“At last, one evening I was driving up and down Torquay Terrace, as the street was called in which they boarded, when I saw a cab drive up to their door. Presently some luggage was brought out and after a time Drebber and Stangerson followed it, and drove off. I whipped up my horse and kept within sight of them, feeling very ill at ease, for I feared that they were going to shift their quarters. At Euston Station they got out, and I left a boy to hold my horse and followed them on to the platform. I heard them ask for the Liverpool train, and the guard answer that one had just gone, and there would not be another for some hours. Stangerson seemed to be put out at that, but Drebber was rather pleased than otherwise. I got so close to them in the bustle that I could hear every word that passed between them. Drebber said that he had a little business of his own to do, and that if the other would wait for him he would soon rejoin him. His companion remonstrated with him, and reminded him that they had resolved to stick together. Drebber answered that the matter was a delicate one, and that he must go alone. I could not catch what Stangerson said to that, but the other burst out swearing, and reminded him that he was nothing more than his paid servant, and that he must not presume to dictate to him. On that the secretary gave it up as a bad job, and simply bargained with him that if he missed the last train he should rejoin him at Halliday’s Private Hotel; to which Drebber answered that he would be back on the platform before eleven, and made his way out of the station.

「ついに / 俺が馬車でトーキー・テラスを行き来していると / 奴らが乗り込んだ時にその通りが呼ばれた / 俺が奴らの戸口に辻馬車が乗りつけるのを見ていた時◆まもなく / 荷物が運び出されて / しばらくしてドレバーとスタンガーソンが出てきて / それから出発した◆俺は馬に鞭をくれて見失わないようにつけた / 非常に落ち着かない気持ちで / 俺は奴らが住処を変えようとしているのではないかと恐れた◆イーストン駅で彼らは降り / 俺は馬をボーイに預けて / 奴らをプラットホームまで追いかけた◆奴らがリバプール行きの列車について尋ねているのが聞こえた / そして車掌はそれがちょうど出たところだと答えた / そして次のは何時間かあとだと◆スタンガーソンはイライラしているようだった / しかしドレバーは喜んでいるようだった◆俺は人ごみの中で非常に接近していたので / 彼らが話していることが全て聞き取れた◆ドレバーは自分でやりたいちょっとした用事があると言い / 相手が待っていればすぐに再会すると言った◆彼の連れは諌め、 / 彼らがずっと一緒にいると堅く決心した事を指摘した◆ドレバーは用事が繊細なものなので一人でいかなければならないと答えた◆俺はスタンガーソンがなんと言ったか聞き取れなかったが / しかし相手が猛然と罵り出した / そして彼がただの使用人に過ぎないことを指摘し / でしゃばって指図するべきでないと◆これで / 秘書は割りの合わない仕事をやめ / ただ彼と交渉した / もし最終列車に間に合わなければハリディのプライベートホテルで落ち合うと / これに対してドレバーは十一時前にプラットホームに戻ってくるつもりだと答えた / そして駅を出て行った」

“The moment for which I had waited so long had at last come. I had my enemies within my power. Together they could protect each other, but singly they were at my mercy. I did not act, however, with undue precipitation. My plans were already formed. There is no satisfaction in vengeance unless the offender has time to realize who it is that strikes him, and why retribution has come upon him. I had my plans arranged by which I should have the opportunity of making the man who had wronged me understand that his old sin had found him out. It chanced that some days before a gentleman who had been engaged in looking over some houses in the Brixton Road had dropped the key of one of them in my carriage. It was claimed that same evening, and returned; but in the interval I had taken a moulding of it, and had a duplicate constructed. By means of this I had access to at least one spot in this great city where I could rely upon being free from interruption. How to get Drebber to that house was the difficult problem which I had now to solve.

