他叫了一辆当地的出租车，告诉司机在麦克莱恩家附近让他下车。然后他往后一靠，试图决定到了那儿该做什么。他不仅不知道自己期望找到什么，甚至不知道该去哪儿找。
He hailed one of the local taxis and told the driver to leave him near the McClane place. Then he leaned back and tried to decide what to do when he got there. He not only didn’t know what he expected to find, he didn’t even know where to look for it.
也许有打斗的迹象？上面还覆盖着两英尺厚的雪呢！或者有具尸体，就那么随便地扔在那儿。他提醒自己，这样的谋杀无论如何都不符合莫娜打赌的条件。在一两平方英里的雪地里跋涉，寻找莫娜?麦克莱恩谋杀的人是没有意义的。那甚至可能不是一个男人。可能是个女人。可能是连体双胞胎。他想知道如果海伦在这儿她会怎么做。
Signs of a struggle, perhaps? With two feet of snow on top! Or a body, just carelessly left around. He reminded himself that such a murder wouldn’t conform to the terms of Mona’s bet anyway. No sense in tramping all over a square mile or two of snow, looking for the guy Mona McClane had murdered. It might not even be a guy. Might be a gal. Might be the Siamese twins. He wondered what Helene would do if she were here.
小主，
他知道，海伦很可能会坚持拿着放大镜把这个地方的每一寸都检查一遍。
Helene, he knew, would probably insist on going over every square inch of the place with a magnifying glass.
麦克莱恩庄园临街的两面被高高的铁栅栏围着。杰克沿着栅栏走，最后来到一扇小边门，门没锁，尽管房子因为冬天而关闭着。
The two sides of the McClane estate that bordered on the street were bounded by a high grillwork fence. Jake walked along it until at last he came to a small service gate that was unlocked, in spite of the fact that the house was closed up for the winter.
他走了进去，随手关上了门，站在那儿不知道先去哪儿。在他前面，一片广阔耀眼的未被破坏的白色一直延伸到一个小山坡上，房子就坐落在那里，是一座巨大的灰色石屋，被飘落的雪柔和了许多。周围的树光秃秃的没有叶子；这儿那儿一堆变色的雪表明了灌木丛和矮树丛的位置。
He went in, closing the gate behind him, and stood wondering where to go first. Ahead of him, a wide, dazzling expanse of unbroken white swept up to a little rise in the ground, where the house stood, a massive, gray-stone affair, pleasantly softened by the drifted snow. The trees around it were bare and leafless; here and there heaps of discolored snow indicated the location of shrubs and bushes.
据他判断，这里已经好几周没人来过了。一条狭窄的小路在雪地里隐约可见，沿着铁栅栏延伸，他顺着小路走，寻找任何可能表明最近有人来过的迹象。但什么也没有。小路最后穿过一小片树林，杰克发现自己面对着一堵高高的石墙，这堵墙把麦克莱恩的庄园和紧邻其南面的庄园隔开。
As far as he could tell, no one had been here for weeks. A narrow path, showing faintly through the snow, led along the side of the iron fence, and he followed it, looking for any indication he might find of some recent visitor. There was none. The path finally passed through a little clump of trees, and Jake found himself confronted with a high stone wall that separated the McClane estate from the one immediately south of it.
杰克记起来了，那应该是文宁家的地方。他沿着墙边走，直到来到一扇嵌在石头里的小铁门处。门没锁。他犹豫了一下，然后推开门，出于一种突然而又无法解释的冲动，走进了文宁家的院子。他记得文宁一家当时和莫娜?麦克莱恩一起呆在城里，而且在那两起谋杀案发生时 —— 不只是他知道的那两起，还有他想查清楚的那一起 —— 他们都是那家人中的成员。
That would be the Venning place, Jake remembered. He followed the path along the wall until he reached a small iron gate set in the stone. It was unlatched. He hesitated a moment, then pushed it open and entered the Venning grounds, on a sudden, unexplainable impulse. He remembered that the Vennings were staying in town with Mona McClane and had been members of the household at the time of the murders—not only the two murders he knew about, but the one he wanted to find out about.
