解説　場面 40「友人への問い」

"There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not entirely devoid of interest."

「冷酷な悪党だ」とホームズは笑い、また椅子に身を投げ出すように座った。「あの男は悪事を重ね、いつかひどいことをしでかして、最後は絞首台に上るだろう。この事件も、いくつかの点では、まったく面白みがなかったわけではない」

"I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I remarked.

「今も、きみの推理の段階が全部分かっているとは言えないよ」と私は言った。

"Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same direction."

「さて、もちろん初めから、エンジェルさんの奇妙な行動には何か強い目的があるはずだと分かっていた。同じく、この件で実際に得をする唯一の男が、見た限りでは継父だということも明白だった。それに、二人の男は一度も同時におらず、片方がいないときに、いつももう片方が現れることも、示唆的だった。色付き眼鏡と奇妙な声もそうだ。どちらも変装を思わせ、ふさふさした頬ひげも同じだった。私の疑いをすべて裏付けたのは、署名までタイプで打つという特異な行為だった。つまり、その男の筆跡は彼女にとってあまりに見慣れたもので、ほんのわずかな見本でも見分けられてしまう、ということだ。こうしたばらばらの事実が、多くの小さな事実とともに、すべて同じ方向を指していたのだよ」