《福尔摩斯探案集·铜山毛榉案》第15节
The telegram which we eventually received came late one night just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. “Just look up the trains in Bradshaw,” said he, and turned back to his chemical studies. The summons was a brief and urgent one. “Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday to-morrow,” it said. “Do come! I am at my wit’s end. “HUNTER.” “Will you come with me?” asked Holmes, glancing up. “I should wish to.” “Just look it up, then.” “There is a train at half-past nine,” said I, glancing over my Bradshaw. “It is due at Winchester at 11:30.” “That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the morning.” By eleven o’clock the next day we were well upon our way to the old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, which set an edge to a man’s energy. All over the countryside, away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light green of the new foliage.
注释摘要
这一节从贝克街的深夜被一封电报打破开始。时间已经很晚，华生正准备就寝，而福尔摩斯则要开始他那种通宵达旦的化学实验——华生用一个很安静的细节来写这种实验：他夜里离开时福尔摩斯正俯在曲颈瓶和试管上，次日早餐时发现他还保持同一个姿势。这个画面不是第一次出现在福尔摩斯故事里，但每次出现都像在提醒读者，这个人有一种近乎非人的专注，能将自己钉在一件事上十几个小时而不移…