前言

秘方简介

常用词列表

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

CHAPTER ONE

The Man Who Died

I returned from the City about three o' clock 钟 on that May afternoon pretty well disgusted 反感 with life. I had been three months in the Old Country, and was fed feed up with it. If anyone had told me a year ago that I would have been feeling like that I should have laughed at him; but there was the fact. The weather made me liverish, the talk of the ordinary Englishman made me sick. I couldn't get enough exercise, and the amusements 娱乐 of London seemed as flat as soda 苏打-water that has been standing in the sun. 'Richard Hannay,' I kept telling myself 我, 'you have got into the wrong ditch 沟渠, my friend, and you had better climb out.'

It made me bite 咬 my lips to think of the plans I had been building up those last years in Bulawayo. I had got my pile 堆—not one of the big ones, but good enough for me; and I had figured out all kinds of ways of enjoying myself 我. My father had brought me out from Scotland at the age of six, and I had never been home since; so England was a sort of Arabian Nights to me, and I counted on stopping there for the rest of my days.

But from the first I was disappointed 使失望 with it. In about a week I was tired of seeing sights, and in less than a month I had had enough of restaurants 饭店 and theatres and race-meetings. I had no real pal 朋友 to go about with, which probably explains things. Plenty of people invited me to their houses, but they didn't seem much interested in me. They would fling 一扔 me a question or two about South Africa, and then get on their own affairs. A lot of Imperialist ladies asked me to tea 茶水 to meet schoolmasters from New Zealand and editors 编辑 from Vancouver, and that was the dismalest 惨淡 business of all. Here was I, thirty 三十-seven 七 years old, sound in wind and limb 肢, with enough money to have a good time, yawning 打哈欠 my head off all day. I had just about settled to clear out and get back to the veld, for I was the best bored man in the United Kingdom 王国.

That afternoon I had been worrying my brokers 经纪人 about investments 投资 to give my mind something to work on, and on my way home I turned into my club—rather a pot 罐-house, which took in Colonial members. I had a long drink, and read the evening papers. They were full of the row 行 in the Near East, and there was an article about Karolides, the Greek Premier. I rather fancied 想像 the chap 皴裂. From all accounts he seemed the one big man in the show; and he played a straight game too, which was more than could be said for most of them. I gathered that they hated him pretty blackly in Berlin and Vienna, but that we were going to stick by him, and one paper said that he was the only barrier 屏障 between Europe and Armageddon. I remember wondering if I could get a job in those parts. It struck strike me that Albania was the sort of place that might keep a man from yawning 打哈欠.

About six o' clock 钟 I went home, dressed, dined 吃饭 at the Cafe Royal 王国的, and turned into a music-hall. It was a silly 愚蠢 show, all cape‧ring 海角；斗篷‧戒指；打电话 women and monkey 猴-faced men, and I did not stay long. The night was fine and clear as I walked back to the flat I had hired 聘用 near Portland Place. The crowd surged 浪涌 past me on the pavements 路面, busy and chattering 喋喋不休, and I envied 嫉妒 the people for having something to do. These shop-girls and clerks 店员 and dandies and policemen had some interest in life that kept them going. I gave half-a-crown 王冠 to a beggar 乞丐 because I saw him yawn 打哈欠; he was a fellow-sufferer. At Oxford Circus I looked up into the spring sky and I made a vow 发誓. I would give the Old Country another day to fit me into something; if nothing happened, I would take the next boat for the Cape 海角；斗篷.

My flat was the first floor in a new block behind Langham Place. There was a common stair‧case 楼梯, with a porter 搬运工 and a lift‧man 举起‧男人 at the entrance 入口, but there was no restaurant 饭店 or anything of that sort, and each flat was quite shut 关闭 off from the others. I hate servants 仆人 on the premises 前提, so I had a fellow to look after me who came in by the day. He arrived before eight 八 o' clock 钟 every morning and used to depart 离开 at seven 七, for I never dined at home.

I was just fitting my key into the door when I noticed a man at my elbow 弯头. I had not seen him approach, and the sudden appearance made me start. He was a slim 瘦 man, with a short brown beard 胡须 and small, gimlety blue eyes. I recognized him as the occupant 占有者 of a flat on the top floor, with whom 谁 I had passed the time of day on the stairs 楼梯.

'Can I speak to you?' he said. 'May I come in for a minute?' He was steadying his voice with an effort, and his hand was pawing 爪子 my arm.

I got my door open and motioned him in. No sooner was he over the threshold 阈 than he made a dash 短跑 for my back room, where I used to smoke and write my letters. Then he bolted 螺栓 back.

'Is the door locked?' he asked feverishly, and he fastened 系牢 the chain with his own hand.

'I'm very sorry 对不起的,' he said humbly 谦逊的. 'It's a mighty 威武 liberty 自由, but you looked the kind of man who would understand. I've had you in my mind all this week when things got trouble‧some 麻烦. Say, will you do me a good turn?'

'I'll listen to you,' I said. 'That's all I'll promise.' I was getting worried by the antics of this nervous 担心的 little chap 皴裂.

There was a tray 盘子 of drinks on a table beside him, from which he filled himself a stiff 严厉的 whisky 威士忌酒-and-soda 苏打. He drank drink it off in three gulps 吞, and cracked 破裂 the glass as he set it down.

' Pardon 宽恕；说啥？,' he said, 'I'm a bit 一点 rattled 霸王鞭 tonight 今晚. You see, I happen at this moment to be dead.'

I sat sit down in an arm‧chair 扶手椅 and lit my pipe 管子.

'What does it feel like?' I asked. I was pretty certain that I had to deal with a madman.

A smile flickered 闪烁 over his drawn draw face. 'I'm not mad 疯狂的—yet. Say, Sir 先生, I've been watching you, and I reckon 估计 you're a cool customer. I reckon 估计, too, you're an honest 诚实的 man, and not afraid of playing a bold 胆大的；醒目的 hand. I'm going to confide 信任 in you. I need help worse than any man ever needed it, and I want to know if I can count you in.'

'Get on with your yarn 纱,' I said, 'and I'll tell you.'

He seemed to brace 支撑 himself for a great effort, and then started on the queerest 奇怪 rigmarole. I didn't get hold of it at first, and I had to stop and ask him questions. But here is the gist of it:

He was an American, from Kentucky, and after college, being pretty well off, he had started out to see the world. He wrote a bit 一点, and acted as war correspondent 通信者 for a Chicago paper, and spent spend a year or two in South-Eastern 东方的 Europe. I gathered that he was a fine linguist 语言学家, and had got to know pretty well the society in those parts. He spoke speak familiarly of many names that I remembered to have seen in the newspapers.

He had played about with politics, he told me, at first for the interest of them, and then because he couldn't help himself. I read him as a sharp, rest‧less 不安 fellow, who always wanted to get down to the roots of things. He got a little further down than he wanted.

I am giving you what he told me as well as I could make it out. Away behind all the Governments and the armies there was a big subterranean movement 运动 going on, engineered by very dangerous 危险 people. He had come on it by accident 意外事件; it fascinated 深深吸引；迷住 him; he went further, and then he got caught catch. I gathered that most of the people in it were the sort of educated 教育 anarchists 无政府主义者 that make revolutions 革命, but that beside them there were financiers 金融家 who were playing for money. A clever 聪明的 man can make big profits on a falling market, and it suited 套房 the book of both classes to set Europe by the ears.

He told me some queer 奇怪 things that explained a lot that had puzzled 使迷惑 me—things that happened in the Balkan War, how one state suddenly came out on top, why alliances 联盟 were made and broken break, why certain men disappeared 不见, and where the sinews of war came from. The aim of the whole conspiracy 阴谋 was to get Russia and Germany at loggerheads.

When I asked why, he said that the anarchist 无政府主义者 lot thought it would give them their chance. Everything would be in the melting 熔化- pot 罐, and they looked to see a new world emerge 出现. The capita‧list 资本家 would rake 耙子 in the shekels, and make for‧tune 命运 by buying up wreck‧age 残骸. Capital, he said, had no conscience 良心 and no father‧land 父亲‧陆地；着陆. Besides, the Jew was behind it, and the Jew hated Russia worse than hell 地狱.

'Do you wonder?' he cried. 'For three hundred 百 years they have been persecuted 迫害, and this is the return match for the pogroms. The Jew is every‧where 到处, but you have to go far down the backstairs to find him. Take any big Teutonic business concern. If you have dealings with it the first man you meet is Prince von und Zu Something, an elegant 优雅 young man who talks Eton-and-Harrow English. But he cuts no ice 冰. If your business is big, you get behind him and find a prognathous Westphalian with a retreating 撤退 brow 眉头 and the manners of a hog 豕. He is the German business man that gives your English papers the shakes. But if you're on the biggest kind of job and are bound 必定；跳 to get to the real boss 老板, ten 十 to one you are brought up against a little white-faced Jew in a bath 沐浴-chair with an eye like a rattle‧snake 霸王鞭‧蛇. Yes, Sir 先生, he is the man who is ruling the world just now, and he has his knife in the Empire 帝国 of the Tzar, because his aunt 阿姨 was out‧rage 暴行 and his father flogged in some one-horse location 位置 on the Volga.'

I could not help saying that his Jew-anarchists 无政府主义者 seemed to have got left behind a little.

'Yes and no,' he said. 'They won win up to a point, but they struck a bigger thing than money, a thing that couldn't be bought buy, the old elemental fighting instincts 直觉 of man. If you're going to be killed you invent 发明 some kind of flag 旗；石地板 and country to fight for, and if you survive 生存 you get to love the thing. Those foolish 傻 devils 魔鬼 of soldiers have found something they care for, and that has upset 打翻 the pretty plan laid in Berlin and Vienna. But my friends haven't played their last card by a long sight. They've gotten the ace 高手 up their sleeves 袖, and unless I can keep alive 活的；有生命的 for a month they are going to play it and win.'

'But I thought you were dead,' I put in.

'MORS JANUA VITAE,' he smiled. (I recognized the quotation 行情: it was about all the Latin I knew.) 'I'm coming to that, but I've got to put you wise 明智的；聪明的 about a lot of things first. If you read your newspaper, I guess you know the name of Constantine Karolides?'

I sat up at that, for I had been reading about him that very afternoon.

'He is the man that has wrecked 破坏；使遇难 all their games. He is the one big brain in the whole show, and he happens also to be an honest 诚实的 man. Therefore he has been marked down these twelve 十二 months past. I found that out—not that it was difficult, for any fool could guess as much. But I found out the way they were going to get him, and that knowledge was deadly. That's why I have had to decease 死亡.'

He had another drink, and I mixed it for him myself 我, for I was getting interested in the beggar 乞丐.

'They can't get him in his own land, for he has a body‧guard 保镖 of Epirotes that would skin 皮 their grand‧mother 祖母. But on the 15th day of June he is coming to this city. The British Foreign Office has taken to having International tea-parties, and the biggest of them is due on that date. Now Karolides is reckoned 估计 the principal 主要 guest, and if my friends have their way he will never return to his admiring countrymen.'

'That's simple enough, anyhow 总之,' I said. 'You can warn him and keep him at home.'

'And play their game?' he asked sharply. 'If he does not come they win, for he's the only man that can straighten 变直 out the tangle 纠纷. And if his Government are warned he won't come, for he does not know how big the stakes 赌注 will be on June the 15th.'

'What about the British Government?' I said. 'They're not going to let their guests be murdered. Tip 尖；窍门 them the wink 眨眼, and they'll take extra 额外的 pre‧caution 预防.'

'No good. They might stuff 塞满；材料 your city with plain-clothes detectives 侦探 and double the police and Constantine would still be a doomed 厄运 man. My friends are not playing this game for candy 糖果. They want a big occasion for the taking off, with the eyes of all Europe on it. He'll be murdered by an Austrian, and there'll be plenty of evidence 证据 to show the connivance of the big folk 民间 in Vienna and Berlin. It will all be an infernal lie, of course, but the case will look black enough to the world. I'm not talking hot air, my friend. I happen to know every detail of the hellish contrivance, and I can tell you it will be the most finished piece of blackguardism since the Borgias. But it's not going to come off if there's a certain man who knows the wheels of the business alive 活的；有生命的 right here in London on the 15th day of June. And that man is going to be your servant 仆人, Franklin P. Scudder.'

I was getting to like the little chap 皴裂. His jaw 下巴 had shut 关闭 like a rat 鼠-trap 陷阱；诱骗, and there was the fire of battle in his gimlety eyes. If he was spinning 旋转；纺纱 me a yarn 纱 he could act up to it.

'Where did you find out this story?' I asked.

'I got the first hint 暗示 in an inn 小旅馆 on the Achensee in Tyrol. That set me inquiring 打听, and I collected my other clues 线索 in a fur 毛皮-shop in the Galician quarter of Buda, in a Strangers' Club in Vienna, and in a little book‧shop 书店 off the Racknitzstrasse in Leipsic. I completed my evidence 证据 ten 十 days ago in Paris. I can't tell you the details now, for it's something of a history. When I was quite sure in my own mind I judged it my business to disappear 不见, and I reached this city by a mighty 威武 queer 奇怪 circuit 电路. I left Paris a dandified young French-American, and I sailed 航行；帆 from Hamburg a Jew diamond 钻石 merchant 商人. In Norway I was an English student of Ibsen collecting materials for lectures 讲座，课, but when I left Bergen I was a cinema 电影-man with special ski 滑雪 films. And I came here from Leith with a lot of pulp 纸浆-wood pro‧position 主张 in my pocket 口袋 to put before the London newspapers. Till 到 yesterday I thought I had muddied 浑 my trail 乡间小道 some, and was feeling pretty happy. Then ...'

