《福尔摩斯探案集·红发会》第17节
He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet of note-paper. It read in this fashion: “THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE IS DISSOLVED. October 9, 1890.” Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so completely overtopped every other consideration that we both burst out into a roar of laughter. “I cannot see that there is anything very funny,” cried our client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. “If you can do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere.” “No, no,” cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from which he had half risen. “I really wouldn’t miss your case for the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the door?” “I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant living on the ground floor, and I asked him if he could tell me what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him.
注释摘要
威尔逊先生从口袋里掏出来的，是一张便条纸大小的白色硬纸板，上面用图钉钉着一行简短到近乎粗暴的告示：“红发会业已解散。一八九〇年十月九日。”没有解释，没有致歉，没有人名落款。一张纸片就把一笔每周四英镑、总计八周三十二英镑的“闲差”从世间抹去了。对威尔逊而言，这纸片的冷酷程度不亚于一纸解雇书——他甚至没有得到当面通知的待遇，只是一早去上班，发现门锁着，纸板钉在…