“Ah，”he said，“your words a gre e with th e fa cts
“啊，你說的和我這兒記錄的事
he re . But the brig we nt down on the twe nty - s e ve nthof June . It is now a ugus t the twe nty - fourth. The re isa spa ce ，Mr Ba lfour of a lmos t two months . How doyou e xpla in this ？”
實完全一致。不過，那條雙桅船是6 月27 日遇險的，今天已經是8 月24 日了。這中間幾乎相隔兩個月，巴爾福先生。你能把這點講清楚嗎？”
“I mus t know o ne thing firs t，s it，”I replid.“Am Ita lking to a frie nd？”
“先生，我先得弄清楚，我是不是在和一位朋友講話？”我說。
“I ca nnot be your frie nd ，”he replied，“if yo u donot te ll me e ve rything . A young ma n ought to trus t hise lde rs .”
“你要是把一切告訴我，我才能成為你的朋友。年輕人應該信賴長輩。”他說。
“Yo u mus t not forge t，s ir，”I said，that I trustedmy uncle and Captain Hoseason. And I believe thatmy uncle employs you.”
“先生，請您不要忘記，我原來對我的叔叔和霍西森船長也是信賴的。而且我知道你是我叔叔雇的律師。”我說。
He laughed. Then he looked at me with respect.
他聽完笑了起來。然後他懷著敬意看著我，說：
“No，n o，”he said“I wa s ，inde e d，your u ncle ’sma n of bus ine s s ，but ma ny things ha ve ha pp e ne d inthe pa s t two months . One da y Mr Campbe lt came intomy office to a sk for you. I ha d ne ve r he a rd of you ，butI ha d known your fa the r . Mr Ebe ne ze r s a id tha t heha d . s e e n you. He told us he ha d give n you a la rges um of mone y. You ha d gone to Europe to finish you re duc a tion . Mr Campbe ll s a id he ha d re ce ive d n o le tte rfrom you . Mr Ebe n e ze r told him you we re le a ving thepa s t be hind you . He s a id it wa s your wish . I don ’tthink a nyon e be lie ve d him，”Mr Rankeillor continued.
He smiled.“Inde e d ，he wa s a n gry with me
“不，不，我過去確實是替你叔叔辦事的。可是，最近兩個月內發生了許多事。有一天，坎貝爾先生來到我的辦公室，向我打聽你的消息。我從來沒有聽說過有關你的事情，可我認識你父親。埃比尼澤先生說他見過你，給過你一大筆錢。