The recollection 回忆 seemed to upset 打翻 him, and he gulped 吞 down some more whisky 威士忌酒.

'Then I saw a man standing in the street outside this block. I used to stay close in my room all day, and only slip out after dark for an hour or two. I watched him for a bit from my window, and I thought I recognized him ... He came in and spoke to the porter 搬运工 ... When I came back from my walk last night I found a card in my letter-box. It bore bear the name of the man I want least to meet on God's earth.'

I think that the look in my companion 同伴's eyes, the sheer naked 裸 scare 惊恐 on his face, completed my conviction 定罪 of his honesty 诚实. My own voice sharpened 使锐利 a bit as I asked him what he did next.

'I realized that I was bottled as sure as a pickled 泡菜 herring 鲱鱼, and that there was only one way out. I had to die. If my pursuers knew I was dead they would go to sleep again.'

'How did you manage it?'

'I told the man that valets me that I was feeling pretty bad, and I got myself 我 up to look like death. That wasn't difficult, for I'm no slouch at disguises 伪装. Then I got a corpse 尸体—you can always get a body in London if you know where to go for it. I fetched 取 it back in a trunk 树干 on the top of a four-wheeler, and I had to be assisted 帮助；协助；援助 upstairs 楼上 to my room. You see I had to pile 堆 up some evidence 证据 for the inquest. I went to bed and got my man to mix me a sleeping-draught, and then told him to clear out. He wanted to fetch 取 a doctor, but I swore 发誓:swear some and said I couldn't abide 遵守 leeches. When I was left alone I started in to fake 假 up that corpse 尸体. He was my size, and I judged had perished 沦 from too much alcohol 酒；酒精, so I put some spirits handy 便利 about the place. The jaw 下巴 was the weak point in the likeness 像, so I blew blow it away with a revolver 围绕. I dare‧say 敢‧说 there will be somebody tomorrow to swear 发誓 to having heard a shot shoot, but there are no neighbours on my floor, and I guessed I could risk it. So I left the body in bed dressed up in my pyjamas, with a revolver 围绕 lying on the bed-clothes and a consider‧able 大量 mess 不整洁；弄乱 around. Then I got into a suit of clothes I had kept waiting for emergencies 急. I didn't dare 敢 to shave 剃须 for fear of leaving tracks 小路, and besides, it wasn't any kind of use my trying to get into the streets. I had had you in my mind all day, and there seemed nothing to do but to make an appeal 上诉 to you. I watched from my window till 到 I saw you come home, and then slipped down the stair 楼梯 to meet you ... There, Sir 先生, I guess you know about as much as me of this business.'

He sat blinking 眨 like an owl 猫头鹰, fluttering 扑 with nerves 神经 and yet desperately 拼命 determined. By this time I was pretty well convinced 说服 that he was going straight with me. It was the wildest sort of narrative 叙述, but I had heard in my time many steep 陡峭的 tales 故事，不实之词 which had turned out to be true, and I had made a practice of judging the man rather than the story. If he had wanted to get a location 位置 in my flat, and then cut my throat, he would have pitched 沥青 a milder 温柔的 yarn 纱.

'Hand me your key,' I said, 'and I'll take a look at the corpse 尸体. Excuse 原谅 my caution 小心, but I'm bound 必定；跳 to verify 校验 a bit if I can.'

He shook shake his head mourn‧fully 悼‧完全地. 'I reckoned 估计 you'd ask for that, but I haven't got it. It's on my chain on the dressing-table. I had to leave it behind, for I couldn't leave any clues 线索 to breed 养育；繁殖 suspicions 怀疑. The gentry 绅 who are after me are pretty bright-eyed citizens. You'll have to take me on trust for the night, and tomorrow you'll get proof 证明 of the corpse 尸体 business right enough.'

I thought for an instant 瞬间 or two. 'Right. I'll trust you for the night. I'll lock you into this room and keep the key. Just one word, Mr Scudder. I believe you're straight, but if so be you are not I should warn you that I'm a handy 便利 man with a gun.'

'Sure,' he said, jumping up with some briskness. 'I haven't the privilege 特权 of your name, Sir 3, but let me tell you that you're a white man. I'll thank you to lend 把…借给 me a razor 剃刀.'

I took him into my bed‧room 卧室 and turned him loose. In half an hour's time a figure came out that I scarcely 缺乏的 recognized. Only his gimlety, hungry 饥饿 eyes were the same. He was shaved 剃须 clean, his hair was parted in the middle, and he had cut his eye‧brow 眉. Further, he carried himself as if he had been drilled 钻头, and was the very model, even to the brown complex‧ion 肤色, of some British officer who had had a long spell 拼写 in India. He had a monocle, too, which he stuck stick in his eye, and every trace 跟踪 of the American had gone out of his speech.

'My hat! Mr Scudder—' I stammered.

'Not Mr Scudder,' he corrected; 'Captain Theophilus Digby, of the 40th Gurkhas, presently home on leave. I'll thank you to remember that, Sir.'

I made him up a bed in my smoking-room and sought my own couch 长椅, more cheerful 快乐 than I had been for the past month. Things did happen occasionally 偶尔，间或；有时, even in this God-forgotten forget metropolis.

I woke 醒:wake next morning to hear my man, Paddock, making the deuce of a row 行 at the smoking-room door. Paddock was a fellow I had done a good turn to out on the Selakwe, and I had inspanned him as my servant 仆人 as soon as I got to England. He had about as much gift 赠品 of the gab as a hippopotamus, and was not a great hand at valeting, but I knew I could count on his loyalty 忠诚.

'Stop that row, Paddock,' I said. 'There's a friend of mine, Captain—Captain' (I couldn't remember the name) 'dossing down in there. Get break‧fast 早餐 for two and then come and speak to me.'

I told Paddock a fine story about how my friend was a great swell 膨胀；增强, with his nerves 神经 pretty bad from over‧work 工作过度, who wanted absolute rest and stillness. Nobody had got to know he was here, or he would be besieged by communications 通讯 from the India Office and the Prime 主要 Minister and his cure 治愈 would be ruined 破坏. I am bound 必定；跳 to say Scudder played up splendidly 壮观的 when he came to break‧fast 早餐. He fixed Paddock with his eye‧glass 眼睛‧玻璃, just like a British officer, asked him about the Boer War, and slung out at me a lot of stuff 塞满；材料 about imaginary 想像中的 pals 朋友. Paddock couldn't learn to call me 'Sir', but he ' sirred 先生' Scudder as if his life depended on it.

I left him with the newspaper and a box of cigars 雪茄, and went down to the City till luncheon 午餐. When I got back the lift-man had an important face.

'Nawsty business 'ere this morning, Sir. Gent in No. 15 been and shot 'isself. They've just took 'im to the mortiary. The police are up there now.'

I ascended 登 to No. 15, and found a couple of bobbies and an inspector 检查员 busy making an examination 检查. I asked a few idiotic questions, and they soon kicked 踢 me out. Then I found the man that had valeted Scudder, and pumped 泵 him, but I could see he suspected 怀疑；嫌疑犯 nothing. He was a whining 抱怨 fellow with a church‧yard 墓地 face, and half-a-crown 王冠 went far to console 安慰 him.

I attended the inquest next day. A partner 伙伴 of some publishing 发布 firm gave evidence 证据 that the deceased 死亡 had brought him wood-pulp 纸浆 pro‧position 主张, and had been, he believed, an agent of an American business. The jury 陪审团 found it a case of suicide while of unsound mind, and the few effects were handed over to the American Consul to deal with. I gave Scudder a full account of the affair, and it interested him greatly. He said he wished he could have attended the inquest, for he reckoned 估计 it would be about as spicy 辣 as to read one's own obituary 讣告 notice.

The first two days he stayed with me in that back room he was very peaceful 平静的. He read and smoked a bit, and made a heap 堆 of jottings in a note-book, and every night we had a game of chess 棋, at which he beat me hollow 空的. I think he was nursing 护士 his nerves 神经 back to health, for he had had a pretty trying time. But on the third day I could see he was beginning to get rest‧less 不安. He fixed up a list of the days till June 15th, and ticked 蜱 each off with a red pencil 铅笔, making remarks in short‧hand 速记 against them. I would find him sunk 淹没:sink in a brown study, with his sharp eyes abstracted 抽象, and after those spells 拼写 of meditation 冥想 he was apt 易于 to be very despondent.

Then I could see that he began to get edgy again. He listened for little noises 噪音, and was always asking me if Paddock could be trusted. Once or twice 两次 he got very peevish, and apologized 道歉；认错；谢罪 for it. I didn't blame 指责 him. I made every allowance 津贴；补贴, for he had taken on a fairly stiff 严厉的 job.

It was not the safety 安全 of his own skin 皮 that troubled him, but the success of the scheme 方案 he had planned. That little man was clean grit 砂砾 all through, without a soft spot in him. One night he was very solemn 庄严的.

'Say, Hannay,' he said, 'I judge I should let you a bit deeper into this business. I should hate to go out without leaving somebody else to put up a fight.' And he began to tell me in detail what I had only heard from him vaguely 依稀.

I did not give him very close attention. The fact is, I was more interested in his own adventures 冒险活动 than in his high politics. I reckoned 估计 that Karolides and his affairs were not my business, leaving all that to him. So a lot that he said slipped clean out of my memory. I remember that he was very clear that the danger to Karolides would not begin till he had got to London, and would come from the very highest quarters, where there would be no thought of suspicion 怀疑. He mentioned the name of a woman—Julia Czechenyi—as having something to do with the danger. She would be the decoy, I gathered, to get Karolides out of the care of his guards. He talked, too, about a Black Stone and a man that lisped in his speech, and he described very particularly somebody that he never referred to without a shudder 不寒而栗—an old man with a young voice who could hood 引擎罩 his eyes like a hawk 鹰.

He spoke a good deal about death, too. He was mortally 凡人 anxious 焦急的 about winning through with his job, but he didn't care a rush 仓促 for his life.

'I reckon 估计 it's like going to sleep when you are pretty well tired out, and waking 醒 to find a summer day with the scent 香味 of hay 干草 coming in at the window. I used to thank God for such mornings way back in the Blue-Grass 草 country, and I guess I'll thank Him when I wake 醒 up on the other side of Jordan.'

Next day he was much more cheerful 快乐, and read the life of Stonewall Jackson much of the time. I went out to dinner with a mining engineer I had got to see on business, and came back about half-past ten 十 in time for our game of chess 棋 before turning in.

I had a cigar 雪茄 in my mouth, I remember, as I pushed open the smoking-room door. The lights were not lit, which struck me as odd 奇. I wondered if Scudder had turned in already.

I snapped 卡 the switch 开关, but there was nobody there. Then I saw something in the far corner which made me drop my cigar 雪茄 and fall into a cold sweat 流汗.

My guest was lying sprawled 蔓生 on his back. There was a long knife through his heart which skewered him to the floor.

CHAPTER TWO

The Milkman Sets Out on his Travels

I sat down in an arm‧chair 扶手椅 and felt very sick. That lasted for maybe five minutes, and was succeeded by a fit of the horrors 恐怖. The poor staring white face on the floor was more than I could bear, and I managed to get a table-cloth 布 and cover it. Then I staggered 错开 to a cup‧board 橱柜, found the brandy 白兰地 and swallowed 吞 several mouthfuls. I had seen men die violently 猛烈 before; indeed I had killed a few myself 我 in the Matabele War; but this cold-blooded indoor 室内的 business was different. Still I managed to pull myself 我 together. I looked at my watch, and saw that it was half-past ten 十.

An idea seized 抓住 me, and I went over the flat with a small-tooth comb 梳子. There was nobody there, nor any trace 跟踪 of any‧body 任何人, but I shuttered 快门 and bolted 螺栓 all the windows and put the chain on the door. By this time my wits 风趣 were coming back to me, and I could think again. It took me about an hour to figure the thing out, and I did not hurry, for, unless the murderer came back, I had till about six o'clock 3 in the morning for my cogitations.

I was in the soup 汤—that was pretty clear. Any shadow of a doubt I might have had about the truth of Scudder's tale 故事，不实之词 was now gone. The proof 证明 of it was lying under the table-cloth. The men who knew that he knew what he knew had found him, and had taken the best way to make certain of his silence. Yes; but he had been in my rooms four days, and his enemies must have reckoned 估计 that he had confided 信任 in me. So I would be the next to go. It might be that very night, or next day, or the day after, but my number was up all right.

Then suddenly I thought of another probability 可能性. Supposing I went out now and called in the police, or went to bed and let Paddock find the body and call them in the morning. What kind of a story was I to tell about Scudder? I had lied lie to Paddock about him, and the whole thing looked desperately 拼命 fishy. If I made a clean breast 乳房 of it and told the police everything he had told me, they would simply laugh at me. The odds 奇 were a thou‧sand 千 to one that I would be charged with the murder, and the circumstantial evidence 证据 was strong enough to hang me. Few people knew me in England; I had no real pal 朋友 who could come forward and swear 发誓 to my character. Perhaps that was what those secret enemies were playing for. They were clever 聪明的 enough for anything, and an English prison was as good a way of getting rid 使摆脱 of me till after June 15th as a knife in my chest 胸部.

