, is it possible that you have not penetrated the fact that the case hangs upon the missing dumb-bell? Well, well, you need not be downcast; for between ourselves I don't think that either Inspector Mac or the excellent local practitioner has grasped the overwhelming importance of this incident. One dumb-bell, Watson! Consider an athlete with one dumb-bell! Picture to yourself the unilateral development, the imminent danger of a spinal curvature. Shocking, Watson, shocking!"
He sat with his mouth full of toast and his eyes sparkling with mischief, watching my intellectual entanglement. The mere sight of his excellent appetite was an assurance of success; for I had very clear recollections of days and nights without a thought of food, when his baffled mind had chafed before some problem while his thin, eager features became more attenuated with the asceticism of complete mental concentration. Finally he lit his pipe, and sitting in the inglenook of the old village inn he talked slowly and at random about his case, rather as one who thinks aloud than as one who makes a considered statement.
"A lie, Watson--a great, big, thumping, obtrusive, uncompromising lie--that's what meets us on the threshold! There is our starting point. The whole story told by Barker is a lie. But Barker's story is corroborated by Mrs. Douglas. Therefore she is lying also. They are both lying, and in a conspiracy. So now we have the clear problem. Why are they lying, and what is the truth which they are trying so hard to conceal? Let us try, Watson, you and I, if we can get behind the lie and reconstruct the truth.
"How do I know that they are lying? Because it is a clumsy fabrication which simply could not be true. Consider! According to the story given to us, the assassin had less than a minute after the murder had been committed to take that ring, which was under another ring, from the dead man's finger, to replace the other ring--a thing which he would surely never have done--and to put that singular card beside his victim. I say that this was obviously impossible. "You may argue--but I have too much respect for your judgment, Watson, to think that you will do so--that the ring may have been taken before the man was killed. The fact that the candle had been lit only a short time shows that there had been no lengthy interview. Was Douglas, from what we hear of his fearless character, a man who would be likely to give up his wedding ring at such short notice, or could we conceive of his giving it up at all? No, no, Watson, the assassin was alone with the dead man for some time with the lamp lit. Of that I have no doubt at all.
"But the gunshot was apparently the cause of death. Therefore the shot must have been fired some time earlier than we are told. But there could be no mistake about such a matter as that. We are in the presence, therefore, of a deliberate conspiracy upon the part of the two people who heard the gunshot--of the man Barker and of the woman Douglas. When on the top of this I am able to show that the blood mark on the windowsill was deliberately placed there by Barker, in order to give a false clue to the police, you will admit that the case grows dark against him.
"Now we have to ask ourselves at what hour the murder actually did occur. Up to half-past ten the servants were moving about the house; so it was certainly not before that time. At a quarter to eleven they had all gone to their rooms with the exception of Ames, who was in the pantry. I have been trying some experiments after you left us this afternoon, and I find that no noise which MacDonald can make in the study can penetrate to me in the pantry when the doors are all shut.
“哎呀，華生，難道你沒看出來，這個案子的關鍵就在於那個丟失的啞鈴嗎？好了，好了，你也用不着垂頭喪氣，因爲，這只是咱們兩個人說說，我想不管是警官麥克，還是那個精明的當地偵探，都沒有理解到這件小事的特殊重要性。只有一個啞鈴！華生，想想，一個運動員只有一個啞鈴的情況吧！想想那種畸形發展——很快就有造成脊椎彎曲的危險。不正常啊，華生，不正常啊！”
他坐在那裏，大口吃着麪包，兩眼閃耀着調皮的神色，注視着我那搜索枯腸的狼狽相。福爾摩斯食慾這樣旺盛，說明他已經是胸有成竹了。因爲我對他那些食不甘味的日日夜夜記憶猶新，當他那困惑的頭腦被疑難問題弄得焦躁不安的時候，他就會象一個苦行主義者那樣全神貫注，而他那瘦削、渴望成功的面容就變得愈發枯瘦如柴了。最後，福爾摩斯點着了菸斗，坐在這家老式鄉村旅館的爐火旁，不慌不忙地，隨意地談起這個案子來，這與其說是深思熟慮的講述，不如說是自言自語的回憶。
“謊言，華生，是一個很大的、出奇的、不折不扣的彌天大謊，我們一開頭就碰到這個謊言，這就是我們的出發點。巴克所說的話完全是撒謊。不過巴克的話被道格拉斯夫人進一步證實了。所以說，道格拉斯夫人也是在撒謊。他們兩個都撒謊，而且是串通一起的。所以現在我們的問題很清楚，就是查清楚他們爲什麼要撒謊？他們千方百計力圖隱瞞的真相又是什麼？華生，你我兩人試試看，能不能查出這些謊言背後的真情。
“我怎麼知道他們是在撒謊呢？因爲他們捏造得非常笨拙，根本違背了事實。試想一想吧！照他們所說，兇手殺人後，在不到一分鐘的時間裏從死者手指上摘去這個戒指，而這個戒指上面還套着另一隻戒指，然後再把這另一隻戒指套回原處——這是他肯定做不到的，還把這張奇怪的卡片放在受害者身旁。我說這顯然是辦不到的。你也可能會爭辯說，那指環也許是在他被害以前被摘下去的。可是，華生，我非常尊重你的判斷能力，因此我想你是不會這麼說的。蠟燭只點了很短時間，這個事實說明，死者和兇手會面的時間不會很長。我們聽說道格拉斯膽量很大，他是那種稍經嚇唬就自動交出結婚戒指的人嗎？我們能想象他竟然會交出結婚戒指嗎？不，不會的，華生，燈點着後，兇手獨自一人和死者呆了一段時間。對於這一點，我是深信不疑的。
“不過致死的原因，很明顯是槍殺。所以，開槍的時間比他們所說的要早許多。事情經過就是這樣，這是決不會錯的。因此，我們面臨的是一種蓄意合謀，是由兩個聽到槍聲的人，也就是巴克這個男人和道格拉斯夫人這個女人乾的。首先，只我能證明窗臺上的血跡是巴克故意印上去的，目的是給警方造成假線索時，你也就會承認，這一案件的發展變得對他不利了。
“現在，我們必須向自己提出一個問題：兇殺究竟是在什麼時間發生的呢？直到十點半鐘，僕人們還在這屋裏來來往往，所以謀殺肯定不是在這之前發生的。十點四十五分，僕人們都回到了下處，只有艾姆斯還留在餐具室。你在下午離開我們以後，我曾作過一些試驗，發現只要房門都關上，麥克唐納在書房不管發出多大聲音，我在餐具室裏也休想聽到。
