目录
1 失窃的信 埃德加?爱伦?坡
25 红发俱乐部 阿瑟?柯南?道尔
63 白额闪电 阿瑟?柯南?道尔
105 六尊拿破仑胸像 阿瑟?柯南?道尔
137 福尔摩斯谢幕演出 阿瑟?柯南?道尔
165 捉贼记 欧仁?弗朗索瓦?维多克
175 The Purloined Letter Edgar Allan Poe
205 The Red-Headed League Arthur Conan Doyle
245 Silver Blaze Arthur Conan Doyle
287 The Adventure of the Six Napoleons Arthur Conan Doyle
323 His Last Bow Arthur Conan Doyle
351 Jean Monette Eugène Fran?ois Vidocq
內容試閱：
《失窃的信》
埃德加·爱伦·坡
一八XX 年秋，在一个风声萧瑟的傍晚，我和朋友C. 奥古斯特·迪潘在他位于巴黎圣日耳曼旧郊区登诺街三十三号四层的后书房或藏书室中享受着双重奢侈：一边沉思，一边抽着海泡石烟斗。有至少一个小时，我们保持着绝对的沉默，在任何偶然经过的人看来，我们两个大概都心无旁骛地沉浸在喷云吐雾之中。整个屋子烟雾缭绕，气氛有些压抑。然而，对我而言，我头脑中一直思索着那晚早些时候我们谈论的某个话题；我指的是太平街的事和与玛丽·罗歇遇害有关的谜案。因此，当房门被推开，我们的老熟人即巴黎警察局局长G 先生进来时，我认为这纯属巧合。
我们热情地欢迎他的到来。因为他这个人虽然可鄙，但还算是风趣，况且我们也有几年未曾谋面了。他来前，我们俩一直坐在黑暗中；他进来后，迪潘起身想要掌灯，但听到G 说他来向我们请教，或者更准确地说，是来向我朋友征求对业已惹起大麻烦的公事的意见时，他就没点灯，又坐下了。
“要是这个看法需要思考的话，”迪潘一边克制住自己没去点着灯芯，一边评说道，“我们最好还是在黑暗中好好研究研究吧。”
“这又是你出的一个古怪点子。”警察局长说。他习惯把超出自己理解能力的东西称为“怪”，因此他的生活里充斥着“怪人怪事”。
“太对了。”迪潘说，同时递给客人一个烟斗，并推给他一把舒适的椅子。
“现在有什么难事？”我问，“我希望别再是什么谋杀案之类的，对吗？”
“哦，对，不是谋杀那回事。事实上，这件事很简单，我毫不怀疑我们自己就完全能把这件事搞定；但我觉得迪潘一定想听听这事的原委，因为这事太怪异了。”
“简单但怪异。” 迪潘说。
“呃，是的；但也不完全准确。事实上，我们都非常困惑，原因是这件事虽然很简单，但它却把我们都难住了。”
“也许正是事情的简单让你们失误。”我朋友说道。
“你真是胡说八道！”警察局长答道，尽情地哈哈大笑起来。
“可能这个谜局未免有点太清楚了。”迪潘说道。
“哦，天啊！有谁听说过这种话？”
“有点太不言自明了。”
“哈！哈！哈！——哈！哈！哈！——呵！呵！呵！”我们的客人发自心底地放声大笑，“哦，迪潘，你可笑死我了！”
“手上究竟是宗什么案子？”我问道。
警察局长均匀地喷出一股长长的烟雾，脸上露出沉思的表情，在椅子上坐定后说道：“哎，我给你说说，三言五语就能说清；但说之前，我可得提醒你这事儿需要绝对保密，倘若有人知道是我泄的密，我这警察局长的位子很可能就没了。”
“继续。”我说道。
“要么干脆别说啦。”迪潘说。
“嗯，还是说吧。我从一个非常高档的社区获得个人信息：有一份极其重要的文件被人从皇家公寓盗走了。是谁盗的文件我们知道，准错不了，因为他拿走文件时有人看见了。我们还知道，这份文件还在他手里。”
“这是怎么知道的？”迪潘问道。
警察局长回答说：“这是明摆着的，我们可以从多方面推断出来，比如文件的性质，再者偷盗者若将文件出手立刻会出现的后果并未显现，也就是说，从偷盗者会必然谋划最终如何使用文件这一点，可以清楚明白地做出这样的推断。”
“说得再清楚点。”我说。
“嗯，我甚至可以斗胆说，这份文件使持有者在某一特定区域内得到一定的权柄，而在这一区域此权力是非常有价值的。”警察局长喜欢用这样的外交辞令。
“我还是不太明白。”迪潘说道。
“不明白？这么说吧，这份文件倘若泄露给一个无名的第三者，就会使一个地位至高无上的人物的荣誉遭到质疑，因而这份文件的持有者拥有拿住这位要人的优势，并使其名誉地位和生活的宁静受到了威胁。”
“但要利用这个优势，”我插嘴道，“取决于盗贼要知道失窃者知道是谁把文件盗走了。有谁敢……”
“这个盗贼，”G 说，“就是D 部长，他没有什么不敢干的事——凡事无论得体还是不得体，为所欲为。盗取的方式机智且大胆。所说的文件，说白了就是一封信， 是失盗者独自在皇宫内院里时收到的。她还在细细品读的时候，被进来的另一个达官贵人突然打断，因为她尤其不想让他看到这封信。匆忙中，她把信往抽屉里猛然一塞，却没塞进去，只得就那么打开着放在桌上。不过，地址在最上面，内容没露出来，不太惹人注意。在此关头，D 部长进来了，他那双狸猫眼一下子就注意到那张纸，从地址就看出来了是谁的笔迹，察觉到收信人一脸的慌乱，便洞察了她的秘密。像平时那样，匆匆地经过一番例行公事之后，他拿出一封和前面提到的那封信较为相似的信，也打开，假装读着，然后紧挨着另一封信并排地放在那儿。之后，又聊了聊公共事务，大概有一刻钟的样子。最后，起身告辞时，就从桌上拿走了本不属于他的那封信。信的合法所有人看见了，却不敢声张，因为跟前还站着第三者。这位部长就这么撤了，将自己的那封没有丝毫价值的信留在了桌上。”
The Purloined Letter
Edgar Allan Poe
At Paris, just after dark one gusty evening in the autumn of 18—, I was enjoying the twofold luxury of meditation and a meerschaum, in company with my friend, C. Auguste Dupin, in his little back library, or book-closet, au troisième, No. 33 Rue Dun?t, Faubourg St. Germain. For one hour at least we had maintained a profound silence, while each, to any casual observer, might have seemed intently and exclusively occupied with the curling eddies of smoke that oppressed the atmosphere of the chamber. For myself, however, I was mentally discussing certain topics which had formed matter for conversation between us at an earlier period of the evening; I mean the affair of the Rue Morgue, and the mystery attending the murder of Marie Rogêt. I looked upon it, therefore, as something of a coincidence, when the door of our apartment was thrown open and admitted our old acquaintance, Monsieur G, the Prefect of the Parisian police.
