某個遙遠的地方。“那都是胡說八道。” 他慢慢地說。

“s rhg ,” alone said crossly he drew the box over to his side of the desk suddenly he dropped it as though it had stung hi he looked where far beyond the walls of his office “that was all poppyck,” he said slowly

傑克和海倫都不敢打斷他。

neither jake nor helene dared to terrupt hi

“盒子是鎖著的。” 他說，似乎在斟酌著每個字，“有一把鑰匙。鑰匙在岡布里爾的房間裡 —— 不在他身上，否則警察會找到的。一定是開啟盒子的人把鑰匙拿走了。”

“the box was locked,” he said, seeg to weigh each word agast the next “there was a key the key was gubril’s roo-not on his pern, or the police would have found it it t have been carried away by the pern who opened the box”

“什麼人？” 這句話到了傑克嘴邊又咽了回去。馬龍坐在那兒凝視著前方，臉色突然變得蒼白。

the words, “what pern?” rose to jake’s lips and died there alone sat starg to space, his face suddenly gray

“如果你不開啟那個該死的盒子，我來。” 海倫沙啞地說。

“if you don’t open that daned box, i will,” helene said hoarsely

馬龍看著她，彷彿從未見過她似的。“為什麼？” 他說，話語沉重。

alone looked at her as though he had never seen her before “what for?” he said, the words draggg

他盯著盒子看了好一會兒，最後猛地掀開蓋子，朝裡面窺視。他極其慎重地拿出一張摺疊起來的紙，看起來像是某種官方檔案。

he stared at the box for a long ont, fally threw open the lid and peered side with adden-deliberation he drew out a folded piece of paper that appeared to be an official docunt of kd

小個子律師把它展開，坐在那兒茫然地盯著它看了好長時間。然後他靠在椅子上，顯然忘記了傑克和海倫的存在，一遍又一遍地讀著那份檔案，彷彿要把它背下來似的。

the little wyer unfolded it and sat starg bnkly at it for a long ti then he leaned back his chair, apparen