赖盖特之谜18

“I had a little talk with old Cunningham afterwards as to the motive¹ of the  crime. He was tractable² enough, though his son was a perfect demon³, ready to  blow out his own or anybody else's brains if he could have got to his revolver.  When Cunningham saw that the case against him was so strong he lost all heart  and made a clean breast of everything. It seems that William had secretly  followed his two masters on the night when they made their raid upon Mr.  Acton's, and having thus got them into his power, proceeded, under threats of  exposure, to levy⁴ black-mail upon them. Mr. Alec, however, was a dangerous man  to play games of that sort with. It was a stroke of positive genius on his part  to see in the burglary scare which was convulsing the country side an  opportunity of plausibly⁵ getting rid of the man whom he feared. William was  decoyed up and shot, and had they only got the whole of the note and paid a  little more attention to detail in the accessories, it is very possible that  suspicion might never have been aroused.”

“And the note?” I asked.

Sherlock Holmes placed the subjoined paper before us.

Paper which reads: If you will only come around at quarter to twelve to the east  gate you will learn what will very much surprise you and may be of the greatest  service to you and also to Annie Morrison. But say nothing to anyone upon the  matter

“It is very much the sort of thing that I expected,” said he. “Of course, we  do not yet know what the relations may have been between Alec Cunningham,  William Kirwan, and Annie Morrison. The results shows that the trap was  skillfully baited. I am sure that you cannot fail to be delighted with the  traces of heredity shown in the p's and in the tails of the g's. The absence of  the i-dots in the old man's writing is also most characteristic. Watson, I think  our quiet rest in the country has been a distinct success, and I shall certainly  return much invigorated to Baker⁶ Street to-morrow.”

“后来，我跟老坎宁安谈了几句，问他的犯罪动机是什么。他很老实，他儿子却是一个十足 的恶棍，如果他拿到了他那把手槍，他就会把他自己或别的人打死。坎宁安看到案情对他十 分不利，便完全失去信心，把一切都坦白一交一待了。看来，那天晚上，当威廉的两个主人 突然闯入阿克顿的住宅时，威廉悄悄地跟上了他们。威廉这样了解了他们的隐私，就要挟着 要揭发他们，开始对他们进行敲诈勒索。然而，亚历克先生是一个惯于玩这类把戏的危险人 物。他天才地看出震惊全乡的盗窃案是一个可以干掉他所畏惧的人的机会。他们把威廉诱骗 出来，将他击毙了。他们只要把那张完整的纸条弄到手，并对他们同谋作案的细节稍稍加以 注意，就很可能不会引起别人怀疑了。”

“可是那张纸条呢？”

歇洛克-福尔摩斯把这张撕走的纸条放在我们面前。

（密约信译为-如果你在十一点三刻到东门口，你将得知一件极为意外、对你和安妮-莫里森 都有极大好处的事。但不要将这件事告诉任何人。）

“这正是我所希望得到的那个东西，”福尔摩斯说道，“当然，我们还不知道在亚历克-坎 宁安、威廉-柯万和安妮-莫里森之间有什么关系。从事情的结局可以看出，这个圈套是安排 得异常巧妙的。我相信，当你们发现那些“ｐ”和“ｇ”的尾端都具有相同的特点时，你们 一定会感到很高兴的。那老人写‘ｉ”字不点上面那一点，也是很独特的。华生，我认为我 们在乡间安静地休养收到了显著的成效，明天我回到贝克街一定会一精一力充沛了。”

1 motive   

n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的

参考例句：

• The police could not find a motive for the murder.警察不能找到谋杀的动机。
• He had some motive in telling this fable.他讲这寓言故事是有用意的。

2 tractable   

adj.易驾驭的；温顺的

参考例句：

• He was always tractable and quiet.他总是温顺、恬静。
• Gold and silver are tractable metals.金和银是容易加工的金属。

3 demon   

n.魔鬼，恶魔

参考例句：

• The demon of greed ruined the miser's happiness.贪得无厌的恶习毁掉了那个守财奴的幸福。
• He has been possessed by the demon of disease for years.他多年来病魔缠身。

4 levy   

n.征收税或其他款项，征收额

参考例句：

• They levy a tax on him.他们向他征税。
• A direct food levy was imposed by the local government.地方政府征收了食品税。

5 plausibly   

似真地

参考例句：

• The case was presented very plausibly. 案情的申述似很可信。
• He argued very plausibly for its acceptance. 他为使之认可辩解得头头是道。

6 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。