With a rush we got to the poisoned men and dragged them out into the well-lit hall. Both of them were blue-lipped and insensible, with swollen, congested faces and protruding eyes. Indeed, so distorted were their features that, save for his black beard and stout figure, we might have failed to recognize in one of them the Greek interpreter who had parted from us only a few hours before at the Diogenes Club. His hands and feet were securely strapped together, and he bore over one eye the marks of a violent blow. The other, who was secured in a similar fashion, was a tall man in the last stage of emaciation, with several strips of sticking-plaster arranged in a grotesque pattern over his face. He had ceased to moan as we laid him down, and a glance showed me that for him at least our aid had come too late. Mr. Melas, however, still lived, and in less than an hour, with the aid of ammonia and brandy, I had the satisfaction of seeing him open his eyes, and of knowing that my hand had drawn him back from that dark valley in which all paths meet.

飛び込んで我々は中毒した男達を抱え / 明るいホールへ引きずり出した◆両方とも唇は真っ青で意識がなかった / 顔は鬱血して膨れあがり目は飛び出していた◆実際 / 表情は非常にゆがんでいたので / 黒い顎鬚と太った体型がなかったら / 我々は見間違ったかもしれない / 彼らの一人がギリシャ語通訳者であることを / ディオゲネスクラブでほんの数時間前に別れた◆彼の手足は堅く縛られていた / そして彼の片目の上に殴られた跡があった◆もう一人は / 同じように縛られていたが / 背の高い男でひどい衰弱状態にあった / 何枚かの絆創膏が / 彼の顔の上に奇怪な形状で貼られていた◆彼は唸り声を出していなかった / 我々が彼を降ろしている時 / そして一目見て私は / 少なくとも彼には我々が来るのが遅すぎたと分かった◆しかしメラス氏は / まだ息があり / そして一時間足らずで / アンモニアとブランデーの助けを借りて / 彼が目を開けるのを見て私は喜びを感じた / そして私の手が彼を引き戻したのを知って / 全ての道が合流する暗い谷間から

It was a simple story which he had to tell, and one which did but confirm our own deductions. His visitor, on entering his rooms, had drawn a life-preserver from his sleeve, and had so impressed him with the fear of instant and inevitable death that he had kidnapped him for the second time. Indeed, it was almost mesmeric, the effect which this giggling ruffian had produced upon the unfortunate linguist, for he could not speak of him save with trembling hands and a blanched cheek. He had been taken swiftly to Beckenham, and had acted as interpreter in a second interview, even more dramatic than the first, in which the two Englishmen had menaced their prisoner with instant death if he did not comply with their demands. Finally, finding him proof against every threat, they had hurled him back into his prison, and after reproaching Melas with his treachery, which appeared from the newspaper advertisement, they had stunned him with a blow from a stick, and he remembered nothing more until he found us bending over him.

彼が話したのは簡単なことだった / しかしそれを聞いて我々の推理が裏付けられた◆彼の訪問者は / 部屋に入ってくるなり / 袖口から棍棒を抜き出し / そして彼に印象付けた / すぐに避けられない死が待っているという恐怖を / それで再び彼を誘拐した◆実際 / それは催眠のようだった / このニタニタ笑う悪党が生み出す効果は / 不幸な通訳者に対して / 彼は何も話せなかった / 真っ青になって震える以外に◆彼はすぐさまベッケンハムに連れて行かれ / もう一度話し合いの通訳者となり / 最初のものよりもさらに劇的な / その中で二人のイギリス人は捕らえた男をすぐに殺すと脅した / もし彼らの要求に屈服しないと◆遂に / どんな脅しをも彼がはねのけるのを見て / 彼らは監禁場所に投げ戻した / そしてメラスを裏切ったと叱責し / 新聞広告から明らかになったが / 彼らはステッキで殴って彼を失神させた / 彼は我々が覗き込んでいるところを見つけるまで他の事は何も知らなかった

