《福尔摩斯探案集·歪唇男人》第17节
“And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair’s coat, and not Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And what do you think they found in the pockets?” “I cannot imagine.” “No, I don’t think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with pennies and half-pennies—421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked away into the river.” “But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?”
注释摘要
华生在此处充当了一个敏锐的打断者。福尔摩斯刚刚完成了一个看起来非常完整的推理链条——乞丐布恩把圣克莱尔推出窗外，慌忙中往外套口袋里塞满硬币以使它沉入河底。这个叙述节奏很快，几乎不容人多想。华生却突然插进来一句话：可是别的衣服都在房间里，难道一个人会只穿着一件外套被推下河吗。这个疑问非常简单，但恰好击中了叙述中的一个裂缝。 在福尔摩斯给出的假说里，所有的衣服…