Besides, if I told the whole story, and by any miracle 奇迹 was believed, I would be playing their game. Karolides would stay at home, which was what they wanted. Somehow or other the sight of Scudder's dead face had made me a passionate 多情 believer in his scheme 方案. He was gone, but he had taken me into his confidence 信心, and I was pretty well bound 3 to carry on his work.

You may think this ridiculous 荒谬 for a man in danger of his life, but that was the way I looked at it. I am an ordinary sort of fellow, not braver 勇敢的 than other people, but I hate to see a good man downed, and that long knife would not be the end of Scudder if I could play the game in his place.

It took me an hour or two to think this out, and by that time I had come to a decision. I must vanish 消失 somehow, and keep vanished 消失 till the end of the second week in June. Then I must somehow find a way to get in touch with the Government people and tell them what Scudder had told me. I wished to Heaven 天 he had told me more, and that I had listened more carefully 小心 to the little he had told me. I knew nothing but the barest 光秃秃的 facts. There was a big risk that, even if I weathered the other dangers, I would not be believed in the end. I must take my chance of that, and hope that something might happen which would confirm 确认 my tale 故事，不实之词 in the eyes of the Government.

My first job was to keep going for the next three weeks. It was now the 24th day of May, and that meant twenty 二十 days of hiding before I could venture 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 to approach the powers that be. I reckoned 估计 that two sets of people would be looking for me—Scudder's enemies to put me out of existence, and the police, who would want me for Scudder's murder. It was going to be a giddy hunt, and it was queer 奇怪 how the prospect 展望 comforted me. I had been slack 松弛 so long that almost any chance of activity was welcome. When I had to sit alone with that corpse 尸体 and wait on Fortune 命运 I was no better than a crushed 压破 worm 虫, but if my neck's safety 安全 was to hang on my own wits 风趣 I was prepared to be cheerful 快乐 about it.

My next thought was whether Scudder had any papers about him to give me a better clue 线索 to the business. I drew draw back the table-cloth and searched his pockets 口袋, for I had no longer any shrinking 收缩 from the body. The face was wonderfully 奇妙 calm 镇定的 for a man who had been struck down in a moment. There was nothing in the breast 乳房- pocket 口袋, and only a few loose coins 硬币 and a cigar 雪茄-holder in the waist‧coat 腰‧上衣. The trousers 长裤 held a little pen‧knife 笔‧刀 and some silver 银, and the side pocket of his jacket 衣服 contained an old crocodile 鳄鱼-skin cigar 雪茄-case. There was no sign of the little black book in which I had seen him making notes. That had no doubt been taken by his murderer.

But as I looked up from my task 任务 I saw that some drawers 抽屉 had been pulled out in the writing-table. Scudder would never have left them in that state, for he was the tidiest of mortals 凡人. Someone must have been searching for something—perhaps for the pocket-book.

I went round the flat and found that everything had been ransacked—the inside of books, drawers, cup‧board 橱柜, boxes, even the pockets of the clothes in my wardrobe 衣柜, and the side‧board 边；面‧板，上船 in the dining 吃饭-room. There was no trace 跟踪 of the book. Most likely the enemy had found it, but they had not found it on Scudder's body.

Then I got out an atlas and looked at a big map 地图 of the British Isles. My notion 概念 was to get off to some wild district, where my veldcraft would be of some use to me, for I would be like a trapped 陷阱；诱骗 rat 鼠 in a city. I considered that Scotland would be best, for my people were Scotch and I could pass any‧where 任何地方 as an ordinary Scotsman. I had half an idea at first to be a German tourist 游客, for my father had had German partners 伙伴, and I had been brought up to speak the tongue 舌头 pretty fluently 流利地, not to mention having put in three years prospecting 展望 for copper 铜 in German Damaraland. But I calculated 计算 that it would be less conspicuous 显着 to be a Scot, and less in a line with what the police might know of my past. I fixed on Galloway as the best place to go. It was the nearest wild part of Scotland, so far as I could figure it out, and from the look of the map 地图 was not over thick with population.

A search in Bradshaw informed me that a train left St Pancras at 7.10, which would land me at any Galloway station in the late afternoon. That was well enough, but a more important matter was how I was to make my way to St Pancras, for I was pretty certain that Scudder's friends would be watching outside. This puzzled me for a bit; then I had an inspiration 灵感, on which I went to bed and slept sleep for two troubled hours.

I got up at four and opened my bed‧room 卧室 shutters 快门. The faint 微弱的 light of a fine summer morning was flooding 洪水 the skies 滑雪, and the sparrows had begun to chatter 喋喋不休. I had a great revulsion of feeling, and felt a God-forgotten fool. My inclination 倾角 was to let things slide, and trust to the British police taking a reasonable view of my case. But as I reviewed the situation I could find no arguments 论据 to bring against my decision of the previous 以前 night, so with a wry 扭歪 mouth I resolved 解决 to go on with my plan. I was not feeling in any particular funk; only disinclined to go looking for trouble, if you understand me.

I hunted out a well-used tweed suit, a pair of strong nailed 钉子 boots 靴；鞋, and a flannel shirt 衬衫 with a collar 衣领. Into my pockets I stuffed 塞满；材料 a spare 节省；多余的；备用件 shirt, a cloth cap 盖, some handkerchiefs 手帕, and a tooth-brush. I had drawn a good sum 和 in gold 金 from the bank two days before, in case Scudder should want money, and I took fifty 五十 pounds of it in sovereigns 君主 in a belt 腰带 which I had brought back from Rhodesia. That was about all I wanted. Then I had a bath 沐浴, and cut my moustache, which was long and drooping, into a short stubbly fringe 边缘.

Now came the next step. Paddock used to arrive punctually at 7.30 and let himself in with a latch 闩-key. But about twenty 二十 minutes to seven 七, as I knew from bitter experience, the milk‧man 奶‧男人 turned up with a great clatter 哒 of cans, and deposited 留下 my share outside my door. I had seen that milk‧man 奶‧男人 sometimes when I had gone out for an early ride. He was a young man about my own height 高度, with an ill 生病-nourished 滋养 moustache, and he wore wear a white over‧all 总体. On him I staked 赌注 all my chances.

I went into the darkened 变暗 smoking-room where the rays 光束 of morning light were beginning to creep 爬行 through the shutters 快门. There I break‧fast 早餐 off a whisky 威士忌酒-and-soda 苏打 and some biscuits 饼干 from the cup‧board 橱柜. By this time it was getting on for six o'clock. I put a pipe 管子 in my pocket and filled my pouch 袋 from the tobacco 烟草 jar 罐 on the table by the fire‧place 壁炉.

As I poked 戳 into the tobacco my fingers touched something hard, and I drew out Scudder's little black pocket-book ...

That seemed to me a good omen. I lifted the cloth from the body and was amazed 惊奇 at the peace and dignity 尊严 of the dead face. 'Goodbye, old chap 皴裂,' I said; 'I am going to do my best for you. Wish me well, wherever 随地 you are.'

Then I hung about in the hall waiting for the milk‧man 奶‧男人. That was the worst 生病:ill part of the business, for I was fairly choking 呛 to get out of doors. Six-thirty 三十 passed, then six-forty 四十, but still he did not come. The fool had chosen choose this day of all days to be late.

At one minute after the quarter to seven 七 I heard the rattle 霸王鞭 of the cans outside. I opened the front door, and there was my man, singling out my cans from a bunch 束 he carried and whistling 吹口哨 through his teeth. He jumped a bit at the sight of me.

'Come in here a moment,' I said. 'I want a word with you.' And I led him into the dining-room.

'I reckon 估计 you're a bit of a sportsman 运动员,' I said, 'and I want you to do me a service. Lend 把…借给 me your cap and over‧all 总体 for ten 十 minutes, and here's a sovereign 君主 for you.'

His eyes opened at the sight of the gold 金, and he grinned 微笑 broadly. 'Wot's the gyme?'he asked.

'A bet,' I said. 'I haven't time to explain, but to win it I've got to be a milk‧man 奶‧男人 for the next ten 十 minutes. All you've got to do is to stay here till I come back. You'll be a bit late, but nobody will complain 抱怨, and you'll have that quid 嚼 for your‧self 你自己.'

'Right-o!' he said cheerily. 'I ain't the man to spoil 损坏；变质 a bit of sport. 'Ere's the rig 操纵, guv'nor.'

I stuck on his flat blue hat and his white over‧all 总体, picked up the cans, banged 砰 my door, and went whistling downstairs 楼下. The porter 搬运工 at the foot told me to shut my jaw 下巴, which sounded as if my make-up was adequate 足够的；合格的；合乎需要的.

At first I thought there was nobody in the street. Then I caught sight of a police‧man 警察 a hundred 百 yards down, and a loafer 面包条 shuffling 拖曳 past on the other side. Some impulse 冲动 made me raise my eyes to the house opposite, and there at a first-floor window was a face. As the loafer passed he looked up, and I fancied a signal was exchanged.

I crossed the street, whistling gaily 快乐的 and imitating 模仿 the jaunty swing of the milk‧man 奶‧男人. Then I took the first side street, and went up a left-hand turning which led past a bit of vacant 空的 ground grind. There was no one in the little street, so I dropped the milk 奶-cans inside the hoarding 囤 and sent send the cap and over‧all 总体 after them. I had only just put on my cloth cap when a post‧man 邮件‧男人 came round the corner. I gave him good morning and he answered me unsuspiciously. At the moment the clock of a neighbouring church struck the hour of seven 七.

There was not a second to spare 节省；多余的；备用件. As soon as I got to Euston Road I took to my heels 脚跟 and ran. The clock at Euston Station showed five minutes past the hour. At St Pancras I had no time to take a ticket 票, let alone that I had not settled upon my destination 目的地. A porter 搬运工 told me the platform 平台, and as I entered it I saw the train already in motion. Two station officials blocked the way, but I dodged 躲闪 them and clambered into the last carriage 运输.

Three minutes later, as we were roaring 咆哮 through the northern 北方的 tunnels 隧道, an irate guard interviewed 访问 me. He wrote out for me a ticket 票 to Newton-Stewart, a name which had suddenly come back to my memory, and he conducted 进行 me from the first-class compartment 隔室 where I had ensconced myself 我 to a third-class smoker, occupied 占据 by a sailor 水手 and a stout 肥硕 woman with a child. He went off grumbling 叽, and as I mopped 拖把 my brow 眉头 I observed to my companions 同伴 in my broadest Scots that it was a sore 疼痛的 job catching trains. I had already entered upon my part.

'The impidence o' that gyaird!' said the lady bitterly. 'He needit a Scotch tongue 舌头 to pit 坑 him in his place. He was complainin' o' this wean 断奶 no haein' a ticket 票 and her no fower till August twalmonth, and he was objectin' to this gentle‧man 先生 spit‧tin 吐‧锡'.'

The sailor 水手 morosely agreed, and I started my new life in an atmosphere 大气层 of protest 抗议 against authority 权威. I reminded myself 我 that a week ago I had been finding the world dull 钝的；没兴趣.

CHAPTER THREE

The Adventure of the Literary Innkeeper

I had a solemn 庄严的 time travelling north that day. It was fine May weather, with the hawthorn flowering on every hedge 树篱, and I asked myself 我 why, when I was still a free man, I had stayed on in London and not got the good of this heavenly 神圣的 country. I didn't dare 敢 face the restaurant 饭店 car, but I got a luncheon 午餐-basket 篮 at Leeds and shared it with the fat woman. Also I got the morning's papers, with news about starters 起动机 for the Derby and the beginning of the cricket 蟋蟀 season, and some paragraphs 段 about how Balkan affairs were settling down and a British squadron 队 was going to Kiel.

When I had done with them I got out Scudder's little black pocket-book and studied it. It was pretty well filled with jottings, chiefly figures, though now and then a name was printed in. For example, I found the words 'Hofgaard', 'Luneville', and 'Avocado' pretty often, and especially the word 'Pavia'.

Now I was certain that Scudder never did anything without a reason, and I was pretty sure that there was a cypher in all this. That is a subject which has always interested me, and I did a bit at it myself 我 once as intelligence 情报 officer at Delagoa Bay during the Boer War. I have a head for things like chess 棋 and puzzles 使迷惑, and I used to reckon 估计 myself 我 pretty good at finding out cyphers. This one looked like the numerical 数字的 kind where sets of figures correspond 对应 to the letters of the alpha‧bet 字母, but any fairly shrewd 精明 man can find the clue 线索 to that sort after an hour or two's work, and I didn't think Scudder would have been content with anything so easy. So I fastened on the printed words, for you can make a pretty good numerical 数字的 cypher if you have a key word which gives you the sequence 序列 of the letters.

I tried for hours, but none of the words answered. Then I fell fall asleep 睡着的 and woke at Dumfries just in time to bundle 捆 out and get into the slow Galloway train. There was a man on the platform 平台 whose 谁的 looks I didn't like, but he never glanced 一瞥 at me, and when I caught sight of myself 我 in the mirror 镜子 of an automatic 自动 machine I didn't wonder. With my brown face, my old tweeds, and my slouch, I was the very model of one of the hill farmers who were crowding into the third-class carriages 运输.

