杰克呻吟了一声。
Jake groaned.
海伦说：“看在老天的份上，别光坐在那儿说，看看里面。”
Helene said, “For the love of heaven, don’t sit there talking about it, look inside it.”
“别催我。” 马龙生气地说。他把盒子拉到他桌子的这一边。突然，他像被盒子蛰了一下似的把它扔了下去。他的目光望向他办公室的墙壁之外的某个遥远的地方。“那都是胡说八道。” 他慢慢地说。
“Stop rushing me,” Malone said crossly. He drew the box over to his side of the desk. Suddenly he dropped it as though it had stung him. He looked somewhere far beyond the walls of his office. “That was all poppycock,” he said slowly.
杰克和海伦都不敢打断他。
Neither Jake nor Helene dared to interrupt him.
“盒子是锁着的。” 他说，似乎在斟酌着每个字，“有一把钥匙。钥匙在冈布里尔的房间里 —— 不在他身上，否则警察会找到的。一定是打开盒子的人把钥匙拿走了。”
“The box was locked,” he said, seeming to weigh each word against the next. “There was a key. The key was in Gumbril’s room-not on his person, or the police would have found it. It must have been carried away by the person who opened the box.”
“什么人？” 这句话到了杰克嘴边又咽了回去。马龙坐在那儿凝视着前方，脸色突然变得苍白。
The words, “What person?” rose to Jake’s lips and died there. Malone sat staring into space, his face suddenly gray.
“如果你不打开那个该死的盒子，我来。” 海伦沙哑地说。
“If you don’t open that damned box, I will,” Helene said hoarsely.
马龙看着她，仿佛从未见过她似的。“为什么？” 他说，话语沉重。
Malone looked at her as though he had never seen her before. “What for?” he said, the words dragging.
他盯着盒子看了好一会儿，最后猛地掀开盖子，朝里面窥视。他极其慎重地拿出一张折叠起来的纸，看起来像是某种官方文件。
He stared at the box for a long moment, finally threw open the lid and peered inside. With madden-deliberation he drew out a folded piece of paper that appeared to be an official document of some kind.
小个子律师把它展开，坐在那儿茫然地盯着它看了好长时间。然后他靠在椅子上，显然忘记了杰克和海伦的存在，一遍又一遍地读着那份文件，仿佛要把它背下来似的。
The little lawyer unfolded it and sat staring blankly at it for a long time. Then he leaned back in his chair, apparently oblivious of Jake and Helene’s presence, reading the document over and over as though he were trying to memorize it.
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