银色马 26（在线收听）

“Here! Where?”

“In my company at the present moment.”

The colonel flushed angrily. “I quite recognize that I am under obligations to you, Mr. Holmes,” said he, “but I must regard what you have just said as either a very bad joke or an insult.”

Sherlock Holmes laughed. “I assure you that I have not associated you with the crime, Colonel,” said he. “The real murderer is standing immediately behind you.” He stepped past and laid his hand upon the glossy neck of the thoroughbred.

“The horse!” cried both the colonel and myself.

“Yes, the horse. And it may lessen his guilt if I say that it was done in self-defence, and that John Straker was a man who was entirely unworthy of your confidence. But there goes the bell, and as I stand to win a little on this next race, I shall defer a lengthy explanation until a more fitting time.”

We had the corner of a Pullman car to ourselves that evening as we whirled back to London, and I fancy that the journey was a short one to Colonel Ross as well as to myself as we listened to our companion’s narrative of the events which had occurred at the Dartmoor training-stables upon that Monday night, and the means by which he had unravelled them.

“I confess,” said he, “that any theories which I had formed from the newspaper reports were entirely erroneous. And yet there were indications there, had they not been overlaid by other details which concealed their true import. I went to Devonshire with the conviction that Fitzroy Simpson was the true culprit, although, of course, I saw that the evidence against him was by no means complete. It was while I was in the carriage, just as we reached the trainer’s house, that the immense significance of the curried mutton occurred to me. You may remember that I was distrait and remained sitting after you had all alighted. I was marvelling in my own mind how I could possibly have overlooked so obvious a clue.”

“I confess,” said the colonel, “that even now I cannot see how it helps us.”

“这里！在哪儿？”

“此刻就和我在一起。”

上校气得满脸通红。

“我完全承认我受到了你的好处，福尔摩斯先生，”上校说道，“可是我认为你刚才的话，不是恶作剧就是侮辱人！”

福尔摩斯笑了起来。

“我向你保证，我并没有认为你同罪犯有什么联系，上校，”福尔摩斯说道，“真正的凶手就站在你身后，”他走过去，把手放到这匹良马光滑的马颈上。

“这骑马！”上校和我两个人同时高声喊道。

“是的，这骑马。假如我说明，它是为了自卫杀人，那就可以减轻它的罪过了。而约翰-斯特雷克是一个根本不值得你信任的人。现在铃响了，我想在下一场比赛中，稍稍赢一点。我们再找适当的时机详细谈一谈吧。”

那天晚上我们乘坐普尔门式客车返回伦敦，我们的朋友详细地讲述星期一夜晚达特穆尔驯马厩里发生的那些事，和他的解决方法，使我们听得入了神，我料想，罗斯上校和我本人一样，觉得旅程是太短了。

“我承认，”福尔摩斯说道，“我根据报纸报道所形成的概念，是完全不正确的。可是这里仍然有一些迹象，如果不是被迫它细节所掩盖的话，那本来是非常重要的。我到德文郡去时，也深信菲茨罗伊-辛普森就是罪犯。当然，那时我也曾看到并没有确凿的证据。而在我乘坐马车，刚好来到驯马师房前时，我突然想到咖喱羊肉具有重要的意义。你们该记得，在你们都从车上下来时，我那时正在出神，仍旧坐着不动。我是在对我自己的头脑感到惊异，我怎么竟能忽略了这样一条明显的线索。”

“我承认，”上校说道，“甚至现在我也看不出咖喱羊肉对我们有什么帮助。”