《福尔摩斯探案集·蓝宝石案》第30节
Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. “I will tell you it just as it happened, sir,” said he. “When Horner had been arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister’s house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would be best to do.
注释摘要
詹姆斯·赖德在这一节里亲口交代了他逃离酒店之后的行踪。他首先确认了自己当时的判断：霍纳已经被捕，赃物留在身边随时可能被搜出，酒店里没有一处安全的地方。于是他装作外出办事，立刻赶往布里克斯顿路他的姐姐家。道尔在这里只用一句话就交代了姐姐的身份——她嫁给了姓奥克肖特的男人，在布里克斯顿路养肥家禽供应市场。这句话看似平淡，却把维多利亚伦敦一段真实的社会经济链条牵…