解説　場面 70「雨の一日」

October 17th.—All day today the rain poured down, rustling on the ivy and dripping from the eaves. I thought of the convict out upon the bleak, cold, shelterless moor. Poor devil! Whatever his crimes, he has suffered something to atone for them. And then I thought of that other one—the face in the cab, the figure against the moon. Was he also out in that deluge—the unseen watcher, the man of darkness? In the evening I put on my waterproof and I walked far upon the sodden moor, full of dark imaginings, the rain beating upon my face and the wind whistling about my ears. God help those who wander into the great mire now, for even the firm uplands are becoming a morass. I found the black tor upon which I had seen the solitary watcher, and from its craggy summit I looked out myself across the melancholy downs. Rain squalls drifted across their russet face, and the heavy, slate-coloured clouds hung low over the landscape, trailing in grey wreaths down the sides of the fantastic hills. In the distant hollow on the left, half hidden by the mist, the two thin towers of Baskerville Hall rose above the trees. They were the only signs of human life which I could see, save only those prehistoric huts which lay thickly upon the slopes of the hills. Nowhere was there any trace of that lonely man whom I had seen on the same spot two nights before.

10月17日——今日は一日中、雨が激しく降り、ツタを鳴らし、軒から滴り落ちた。荒涼として寒く、雨を避ける所もない荒れ地にいる脱獄囚のことを考えた。哀れな男だ。どんな罪を犯したにせよ、償いとなるほどの苦しみは味わっている。それから、もう一人の男——辻馬車の顔、月を背にした人影——を思った。姿の見えない見張り人、闇の男も、この豪雨の中にいるのだろうか。夕方、私は防水外套を着て、雨に濡れた荒れ地を遠くまで歩いた。暗い想像が頭を満たし、雨が顔を打ち、風が耳元で鳴っていた。いま大沼へ迷い込む者に、神の助けがあるように。固い高台さえ、沼地へ変わりつつある。一人の見張り人を見た黒い岩山へたどり着き、その険しい頂から、物悲しい丘陵を見渡した。赤褐色の斜面を雨の突風が流れ、重い青灰色の雲が景色の上へ低く垂れ込め、奇怪な丘の斜面を灰色の帯となって下っていた。左手の遠い窪地には、霧に半ば隠れたバスカヴィル館の二本の細い塔が、木々の上に伸びていた。人の暮らしを示すものは、丘の斜面に密集する先史時代の小屋を除けば、それしか見えなかった。二日前に同じ場所で見た孤独な男の痕跡は、どこにもなかった。