Our proceedings of that first morning did little to advance the investigation. It was marked, however, at the outset by an incident which left the most sinister impression upon my mind. The approach to the spot at which the tragedy occurred is down a narrow, winding, country lane. While we made our way along it we heard the rattle of a carriage coming towards us and stood aside to let it pass. As it drove by us I caught a glimpse through the closed window of a horribly contorted, grinning face glaring out at us. Those staring eyes and gnashing teeth flashed past us like a dreadful vision.

最初の朝の成り行きは / 捜査をほとんど進展させなかった◆しかしこの事件は最初から際立っていた / 私の心にとりわけ不吉な印象を与える出来事によって◆惨劇が発生した場所に行く道は / 狭く曲がりくねった田舎道だった◆私たちがその道に沿って歩いていると / こちらに向かってくる馬車の音が聞こえたので / 私たちは脇にどいて馬車を通した◆馬車が私たちの前を通り過ぎるとき / 閉じた窓越しに私はちらりと見た / おそろしくゆがんで歯をむき出しにした顔が我々を睨みつけているところを◆このぎらぎらした目とむき出しの歯が私たちをさっと横切った / 恐ろしい幻影のように

“My brothers!” cried Mortimer Tregennis, white to his lips. “They are taking them to Helston.”

「兄たちです！」 / モーティマー・トレゲニスが叫んだ / 唇まで真っ青になって◆「ヘルストンに連れて行くところだ」

We looked with horror after the black carriage, lumbering upon its way. Then we turned our steps towards this ill-omened house in which they had met their strange fate.

私たちは恐怖にかられて黒い馬車が道を揺られていくのを見送った◆それから私たちは不吉な家へと歩を進めた / そこで彼らが奇妙な運命を迎えた

It was a large and bright dwelling, rather a villa than a cottage, with a considerable garden which was already, in that Cornish air, well filled with spring flowers. Towards this garden the window of the sitting-room fronted, and from it, according to Mortimer Tregennis, must have come that thing of evil which had by sheer horror in a single instant blasted their minds. Holmes walked slowly and thoughtfully among the flower-plots and along the path before we entered the porch. So absorbed was he in his thoughts, I remember, that he stumbled over the watering-pot, upset its contents, and deluged both our feet and the garden path. Inside the house we were met by the elderly Cornish housekeeper, Mrs. Porter, who, with the aid of a young girl, looked after the wants of the family. She readily answered all Holmes’s questions. She had heard nothing in the night. Her employers had all been in excellent spirits lately, and she had never known them more cheerful and prosperous. She had fainted with horror upon entering the room in the morning and seeing that dreadful company round the table. She had, when she recovered, thrown open the window to let the morning air in, and had run down to the lane, whence she sent a farm-lad for the doctor. The lady was on her bed upstairs if we cared to see her. It took four strong men to get the brothers into the asylum carriage. She would not herself stay in the house another day and was starting that very afternoon to rejoin her family at St. Ives.

大きく明るい家だった / 田舎家というよりも邸宅に近い / 広大な庭はすでに / コーンウォールの空気の中 / 春の花で覆われていた◆正面の居間の窓はこの庭に面していた / そしてそこから / モーティマー・トレゲニスによれば / 魔物が入ったに違いなかった / それが完全な恐怖で一瞬のうちに彼らの心を吹き飛ばした◆ホームズは考え深げにゆっくりと歩いていた / 玄関ポーチに着くまで花壇の間を抜け小道に沿って◆彼は自分の考えにのめりこんでいて / 私は覚えている / ジョウロをひっくり返し / 中身をぶちまけて / 我々の足と小道をびしょぬれにした◆家の中で / 我々は年配のコーンウォールの家政婦のポーター夫人と会った / 彼女は、若い女性の手を借りて / 家族の面倒を見ていた◆彼女はホームズの質問すべてによどみなく答えた◆彼女は夜の間には何も聞かなかった◆彼女の雇い主たちはここのところ、全員上機嫌で / これ以上に楽しく羽振りがいいのは全然知らなかった◆彼女は恐怖で失神した / 朝になって部屋に入り / 恐ろしい一群がテーブルを囲んでいるのを見た時◆彼女は / 意識を取り戻した時 / 窓をさっと開けて朝の空気を入れた / そして芝生に駆け出した / それから農場の少年に医者を呼びにやらせた◆もしご覧になりたければ女性は上の階のベッドにいる◆精神病院行きの馬車に兄たちを乗せるのは屈強な男四人がかりだった◆彼女自身はこの家にもう一日もいるつもりはなく / この日の午後にセント・アイブズの家族の元に出発するつもりだった