And this was the singular case of the Grecian Interpreter, the explanation of which is still involved in some mystery. We were able to find out, by communicating with the gentleman who had answered the advertisement, that the unfortunate young lady came of a wealthy Grecian family, and that she had been on a visit to some friends in England. While there she had met a young man named Harold Latimer, who had acquired an ascendency over her and had eventually persuaded her to fly with him. Her friends, shocked at the event, had contented themselves with informing her brother at Athens, and had then washed their hands of the matter. The brother, on his arrival in England, had imprudently placed himself in the power of Latimer and of his associate, whose name was Wilson Kemp – a man of the foulest antecedents. These two, finding that through his ignorance of the language he was helpless in their hands, had kept him a prisoner, and had endeavoured by cruelty and starvation to make him sign away his own and his sister’s property. They had kept him in the house without the girl’s knowledge, and the plaster over the face had been for the purpose of making recognition difficult in case she should ever catch a glimpse of him. Her feminine perceptions, however, had instantly seen through the disguise when, on the occasion of the interpreter’s visit, she had seen him for the first time. The poor girl, however, was herself a prisoner, for there was no one about the house except the man who acted as coachman, and his wife, both of whom were tools of the conspirators. Finding that their secret was out, and that their prisoner was not to be coerced, the two villains with the girl had fled away at a few hours’ notice from the furnished house which they had hired, having first, as they thought, taken vengeance both upon the man who had defied and the one who had betrayed them.

これがギリシャ語通訳者の奇妙な事件だ / この説明はまだ少し謎が残されている◆我々は見出だした / 広告に答えてきた紳士と話すことで / あの不幸な女性は裕福なギリシャの家系の出で / 彼女はイギリスの友人を訪ねてきていた◆その間に / 彼女はハロルド・ラティマーという青年と出会い / 彼は彼女を支配する立場となり / 最終的に彼と一緒に逃げるように説得した◆彼女の友人達は / この出来事に衝撃を受け / アテネの兄に知らせることで自分達を満足させた / そしてこの件から手を引いた◆兄は / イギリスに到着すると / 不注意にもラティマーと共犯者の手に落ち / ウィルソン・ケンプという名前の / / 邪悪な前科者の◆彼ら二人は / 言葉が通じないのを知っていた / 彼は彼らの手にかかれば孤立無援だった / そして彼を監禁した / そして拷問と飢餓で試みた / 彼と妹の財産を手放させようと◆彼らは女性に知られることなく彼を家に置いていた / そして顔に絆創膏を貼った / 見分けがつくのを難しくさせる目的で / もし彼女が一瞬でも彼を見かけた時の用心に◆しかし、彼女の女性的な知覚は / 一瞬で偽装を見破った / 通訳者が訪問してきた時に / 初めて彼に会った時に◆しかし哀れな女性は / 彼女自身が監禁の身で / 家には誰もいなかった / 御者とその妻以外には / 両方とも共謀者の言いなりだった◆彼らは秘密が漏れたのを知り / そして閉じ込めている男が言う事を聞こうとしないので / 二人の悪党と女性は / 数時間前の通告で逃げ去った / 彼らが借りていた家具付きの家から / 最初に / 彼らの考えでは / 二人の男に復讐し / 言う事を聞かなかった男と裏切った男に

Months afterwards a curious newspaper cutting reached us from Buda-Pesth. It told how two Englishmen who had been travelling with a woman had met with a tragic end. They had each been stabbed, it seems, and the Hungarian police were of opinion that they had quarrelled and had inflicted mortal injuries upon each other. Holmes, however, is, I fancy, of a different way of thinking, and he holds to this day that, if one could find the Grecian girl, one might learn how the wrongs of herself and her brother came to be avenged.

数ヵ月後 / ブダペストから奇妙な新聞の切抜きが届いた◆それは告げていた / どのように女性を連れた二人の男性が / 悲劇的な最後を遂げたか◆彼らは二人とも刺されていた / どうやら / そしてハンガリー警察は / このような見解だった / 彼らは口論になり / そしてお互いに致命的な怪我を負ったと◆しかしホームズは / どうやら / 違った風に考えているようだった / そして今日までそう思っている / もしあのギリシャ女性を見つけることが出来れば / 彼女の不正行為と兄の復讐がどのように遂げられたか知ることが出来るかもしれないと