The Engineer's Thumb

工程师大拇指案

Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy,

在我们交往很密切的那些年月里，提供我朋友歇洛克·福尔摩斯解决的所有问题中，

there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his notice

只有两件案子是通过我介绍而引其他注意的：

that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel Warburton's madness.

一件是哈瑟利先生大拇指案，另一件是沃伯顿上校发疯案。

Of these the latter may have afforded a finer field for an acute and original observer,

在这两件案子中，对一位机敏而又有独到见解的读者来说，后一件可能更值得探讨，

but the other was so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details

但是，前一件一开头就十分奇特，事情的细节又非常富有戏剧性，

that it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record,

因此它也许更值得记述，

even if it gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results.

虽然它很少用得上我朋友取得卓越成就所运用的那些进行推理的演绎法。

The story has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers,

我相信，这个故事在报纸上已经登载过不止一次了，

but, like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print

但是，就象所有其它诸如此类的叙述那样，只用半栏篇幅笼统地登出来，结果远未引仆人们的注意，

than when the facts slowly evolve before your own eyes,

因此，还不如让事实慢慢地在你眼前展开，

and the mystery clears gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads on to the complete truth.

并且让案情之谜随着每一项有助于进一步使人了解全部事实真相的新发现而逐渐得到解决，这样更加引人入胜。

At the time the circumstances made a deep impression upon me,

当时的情景，给我的印象很深，

and the lapse of two years has hardly served to weaken the effect.

尽管时光流逝，两年过去了，我似乎还记忆犹新。