博斯科姆比溪谷秘案 14整理线索(8)

This concluded the examination of the witness.

对证人的审讯到此结束。

"I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy.

我一面看这个专栏一面说，"我觉得验尸官最后说的那几句话对小麦卡锡相当严厉。

He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy¹ about his father having signalled to him before seeing him,

他有理由来提醒证人注意供词中相互矛盾的地方，那就是他父亲还没有见到他时就给他发出信号；

also to his refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and his singular account of his father's dying words.

他还要求证人注意，他拒绝交代他和他父亲谈话的细节，以及他在叙述死者临终前说的话时所讲的那些奇特的话。

They are all, as he remarks, very much against the son."

他说，所有这一切都是对这个儿子十分不利的。"

Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon the cushioned seat.

福尔摩斯暗自好笑。他伸着腿半躺在软垫靠椅上。

"Both you and the coroner have been at some pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the young man's favour.

他说："你和验尸官都力图突出最有说服力的要点，使之对这个年轻人不利。

Don't you see that you alternately give him credit for having too much imagination and too little?

可是难道你还不明白，你时而说这个年轻人想象力太丰富，时而又说他太缺乏想象力，这是什么意思呢？

Too little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would give him the sympathy of the jury;

太缺乏想象力，因为他未能编造他和他父亲吵架的原因来博得陪审团的同情；

too much, if he evolved from his own inner consciousness anything so outre as a dying reference to a rat,

想象力太丰富，因为从他自己的内在感官发出了夸大其词的所谓死者临终前提及的'拉特'的怪叫声，

and the incident of the vanishing cloth.

还有那忽然间不见了的衣服。

No, sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what this young man says is true,

不是这样的，先生，我将从这个年轻人所说的是实情这样一个观点出发去处理这个案子，

and we shall see whither that hypothesis will lead us.

我们看看这一假设能把我们引到哪里。

And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the scene of action.

这是我的彼特拉克诗集袖珍本，你拿去看吧。我在亲临作案现场之前，不想再说一句关于这个案子的话了。

We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be there in twenty minutes."

我们去斯温登吃午饭。我看我们在二十分钟内就可以到那里。"

1 discrepancy   

n.不同；不符；差异；矛盾

参考例句：

• The discrepancy in their ages seemed not to matter.他们之间年龄的差异似乎没有多大关系。
• There was a discrepancy in the two reports of the accident.关于那次事故的两则报道有不一致之处。