《福尔摩斯探案集·歪唇男人》第30节
“Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave your bag.” “No, I think that I’ll take it.” “Very good. Come this way, if you please.” He led us down a passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each side. “The third on the right is his,” said the inspector. “Here it is!” He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door and glanced through. “He is asleep,” said he. “You can see him very well.” We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over his eyes and forehead.
注释摘要
这一小段戏，几乎全部发生在监狱的走廊与牢房门口，但真正的主角不是华生，也不是警长，而是福尔摩斯手上那只格拉德斯通旅行包。从字面上看，很简单：警长带着两人下到监室，从窥孔看去，嫌犯布恩正熟睡；他衣着破烂，脸脏得惊人，一道旧疤横贯全脸，把上唇扯歪，露出三颗牙齿，是个十足丑陋的职业乞丐形象。警长描述他的脏时，几乎带着职业性的厌恶。 但值得注意的细节藏在对话的缝隙…