"But how could you guess what the motive was?"
"可是,你是怎么猜出他的動機的呢?"
"Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a mere vulgar intrigue.
"如果在那店鋪里有女人的話,我本來會懷疑無非是搞些庸俗的風(fēng)流事。
That, however, was out of the question.
可是,根本不是那么回事。
The man's business was a small one,
這個當(dāng)鋪老板做的是小本經(jīng)營的買賣,
and there was nothing in his house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and such an expenditure as they were at.
當(dāng)鋪里沒有什么值錢的東西,值不得他們?nèi)绱司牟邉潱敲炊噱X。
It must, then, be something out of the house. What could it be?
因此,他們的目標肯定不在當(dāng)鋪。那么可能搞什么呢?
I thought of the assistant's fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the cellar.
我想到這個伙計喜歡照相,想到他經(jīng)常出沒于地下室這個詭計。
The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue.
地下室!這就找到了這個錯綜復(fù)雜的案件的線索。
Then I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant
然后,我調(diào)查了這個神秘的伙計的情況。
and found that I had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in London.
我發(fā)現(xiàn),我的對手是倫敦頭腦最冷靜、膽子最大的罪犯之一,
He was doing something in the cellar–something which took many hours a day for months on end.
他在地下室里搞了名堂,而且要連續(xù)幾個月每天干許多小時才行。
What could it be, once more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel to some other building.
那再問一下,可能搞什么呢?我想除了挖一條通往其他樓房的地道以外,不可能是其他什么東西。
So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action.
當(dāng)我們?nèi)ゲ炜醋靼傅攸c時,我心里就明白了。