“Now this was a case in which you were given the result and had to find everything else for yourself. Now let me endeavour to show you the different steps in my reasoning. To begin at the beginning. I approached the house, as you know, on foot, and with my mind entirely free from all impressions. I naturally began by examining the roadway, and there, as I have already explained to you, I saw clearly the marks of a cab, which, I ascertained by inquiry, must have been there during the night. I satisfied myself that it was a cab and not a private carriage by the narrow gauge of the wheels. The ordinary London growler is considerably less wide than a gentleman’s brougham.

「今回はこういう事件だ / 結果が与えられて / それ以外の全てを自分で見つけなければならないという◆何とかして君に示そう / 僕の推理の一つ一つを◆最初から始めよう◆僕は家に近寄った / 知っているように、徒歩で / あらゆる刷り込みから完全に自由な心で◆僕は自然に車道を調べる事から始めた / そしてそこで / 僕が既に説明していたように / 僕ははっきりと辻馬車の跡を見た / それは / 僕は調査して確認したが / 夜の間に来たに違いなかった◆僕は確信した / それが辻馬車で自家用馬車でない事を / 車輪の幅が狭い事で◆ロンドンの一般のグローラーは / 民間のブロアムよりもかなり幅が狭い」

“This was the first point gained. I then walked slowly down the garden path, which happened to be composed of a clay soil, peculiarly suitable for taking impressions. No doubt it appeared to you to be a mere trampled line of slush, but to my trained eyes every mark upon its surface had a meaning. There is no branch of detective science which is so important and so much neglected as the art of tracing footsteps. Happily, I have always laid great stress upon it, and much practice has made it second nature to me. I saw the heavy footmarks of the constables, but I saw also the track of the two men who had first passed through the garden. It was easy to tell that they had been before the others, because in places their marks had been entirely obliterated by the others coming upon the top of them. In this way my second link was formed, which told me that the nocturnal visitors were two in number, one remarkable for his height (as I calculated from the length of his stride), and the other fashionably dressed, to judge from the small and elegant impression left by his boots.

「これが最初に獲得した点だ◆それから僕はゆっくりと庭の小道を / そこはたまたま粘土質の土壌で出来ていた / 特別に足跡を取るのに向いている◆間違いなく / 君にはただの踏みつけられたぬかるみの線に見えただろう / しかし訓練した僕の目には / その表面の全ての跡は意味を持っていた◆探偵の科学の一部門はない / 非常に重要でこれほど無視されているものは / 足跡を追跡する技術ほど◆幸い / 僕はいつもこれに力を入れていた / そして十分訓練したのでそれは僕にとって第二の天性になっていた◆僕は巡査の重厚な足跡を見た / しかし僕は同時に二人の男の足跡も見た / 彼らは最初に庭を横切っていた◆彼らが巡査より前に通っていたと見分けるのは簡単だった / なぜなら所々でその足跡は / 完全に消されていた / 警官がそれらの上を通る事によって◆このようにして僕の二つ目の連鎖が構成された / それは僕に語っていた / 夜に訪れたのは二人であり / 一人は著しく背が高い / 僕が歩幅から計算したように / そしてもう一人は上流階級風に着飾っている / 彼の靴が残した小さく優雅な足跡から判断して」

“On entering the house this last inference was confirmed. My well-booted man lay before me. The tall one, then, had done the murder, if murder there was. There was no wound upon the dead man’s person, but the agitated expression upon his face assured me that he had foreseen his fate before it came upon him. Men who die from heart disease, or any sudden natural cause, never by any chance exhibit agitation upon their features. Having sniffed the dead man’s lips, I detected a slightly sour smell, and I came to the conclusion that he had had poison forced upon him. Again, I argued that it had been forced upon him from the hatred and fear expressed upon his face. By the method of exclusion, I had arrived at this result, for no other hypothesis would meet the facts. Do not imagine that it was a very unheard-of idea. The forcible administration of poison is by no means a new thing in criminal annals. The cases of Dolsky in Odessa, and of Leturier in Montpellier, will occur at once to any toxicologist.

「家に入ってこの最後の推測が確認された◆いい靴を履いた男が僕の前にいた◆背の高い人物が / では / 殺害した / もし殺人だったとすれば◆殺された男の体には傷がなかった / しかし彼の顔に浮かんでいた動揺の表情は / 彼が死ぬ前にその運命を予想していたことを僕に確信させた◆心臓発作で死んだ人間や / それ以外の突然の自然な原因は / 表情に動揺を示す機会を決して与えない◆死んだ男の口元を嗅いで / 僕はわずかに酸の臭いを嗅ぎ分けた / そして僕は結論に達した / 彼は無理に毒を飲まされたと◆また / 僕は彼が無理強いされたと主張する / 彼の顔の憎悪と恐怖の表情から◆排除するという手法で / 僕はこの結論に到達した / 他のどんな仮説も事実に合致しないからだ◆これが全く耳慣れない方法だと思わないように◆毒を無理やり投与するというのは / 犯罪記録では全然新しいものではない◆オデッサのドルスキー事件 / そして、モンペリエのルトリエは / どんな毒物学者にもすぐに浮かぶ」