福爾摩斯探案經典:《恐怖谷》第2章Part4
"Surely the inference is plain."
"You mean that he has a great income and that he must earn it in an illegal fashion?"
"Exactly. Of course I have other reasons for thinking so--dozens of exiguous threads which lead vaguely up towards the centre of the web where the poisonous, motionless creature is lurking. I only mention the Greuze because it brings the matter within the range of your own observation."
"Well, Mr. Holmes, I admit that what you say is interesting: it's more than interesting--it's just wonderful. But let us have it a little clearer if you can. Is it forgery, coining, burglary--where does the money come from?"
"Have you ever read of Jonathan Wild?"
"Well, the name has a familiar sound. Someone in a novel, was he not? I don't take much stock of detectives in novels--chaps that do things and never let you see how they do them. That's just inspiration: not business."
"Jonathan Wild wasn't a detective, and he wasn't in a novel. He was a master criminal, and he lived last century--1750 or thereabouts."
"Then he's no use to me. I'm a practical man."
"Mr. Mac, the most practical thing that you ever did in your life would be to shut yourself up for three months and read twelve hours a day at the annals of crime. Everything comes in circles--even Professor Moriarty. Jonathan Wild was the hidden force of the London criminals, to whom he sold his brains and his organization on a fifteen per cent. commission. The old wheel turns, and the same spoke comes up. It's all been done before, and will be again. I'll tell you one or two things about Moriarty which may interest you."
"You'll interest me, right enough."
"I happen to know who is the first link in his chain--a chain with this Napoleon-gone-wrong at one end, and a hundred broken fighting men, pickpockets, blackmailers, and card sharpers at the other, with every sort of crime in between. His chief of staff is Colonel Sebastian Moran, as aloof and guarded and inaccessible to the law as himself. What do you think he pays him?"
"I'd like to hear."
"Six thousand a year. That's paying for brains, you see--the American business principle. I learned that detail quite by chance. It's more than the Prime Minister gets. That gives you an idea of Moriarty's gains and of the scale on which he works. Another point: I made it my business to hunt down some of Moriarty's checks lately--just common innocent checks that he pays his household bills with. They were drawn on six different banks. Does that make any impression on your mind?"
"Queer, certainly! But what do you gather from it?"
“這樣一推論，自然就明白了。”
“你的意思是說他有很大的收入，而這個收入是用非法的手段得來的嗎？”
“一點不錯，當然我還有別的理由這樣想——許多蛛絲馬跡，隱隱約約地通向蛛網的中心，而這個毒蟲卻一動也不動地在那裏潛伏着。我僅只提起一個格羅茲，因爲你自己已經親眼見到了。”
“對，福爾摩斯先生，我承認剛纔你所講的那些話是很有意思的，不只非常有意思，簡直奇妙極了。不過，如果你能把它講得再清楚一些就更好了。究竟他的錢是從哪兒來的？僞造鈔票？私鑄硬幣？還是盜竊來的？”
“你看過關於喬納森·懷爾德的故事嗎？”
“啊，這個名字聽起來倒是很熟悉的。他是一本小說裏的人物吧！是不是？我對於小說裏的偵探們向來是不感興趣的。這些傢伙做什麼事總是不讓人家知道他們是怎樣做的。那隻不過是靈機一動的事，算不上辦案。”
“喬納森·懷爾德不是偵探，也不是小說裏的人物，他是一個罪魁，生在上一世紀——一七五○年前後。”
“那麼，他對我就沒有什麼用處了，我是一個講究實際的人。”
“麥克先生，你一生最實際的事，就是應該閉門讀書三個月，每天讀十二個小時犯罪史。任何事物都是往復循環的——甚至莫里亞蒂教授也是如此。喬納森·懷爾德是倫敦罪犯們的幕後推動力，他靠他那詭譎的頭腦和他的組織勢力從倫敦罪犯那裏收取百分之十五的佣金。舊時代的車輪在旋轉，同一根輪輻還會轉回來的。過去所發生的一切，將來還是要發生的。我要告訴你一兩件關於莫里亞蒂的事，它會使你感興趣的。”
“你講的一定會使我非常感興趣。”
“我偶然發現莫里亞蒂鎖鏈中的第一個環節——鎖鏈的一端是這位罪大惡極的人物，另一端則有上百個出手傷人的打手、扒手、詐騙犯和靠耍弄花招騙錢的賭棍，中間夾雜着五花八門的罪行。給他們出謀劃策的是塞巴斯蒂恩·莫蘭上校，而國法對這位'參謀長'和對莫里亞蒂本人一樣無能爲力。你知道莫里亞蒂教授給他多少錢嗎？”
“我很願意聽一聽。”
“一年六千鎊。這是他絞盡腦汁的代價。你知道這是美國的商業原則。我瞭解到這一詳情，完全出於偶然。這比一個首相的收入還要多。從這一點就可以想象莫里亞蒂的收入究竟有多少，以及他所從事的活動規模有多大了。另外一點：最近我曾有意地蒐集了莫里亞蒂的一些支票——只不過是一些他支付家庭用度的無嫌疑的普通支票。這些支票是從六家不同的銀行支取的。這一點使你產生了什麼印象呢？”
“當然，非常奇怪！可是你想從這點得出什麼結論呢？”