We ascended the stairs and viewed the body. Miss Brenda Tregennis had been a very beautiful girl, though now verging upon middle age. Her dark, clear-cut face was handsome, even in death, but there still lingered upon it something of that convulsion of horror which had been her last human emotion. From her bedroom we descended to the sitting-room, where this strange tragedy had actually occurred. The charred ashes of the overnight fire lay in the grate. On the table were the four guttered and burned-out candles, with the cards scattered over its surface. The chairs had been moved back against the walls, but all else was as it had been the night before. Holmes paced with light, swift steps about the room; he sat in the various chairs, drawing them up and reconstructing their positions. He tested how much of the garden was visible; he examined the floor, the ceiling, and the fireplace; but never once did I see that sudden brightening of his eyes and tightening of his lips which would have told me that he saw some gleam of light in this utter darkness.

我々は階段を上がり検死をした◆ミス・ブレンダ・トレゲニスは非常に美しい女性だった / 中年に差し掛かる頃だったが◆彼女の黒髪の端正な顔立ちは美しかった / 死んだ後でも / しかし顔にはまだ残っていた / 恐怖の発作のようなものが / それは彼女の最期の人間としての感情だった◆彼女の寝室から我々は居間に降りた / そこでこの奇妙な惨劇が実際に起きた◆夜通し燃えた暖炉の燃えのこりが火格子の中にあった◆テーブルの上には四本の蝋がたれて燃え尽きたロウソクと / カードが一面に散らばっていた◆椅子は壁に向かって下げられていた / しかしそれ以外は全部昨夜のままだった◆ホームズは軽々とした早足で部屋の中を歩き回った / 彼はそれぞれの椅子に座り / 引っ張ってきてもとの位置に戻した◆彼は庭がどれくらい見通せるかを確かめ / 床を調べ / 天井 / 暖炉を調べた / しかし私は全く見ることができなかった / 彼の目が突然輝き、唇がかみ締められるのが / そうすれば私に語りかけたであろう / 彼がこの完全な暗闇に光がさすのを見たと

“Why a fire?” he asked once. “Had they always a fire in this small room on a spring evening?”

「なぜ暖炉を使ったんですか？」 / 彼は一度尋ねた◆「春の夜なのに、この狭い部屋でいつも暖炉に火を入れていたんですか？」

Mortimer Tregennis explained that the night was cold and damp. For that reason, after his arrival, the fire was lit. “What are you going to do now, Mr. Holmes?” he asked.

モーティマー・トレゲニスが昨夜は寒くて湿度が高かったと説明した◆そのために / 彼が到着後 / 暖炉に火を入れた◆「これからどうするつもりですか？ / ホームズさん」 / 彼が尋ねた

My friend smiled and laid his hand upon my arm. “I think, Watson, that I shall resume that course of tobacco-poisoning which you have so often and so justly condemned,” said he. “With your permission, gentlemen, we will now return to our cottage, for I am not aware that any new factor is likely to come to our notice here. I will turn the facts over in my mind, Mr. Tregennis, and should anything occur to me I will certainly communicate with you and the vicar. In the meantime I wish you both good-morning.”

ホームズは笑顔で私の腕に手を置いた◆「ワトソン、僕は煙草の毒を吸う習慣に戻ろうと思う / 君がしばしば正当な理由で非難してきた」 / 彼は言った◆「よければ / 皆さん / 我々はこれから家に戻ります / 私には分かりませんので / ここで私たちが新しい情報を得ることになりそうかどうか◆私は事実関係をじっくりと考え / トレゲニスさん / そして何か思いつけば / 私は必ずあなたと司祭に連絡します◆それまでの間、これで失礼します」