小主，
在文宁家的院子中央有一座巨大的木屋。杰克好奇地看着它，心想这房子是不是建在这儿是为了吓唬建筑师。它实在是太丑了，让人没法觉得好笑；它有种阴森、沉闷的恐怖感。在它正前方是一片他猜夏天可能是个有图案的花园的地方，现在是雪地里的一系列隆起和凹陷。
In the center of the Venning grounds was an immense, wooden house. Jake looked at it curiously and wondered if it might have been put there to frighten architects. It was almost too ugly to be pleasantly funny; it had a kind of sinister, gloomy horror. Immediately before it was what he guessed might be a patterned garden in summer, now a series of bulges and depressions in the snow.
他又看了看那座房子，心想难怪文宁二十年来都没回来过。
He looked again at the house and reflected that it was no wonder Venning had stayed away for twenty years.
他穿过草坪，一边无力地咒骂着钻进裤腿的雪，一边绕着房子走。房子后面，紫杉树篱中的一个拱门通向另一片宽阔的草坪，这似乎是枫树公园风景的特色。他穿过草坪走了几步，突然停了下来。
He walked across the lawn, swearing impotently at the snow that crept up under his trouser leg, and skirted the house. Behind it, an archway in a yew hedge led into another of the broad lawns that seemed to characterize the Maple Park landscape. He took a few steps across it and stopped suddenly.
有一个女人，身材高挑，穿着黑色衣服，站在草坪边缘的一片树林前。他盯着她看了一会儿，怀疑她是真实的，还是安迪?阿赫恩的杜松子酒产生的幻觉。她身后没有叶子的树黑乎乎的，影影绰绰，而她面前的雪则是一片完整而耀眼的白色。
There was a woman, tall, and dressed in black, standing just before a grove of trees that ran along one edge of the lawn. He stared at her for a moment, wondering if she were real, or something cooked up by Andy Ahearn’s gin. The leafless trees behind her were dark and shadowy, before her the snow was an unbroken, dazzling white.
突然，他意识到这昏暗的天气和低低地悬在头顶的厚重云层。
Suddenly he became conscious of the murky gloom of the day and the heavy clouds that hung low overhead.
女人向前走了几步。即使隔着一段距离，他也能看出她那布满皱纹、憔悴的脸曾经很美。他想起马龙对莫娜?麦克莱恩家客人的描述，意识到这可能是伊迪莎?文宁。
The woman took a few steps forward. Even at a little distance he saw that her lined, haggard face had once been beautiful. He remembered Malone’s descriptions of Mona McClane’s house guests and realized that this might be Editha Venning.
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“你是谁？” 她微微皱着眉头问道。
“Who are you?” she asked, frowning slightly.
“我是杰克?贾斯特。”
“I’m Jake Justus.”
“哦，我从莫娜?麦克莱恩那里听说过你。”
“Oh, I’ve heard of you from Mona McClane.”
“你是文宁夫人，对吧？”
“You’re Mrs. Venning, aren’t you?”
她点点头，眼睛望着他身后的云。
She nodded, looking past him at the clouds.
“我看到门开着，” 杰克说，“我就想进来看看这里。希望你别介意。”
“I saw the gate was open,” Jake said, “and I thought I’d just take a look at the place here. I hope you don’t mind.”
她摇摇头。
She shook her head.
“我对园林设计很感兴趣。” 杰克告诉她。
“I’m very interested in landscape gardening,” Jake told her.
她似乎并不在意。她似乎并不反对他在这儿，事实上，她似乎几乎是欢迎他。她又点了点头，慢慢地，好像他已经把一切都解释得很令人满意了。
She didn’t seem to care. She didn’t seem to object to his presence, indeed, she seemed almost to wele it. She nodded again, slowly, as though he had explained everything satisfactorily.
“我来这儿……” 她停顿了一下，犹豫了一会儿，然后说，“我在找东西。”
“I came out here—” She paused, hesitated a moment, and then said, “I’m looking for something.”
“也许我能帮你。” 杰克礼貌地说。
“Perhaps I can help you,” Jake said politely.
她用她那巨大而又悲伤的眼睛盯着他，好像她已经忘记了他是谁。