I travelled with half a dozen in an atmosphere 大气层 of shag and clay pipes 管子. They had come from the weekly market, and their mouths were full of prices. I heard accounts of how the lambing 羊肉 had gone up the Cairn and the Deuch and a dozen other mysterious 神秘 waters. Above half the men had lunched 午餐 heavily 很大，沉重地 and were highly flavoured with whisky 威士忌酒, but they took no notice of me. We rumbled 隆隆 slowly into a land of little wooded glens and then to a great wide moor‧land 泊‧陆地；着陆 place, gleaming 闪光 with lochs, with high blue hills showing north‧ward 北方.

About five o'clock the carriage 运输 had emptied, and I was left alone as I had hoped. I got out at the next station, a little place whose 谁的 name I scarcely noted, set right in the heart of a bog 沼泽. It reminded me of one of those forgotten little stations in the Karroo. An old station-master was digging 挖 in his garden, and with his spade 铁锹 over his shoulder sauntered to the train, took charge of a parcel 包袱, and went back to his potatoes 土豆. A child of ten 十 received my ticket 3, and I emerged 出现 on a white road that straggled over the brown moor 泊.

It was a gorgeous 华丽 spring evening, with every hill showing as clear as a cut amethyst. The air had the queer 奇怪, rooty smell of bogs 沼泽, but it was as fresh as mid 中-ocean 洋, and it had the strangest effect on my spirits. I actually felt light-hearted. I might have been a boy out for a spring holiday 假日 tramp 流浪汉, instead of a man of thirty 三十-seven 七 very much wanted by the police. I felt just as I used to feel when I was starting for a big trek 跋涉 on a frosty morning on the high veld. If you believe me, I swung swing along that road whistling. There was no plan of campaign 运动 in my head, only just to go on and on in this blessed 祝福, honest-smelling hill country, for every mile put me in better humour with myself 我.

In a road‧side 路边 planting I cut a walking-stick of hazel, and presently struck off the high‧way 公路 up a bypath which followed the glen of a brawling stream. I reckoned 估计 that I was still far ahead of any pursuit 追求, and for that night might please myself 我. It was some hours since I had tasted food, and I was getting very hungry 饥饿 when I came to a herd 放牧's cottage 小屋 set in a nook beside a water‧fall 瀑布. A brown-faced woman was standing by the door, and greeted 欢迎 me with the kindly shyness of moor‧land 泊‧陆地；着陆 places. When I asked for a night's lodging 存放 she said I was welcome to the 'bed in the loft 阁楼', and very soon she set before me a hearty 爽朗 meal 餐 of ham 火腿 and eggs 鸡蛋, scones, and thick sweet milk 奶.

At the darkening 变暗 her man came in from the hills, a lean giant 巨人, who in one step covered as much ground as three paces 步伐，速度 of ordinary mortals 凡人. They asked me no questions, for they had the perfect breeding 养育；繁殖 of all dwellers 居住者 in the wilds, but I could see they set me down as a kind of dealer 商人，商贩, and I took some trouble to confirm 确认 their view. I spoke a lot about cattle, of which my host 主人 knew little, and I picked up from him a good deal about the local Galloway markets, which I tucked 掖 away in my memory for future use. At ten 十 I was nodding 点头 in my chair, and the 'bed in the loft 阁楼' received a weary 厌倦 man who never opened his eyes till five o'clock set the little homestead a-going once more.

They refused any payment 付款, and by six I had breakfasted and was striding 迈 southwards again. My notion 概念 was to return to the rail‧way 铁路 line a station or two farther on than the place where I had alighted 落 yesterday and to double back. I reckoned 估计 that that was the safest way, for the police would naturally 自然地 assume 承担 that I was always making farther from London in the direction of some western port 港口. I thought I had still a good bit of a start, for, as I reasoned, it would take some hours to fix the blame 指责 on me, and several more to identify 鉴定 the fellow who got on board the train at St Pancras.

It was the same jolly 欢乐, clear spring weather, and I simply could not contrive 图谋 to feel careworn. Indeed I was in better spirits than I had been for months. Over a long ridge 岭 of moor‧land 泊‧陆地；着陆 I took my road, skirting 裙子 the side of a high hill which the herd 放牧 had called Cairnsmore of Fleet. Nesting curlews and plovers were crying every‧where 到处, and the links 链接 of green pasture 牧场 by the streams were dotted 点 with young lambs 羊肉. All the slackness of the past months was slipping from my bones 骨头, and I stepped out like a four-year-old. By-and-by I came to a swell 膨胀；增强 of moor‧land 泊‧陆地；着陆 which dipped 浸 to the vale of a little river, and a mile away in the heather 石南属 I saw the smoke of a train.

The station, when I reached it, proved to be ideal for my purpose. The moor 泊 surged 浪涌 up around it and left room only for the single line, the slender 苗条 siding, a waiting-room, an office, the station-master's cottage 小屋, and a tiny 小 yard of gooseberries and sweet-william. There seemed no road to it from any‧where 任何地方, and to increase the desolation the waves of a tarn lapped 膝部 on their grey 灰色:gray granite 花岗岩 beach 海滩 half a mile away. I waited in the deep heather 石南属 till I saw the smoke of an east-going train on the horizon 地平线. Then I approached the tiny 小 booking-office and took a ticket for Dumfries.

The only occupants 占有者 of the carriage 运输 were an old shepherd 牧羊人 and his dog—a wall-eyed brute 畜生 that I mist‧rust 不信任. The man was asleep 睡着的, and on the cushions 垫子 beside him was that morning's Scotsman. Eagerly I seized on it, for I fancied it would tell me something.

There were two columns 柱 about the Portland Place Murder, as it was called. My man Paddock had given the alarm 警告 and had the milk‧man 奶‧男人 arrested 逮捕. Poor devil 魔鬼, it looked as if the latter had earned his sovereign 君主 hardly; but for me he had been cheap 便宜的 at the price, for he seemed to have occupied 占据 the police for the better part of the day. In the latest news I found a further instalment of the story. The milk‧man 奶‧男人 had been released 发布, I read, and the true criminal 罪犯, about whose 谁的 identity 身分 the police were reticent, was believed to have got away from London by one of the northern 北方的 lines. There was a short note about me as the owner of the flat. I guessed the police had stuck that in, as a clumsy 笨拙 contrivance to persuade 说服 me that I was unsuspected.

There was nothing else in the paper, nothing about foreign politics or Karolides, or the things that had interested Scudder. I laid it down, and found that we were approaching the station at which I had got out yesterday. The potato 土豆-digging station-master had been gingered 生姜 up into some activity, for the west-going train was waiting to let us pass, and from it had descended 下来 three men who were asking him questions. I supposed that they were the local police, who had been stirred 搅动 up by Scotland Yard, and had traced 跟踪 me as far as this one-horse siding. Sitting well back in the shadow I watched them carefully 小心. One of them had a book, and took down notes. The old potato 土豆-digger 挖 seemed to have turned peevish, but the child who had collected my ticket was talking volubly. All the party looked out across the moor 泊 where the white road departed 离开. I hoped they were going to take up my tracks there.

As we moved away from that station my companion 同伴 woke up. He fixed me with a wandering 漫步 glance 一瞥, kicked his dog viciously 恶毒, and inquired 打听 where he was. Clearly he was very drunk drink.

'That's what comes o' bein' a teetotaller,' he observed in bitter regret 后悔.

I expressed my surprise that in him I should have met a blue-ribbon 带 stalwart.

'Ay, but I'm a strong teetotaller,' he said pugnaciously. 'I took the pledge 保证 last Martinmas, and I havena touched a drop o' whisky 威士忌酒 sinsyne. Not even at Hogmanay, though I was sair temptit.'

He swung his heels 脚跟 up on the seat, and burrowed 地洞 a frowsy head into the cushions.

'And that's a' I get,' he moaned 呻吟. 'A heid better than hell 地狱 fire, and twae een lookin' different ways for the Sabbath.'

'What did it?' I asked.

'A drink they ca' brandy 白兰地. Bein' a teetotaller I keepit off the whisky 威士忌酒, but I was nip 掐-nippin' a' day at this brandy 白兰地, and I doubt I'll no be weel for a fortnicht.' His voice died away into a splutter, and sleep once more laid its heavy hand on him.

My plan had been to get out at some station down the line, but the train suddenly gave me a better chance, for it came to a stand‧still 站；台‧仍 at the end of a culvert which spanned 跨度 a brawling porter 搬运工-coloured river. I looked out and saw that every carriage 3 window was closed and no human figure appeared in the landscape 景观. So I opened the door, and dropped quickly into the tangle 纠纷 of hazels which edged the line.

It would have been all right but for that infernal dog. Under the impression 印象 that I was decamping with its master's belongings, it started to bark 吠, and all but got me by the trousers 长裤. This woke up the herd 放牧, who stood bawling at the carriage door in the belief that I had committed 承诺 suicide. I crawled 爬行 through the thicket, reached the edge of the stream, and in cover of the bushes 灌木 put a hundred 百 yards or so behind me. Then from my shelter I peered 窥视 back, and saw the guard and several passengers 乘客 gathered round the open carriage door and staring in my direction. I could not have made a more public departure 离开 if I had left with a bugler and a brass 黄铜 band.

Happily the drunken 醉 herd 放牧 provided a diversion 导流. He and his dog, which was attached 连接 by a rope 粗绳 to his waist 腰, suddenly cascaded 级联 out of the carriage, landed on their heads on the track 小路, and rolled some way down the bank towards the water. In the rescue 营救 which followed the dog bit somebody, for I could hear the sound of hard swearing 发誓. Presently they had forgotten me, and when after a quarter of a mile's crawl 爬行 I ventured 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 to look back, the train had started again and was vanishing 消失 in the cutting.

I was in a wide semi‧circle 半‧圆 of moor‧land 泊‧陆地；着陆, with the brown river as radius 半径, and the high hills forming the northern circumference. There was not a sign or sound of a human being, only the plashing water and the interminable crying of curlews. Yet, oddly 奇怪 enough, for the first time I felt the terror 恐怖 of the hunted on me. It was not the police that I thought of, but the other folk 民间, who knew that I knew Scudder's secret and dared 敢 not let me live. I was certain that they would pursue 追求 me with a keenness and vigilance unknown 未知 to the British law, and that once their grip 握 closed on me I should find no mercy 宽容.

I looked back, but there was nothing in the landscape 景观. The sun glinted on the metals of the line and the wet 湿的 stones in the stream, and you could not have found a more peaceful 平静的 sight in the world. Nevertheless 虽然 I started to run. Crouching low in the runnels of the bog 沼泽, I ran till the sweat 流汗 blinded my eyes. The mood 心境 did not leave me till I had reached the rim 轮缘 of mountain and flung myself 我 panting 喘气 on a ridge 岭 high above the young waters of the brown river.

From my vantage 华帝-ground I could scan 扫描 the whole moor 泊 right away to the rail‧way 铁路 line and to the south of it where green fields took the place of heather 石南属. I have eyes like a hawk 鹰, but I could see nothing moving in the whole country‧side 农村. Then I looked east beyond the ridge 岭 and saw a new kind of landscape 景观— shallow 浅的 green valleys with plentiful 丰富 fir 冷杉 plantations 种植园 and the faint 微弱的 lines of dust which spoke of highroads. Last of all I looked into the blue May sky, and there I saw that which set my pulses 脉冲 racing ...

Low down in the south a monoplane was climbing into the heavens 天. I was as certain as if I had been told that that aeroplane was looking for me, and that it did not belong to the police. For an hour or two I watched it from a pit 坑 of heather 石南属. It flew fly low along the hill-tops, and then in narrow circles over the valley up which I had come. Then it seemed to change its mind, rose rise to a great height 高度, and flew away back to the south.

I did not like this espionage 间谍 from the air, and I began to think less well of the country‧side 农村 I had chosen for a refuge 避难所. These heather 石南属 hills were no sort of cover if my enemies were in the sky, and I must find a different kind of sanctuary 避难所. I looked with more satisfaction 满足 to the green country beyond the ridge 岭, for there I should find woods and stone houses.

About six in the evening I came out of the moor‧land 泊‧陆地；着陆 to a whiteribbon 带 of road which wound 创伤 up the narrow vale of a low‧land 低地 stream. As I followed it, fields gave place to bent bend, the glen became a plateau 高原, and presently I had reached a kind of pass where a solitary 孤 house smoked in the twilight 暮. The road swung over a bridge, and leaning on the parapet was a young man.

He was smoking a long clay pipe 管子 and studying the water with spectacled 场面；眼镜 eyes. In his left hand was a small book with a finger marking the place. Slowly he repeated—

As when a Gryphon through the wilderness 荒野
With winged 翅膀 step, o'er hill and moory dale
Pursues the Arimaspian.

He jumped round as my step rung on the key‧stone 钥匙‧石头, and I saw a pleasant sunburnt boyish face.

'Good evening to you,' he said gravely 坟墓；严重的. 'It's a fine night for the road.'

