福爾摩斯探案經典:《恐怖谷》第9章Part5
"It's a murder society, that's vat it is."
McMurdo laughed incredulously. "How can you.prove that?" he asked.
"Prove it! Are there not fifty murders to prove it? Vat about Milman and Van Shorst, and the Nicholson family, and old Mr. Hyam, and little Billy James, and the others? Prove it! Is there a man or a voman in this valley vat does not know it?"
"See here!" said McMurdo earnestly. "I want you to take back what you've said, or else make it good. One or the other you must do before I quit this room. Put yourself in my place. Here am I, a stranger in the town. I belong to a society that I know only as an innocent one. You'll find it through the length and breadth of the States, but always as an innocent one. Now, when I am counting upon joining it here, you tell me that it is the same as a murder society called the Scowrers. I guess you owe me either an apology or else an explanation, Mr. Shafter."
"I can but tell you vat the whole vorld knows, mister. The bosses of the one are the bosses of the other. If you offend the one, it is the other vat vill strike you. We have proved it too often."
"That's just gossip--I want proof!" said McMurdo.
"If you live here long you vill get your proof. But I forget that you are yourself one of them. You vill soon be as bad as the rest. But you vill find other lodgings, mister. I cannot have you here. Is it not bad enough that one of these people come courting my Ettie, and that I dare not turn him down, but that I should have another for my boarder? Yes, indeed, you shall not sleep here after to-night!"
McMurdo found himself under sentence of banishment both from his comfortable quarters and from the girl whom he loved. He found her alone in the sitting-room that same evening, and he poured his troubles into her ear.
"Sure, your father is after giving me notice," he said. "It's little I would care if it was just my room, but indeed, Ettie, though it's only a week that I've known you, you are the very breath of life to me, and I can't live without you!"
"Oh, hush, Mr. McMurdo, don't speak so!" said the girl. "I have told you, have I not, that you are too late? There is another, and if I have not promised to marry him at once, at least I can promise no one else."
"Suppose I had been first, Ettie, would I have had a chance?"
“是一個暗殺組織，正是這樣。”
麥克默多不相信地笑了笑，問道：“你有什麼證據呢？”
“證據！這裏怕沒有五十樁暗殺事件做證據！象米爾曼和範肖爾斯特，還有尼科爾森一家，老海厄姆先生，小比利·詹姆斯以及其他一些人不都是證據嗎？還要證據！這個山谷裏難道還有一個男女不瞭解死酷黨麼？”
“喂！"麥克默多誠懇地說道，“我希望你收回你說的話，或是向我道歉。你必須先做到其中一點，然後我就搬走。你替我設身處地想一想，我在這個鎮子裏是一個外鄉人，我是一個社團成員，但我只知道這是一個純潔的社團。你在全國範圍內到處可以找到它，不過總是一個純潔的組織。現在，正當我打算加入這裏的組織時，你說它全然是一個殺人的社團，叫做'死酷黨'。我認爲你該向我道歉，不然的話，就請你解釋明白，謝夫特先生。”
“我只能告訴你，這是全世界都知道的，先生。自由人會的首領，就是死酷黨的首領。假如你得罪了這一個，那一個就要報復你。我們的證據太多了。”
“這不過是一些流言蜚語！我要的是證據！"麥克默多說道。
“假如你在這兒住長些，你自己就會找到證據的。不過我忘了你也是其中的一員了。你很快就會變得和他們一樣壞。不過你可以住到別處去，先生。我不能再留你住在這裏了。一個死酷黨人來勾引我的伊蒂，而我不敢拒絕，這已經夠糟糕了，我還能再收另一個做我的房客嗎？對，真的，過了今晚，你不能再住在這裏了。”
因此，麥克默多知道，他不僅要被趕出舒適的住處，而且被迫離開他所愛的姑娘。就在這天晚上，他發現伊蒂獨自一人坐在屋裏，便向她傾訴了遇到的麻煩事。
“誠然，儘管你父親已經下了逐客令，"麥克默多說道，“如果這僅僅是我的住處問題，那我就不在乎了。不過，說老實話，伊蒂，雖然我認識你僅僅一個星期，你已經是我生命中不可缺少的了，離開你我無法生活啊！”
“啊，別說了，麥克默多先生！別這麼說！"姑娘說道，“我已經告訴過你，我沒告訴過你嗎？你來得太晚了。有另外一個人，即使我沒有答應馬上嫁給他，至少我決不能再許配其他人了。”
“伊蒂，我要是先向你求婚，那就行了嗎？”
