赖盖特之谜05（在线收听）

“Did William say anything to his mother before going out?”

“She is very old and deaf, and we can get no information from her. The shock  has made her half-witted, but I understand that she was never very bright. There  is one very important circumstance, however. Look at this!”

He took a small piece of torn paper from a note-book and spread it out upon his  knee.

“This was found between the finger and thumb of the dead man. It appears to be  a fragment torn from a larger sheet. You will observe that the hour mentioned  upon it is the very time at which the poor fellow met his fate. You see that his  murderer might have torn the rest of the sheet from him or he might have taken  this fragment from the murderer. It reads almost as though it were an  appointment.”

Holmes took up the scrap of paper, a facsimile of which is here reproduced.

“Presuming that it is an appointment,” continued the Inspector, “it is of  course a conceivable theory that this William Kirwan—though he had the  reputation of being an honest man, may have been in league with the thief. He  may have met him there, may even have helped him to break in the door, and then  they may have fallen out between themselves.”

“This writing is of extraordinary interest,” said Holmes, who had been  examining it with intense concentration. “These are much deeper waters than I  had thought.” He sank his head upon his hands, while the Inspector smiled at  the effect which his case had had upon the famous London specialist.

“Your last remark,” said Holmes, presently, “as to the possibility of there  being an understanding between the burglar and the servant, and this being a  note of appointment from one to the other, is an ingenious and not entirely  impossible supposition. But this writing opens up—” He sank his head into his  hands again and remained for some minutes in the deepest thought. When he raised  his face again, I was surprised to see that his cheek was tinged with color, and  his eyes as bright as before his illness. He sprang to his feet with all his old  energy.

“I'll tell you what,” said he, “I should like to have a quiet little glance  into the details of this case. There is something in it which fascinates me  extremely. If you will permit me, Colonel, I will leave my friend Watson and  you, and I will step round with the Inspector to test the truth of one or two  little fancies of mine. I will be with you again in half an hour.”

“威廉在出去之前对他母亲说过什么没有？”

“他母亲年高耳聋，我们从她那里打听不到什么东西。她受到这次惊吓，几乎变傻了。不过 ，我知道她平常也不怎么一精一明。但是，有一个非常重要的情况。请看！”

警官从笔记本里取出一角撕坏的纸，把它铺在膝盖上。

“我们发现死者的手里抓着这张纸条。看来它是从一张较大的纸上撕下来的。你可以看到， 上面提到的时间正是这个可怜的家伙遭到不幸的时刻。你看，要么是凶手从死者手中撕去一 块，要么是死者从凶手那里夺回这一角。这张纸条读起来很象是一种同人约会的短柬。”

福尔摩斯拿起这张小纸片。下面是它的复制品。

“我们姑且认为这是一种约会，”警官继续说道，“当然也就可以相信：虽然威廉-柯万素 有忠厚之名，但也可能与盗贼有勾结。他可能在那里迎接盗贼，甚至帮助盗贼闯进门内，后 来他们两人可能又闹翻了。”

“这字体倒是非常有趣，”福尔摩斯把这张纸条聚一精一会神地察看了一番，说道，“这比 我想象的要深奥得多。”他双手抱头沉思，警官看到这件案子居然使这位大名鼎鼎的伦敦侦 探如此劳神，不禁喜形于色。

“你刚才说，”福尔摩斯过了一会儿说道，“可能盗贼和仆人之间有默契，这张纸也许是一 个人给另一个人的密约信，这确实是一个独到的见解，并非完全不可能。可是这张纸条上明 明写着……”他又双手抱头，沉思了片刻。当他再抬起头时，我很惊奇地看到他又象未病时 那样满面红光，目光炯炯，一精一力充沛，一跃而起。

“我告诉你们，”他说道，“我很想悄悄地去看一看，了解一下这个案子的一些细节。它有 些地方非常吸引我。如果你允许的话，上校，我想告别你和我的朋友华生，跟警官一起去跑 一趟，验证一下我的一两点想法。半小时后，我再来见你。”