The smell of peat 泥炭 smoke and of some savoury roast 烤 floated 漂浮 to me from the house.

'Is that place an inn 小旅馆?' I asked.

'At your service,' he said politely 有礼貌的. 'I am the land‧lord 房东, Sir, and I hope you will stay the night, for to tell you the truth I have had no company for a week.'

I pulled myself 我 up on the parapet of the bridge and filled my pipe 3. I began to detect 发现，察觉，看出 an ally 联盟；盟友.

'You're young to be an inn‧keeper 小旅馆‧管理人,' I said.

'My father died a year ago and left me the business. I live there with my grand‧mother 祖母. It's a slow job for a young man, and it wasn't my choice of profession.'

'Which was?'

He actually blushed 脸红. 'I want to write books,' he said.

'And what better chance could you ask?' I cried. 'Man, I've often thought that an inn‧keeper 小旅馆‧管理人 would make the best story-teller in the world.'

'Not now,' he said eagerly 渴望的. 'Maybe in the old days when you had pilgrims 朝圣 and ballad 民谣-makers and highwaymen and mail-coaches 教练 on the road. But not now. Nothing comes here but motor-cars full of fat women, who stop for lunch 午餐, and a fisherman 渔 or two in the spring, and the shooting tenants 承租人 in August. There is not much material to be got out of that. I want to see life, to travel the world, and write things like Kipling and Conrad. But the most I've done yet is to get some verses 诗 printed in Chambers's Journal 日志.' I looked at the inn 小旅馆 standing golden 金色的 in the sunset 日落 against the brown hills.

'I've knocked 敲 a bit about the world, and I wouldn't despise 讨厌 such a hermitage. D'you think that adventure 冒险活动 is found only in the tropics or among gentry 绅 in red shirts 衬衫? Maybe you're rubbing 擦 shoulders with it at this moment.'

'That's what Kipling says,' he said, his eyes brightening 变亮, and he quoted 引用 some verse 诗 about 'Romance bringing up the 9.15'.

'Here's a true tale 故事，不实之词 for you then,' I cried, 'and a month from now you can make a novel 小说 out of it.'

Sitting on the bridge in the soft May gloaming I pitched 沥青 him a lovely 可爱的 yarn 纱. It was true in essentials, too, though I altered 改变 the minor 次要 details. I made out that I was a mining magnate from Kimberley, who had had a lot of trouble with I.D.B. and had shown up a gang 结伙. They had pursued 追求 me across theocean 洋, and had killed my best friend, and were now on my tracks.

I told the story well, though I say it who shouldn't. I pictured a flight 飞行 across the Kalahari to German Africa, the crackling 裂纹, parching days, the wonderful 精彩 blue-velvet 丝绒 nights. I described an attack on my life on the voyage 旅行 home, and I made a really horrid affair of the Portland Place murder. 'You're looking for adventure 冒险活动,' I cried; 'well, you've found it here. The devils are after me, and the police are after them. It's a race that I mean to win.'

'By God!' he whispered 低声说, drawing his breath in sharply, 'it is all pure Rider Haggard and Conan Doyle.'

'You believe me,' I said gratefully 感激的.

'Of course I do,' and he held out his hand. 'I believe everything out of the common. The only thing to distrust 怀疑 is the normal 正常.'

He was very young, but he was the man for my money.

'I think they're off my track 小路 for the moment, but I must lie close for a couple of days. Can you take me in?'

He caught my elbow 弯头 in his eagerness and drew me towards the house. 'You can lie as snug here as if you were in a moss 苔藓-hole. I'll see that nobody blabs, either. And you'll give me some more material about your adventures?'

As I entered the inn 小旅馆 porch 门廊 I heard from far off the beat of an engine. There silhouetted 轮廓 against the dusky West was my friend, the monoplane.

He gave me a room at the back of the house, with a fine out‧look 外表 over the plateau 高原, and he made me free of his own study, which was stacked 堆 with cheap 便宜的 editions 版 of his favourite authors 作者. I never saw the grand‧mother 祖母, so I guessed she was bedridden. An old woman called Margit brought me my meals 餐, and the inn‧keeper 小旅馆‧管理人 was around me at all hours. I wanted some time to myself 我, so I invented 发明 a job for him. He had a motor-bicycle 自行车, and I sent him off next morning for the daily paper, which usually arrived with the post in the late afternoon. I told him to keep his eyes skinned 皮, and make note of any strange figures he saw, keeping a special sharp look-out for motors and aeroplanes. Then I sat down in real earnest 热心的 to Scudder's note-book.

He came back at midday 正午 with the Scotsman. There was nothing in it, except some further evidence 证据 of Paddock and the milk‧man 奶‧男人, and a repetition 重复 of yesterday's statement 声明 that the murderer had gone North. But there was a long article, reprinted 重印 from The Times, about Karolides and the state of affairs in the Balkans, though there was no mention of any visit to England. I got rid of the inn‧keeper 小旅馆‧管理人 for the afternoon, for I was getting very warm in my search for the cypher.

As I told you, it was a numerical 数字的 cypher, and by an elaborate 阐述 system of experiments I had pretty well discovered what were the nulls 空值 and stops. The trouble was the key word, and when I thought of the odd 奇 million words he might have used I felt pretty hope‧less 绝望. But about three o'clock I had a sudden inspiration 灵感.

The name Julia Czechenyi flashed 使闪光 across my memory. Scudder had said it was the key to the Karolides business, and it occurred 发生 to me to try it on his cypher.

It worked. The five letters of 'Julia' gave me the position of the vowels 元音. A was J, the tenth letter of the alpha‧bet 字母, and so represented by X in the cypher. E was XXI, and so on. 'Czechenyi' gave me the numerals for the principal 主要 consonants 辅音. I scribbled 涂 that scheme 方案 on a bit of paper and sat down to read Scudder's pages.

In half an hour I was reading with a whitish face and fingers that drummed 鼓 on the table.

I glanced 一瞥 out of the window and saw a big touring-car coming up the glen towards the inn 4. It drew up at the door, and there was the sound of people alighting 落. There seemed to be two of them, men in aquascutums and tweed caps 盖.

Ten 十 minutes later the inn‧keeper 小旅馆‧管理人 slipped into the room, his eyes bright with excitement 激动.

'There's two chaps 皴裂 below looking for you,' he whispered. 'They're in the dining-room having whiskies 威士忌酒-and-sodas 苏打. They asked about you and said they had hoped to meet you here. Oh! and they described you jolly 欢乐 well, down to your boots and shirt 衬衫. I told them you had been here last night and had gone off on a motorbicycle 自行车 this morning, and one of the chaps 皴裂 swore like a navvy.'

I made him tell me what they looked like. One was a dark-eyed thin fellow with bushy eye‧brow 眉, the other was always smiling and lisped in his talk. Neither was any kind of foreigner; on this my young friend was positive 正.

I took a bit of paper and wrote these words in German as if they were part of a letter—

... 'Black Stone. Scudder had got on to this, but he could not act for a fort‧night 两星期. I doubt if I can do any good now, especially as Karolides is uncertain 不确定 about his plans. But if Mr T. advises I will do the best I ...'

I manufactured it rather neatly 整洁的, so that it looked like a loose page of a private letter.

'Take this down and say it was found in my bedroom, and ask them to return it to me if they overtake me.'

Three minutes later I heard the car begin to move, and peeping 窥视 from behind the curtain 窗帘 caught sight of the two figures. One was slim 瘦, the other was sleek 光滑; that was the most I could make of my reconnaissance.

The inn‧keeper 小旅馆‧管理人 appeared in great excitement 激动. 'Your paper woke them up,' he said gleefully. 'The dark fellow went as white as death and cursed 诅咒 like blazes 火焰, and the fat one whistled 吹口哨 and looked ugly 难看的. They paid for their drinks with half-a-sovereign 君主 and wouldn't wait for change.'

'Now I'll tell you what I want you to do,' I said. 'Get on yourbicycle 自行车 and go off to Newton-Stewart to the Chief Constable. Describe the two men, and say you suspect 怀疑；嫌疑犯 them of having had something to do with the London murder. You can invent 发明 reasons. The two will come back, never fear. Not tonight 今晚, for they'll follow me forty 四十 miles along the road, but first thing tomorrow morning. Tell the police to be here bright and early.'

He set off like a docile child, while I worked at Scudder's notes. When he came back we dined together, and in common decency 风化 I had to let him pump 泵 me. I gave him a lot of stuff about lion 狮子 hunts and the Matabele War, thinking all the while what tame 驯服的 businesses these were compared to this I was now engaged 从事 in! When he went to bed I sat up and finished Scudder. I smoked in a chair till day‧light 日光, for I could not sleep.

About eight 八 next morning I witnessed the arrival 到达 of two con‧stable 警官 and a sergeant 军士. They put their car in a coach 教练-house under the inn‧keeper 小旅馆‧管理人's instructions 指令, and entered the house. Twenty minutes later I saw from my window a second car come across the plateau 高原 from the opposite direction. It did not come up to the inn 5, but stopped two hundred 百 yards off in the shelter of a patch 补丁 of wood. I noticed that its occupants 占有者 carefully 小心 reversed 反向；倒转 it before leaving it. A minute or two later I heard their steps on the gravel 碎石 outside the window.

My plan had been to lie hid hide in my bedroom, and see what happened. I had a notion 概念 that, if I could bring the police and my other more dangerous 危险 pursuers together, something might work out of it to my advantage. But now I had a better idea. I scribbled 涂 a line of thanks to my host 主人, opened the window, and dropped quietly into a goose‧berry 鹅‧梅；浆果 bush 灌木. Unobserved I crossed the dyke, crawled 爬行 down the side of a tributary burn, and won the high‧road 高的‧路 on the far side of the patch 补丁 of trees. There stood the car, very spick and span 跨度 in the morning sun‧light 阳光, but with the dust on her which told of a long journey 旅行. I started her, jumped into the chauffeur's seat, and stole gently out on to the plateau 高原.

Almost at once the road dipped so that I lost sight of the inn, but the wind seemed to bring me the sound of angry 生气的 voices.

CHAPTER FOUR

The Adventure of the Radical Candidate

You may picture me driving that 40 h.p. car for all she was worth over the crisp 脆 moor 泊 roads on that shining 发光 May morning; glancing 一瞥 back at first over my shoulder, and looking anxiously 焦急的 to the next turning; then driving with a vague 模糊 eye, just wide enough awake 醒着的 to keep on the high‧way 公路. For I was thinking desperately 拼命 of what I had found in Scudder's pocket-book.

The little man had told me a pack of lies. All his yarns 纱 about the Balkans and the Jew-Anarchists and the Foreign Office Conference were eye‧wash 眼睛‧洗, and so was Karolides. And yet not quite, as you shall hear. I had staked 赌注 everything on my belief in his story, and had been let down; here was his book telling me a different tale 故事，不实之词, and instead of being once-bitten 咬-twice 两次-shy 害羞, I believed it absolutely.

Why, I don't know. It rang desperately 拼命 true, and the first yarn 纱, if you understand me, had been in a queer 奇怪 way true also in spirit. The fifteenth day of June was going to be a day of destiny 命运, a bigger destiny 命运 than the killing of a Dago. It was so big that I didn't blame Scudder for keeping me out of the game and wanting to play a lone 孤单 hand. That, I was pretty clear, was his intention. He had told me something which sounded big enough, but the real thing was so immortally 不朽 big that he, the man who had found it out, wanted it all for himself. I didn't blame him. It was risks after all that he was chiefly greedy 贪婪 about.

The whole story was in the notes—with gaps 缺口, you understand, which he would have filled up from his memory. He stuck down his authorities 权威, too, and had an odd 奇 trick 哄骗；诀窍 of giving them all a numerical 数字的 value and then striking a balance, which stood for the reliability 可靠性 of each stage in the yarn 纱. The four names he had printed were authorities 权威, and there was a man, Ducrosne, who got five out of a possible five; and another fellow, Ammersfoort, who got three. The bare 光秃秃的 bones of the tale 4 were all that was in the book—these, and one queer 奇怪 phrase 短语 which occurred 发生 half a dozen times inside brackets 托架. '(Thirty-nine 九 steps)' was the phrase 短语; and at its last time of use it ran—'(Thirty-nine 九 steps, I counted them—high tide 潮汐 10.17 p.m.)'. I could make nothing of that.

The first thing I learned learn was that it was no question of preventing a war. That was coming, as sure as Christmas 圣诞节: had been arranged, said Scudder, ever since February 1912. Karolides was going to be the occasion. He was booked all right, and was to hand in his checks on June 14th, two weeks and four days from that May morning. I gathered from Scudder's notes that nothing on earth could prevent that. His talk of Epirote guards that would skin their own grand‧mother 祖母 was all billy-o.

The second thing was that this war was going to come as a mighty 威武 surprise to Britain. Karolides' death would set the Balkans by the ears, and then Vienna would chip 芯片 in with an ultimatum. Russia wouldn't like that, and there would be high words. But Berlin would play the peace‧maker 和平‧制作者, and pour 淋；倒 oil on the waters, till suddenly she would find a good cause for a quarrel 争吵, pick it up, and in five hours let fly at us. That was the idea, and a pretty good one too. Honey and fair speeches, and then a stroke 一击;轻抚 in the dark. While we were talking about the good‧will 善意 and good intentions of Germany our coast would be silently ringed with mines, and submarines 潜艇 would be waiting for every battle‧ship 与…作战‧船.