We gave him a hearty welcome; for there was nearly half as much of the entertaining as of the contemptible about the man, and we had not seen him for several years. We had been sitting in the dark, and Dupin now arose for the purpose of lighting a lamp, but sat down again, without doing so, upon G’s saying that he had called to consult us, or rather to ask the opinion of my friend, about some official business which had occasioned a great deal of trouble.
“If it is any point requiring reflection,” observed Dupin,as he forbore to enkindle the wick, “we shall examine it to better purpose in the dark.”
“That is another of your odd notions,” said the Prefect, who had the fashion of calling everything “odd” that was beyond his comprehension, and thus lived amid an absolute legion of “oddities.”
“Very true,” said Dupin, as he supplied his visitor with a pipe, and rolled toward him a comfortable chair.
“And what is the difficulty now?” I asked. “Nothing more in the assassination way, I hope?”
“Oh no, nothing of that nature. The fact is, the business is very simple indeed, and I make no doubt that we can manage it sufficiently well ourselves; but then I thought Dupin would like to hear the details of it, because it is so excessively odd.”
“Simple and odd,” said Dupin.
“Why, yes; and not exactly that, either. The fact is, we have all been a good deal puzzled because the affair is so simple, and yet baffles us altogether.”
“Perhaps it is the very simplicity of the thing which puts you at fault,” said my friend.
“What nonsense you do talk!” replied the Prefect, laughing heartily.
“Perhaps the mystery is a little too plain,” said Dupin.
“Oh, good heavens! Who ever heard of such an idea?”
“A little too self-evident.”
“Ha! Ha! Ha!—Ha! Ha! Ha!—Ho! Ho! Ho!” roared our visitor, profoundly amused. “Oh, Dupin, you will be the death of me yet!”
“And what, after all, is the matter on hand?” I asked.
“Why, I will tell you,” replied the Prefect, as he gave a long, steady, and contemplative puff, and settled himself in his chair. “I will tell you in a few words; but, before I begin, let me caution you that this is an affair demanding the greatest secrecy, and that I should most probably lose the position I now hold were it known that I confided it to any one.”
“Proceed,” said I.
“Or not,” said Dupin.
“Well, then; I have received personal information, from a very high quarter, that a certain document of the last importance has been purloined from the royal apartments. The individual who purloined it is known; this beyond a doubt; he was seen to take it. It is known, also, that it still remains in his possession.”
“How is this known?” asked Dupin.
“It is clearly inferred,” replied the Prefect, “from the nature of the document, and from the non-appearance of certain results which would at once arise from its passing out of the robber’s possession—that is to say, from his employing it as he must design in the end to employ it.”
“Be a little more explicit,” I said.
“Well, I may venture so far as to say that the paper gives its holder a certain power in a certain quarter where such power is immensely valuable.” The Prefect was fond of the cant of diplomacy.
“Still I do not quite understand,” said Dupin.
“No? Well, the disclosure of the document to a third person, who shall be nameless, would bring in question the honor of a personage of the most exalted station, and this fact gives the holder of the document an ascendancy over the illustrious personage whose honor and peace are so jeopardized.”
“But this ascendancy,” I interposed, “would depend upon the robber’s knowledge of the loser’s knowledge of the robber. Who would dare—”
“The thief,” said G, “is the Minister D, who dares all things, those unbecoming as well as those becoming a man. The method of the theft was not less ingenious than bold. The document in question—a letter, to be frank—had been received by the personage robbed while alone in the royal boudoir. During its perusal she was suddenly interrupted by the entrance of the other exalted personage from whom especially it was her wish to conceal it. After a hurried and vain endeavor to thrust it in a drawer, she was forced to place it, open as it was, upon a table. The address, however,was uppermost, and, the contents thus unexposed, the letter escaped notice. At this juncture enters the Minister D. His lynx eye immediately perceives the paper, recognizes the handwriting of the address, observes the confusion of the personage addressed, and fathoms her secret. After some business transactions hurried through in his ordinary manner, he produces a letter somewhat similar to the one in question, opens it, pretends to read it, and then places it in close juxtaposition to the other. Again he converses, for some fifteen minutes, upon the public affairs. At length, in taking leave, he takes also from the table the letter to which he had no claim. Its rightful owner saw, but of course, dared not call attention to the act, in the presence of the third personage who stood at her elbow. The Minister decamped, leaving his own letter—one of no importance—upon the table.”
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