「俺が長い間待ち望んでいた瞬間が遂に来た◆俺は敵を手中にした◆二人ならお互いを守れるかもしれないが / 一人ずつなら俺の思うままだ◆しかし、俺は不用意に慌てなかった◆俺の計画は既に練ってあった◆復讐に満足はない / あの犯罪者が気づく時間を持たない限り / 奴を襲ったのが誰で / そしてなぜこの懲罰が奴に下ったのかを◆俺は計画を組み立てていた / それによって / 俺は機会を持てるだろう / 俺を虐げた男に理解させる / 昔の罪が自分を探しだしたのだと◆たまたま数日前に / ブリクストンロードの何軒かの家の管理を仕事にしている男が / その鍵の一つを馬車の中に落としていった◆その夜に問い合わせが来て返した / しかしその間に俺はその型を取っていて / そして複製を作らせていた◆これを使って / 俺はこの大都会に少なくとも一つの入れる場所を手に入れた / そこで俺は邪魔されることが無いとあてにできる◆どうやってドレバーをその家に連れて行くかというのが / 俺が今何とかしなければならない難問だった」

“He walked down the road and went into one or two liquor shops, staying for nearly half an hour in the last of them. When he came out, he staggered in his walk, and was evidently pretty well on. There was a hansom just in front of me, and he hailed it. I followed it so close that the nose of my horse was within a yard of his driver the whole way. We rattled across Waterloo Bridge and through miles of streets, until, to my astonishment, we found ourselves back in the terrace in which he had boarded. I could not imagine what his intention was in returning there; but I went on and pulled up my cab a hundred yards or so from the house. He entered it, and his hansom drove away. Give me a glass of water, if you please. My mouth gets dry with the talking.”

「奴は道を歩いて行き / 一、二軒の酒場に入った / 最後の所ではほとんど30分いた◆彼がでてきた時 / 彼は足がもつれていた / そして明らかに出来上がっていた◆俺のすぐ前に馬車があり / 奴はそれに声をかけた◆俺はぴったりとそれをつけた / 俺の馬の鼻先は奴の御者から一ヤード以内にずっとつけていた◆馬車はウォータールー橋をガタガタと越え / さらに何マイルか道を進み / 驚いた事に / 彼が下宿していた家にもう一度戻ってきた◆俺は奴がどういうつもりでここに帰ってきたのか想像もつかなかった / しかし俺はさらに進み続け家から100ヤードかそこら先で馬車を止めた◆彼は家に入っていった / そして馬車は走り去った◆水を一杯もらえんかな / 良ければ◆話していて口がカラカラだ」

I handed him the glass, and he drank it down.

私は彼にコップを手渡し / 彼は飲み干した

“That’s better,” he said. “Well, I waited for a quarter of an hour, or more, when suddenly there came a noise like people struggling inside the house. Next moment the door was flung open and two men appeared, one of whom was Drebber, and the other was a young chap whom I had never seen before. This fellow had Drebber by the collar, and when they came to the head of the steps he gave him a shove and a kick which sent him half across the road. ‘You hound!’ he cried, shaking his stick at him; ‘I’ll teach you to insult an honest girl!’ He was so hot that I think he would have thrashed Drebber with his cudgel, only that the cur staggered away down the road as fast as his legs would carry him. He ran as far as the corner, and then seeing my cab, he hailed me and jumped in. ‘Drive me to Halliday’s Private Hotel,’ said he.

「ちょっとましになった」 / 彼は言った◆「さて / 俺は15分かそれ以上待っていた / その時突然大きな音がした / 家の中で人間が格闘しているような◆次の瞬間扉がパッと開いて二人の男が現われた / 一人はドレバーで / もう一人は俺が見たことがない青年だった◆この男がドレバーの襟首を掴み / 段の一番上まで来た時 / 彼はドレバーをぐっと押して蹴り上げた / それでドレバーは道の半ばまで飛び出た◆『このケダモノが！』 / 彼は叫んだ / ステッキをトレバーに向けて振りながら / 『純真な娘を侮辱したらどうなるか教えてやる』 / 彼は非常に興奮していたので / 彼は杖でドレバーを打ちのめしていたと思う / あの意気地なしがよろめきながら道を逃げていなかったら / 足が許す限り速く◆奴は角まで走り / 俺の馬車を見て / 呼びつけて飛び乗った◆『ハリディのプライベート・ホテルまで連れて行け』 / 彼は叫んだ」

