巴斯克威尔的猎犬 亨利· 巴斯克维尔爵士（2）

 

"Nothing of much importance, Mr. Holmes. Only a joke, as like as not. It was this letter, ifyou can call it a letter, which reached me this morning."“没有什么重要的事， 福尔摩斯先生， 多半是开玩笑。 如果您能把它叫做信的话， 这就是我今早收到的一封信。”

He laid an envelope upon the table, and we all bent¹ over it. It was of common quality, grayishin colour. The address, "Sir Henry Baskerville, Northumberland Hotel," was printed in roughcharacters; the post-mark "Charing² Cross," and the date of posting the preceding evening.

他把信放在桌上， 我们都探身 去看。 信纸的质地平常， 呈灰色。 收信地址是“诺桑勃兰旅馆”， 字迹很潦草， 邮戳是“查林十字街”， 发信时间是头一天傍晚。

"Who knew that you were going to the Northumberland Hotel?" asked Holmes, glancingkeenly across at our visitor.

“谁知道您要到诺桑勃兰旅馆去呢？ ” 福尔摩斯用锐敏的目光望着我们的来客问道。

"No one could have known. We only decided³ after I met Dr. Mortimer."“谁也不可能知道啊。 还是在我和摩梯末医生相遇以后， 我们才决定的。”

"But Dr. Mortimer was no doubt already stopping there?"“但是， 摩梯末医生无疑已经到那里去过了吧？ ”

"No, I had been staying with a friend," said the doctor. "There was no possible indication thatwe intended to go to this hotel."

“不， 我以前是和一个朋友住在一起的， ”医生说， “我们并没有表示过要到这家旅馆去。”

"Hum! Someone seems to be very deeply interested in your movements." Out of the envelopehe took a half-sheet of foolscap paper folded into four. This he opened and spread flat upon thetable. Across the middle of it a single sentence had been formed by the expedient⁴ of pastingprinted words upon it. It ran:

“嗯， 好象有谁对你们的行动极为关心呢。” 他由信封里拿出了一页叠成四折的半张１３ ×１ ７ 英寸的信纸。 他把这张信纸打开， 平铺在桌上。 中间有一行用铅印字贴成的句子，是这样写的：

1 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

2 charing   

n.炭化v.把…烧成炭，把…烧焦( char的现在分词 )；烧成炭，烧焦；做杂役女佣

参考例句：

• We married in the chapel of Charing Cross Hospital in London. 我们是在伦敦查令十字医院的小教堂里结的婚。 来自辞典例句
• No additional charge for children under12 charing room with parents. ☆十二岁以下小童与父母同房不另收费。 来自互联网

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 expedient   

adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计

参考例句：

• The government found it expedient to relax censorship a little.政府发现略微放宽审查是可取的。
• Every kind of expedient was devised by our friends.我们的朋友想出了各种各样的应急办法。