《福尔摩斯探案集·红发会》第10节
“‘But,’ said I, ‘there would be millions of red-headed men who would apply.’ “‘Not so many as you might think,’ he answered. ‘You see it is really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a few hundred pounds.’ “Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for the address that was given us in the advertisement.
注释摘要
威尔逊在这里转述了一段他当初与助手斯波尔丁之间的对话，这段对话本身其实是整场骗局里最精巧的一环——不是技术上的精巧，而是对人心的精确算计。当威尔逊本能地提出一个常识性问题“红发的人成千上万，竞争岂不是很激烈”时，斯波尔丁给出了一套滴水不漏的解答：先是把范围限定在伦敦本地成年男性，接着又抛出一个致命的附加条件——头发必须是“真正鲜亮、耀眼的、火焰般的红色”，…