In the quiet of the sitting room, the visitor begins to speak. To explain the present events, there seems to be something he wants to set out in order from the beginning. Holmes does not interrupt, and Watson listens to the voice as well. At what point will the visitor choose to begin the account he is about to give?
"You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy.「あなた方は、この死んだ男、マッカーシーを知らなかったのです。
He was a devil incarnate.あれは悪魔の化身でした。
I tell you that.断言します。
God keep you out of the clutches of such a man as he.あの男のような者の手に落ちないよう、神がお守りくださいますように。
His grip has been upon me these twenty years, and he has blasted my life.二十年もの間、私はあの男に握られ、人生を台無しにされてきました。
I'll tell you first how I came to be in his power.まず、どうしてあの男に支配されるようになったかを、お話ししましょう。
"It was in the early '60's at the diggings.「一八六〇年代の初め、金の採掘場でのことでした。
I was a young chap then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you would call over here a highway robber.私は若く、血気にはやり、無鉄砲で、何にでも手を出す気でいました。悪い仲間と付き合い、酒に走り、採掘鉱区では運に恵まれず、奥地へ逃げ込みました。要するに、こちらで言う追いはぎになったのです。
There were six of us, and we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings.仲間は六人で、時には牧場を襲い、時には採掘場への道を行く荷馬車を止め、荒っぽい自由な暮らしをしていました。
Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang.私はバララットのブラック・ジャックと呼ばれ、一味は今でも、あの植民地でバララット一味として記憶されています。