But all this depended upon the third thing, which was due to happen on June 15th. I would never have grasped 把握 this if I hadn't once happened to meet a French staff officer, coming back from West Africa, who had told me a lot of things. One was that, in spite 恶意 of all the non‧sense 废话 talked in Parliament, there was a real working alliance 联盟 between France and Britain, and that the two General Staffs met every now and then, and made plans for joint 共同的 action in case of war. Well, in June a very great swell 膨胀；增强 was coming over from Paris, and he was going to get nothing less than a statement 声明 of the disposition 性格 of the British Home Fleet on mobilization 动员. At least I gathered it was something like that; anyhow 总之, it was something uncommonly 罕见 important.

But on the 15th day of June there were to be others in London—others, at whom 谁 I could only guess. Scudder was content to call them collectively 统 the 'Black Stone'. They represented not our Allies, but our deadly foes 敌人; and the information, destined 注定 for France, was to be diverted 转移 to their pockets. And it was to be used, remember—used a week or two later, with great guns and swift 迅速 torpedoes 鱼雷, suddenly in the darkness 黑暗 of a summer night.

This was the story I had been deciphering 解码 in a back room of a country inn, over‧look 俯瞰 a cabbage 卷心菜 garden. This was the story that hummed 哼 in my brain as I swung in the big touring-car from glen to glen.

My first impulse 冲动 had been to write a letter to the Prime 主要 Minister, but a little reflection 反映 convinced 说服 me that that would be use‧less 无用. Who would believe my tale 5? I must show a sign, some token 代币 in proof 证明, and Heaven 天 knew what that could be. Above all, I must keep going myself 我, ready to act when things got riper 成熟的, and that was going to be no light job with the police of the British Isles in full cry after me and the watchers 守望者 of the Black Stone running silently and swiftly 如飞 on my trail 乡间小道.

I had no very clear purpose in my journey 旅行, but I steered 驾驶 east by the sun, for I remembered from the map 地图 that if I went north I would come into a region 地区 of coalpits and industrial 产业 towns. Presently I was down from the moorlands and traversing 横过 the broad haugh of a river. For miles I ran along‧side 并肩 a park wall, and in a break of the trees I saw a great castle 城堡. I swung through little old thatched 苫 villages, and over peaceful 平静的 low‧land 低地 streams, and past gardens blazing 火焰 with hawthorn and yellow laburnum. The land was so deep in peace that I could scarcely believe that somewhere behind me were those who sought my life; ay, and that in a month's time, unless I had the almightiest of luck, these round country faces would be pinched 捏 and staring, and men would be lying dead in English fields.

About mid 中-day I entered a long straggling village, and had a mind to stop and eat. Half-way down was the Post Office, and on the steps of it stood the post‧mistress 邮件‧情妇 and a police‧man 警察 hard at work conning CON a telegram 电报. When they saw me they wakened up, and the police‧man 警察 advanced with raised hand, and cried on me to stop.

I nearly was fool enough to obey 服从. Then it flashed upon me that the wire had to do with me; that my friends at the inn had come to an understanding, and were united in desiring to see more of me, and that it had been easy enough for them to wire the description of me and the car to thirty 三十 villages through which I might pass. I released 发布 the brakes 制动 just in time. As it was, the police‧man 警察 made a claw 爪 at the hood 引擎罩, and only dropped off when he got my left in his eye.

I saw that main roads were no place for me, and turned into the byways. It wasn't an easy job without a map 3, for there was the risk of getting on to a farm road and ending in a duck 鸭子-pond 池塘 or a stable 稳定-yard, and I couldn't afford 买得起 that kind of delay 延迟. I began to see what an ass I had been to steal the car. The big green brute 畜生 would be the safest kind of clue 线索 to me over the breadth 宽度 of Scotland. If I left it and took to my feet, it would be discovered in an hour or two and I would get no start in the race.

The immediate thing to do was to get to the loneliest roads. These I soon found when I struck up a tributary of the big river, and got into a glen with steep 陡峭的 hills all about me, and a cork‧screw 软木塞‧螺丝钉 road at the end which climbed over a pass. Here I met nobody, but it was taking me too far north, so I slewed east along a bad track and finally struck a big double-line rail‧way 铁路. Away below me I saw another broadish valley, and it occurred 发生 to me that if I crossed it I might find some remote 远程 inn to pass the night. The evening was now drawing in, and I was furiously 疯狂 hungry 饥饿, for I had eaten nothing since breakfast except a couple of buns 包子 I had bought from a baker 烤's cart 运货马车. Just then I heard a noise 噪音 in the sky, and lo and behold 不料 there was that infernal aeroplane, flying low, about a dozen miles to the south and rapidly coming towards me.

I had the sense to remember that on a bare 光秃秃的 moor 泊 I was at the aeroplane's mercy 宽容, and that my only chance was to get to the leafy cover of the valley. Down the hill I went like blue lightning 闪电, screwing 螺丝钉 my head round, when‧ever 随时 I dared, to watch that damned 该死的 flying machine. Soon I was on a road between hedges 树篱, and dipping 浸 to the deep-cut glen of a stream. Then came a bit of thick wood where I slackened speed.

Suddenly on my left I heard the hoot of another car, and realized to my horror 恐怖 that I was almost up on a couple of gate 门-posts through which a private road debouched on the highway. My horn 角；喇叭 gave an agonized 烦恼 roar 咆哮, but it was too late. I clapped 拍 on my brakes 制动, but my impetus 原动力 was too great, and there before me a car was sliding athwart my course. In a second there would have been the deuce of a wreck 破坏；使遇难. I did the only thing possible, and ran slap 拍击 into the hedge 树篱 on the right, trusting to find something soft beyond.

But there I was mistaken 错误. My car slithered through the hedge 树篱 like butter 黄油, and then gave a sickening 厌恨 plunge 跳水 forward. I saw what was coming, leapt on the seat and would have jumped out. But a branch of hawthorn got me in the chest 胸部, lifted me up and held me, while a ton 吨 or two of expensive 昂贵的 metal slipped below me, bucked 降压 and pitched 沥青, and then dropped with an almighty smash 粉碎 fifty 五十 feet to the bed of the stream.

Slowly that thorn 刺 let me go. I sub‧side 塌陷 first on the hedge 树篱, and then very gently on a bower 弓 of nettles. As I scrambled 争夺 to my feet a hand took me by the arm, and a sympathetic 同情的 and badly 很糟地 scared 惊恐 voice asked me if I were hurt 损害.

I found myself 我 looking at a tall young man in goggles 护目镜 and a leather 皮 ulster, who kept on blessing 祝福 his soul and whinnying apologies 道歉认错. For myself 我, once I got my wind back, I was rather glad 高兴的 than otherwise. This was one way of getting rid of the car.

'My blame, Sir,' I answered him. 'It's lucky 幸运 that I did not add homicide 杀人 to my follies 蠢事. That's the end of my Scotch motor tour, but it might have been the end of my life.'

He plucked 采摘 out a watch and studied it. 'You're the right sort of fellow,' he said. 'I can spare 节省；多余的；备用件 a quarter of an hour, and my house is two minutes off. I'll see you clothed and fed and snug in bed. Where's your kit 套件, by the way? Is it in the burn along with the car?'

'It's in my pocket,' I said, brandishing a tooth‧brush 牙刷. 'I'm a Colonial and travel light.'

'A Colonial,' he cried. 'By Gad, you're the very man I've been praying for. Are you by any blessed chance a Free Trader?'

'I am,' said I, without the foggiest notion 概念 of what he meant.

He patted 拍 my shoulder and hurried me into his car. Three minutes later we drew up before a comfort‧able 舒服；自在-looking shooting box set among pine 松树-trees, and he ushered 招待员 me indoors 室内的. He took me first to a bedroom and flung half a dozen of his suits before me, for my own had been pretty well reduced to rags 抹布. I selected 选择 a loose blue serge, which differed 不同 most conspicuously 显着 from my former garments 服装, and borrowed 借 a linen 麻布 collar 衣领. Then he haled me to the dining-room, where the remnants 剩 of a meal 餐 stood on the table, and announced 宣布 that I had just five minutes to feed. 'You can take a snack 小吃 in your pocket, and we'll have supper 晚饭 when we get back. I've got to be at the Masonic Hall at eight 八 o'clock, or my agent will comb my hair.'

I had a cup of coffee and some cold ham 火腿, while he yarned 纱 away on the hearth 炉-rug 小块地毯.

'You find me in the deuce of a mess 不整洁；弄乱, Mr—by-the-by, you haven't told me your name. Twisdon? Any relation of old Tommy Twisdon of the Sixtieth? No? Well, you see I'm Liberal 自由主义的 Candidate for this part of the world, and I had a meeting on tonight 今晚 at Brattleburn—that's my chief town, and an infernal Tory strong‧hold 据点. I had got the Colonial ex 前-Premier fellow, Crumpleton, coming to speak for me tonight 3, and had the thing tremendously 异常 billed and the whole place ground-baited 饵. This afternoon I had a wire from the ruffian saying he had got influenza 流感 at Blackpool, and here am I left to do the whole thing myself 我. I had meant to speak for ten 十 minutes and must now go on for forty 四十, and, though I've been racking 架 my brains for three hours to think of something, I simply cannot last the course. Now you've got to be a good chap 皴裂 and help me. You're a Free Trader and can tell our people what a wash-out Protection is in the Colonies. All you fellows have the gift 赠品 of the gab—I wish to Heaven I had it. I'll be for ever‧more 永远；曾经‧更 in your debt 债务.'

I had very few notions 概念 about Free Trade one way or the other, but I saw no other chance to get what I wanted. My young gentle‧man 先生 was far too absorbed 吸收 in his own difficulties to think how odd 奇 it was to ask a stranger who had just missed death by an ace 高手 and had lost a 1,000-guinea 几内亚 car to address a meeting for him on the spur 骨刺 of the moment. But my necessities 必须 did not allow me to contemplate 沉思 oddnesses or to pick and choose my supports.

'All right,' I said. 'I'm not much good as a speaker, but I'll tell them a bit about Australia.'

At my words the cares of the ages slipped from his shoulders, and he was rapturous in his thanks. He lent 把…借给:lend me a big driving coat—and never troubled to ask why I had started on a motor tour without possessing 拥有 an ulster—and, as we slipped down the dusty 尘土飞扬 roads, poured 淋；倒 into my ears the simple facts of his history. He was an orphan 孤儿, and his uncle 叔叔 had brought him up—I've forgotten the uncle's name, but he was in the Cabinet, and you can read his speeches in the papers. He had gone round the world after leaving Cambridge, and then, being short of a job, his uncle had advised politics. I gathered that he had no preference 偏爱 in parties. 'Good chaps 皴裂 in both,' he said cheerfully 乐意, 'and plenty of blighters, too. I'm Liberal 自由主义的, because my family have always been Whigs.' But if he was lukewarm politically he had strong views on other things. He found out I knew a bit about horses, and jawed 下巴 away about the Derby entries 条目; and he was full of plans for improving his shooting. Altogether 全部地, a very clean, decent 正经, callow young man.

As we passed through a little town two policemen signalled us to stop, and flashed their lanterns 灯笼 on us.

' Beg 乞讨 pardon 宽恕；说啥？, Sir Harry,' said one. 'We've got instructions 指令 to look out for a car, and the description's no unlike 不像 yours.'

'Right-o,' said my host, while I thanked Providence for the devious ways I had been brought to safety. After that he spoke no more, for his mind began to labour heavily 很大，沉重地 with his coming speech. His lips kept muttering 咕哝, his eye wandered 漫步, and I began to prepare myself 我 for a second catastrophe 灾难. I tried to think of something to say myself 我, but my mind was dry as a stone. The next thing I knew we had drawn up outside a door in a street, and were being welcomed by some noisy 嘈杂 gentlemen with rosettes. The hall had about five hundred 百 in it, women mostly, a lot of bald 秃 heads, and a dozen or two young men. The chairman, a weaselly minister with a red‧dish 红色的‧盘 nose, lamented 哀叹 Crumpleton's absence 缺席, soliloquized on his influenza 流感, and gave me a certificate 证书 as a 'trusted leader of Australian thought'. There were two policemen at the door, and I hoped they took note of that testimonial. Then Sir Harry started.

I never heard anything like it. He didn't begin to know how to talk. He had about a bushel of notes from which he read, and when he let go of them he fell into one pro‧long 延长 stutter. Every now and then he remembered a phrase 短语 he had learned by heart, straightened 变直 his back, and gave it off like Henry Irving, and the next moment he was bent double and crooning over his papers. It was the most appalling 惊恐 rot 腐烂, too. He talked about the 'German menace 威胁', and said it was all a Tory invention 发明 to cheat 欺骗 the poor of their rights and keep back the great flood 洪水 of social reform 改革, but that 'organized labour' realized this and laughed the Tories to scorn 鄙视. He was all for reducing our Navy as a proof 3 of our good faith, and then sending Germany an ultimatum telling her to do the same or we would knock 敲 her into a cocked 公鸡 hat. He said that, but for the Tories, Germany and Britain would be fellow-workers 工人 in peace and reform 改革. I thought of the little black book in my pocket! A giddy lot Scudder's friends cared for peace and reform 改革.