“When I had him fairly inside my cab, my heart jumped so with joy that I feared lest at this last moment my aneurism might go wrong. I drove along slowly, weighing in my own mind what it was best to do. I might take him right out into the country, and there in some deserted lane have my last interview with him. I had almost decided upon this, when he solved the problem for me. The craze for drink had seized him again, and he ordered me to pull up outside a gin palace. He went in, leaving word that I should wait for him. There he remained until closing time, and when he came out he was so far gone that I knew the game was in my own hands.

「俺が奴をしっかりと馬車の中に入れた時 / 俺の心臓は非常に高鳴り / この最後の瞬間になって動脈瘤が破裂しないかと恐れた◆俺はゆっくりと馬車を走らせた / 何が一番いいかとじっくり考えながら◆俺はすぐに奴を田舎に連れて行って / どこか人気のない道で最後の話し合いをしようかと◆俺はほとんどそう決めかけていた / その時奴はその問題を俺のために解決してくれた◆酒が飲みたいという発作に再び襲われ / 奴は俺に安酒場の外で停めろと指示した◆彼は入っていった / 待っていろと言い残して◆そこで奴は閉店時間までいて / 奴が出てきた時 / 彼はへべれけに酔い / 俺は獲物を手中にしたと悟った」

“Don’t imagine that I intended to kill him in cold blood. It would only have been rigid justice if I had done so, but I could not bring myself to do it. I had long determined that he should have a show for his life if he chose to take advantage of it. Among the many billets which I have filled in America during my wandering life, I was once janitor and sweeper - out of the laboratory at York College. One day the professor was lecturing on poisons, and he showed his students some alkaloid, as he called it, which he had extracted from some South American arrow poison, and which was so powerful that the least grain meant instant death. I spotted the bottle in which this preparation was kept, and when they were all gone, I helped myself to a little of it. I was a fairly good dispenser, so I worked this alkaloid into small, soluble pills, and each pill I put in a box with a similar pill made without the poison. I determined at the time that when I had my chance my gentlemen should each have a draw out of one of these boxes, while I ate the pill that remained. It would be quite as deadly and a good deal less noisy than firing across a handkerchief. From that day I had always my pill boxes about with me, and the time had now come when I was to use them.

「俺が奴を無慈悲に殺すつもりだったとは想像しないでくれ◆もしそうしたとしても間違いなく正義の行いに過ぎなかっただろう / しかしそうすることは出来なかった◆俺は長いこと決めていた / 奴には生き延びるチャンスを与える / もし奴がその機会を利用するなら◆俺がアメリカで放浪していた時に就いていた沢山の仕事の中で / 俺は一度用務員と掃除人をやっていた / / ヨーク大学の研究室で◆ある日、教授が毒物について講義をしていた / そして生徒達にある種のアルカロイドを見せた / 彼はそう言っていた / それは彼が南アメリカの矢毒から抽出していた / それは非常に強力でどんなに少量でも摂取すると即死するものだった◆俺はこの薬を入れている瓶を突き止め / 誰もいない時に / おれは少し失敬した◆俺は製剤は非常に上手かった / だから俺はこのアルカロイドを小さな水溶性の丸薬に仕立て / それぞれの丸薬を箱に入た / 毒を入れていないそっくりな丸薬と一緒に◆俺はその時心に決めた / チャンスが来た時 / あの男達はそれぞれこの箱の中から一つを選び出す / そして俺は残りを飲む◆これは完全に致死的で / ハンカチに包んで拳銃を発射するよりも全く音がしない◆その日から俺はいつも丸薬の入った箱を持ち歩き / そして今、それを使う時が来たのだ」