福爾摩斯探案經典:《恐怖谷》第8章Part1

It was the fourth of February in the year 1875. It had been a severe winter, and the snow lay deep in the gorges of the Gilmerton Mountains. The steam ploughs had, however, kept the railroad open, and the evening train which connects the long line of coal-mining and iron-working settlements was slowly groaning its way up the steep gradients which lead from Stagville on the plain to Vermissa, the central township which lies at the head of Vermissa Valley. From this point the track sweeps downward to Bartons Crossing, Helmdale, and the purely agricultural county of Merton. It was a single track railroad; but at every siding--and they were numerous--long lines of trucks piled with coal and iron ore told of the hidden wealth which had brought a rude population and a bustling life to this most desolate corner of the United States of desolate it was! Little could the first pioneer who had traversed it have ever imagined that the fairest prairies and the most lush water pastures were valueless compared to this gloomy land of black crag and tangled forest. Above the dark and often scarcely penetrable woods upon their flanks, the high, bare crowns of the mountains, white snow, and jagged rock towered upon each flank, leaving a long, winding, tortuous valley in the centre. Up this the little train was slowly oil lamps had just been lit in the leading passenger car, a long, bare carriage in which some twenty or thirty people were seated. The greater number of these were workmen returning from their day's toil in the lower part of the valley. At least a dozen, by their grimed faces and the safety lanterns which they carried, proclaimed themselves miners. These sat smoking in a group and conversed in low voices, glancing occasionally at two men on the opposite side of the car, whose uniforms and badges showed them to be policemen.
Several women of the labouring class and one or two travellers who might have been small local storekeepers made up the rest of the company, with the exception of one young man in a corner by himself. It is with this man that we are concerned. Take a good look at him; for he is worth is a fresh-complexioned, middle-sized young man, not far, one would guess, from his thirtieth year. He has large, shrewd, humorous gray eyes which twinkle inquiringly from time to time as he looks round through his spectacles at the people about him. It is easy to see that he is of a sociable and possibly simple disposition, anxious to be friendly to all men. Anyone could pick him at once as gregarious in his habits and communicative in his nature, with a quick wit and a ready smile. And yet the man who studied him more closely might discern a certain firmness of jaw and grim tightness about the lips which would warn him that there were depths beyond, and that this pleasant, brown-haired young Irishman might conceivably leave his mark for good or evil upon any society to which he was ng made one or two tentative remarks to the nearest miner, and receiving only short, gruff replies, the traveller resigned himself to uncongenial silence, staring moodily out of the window at the fading landscape.
It was not a cheering prospect. Through the growing gloom there pulsed the red glow of the furnaces on the sides of the hills. Great heaps of slag and dumps of cinders loomed up on each side, with the high shafts of the collieries towering above them. Huddled groups of mean, wooden houses, the windows of which were beginning to outline themselves in light, were scattered here and there along the line, and the frequent halting places were crowded with their swarthy iron and coal valleys of the Vermissa district were no resorts for the leisured or the cultured. Everywhere there were stern signs of the crudest battle of life, the rude work to be done, and the rude, strong workers who did young traveller gazed out into this dismal country with a face of mingled repulsion and interest, which showed that the scene was new to him. At intervals he drew from his pocket a bulky letter to which he referred, and on the margins of which he scribbled some notes. Once from the back of his waist he produced something which one would hardly have expected to find in the possession of so mild-mannered a man. It was a navy revolver of the largest size. As he turned it slantwise to the light, the glint upon the rims of the copper shells within the drum showed that it was fully loaded. He quickly restored it to his secret pocket, but not before it had been observed by a working man who had seated himself upon the adjoining bench.
"Hullo, mate!" said he. "You seem heeled and ready."