Yet in a queer 奇怪 way I liked the speech. You could see the niceness of the chap 皴裂 shining out behind the muck 粪肥 with which he had been spoon 匙-fed. Also it took a load off my mind. I mightn't be much of an orator, but I was a thou‧sand 千 per cent better than Sir Harry.

I didn't get on so badly 很糟地 when it came to my turn. I simply told them all I could remember about Australia, praying there should be no Australian there—all about its labour party and emigration and universal 普遍的 service. I doubt if I remembered to mention Free Trade, but I said there were no Tories in Australia, only Labour and Liberals. That fetched 取 a cheer 欢呼, and I woke them up a bit when I started in to tell them the kind of glorious 辉煌 business I thought could be made out of the Empire 帝国 if we really put our backs into it.

Altogether 全部地 I fancy 想像 I was rather a success. The minister didn't like me, though, and when he proposed a vote of thanks, spoke of Sir Harry's speech as 'statesman‧like 政治家‧喜欢；象' and mine as having 'the eloquence of an emigration agent'.

When we were in the car again my host was in wild spirits at having got his job over. 'A ripping 安息 speech, Twisdon,' he said. 'Now, you're coming home with me. I'm all alone, and if you'll stop a day or two I'll show you some very decent 正经 fishing.'

We had a hot supper 晚饭—and I wanted it pretty badly 很糟地—and then drank grog in a big cheery smoking-room with a crackling 裂纹 wood fire. I thought the time had come for me to put my cards on the table. I saw by this man's eye that he was the kind you can trust.

'Listen, Sir Harry,' I said. 'I've something pretty important to say to you. You're a good fellow, and I'm going to be frank 坦率. Where on earth did you get that poisonous 有毒 rubbish 垃圾 you talked tonight?'

His face fell. 'Was it as bad as that?' he asked rue‧fully 后悔‧完全地. 'It did sound rather thin. I got most of it out of the PROGRESSIVE MAGAZINE 杂志 and pamphlets 小册子 that agent chap 皴裂 of mine keeps sending me. But you surely don't think Germany would ever go to war with us?'

'Ask that question in six weeks and it won't need an answer,' I said. 'If you'll give me your attention for half an hour I am going to tell you a story.'

I can see yet that bright room with the deers 鹿' heads and the old prints on the walls, Sir Harry standing rest‧less 不安 on the stone curb 抑制 of the hearth 炉, and myself 我 lying back in an arm‧chair 扶手椅, speaking. I seemed to be another person, standing aside and listening to my own voice, and judging carefully 小心 the reliability 可靠性 of my tale. It was the first time I had ever told anyone the exact truth, so far as I understood understand it, and it did me no end of good, for it straightened out the thing in my own mind. I blinked 眨 no detail. He heard all about Scudder, and the milk‧man 奶‧男人, and the note-book, and my doings in Galloway. Presently he got very excited and walked up and down the hearth 炉-rug 小块地毯.

'So you see,' I concluded 得出结论, 'you have got here in your house the man that is wanted for the Portland Place murder. Your duty is to send your car for the police and give me up. I don't think I'll get very far. There'll be an accident 意外事件, and I'll have a knife in my ribs 肋骨 an hour or so after arrest 逮捕. Nevertheless 虽然, it's your duty, as a law-abiding 遵守 citizen. Perhaps in a month's time you'll be sorry 对不起的, but you have no cause to think of that.'

He was looking at me with bright steady eyes. 'What was your job in Rhodesia, Mr Hannay?' he asked.

'Mining engineer,' I said. 'I've made my pile cleanly and I've had a good time in the making of it.'

'Not a profession that weakens 柔弱的:weak the nerves 神经, is it?'

I laughed. 'Oh, as to that, my nerves 神经 are good enough.' I took down a hunting-knife from a stand on the wall, and did the old Mashona trick 哄骗；诀窍 of tossing 折腾 it and catching it in my lips. That wants a pretty steady heart.

He watched me with a smile. 'I don't want proof. I may be an ass on the platform 平台, but I can size up a man. You're no murderer and you're no fool, and I believe you are speaking the truth. I'm going to back you up. Now, what can I do?'

'First, I want you to write a letter to your uncle. I've got to get in touch with the Government people some‧time 有时 before the 15th of June.'

He pulled his moustache. 'That won't help you. This is Foreign Office business, and my uncle would have nothing to do with it. Besides, you'd never convince 说服 him. No, I'll go one better. I'll write to the Permanent 永久 Secretary at the Foreign Office. He's my god‧father 上帝‧父亲, and one of the best going. What do you want?'

He sat down at a table and wrote to my dictation. The gist of it was that if a man called Twisdon (I thought I had better stick to that name) turned up before June 15th he was to entreat him kindly. He said Twisdon would prove his bona fides by passing the word 'Black Stone' and whistling 'Annie Laurie'.

'Good,' said Sir Harry. 'That's the proper style 样式. By the way, you'll find my god‧father 上帝‧父亲—his name's Sir Walter Bullivant—down at his country cottage 小屋 for Whitsuntide. It's close to Artinswell on the Kenner. That's done. Now, what's the next thing?'

'You're about my height. Lend 把…借给 me the oldest tweed suit you've got. Anything will do, so long as the colour is the opposite of the clothes I destroyed this afternoon. Then show me a map of the neighbourhood and explain to me the lie of the land. Lastly, if the police come seeking 寻求 me, just show them the car in the glen. If the other lot turn up, tell them I caught the south express after your meeting.'

He did, or promised to do, all these things. I shaved off the remnants 剩 of my moustache, and got inside an ancient suit of what I believe is called heather 石南属 mixture 混合. The map gave me some notion 概念 of my whereabouts 下落, and told me the two things I wanted to know—where the main rail‧way 铁路 to the south could be joined and what were the wildest districts near at hand. At two o'clock he wakened me from my slumbers in the smoking-room arm‧chair 扶手椅, and led me blinking 眨 into the dark starry night. An oldbicycle 自行车 was found in a tool-shed and handed over to me.

'First turn to the right up by the long fir 冷杉-wood,' he enjoined. 'By day‧break 一天‧破；断 you'll be well into the hills. Then I should pitch 沥青 the machine into a bog 沼泽 and take to the moors 泊 on foot. You can put in a week among the shepherds 牧羊人, and be as safe as if you were in New Guinea.'

I pedalled 踏板 diligently up steep 陡峭的 roads of hill gravel 碎石 till the skies 滑雪 grew grow pale with morning. As the mists 薄雾 cleared before the sun, I found myself 我 in a wide green world with glens falling on every side and a far-away blue horizon 地平线. Here, at any rate, I could get early news of my enemies.

CHAPTER FIVE

The Adventure of the Spectacled Roadman

I sat down on the very crest 波峰 of the pass and took stock of my position.

Behind me was the road climbing through a long cleft in the hills, which was the upper glen of some not‧able 显着 river. In front was a flat space of maybe a mile, all pitted 坑 with bog 沼泽-holes and rough with tussocks, and then beyond it the road fell steeply 陡峭的 down another glen to a plain whose 谁的 blue dimness melted 熔化 into the distance. To left and right were round-shouldered green hills as smooth as pan‧cake 饼子, but to the south—that is, the left hand—there was a glimpse 一瞥 of high heathery mountains, which I remembered from the map as the big knot 结 of hill which I had chosen for my sanctuary 避难所. I was on the central 中央 boss 老板 of a huge 巨大 upland 高地 country, and could see everything moving for miles. In the meadows 草地 below the road half a mile back a cottage 3 smoked, but it was the only sign of human life. Otherwise there was only the calling of plovers and the tinkling of little streams.

It was now about seven 七 o'clock, and as I waited I heard once again that ominous 不祥的 beat in the air. Then I realized that my vantage 华帝-ground might be in reality 现实 atrap 陷阱；诱骗. There was no cover for a tomtit in those bald 秃 green places.

I sat quite still and hope‧less 绝望 while the beat grew louder 响亮的. Then I saw an aeroplane coming up from the east. It was flying high, but as I looked it dropped several hundred 百 feet and began to circle round the knot 结 of hill in narrowing circles, just as a hawk 鹰 wheels before it pounces. Now it was flying very low, and now the observer on board caught sight of me. I could see one of the two occupants 占有者 examining me through glasses.

Suddenly it began to rise in swift 迅速 whorls, and the next I knew it was speeding east‧ward 东方的 again till it became a speck in the blue morning.

That made me do some savage 野蛮人 thinking. My enemies had located 定位 me, and the next thing would be a cordon round me. I didn't know what force they could command, but I was certain it would be sufficient 足够. The aeroplane had seen my bicycle 4, and would conclude 得出结论 that I would try to escape by the road. In that case there might be a chance on the moors 泊 to the right or left. I wheeled the machine a hundred 百 yards from the highway, and plunged 跳水 it into a moss 苔藓-hole, where it sank 淹没:sink among pond 池塘-weed 杂草 and water-buttercups. Then I climbed to a knoll which gave me a view of the two valleys. Nothing was stirring 搅动 on the long whiteribbon 带 that threaded 线 them.

I have said there was not cover in the whole place to hide a rat 鼠. As the day advanced it was flooded 洪水 with soft fresh light till it had the fragrant sunniness of the South African veld. At other times I would have liked the place, but now it seemed to suffocate 窒息 me. The free moorlands were prison walls, and the keen 热切的 hill air was the breath of a dungeon.

I tossed 折腾 a coin 硬币—heads right, tails 尾 left—and it fell heads, so I turned to the north. In a little I came to the brow 眉头 of the ridge 岭 which was the containing wall of the pass. I saw the high‧road 高的‧路 for maybe ten 十 miles, and far down it something that was moving, and that I took to be a motor-car. Beyond the ridge 岭 I looked on a rolling green moor 泊, which fell away into wooded glens.

Now my life on the veld has given me the eyes of a kite 风筝, and I can see things for which most men need a telescope 望远镜 ... Away down the slope 斜坡, a couple of miles away, several men were advancing, like a row of beaters at a shoot ...

I dropped out of sight behind the sky-line. That way was shut to me, and I must try the bigger hills to the south beyond the highway. The car I had noticed was getting nearer, but it was still a long way off with some very steep 3 gradients 梯度 before it. I ran hard, crouching 蹲伏 low except in the hollows 空的, and as I ran I kept scanning 扫描 the brow 眉头 of the hill before me. Was it imagination 想像力, or did I see figures—one, two, perhaps more—moving in a glen beyond the stream?

If you are hemmed 下摆 in on all sides in a patch 补丁 of land there is only one chance of escape. You must stay in the patch 补丁, and let your enemies search it and not find you. That was good sense, but how on earth was I to escape notice in that table-cloth of a place? I would have buried 埋葬 myself 我 to the neck in mud 泥 or lain lie below water or climbed the tallest tree. But there was not a stick of wood, the bog 沼泽-holes were little puddles, the stream was a slender 苗条 trickle 潺. There was nothing but short heather 石南属, and bare 光秃秃的 hill bent, and the white highway.

Then in a tiny 小 bight of road, beside a heap 堆 of stones, I found the road‧man 路‧男人.

He had just arrived, and was wearily 厌倦 flinging 一扔 down his hammer 铁锤. He looked at me with a fishy eye and yawned 打哈欠.

'Confoond the day I ever left the herdin'!' he said, as if to the world at large. 'There I was my ain maister. Now I'm a slave to the Goavernment, tethered to the road‧side 路边, wi' sair een, and a back like a suckle.'

He took up the hammer 铁锤, struck a stone, dropped the implement 实行 with an oath 誓言, and put both hands to his ears. ' Mercy 宽容 on me! My heid's burstin'!' he cried.

He was a wild figure, about my own size but much bent, with a week's beard 胡须 on his chin 下巴, and a pair of big horn 角；喇叭 spectacles 场面；眼镜.

'I canna dae't,' he cried again. 'The Surveyor maun just report me. I'm for my bed.'

I asked him what was the trouble, though indeed that was clear enough.

'The trouble is that I'm no sober 清醒. Last nicht my dochter Merran was waddit, and they danced till fower in the byre. Me and some ither chiels sat down to the drinkin', and here I am. Peety that I ever lookit on the wine when it was red!'

I agreed with him about bed. 'It's easy speakin',' he moaned 呻吟. 'But I got a post‧card 明信片 yestreen sayin' that the new Road Surveyor would be round the day. He'll come and he'll no find me, or else he'll find me fou, and either way I'm a done man. I'll awa' back to my bed and say I'm no weel, but I doot that'll no help me, for they ken my kind o' no-weel-ness.'

Then I had an inspiration 灵感. 'Does the new Surveyor know you?' I asked.

'No him. He's just been a week at the job. He rins about in a wee 凌晨 motor-cawr, and wad speir the inside oot o' a whelk.'

'Where's your house?' I asked, and was directed by a wavering 动摇 finger to the cottage by the stream.

'Well, back to your bed,' I said, 'and sleep in peace. I'll take on your job for a bit and see the Surveyor.'

He stared at me blankly 空白; then, as the notion 概念 dawned 黎明 on his fuddled brain, his face broke break into the vacant 空的 drunkard's smile.

