“格洛里亚斯科特”号三桅帆船12

“Victor Trevor sank his face into his shaking hands, ‘It must be that, I suppose,’ said he. “This is worse than death, for it means disgrace as well. But what is the meaning of these “head-keepers” and “hen-pheasants”?

“‘It means nothing to the message, but it might mean a good deal to us if we had no other means of discovering the sender. You see that he has begun by writing “The … game … is,” and so on. Afterwards he had, to fulfill¹ the prearranged cipher², to fill in any two words in each space. He would naturally use the first words which came to his mind, and if there were so many which referred to sport among them, you may be tolerably sure that he is either an ardent³ shot or interested in breeding. Do you know anything of this Beddoes?’

“‘Why, now that you mention it,’ said he, ‘I remember that my poor father used to have an invitation from him to shoot over his preserves every autumn.’

“‘Then it is undoubtedly⁴ from him that the note comes,’ said I. ‘It only remains⁵ for us to find out what this secret was which the sailor Hudson seems to have held over the heads of these two wealthy and respected men.’

“‘Alas, Holmes, I fear that it is one of sin and shame!’ cried my friend. ‘But from you I shall have no secrets. Here is the statement which was drawn⁶ up by my father when he knew that the danger from Hudson had become imminent⁷. I found it in the Japanese cabinet, as he told the doctor. Take it and read it to me, for I have neither the strength nor the courage to do it myself.’

“These are the very papers, Watson, which he handed to me, and I will read them to you, as I read them in the old study that night to him. They are endorsed⁸ outside, as you see, ‘Some particulars of the voyage of the bark Gloria Scott, from her leaving Falmouth on the 8th October, 1855, to her destruction in N. Lat. 15° 20', W. Long. 25° 14' on Nov. 6th.’ It is in the form of a letter, and runs in this way:

“维克托-特雷佛双手颤一抖地捂着脸。‘我猜想，一定是这样的，’他说道，‘这比死还要难堪，因为这意味着蒙受耻辱。可是“总保管”和“雌雉”这两个词儿又是什么意思呢？’“‘这些词儿在信中没有什么意思，可是如果我们没有别的办法找到那位发信人，这对我们倒大有用处。你看他开始写的是‘Ｔｈｅ…ｇａｍｅ…ｉｓ’等等，写完预先拟好的词句，便在每两个词之间填进两个词儿。他很自然地使用首先出现在头脑中的词儿。可以确信，他是一个热衷于打猎的人，或是一个喜一爱一饲养家禽的人。你了解贝多斯的情况吗？’

“‘呃，经你这样一提，’他说道，‘我倒想起来啦，每年秋季，我那可怜的爸爸常常接到贝多斯的邀请到他那里去打猎。’

“‘那么这封信一定是他发来的了，’我说道，‘现在我们只需查明，那个水手赫德森究竟掌握了什么秘密，用来威胁这两个有权有势的人。’

“‘唉，福尔摩斯，我担心那是一件罪恶和丢人的事！’我的朋友惊呼道，‘不过我对你不必保守什么秘密。这就是爸爸的声明，是在他得知赫德森的检举迫在眉睫时写下来的。我按医生传的话在日本柜子里找到了它。请把它拿去读给我听听，因为我自己实在没有力气也没有勇气去读它了。’

“华生，这几张纸就是小特雷佛给我的，那天晚上我在旧书房读给他听过，现在我读给你听。你看，这几张纸外面写着：‘“格洛里亚斯科特”号三桅帆船航行记事。一八五五年十月八日自法尔默思启航，同年十一月六日在北纬十五度二十分，西经二十五度十四分沉没。’里面是用信函的形式记载的。

1 fulfill   

vt.履行，实现，完成；满足，使满意

参考例句：

• If you make a promise you should fulfill it.如果你许诺了，你就要履行你的诺言。
• This company should be able to fulfill our requirements.这家公司应该能够满足我们的要求。

2 cipher   

n.零；无影响力的人；密码

参考例句：

• All important plans were sent to the police in cipher.所有重要计划均以密码送往警方。
• He's a mere cipher in the company.他在公司里是个无足轻重的小人物。

3 ardent   

adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的

参考例句：

• He's an ardent supporter of the local football team.他是本地足球队的热情支持者。
• Ardent expectations were held by his parents for his college career.他父母对他的大学学习抱着殷切的期望。

4 undoubtedly   

adv.确实地，无疑地

参考例句：

• It is undoubtedly she who has said that.这话明明是她说的。
• He is undoubtedly the pride of China.毫无疑问他是中国的骄傲。

5 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

6 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

7 imminent   

adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的

参考例句：

• The black clounds show that a storm is imminent.乌云预示暴风雨即将来临。
• The country is in imminent danger.国难当头。

8 endorsed   

vt.& vi.endorse的过去式或过去分词形式v.赞同( endorse的过去式和过去分词 )；在（尤指支票的）背面签字；在（文件的）背面写评论；在广告上说本人使用并赞同某产品

参考例句：

• The committee endorsed an initiative by the chairman to enter discussion about a possible merger. 委员会通过了主席提出的新方案，开始就可能进行的并购进行讨论。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The government has broadly endorsed a research paper proposing new educational targets for 14-year-olds. 政府基本上支持建议对14 岁少年实行新教育目标的研究报告。 来自《简明英汉词典》