福爾摩斯探案經典:《恐怖谷》第4章Part12
"No, I was quite free."
"You have heard, no doubt, that his wedding ring has been taken. Does that suggest anything to you? Suppose that some enemy of his old life had tracked him down and committed this crime, what possible reason could he have for taking his wedding ring?"
For an instant I could have sworn that the faintest shadow of a smile flickered over the woman's lips.
"I really cannot tell," she answered. "It is certainly a most extraordinary thing."
"Well, we will not detain you any longer, and we are sorry to have put you to this trouble at such a time," said the inspector. "There are some other points, no doubt; but we can refer to you as they arise."
She rose, and I was again conscious of that quick, questioning glance with which she had just surveyed us. "What impression has my evidence made upon you?" The question might as well have been spoken. Then, with a bow, she swept from the room.
"She's a beautiful woman--a very beautiful woman," said MacDonald thoughtfully, after the door had closed behind her. "This man Barker has certainly been down here a good deal. He is a man who might be attractive to a woman. He admits that the dead man was jealous, and maybe he knew best himself what cause he had for jealousy. Then there's that wedding ring. You can't get past that. The man who tears a wedding ring off a dead man's--What do you say to it, Mr. Holmes?"
My friend had sat with his head upon his hands, sunk in the deepest thought. Now he rose and rang the bell. "Ames," he said, when the butler entered, "where is Mr. Cecil Barker now?"
"I'll see, sir."
“沒有，那時我根本還沒有男朋友。”
“你當然聽說過，他的結婚戒指被人拿走了。這件事和你有什麼關係嗎？假定是他過去生活裏的仇人追蹤到這裏並下了毒手，那麼，把他的結婚戒指拿走的原因可能是什麼呢？”
一瞬間，我敢說道格拉斯夫人脣邊掠過一絲微笑。
“這我實在說不上，"她回答道，“這可實在是一件非常離奇古怪的事。”
“好，我們不再多耽誤你了，在這樣的時刻來打擾你，我們很是抱歉，"麥克唐納說道，“當然，還有一些其它問題，以後遇到時，我們再來問你吧。”
她站了起來。我看到，象剛纔一樣，她又用輕捷而帶有疑問的眼光掃視了我們一下：“你們對我的證詞有什麼看法呢？”這個問題真象是她已說出來一樣。然後，她鞠了一躬，裙邊輕掃地面，走出了房間。
“她真是一個美麗的女人——一個非常美麗的女人，"在她關上門以後，麥克唐納沉思地說道，“巴克這個人一定常常到這裏來的。他大概是個起受女人青睞的男子。他承認死者是個愛吃醋的人。他可能最清楚道格拉斯的醋意何來。還有結婚戒指的事。你無法放過這些問題。對這個從死者手中奪走結婚戒指的人……福爾摩斯先生，你有什麼看法？”
我的朋友坐在那裏，兩手託着下巴，深深地陷入沉思。這時他站起身來，拉響了傳呼鈴。“艾姆斯，"當管家走進來時，福爾摩斯說道，“塞西爾·巴克先生現在在哪兒？”
“我去看看，先生。”