'You're the billy,' he cried. 'It'll be easy eneuch managed. I've finished that bing o' stanes, so you needna chap 皴裂 ony mair this fore‧noon 前面‧正午. Just take the barry, and wheel eneuch metal frae yon quarry 采石场 doon the road to mak anither bing the morn. My name's Alexander Turnbull, and I've been seeven year at the trade, and twenty 二十 afore that herdin' on Leithen Water. My freens ca' me Ecky, and whiles Specky, for I wear glesses, being waik i' the sicht. Just you speak the Surveyor fair, and ca' him Sir, and he'll be fell pleased. I'll be back or mid 中-day.'

I borrowed his spectacles 场面；眼镜 and filthy 污秽 old hat; stripped off coat, waist‧coat 腰‧上衣, and collar 衣领, and gave him them to carry home; borrowed, too, the foul 犯规 stump 树墩 of a clay pipe as an extra 额外的 property. He indicated 表明 my simple tasks 任务, and without more ado set off at an amble bedwards. Bed may have been his chief object, but I think there was also something left in the foot of a bottle. I prayed that he might be safe under cover before my friends arrived on the scene.

Then I set to work to dress for the part. I opened the collar 3 of my shirt 3—it was a vulgar 庸俗 blue-and-white check such as ploughmen wear—and revealed 揭示 a neck as brown as any tinker 修补匠's. I rolled up my sleeves 袖, and there was a fore‧arm 前臂 which might have been a blacksmith's, sunburnt and rough with old scars 瘢痕. I got my boots and trouser-legs all white from the dust of the road, and hitched 拴住 up my trousers 长裤, tying them with string 绳子 below the knee. Then I set to work on my face. With a handful 少数 of dust I made a water-mark round my neck, the place where Mr Turnbull's Sunday ablutions might be expected to stop. I rubbed 擦 a good deal of dirt also into the sun‧burn 太阳‧烧 of my cheeks 脸颊. A road‧man 路‧男人's eyes would no doubt be a little inflamed 发炎, so I contrived 图谋 to get some dust in both of mine, and by dint of vigorous 蓬勃 rubbing produced a bleary effect.

The sandwiches 三明治 Sir Harry had given me had gone off with my coat, but the road‧man 路‧男人's lunch 午餐, tied up in a red handkerchief 手帕, was at my disposal 处置. I ate with great relish 滋味 several of the thick slabs 板 of scone and cheese 奶酪 and drank a little of the cold tea. In the handkerchief was a local paper tied with string 绳子 and addressed to Mr Turnbull—obviously 明显 meant to solace his mid 中-day leisure 闲暇. I did up the bundle 捆 again, and put the paper conspicuously 显着 beside it.

My boots did not satisfy me, but by dint of kicking 踢 among the stones I reduced them to the granite 花岗岩-like surface which marks a road‧man 路‧男人's foot-gear 齿轮. Then I bit and scraped 擦 my finger-nails 钉子 till the edges were all cracked and uneven 不均匀的. The men I was matched against would miss no detail. I broke one of the bootlaces and retied it in a clumsy 笨拙 knot 结, and loosed the other so that my thick grey 灰色:gray socks 短袜 bulged 凸 over the uppers. Still no sign of anything on the road. The motor I had observed half an hour ago must have gone home.

My toilet 厕所 complete, I took up the barrow and began my journeys 旅行 to and from the quarry 采石场 a hundred 百 yards off.

I remember an old scout 侦察 in Rhodesia, who had done many queer 奇怪 things in his day, once telling me that the secret of playing a part was to think your‧self 你自己 into it. You could never keep it up, he said, unless you could manage to convince 说服 your‧self 你自己 that you were it. So I shut off all other thoughts and switched 开关 them on to the road-mending 修理. I thought of the little white cottage as my home, I recalled 召回 the years I had spent herding 放牧 on Leithen Water, I made my mind dwell 住 lovingly 含情脉脉 on sleep in a box-bed and a bottle of cheap 便宜的 whisky 威士忌酒. Still nothing appeared on that long white road.

Now and then a sheep 羊 wandered off the heather 石南属 to stare at me. A heron flopped 拍击声 down to a pool in the stream and started to fish, taking no more notice of me than if I had been a mile‧stone 里程碑. On I went, trundling my loads of stone, with the heavy step of the professional 专业的. Soon I grew warm, and the dust on my face changed into solid and abiding 遵守 grit 砂砾. I was already counting the hours till evening should put a limit to Mr Turnbull's monotonous toil 辛劳. Suddenly a crisp 脆 voice spoke from the road, and looking up I saw a little Ford two-seater, and a round-faced young man in a bowler 碗 hat.

'Are you Alexander Turnbull?' he asked. 'I am the new County 县 Road Surveyor. You live at Blackhopefoot, and have charge of the section 部分 from Laidlawbyres to the Riggs? Good! A fair bit of road, Turnbull, and not badly 很糟地 engineered. A little soft about a mile off, and the edges want cleaning. See you look after that. Good morning. You'll know me the next time you see me.'

Clearly my get-up was good enough for the dreaded 恐惧 Surveyor. I went on with my work, and as the morning grew towards noon 正午 I was cheered 欢呼 by a little traffic 交通. A baker's van 厢式车辆 breasted 乳房 the hill, and sold sell me a bag 袋 of ginger 生姜 biscuits 饼干 which I stowed in my trouser-pockets against emergencies 急. Then a herd 放牧 passed with sheep 羊, and disturbed 打扰 me some‧what 有些 by asking loudly 响亮的, 'What had become o' Specky?'

'In bed wi' the colic,' I replied, and the herd 放牧 passed on ... just about mid 中-day a big car stole down the hill, glided 滑行 past and drew up a hundred 百 yards beyond. Its three occupants 占有者 descended as if to stretch their legs, and sauntered towards me.

Two of the men I had seen before from the window of the Galloway inn—one lean, sharp, and dark, the other comfort‧able 舒服；自在 and smiling. The third had the look of a country‧man 农村人—a vet 兽医, perhaps, or a small farmer. He was dressed in ill 生病-cut knickerbockers, and the eye in his head was as bright and wary 警惕 as a hen 母鸡's.

'Morning,' said the last. 'That's a fine easy job o' yours.'

I had not looked up on their approach, and now, when accosted, I slowly and painfully 痛苦 straightened my back, after the manner of roadmen; spat 吐:spit vigorously 大力, after the manner of the low Scot; and regarded them steadily before replying. I con‧front 面对 three pairs of eyes that missed nothing.

'There's waur jobs and there's better,' I said sententiously. 'I wad rather hae yours, sittin' a' day on your hinderlands on thae cushions. It's you and your muckle cawrs that wreck 破坏；使遇难 my roads! If we a' had oor richts, ye sud be made to mend 修理 what ye break.'

The bright-eyed man was looking at the newspaper lying beside Turnbull's bundle 捆.

'I see you get your papers in good time,' he said.

I glanced 一瞥 at it casually 胡乱；漫不经心. 'Aye, in gude time. Seein' that that paper cam 凸轮' out last Setterday I'm just Sax days late.'

He picked it up, glanced 一瞥 at the superscription, and laid it down again. One of the others had been looking at my boots, and a word in German called the speaker's attention to them.

'You've a fine taste in boots,' he said. 'These were never made by a country shoe‧maker 鞋‧制作者.'

'They were not,' I said readily. 'They were made in London. I got them frae the gentleman that was here last year for the shootin'. What was his name now?' And I scratched 刮 a forgetful head. Again the sleek 光滑 one spoke in German. 'Let us get on,' he said. 'This fellow is all right.'

They asked one last question.

'Did you see anyone pass early this morning? He might be on a bicycle 5 or he might be on foot.'

I very nearly fell into the trap and told a story of a bicyclist hurrying past in the grey 灰色:gray dawn 黎明. But I had the sense to see my danger. I pretended 假装 to consider very deeply.

'I wasna up very early,' I said. 'Ye see, my dochter was merrit last nicht, and we keepit it up late. I opened the house door about seeven and there was naebody on the road then. Since I cam 凸轮' up here there has just been the baker and the Ruchill herd 放牧, besides you gentlemen.'

One of them gave me a cigar 雪茄, which I smelt smell gingerly 生姜 and stuck in Turnbull's bundle 3. They got into their car and were out of sight in three minutes.

My heart leaped 飞跃 with an enormous 巨大 relief, but I went on wheeling my stones. It was as well, for ten 十 minutes later the car returned, one of the occupants 占有者 waving a hand to me. Those gentry 绅 left nothing to chance.

I finished Turnbull's bread 面包 and cheese 奶酪, and pretty soon I had finished the stones. The next step was what puzzled me. I could not keep up this roadmaking business for long. A merciful Providence had kept Mr Turnbull indoors, but if he appeared on the scene there would be trouble. I had a notion 概念 that the cordon was still tight 紧的 round the glen, and that if I walked in any direction I should meet with questioners. But get out I must. No man's nerve 神经 could stand more than a day of being spied 间谍 on.

I stayed at my post till five o'clock. By that time I had resolved 解决 to go down to Turnbull's cottage at night‧fall 夜‧落下 and take my chance of getting over the hills in the darkness 黑暗. But suddenly a new car came up the road, and slowed down a yard or two from me. A fresh wind had risen rise, and the occupant 占有者 wanted to light a cigarette 香烟，纸烟. It was a touring car, with the tonneau full of an assortment 品种 of baggage 行李. One man sat in it, and by an amazing 使大为惊奇，使惊愕 chance I knew him. His name was Marmaduke Jopley, and he was an offence to creation 创建. He was a sort of blood stock‧broker 股份‧经纪人, who did his business by toadying eldest 最年长 sons and rich young peers 窥视 and foolish 傻 old ladies. 'Marmie' was a familiar figure, I understood, at balls and polo 马球-weeks and country houses. He was an adroit scandal 丑闻-monger, and would crawl 爬行 a mile on his belly 肚皮 to anything that had a title or a million. I had a business introduction 介绍 to his firm when I came to London, and he was good enough to ask me to dinner at his club. There he showed off at a great rate, and pattered about his duchesses till the snobbery of the creature 动物；生物 turned me sick. I asked a man after‧ward 之后 why nobody kicked him, and was told that Englishmen reverenced the weaker sex 性别.

Anyhow 总之 there he was now, nattily dressed, in a fine new car, obviously 明显 on his way to visit some of his smart 聪明 friends. A sudden daftness took me, and in a second I had jumped into the tonneau and had him by the shoulder.

'Hullo, Jopley,' I sang sing out. 'Well met, my lad 小伙子!' He got a horrid fright 恐怖. His chin 下巴 dropped as he stared at me. 'Who the devil 魔鬼 are YOU?' he gasped 喘气.

'My name's Hannay,' I said. 'From Rhodesia, you remember.'

'Good God, the murderer!' he choked 呛.

'Just so. And there'll be a second murder, my dear, if you don't do as I tell you. Give me that coat of yours. That cap, too.'

He did as bid 出价, for he was blind with terror 恐怖. Over my dirty 肮脏 trousers 长裤 and vulgar 庸俗 shirt I put on his smart 聪明 driving-coat, which buttoned 按钮 high at the top and thereby 从而 hid hide the deficiencies 不足 of my collar. I stuck the cap on my head, and added his gloves 手套 to my get-up. The dusty 尘土飞扬 road‧man 路‧男人 in a minute was transformed 使彻底改观；使大变样 into one of the neatest 整洁的 motorists 司机 in Scotland. On Mr Jopley's head I clapped 拍 Turnbull's unspeakable hat, and told him to keep it there.

Then with some difficulty I turned the car. My plan was to go back the road he had come, for the watchers 守望者, having seen it before, would probably let it pass unremarked, and Marmie's figure was in no way like mine.

'Now, my child,' I said, 'sit quite still and be a good boy. I mean you no harm 损害. I'm only borrowing 借 your car for an hour or two. But if you play me any tricks 哄骗；诀窍, and above all if you open your mouth, as sure as there's a God above me I'll wring 拧 your neck. SAVEZ?'

I enjoyed that evening's ride. We ran eight 八 miles down the valley, through a village or two, and I could not help noticing several strange-looking folk 民间 lounging 休息室 by the road‧side 路边. These were the watchers 守望者 who would have had much to say to me if I had come in other garb or company. As it was, they looked incuriously on. One touched his cap in salute 礼炮, and I responded 响应 graciously 亲切.

As the dark fell I turned up a side glen which, as I remember from the map, led into an unfrequented corner of the hills. Soon the villages were left behind, then the farms, and then even the way‧side 路；方法‧边；面 cottage. Presently we came to a lonely 孤独的 moor 泊 where the night was blackening 黩 the sunset 日落 gleam 闪光 in the bog 沼泽 pools. Here we stopped, and I obligingly reversed the car and restored 修复；使复位；使复职 to Mr Jopley his belongings.

'A thou‧sand 千 thanks,' I said. 'There's more use in you than I thought. Now be off and find the police.'

As I sat on the hill‧side 山坡, watching the tail 尾-light dwindle 缩小, I reflected on the various kinds of crime 罪行 I had now sampled. Contrary to general belief, I was not a murderer, but I had become an unholy liar 说谎者, a shame‧less 羞愧‧少 impostor, and a highway‧man 公路‧男人 with a marked taste for expensive 昂贵的 motor-cars.