一八七五年二月四日，天氣嚴寒，吉爾默敦山峽谷中積滿深雪。然而，由於開動了蒸汽掃雷機，鐵路依然暢通無阻，聯結煤礦和鐵工區這條漫長線路的夜車，遲緩地從斯塔格維爾平原，響聲隆隆地爬上陡峭的斜坡，向維爾米薩谷口的中心區維爾米薩鎮駛去。火車行駛到這裏，向下駛去，經巴頓支路、赫爾姆代爾，到農產豐富的梅爾頓縣。這是單軌鐵路，不過在每條側線上的無數列滿載着煤和鐵礦石的貨車，說明了礦藏的豐富。這豐富的礦藏使得美國這個最荒涼的角落遷來了許多粗野的人，生活開始沸騰起來。以前這裏是荒蕪不毛之地。第一批到這裏進行詳細考察的開拓者怎麼也不會想到這片美景如畫的大草原和水草繁茂的牧場，竟是遍佈黑岩石和茂密森林的荒涼土地。山坡上是黑壓壓幾乎不見天日的密林，再往上是高聳的光禿山頂，白雪和巉巖屹立兩側，經過蜿蜒曲折的山谷，這列火車正在向上緩緩地蠕動着。前面的客車剛剛點起了油燈，一節簡陋的長車廂裏坐着二三十個人，其中大多數是工人，經過在深谷底部的整天的勞累，坐火車回去休息。至少有十幾個人，從他們積滿塵垢的面孔以及他們攜帶的安全燈來看，顯然是礦工。他們坐在一起吸菸，低聲交談，偶而平視車廂對面坐的兩個人一眼，那兩個人身穿制服，佩戴徽章，說明他們是警察。

客車廂裏其餘的旅客，有幾個勞動階層的婦女，有一兩個旅客可能是當地的小業主，除此以外，還有一個年輕人獨自坐在車廂一角。因爲和我們有關的正是這一位 ，所以值得詳細交代一下。這個年輕人品宇軒昂，中等身材，不過三十歲左右。一雙富於幽默感的灰色大眼睛，不時好奇地迅速轉動，透過眼鏡打量着周圍的人們。不難看出他是一個善於交際、性情坦率的人，熱衷於和一切人交朋友。任何人都可以立即發現他那善於交際的脾氣和愛說話的性格，他頗爲機智而經常面帶微笑。但如有人細細地進行觀察，就可以從他雙脣和嘴角看出剛毅果斷、堅韌不拔的神色來，知道這是一個思想深沉的人，這個快活的褐色頭髮的年輕的愛爾蘭人一定會在他進入的社會中好歹使自己出名。這個年輕人和坐在離他最近的一個礦工搭了一兩句話，但對方話語很少而又粗魯，便因話不投機而默不作聲了，抑鬱不快地凝視着窗外逐漸暗淡下去的景色。

這景色不能令人高興。天色逐漸變暗，山坡上閃着爐火的紅光，礦渣和爐渣堆積如山，隱隱呈現在山坡兩側，煤礦的豎井聳立其上。沿線到處是零零落落的低矮木屋 ，窗口燈光閃爍，隱約現出起輪廓來。不時顯現的停車站擠滿了皮膚黝黑的乘客。維爾米薩區盛產煤鐵的山谷，不是有閒階層和有文化的人們經常來往的地方。這兒到處是爲生存而進行最原始搏鬥的嚴竣痕跡，進行着原始的粗笨勞動，從事勞動的是粗野的健壯的工人。年輕的旅客眺望着這小城鎮的淒涼景象，臉上現出不快和好奇的樣子，說明這地方對他還很陌生。他不時從口袋中掏出一封信來，看看它，在信的空白處潦草地寫下一些字。有一次他從身後掏出一樣東西，很難使人相信這是象他那樣溫文爾雅的人所有的。那是一支最大號的海軍用左輪手槍。在他把手槍側向燈光時，彈輪上的銅彈閃閃發光，表明槍內裝滿了子彈。他很快把槍放回口袋裏，但已被一個鄰座的工人看到了。
“喂，老兄，"這個工人說道，“你好象有所戒備啊。”