福爾摩斯探案集·四簽名 第114期:瓊諾贊·斯茂的奇異故事(24)

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Well, there was one thing which very soon struck me,

有一個情況不久就引起了我的注意：

and that was that the soldiers used always to lose and the civilians to win.

每次賭錢總是軍官們輸，司獄官員們贏。

Mind, I don't say there was anything unfair, but so it was.

我可不是說這里有什么弊病，

These prison-chaps had done little else than play cards ever since they had been at the Andamans,

只是因為司獄的官員們自從來到安達(dá)曼群島，每天無事可做，

and they knew each other's game to a point,

就拿著玩牌消磨時光，

while the others just played to pass the time and threw their cards down anyhow.

日久熟練，技術(shù)也就精了。

Night after night the soldiers got up poorer men, and the poorer they got the more keen they were to play.

軍官們技術(shù)不高，所以每賭必輸，他們愈輸愈急，下的注就愈大，因此軍官們在經(jīng)濟(jì)上一天比一天窘困，

Major Sholto was the hardest hit.

其中以舒爾托少校輸?shù)淖疃唷?/p>

He used to pay in notes and gold at first, but soon it came to notes of hand and for big sums.

起初他還用錢幣鈔票，后來錢光了，只好用期票賭，

He sometimes would win for a few deals just to give him heart,

他有時稍微贏一點兒，膽子一大，

and then the luck would set in against him worse than ever.

接著就輸?shù)酶啵?/p>

All day he would wander about as black as thunder, and he took to drinking a deal more than was good for him.

以致搞得他整天愁眉苦臉，借酒澆愁。

One night he lost even more heavily than usual.

有一晚他輸?shù)妮^往常更多了，

I was sitting in my hut when he and Captain Morstan came stumbling along on the way to their quarters.

當(dāng)時我正在茅屋外邊乘涼，他和摩斯坦上尉緩步回營。

They were bosom friends, those two, and never far apart. The major was raving about his losses.

他們兩人是極要好的朋友，每天形影不離。這位少校正在抱怨他的賭運不佳。