我的脑子里满是乔治·巴恩韦尔的故事，起初我总以为，我对妹妹遭袭一事脱不了干系，或者至少，作为她的至亲，又尽人皆知受她恩惠，我比任何人都更有理由成为被怀疑的对象。可是到了第二天早晨，头脑清醒些了，我重新思量这件事，又听周围人议论纷纷，便换了一种更合乎情理的看法。
乔从八点一刻到九点三刻，一直待在“三个快活船夫”酒馆里抽他的烟斗。他待在那儿的时候，有人看见我妹妹站在厨房门口，还和一个收工的农工互道了晚安。那农工说不准确切时间（他越想说清越糊涂），只肯定那时一定还没到九点。乔在九点差五分回家时，发现她已被打倒在地，便立刻喊人帮忙。那时炉火并不比平时烧得低，蜡烛的烛花也不算长；不过，蜡烛是被人吹灭的。
屋里任何地方都没丢东西。除了蜡烛被吹灭——那蜡烛立在她和门之间的桌上，她面朝炉火站着挨打时，蜡烛就在她身后——厨房里也没什么凌乱，只有她倒地流血时自己弄出的样子。不过，现场有一件引人注目的证物。她头和脊背被人用沉重钝物击打；打完之后，趁她脸朝下躺着，又有重物猛地朝她身上砸下。乔把她扶起时，她身旁的地上有一副被锉断的囚犯脚镣。
乔以铁匠的眼光察看了这副镣铐，断定它是些时候以前被人锉断的。缉捕的风声传到囚船，船上的人赶来查验镣铐，证实了乔的判断。他们不敢说这镣铐是什么时候离开那艘它无疑曾属于的囚船的；但他们一口咬定，昨晚逃走的两个囚犯都没戴过这副特定的镣铐。而且，那两人中有一个已经被抓回来，并没挣脱自己的镣铐。
我知道自己所知的，便在此自作推断。我认定这镣铐就是我那个囚犯的——就是我在沼泽地上看见听见他锉的那副——但我心里并不怪他把它用到了这最后一步。因为我相信，是另外两人中的一个得到了它，并把它用在了这残忍的行径上。不是奥立克，就是那个拿锉刀给我看过的陌生男人。
说到奥立克：他确实如我们在收费站找到他时所说的，去了镇上；整个傍晚都有人看见他在镇上，他在好几家酒馆的不同人群里待过，并且是和我与伍甫赛先生一道回来的。除了那次吵架，没什么对他不利；而我妹妹跟他吵过，跟身边所有人都吵过，不下万次。至于那陌生男人：若他是回来拿那两张钞票的，本不会有什么争执，因为我妹妹早备好要还他。况且，并没有吵闹；袭击者进来又静又猛，她还没来得及回头就被打倒了。
一想到是我提供了这凶器，虽是无心，也够骇人了，可我几乎只能这么想。我反复考虑要不要终究破除童年那道魔咒，把一切告诉乔，心里受着说不出的煎熬。之后的几个月里，我每天都会把“不说”定为最终结论，第二天早晨又重新翻开、重新争辩。到头来争执落到了这一点——这秘密如今太旧了，已长进我身体、成了我的一部分，我撕扯不下。除了怕这秘密惹出这许多祸，若乔信了，只怕比以往更会疏远我；我还多一层顾虑，怕他不信，只把它和那条虚构的狗、小牛排归作一派胡言。然而，我自然还是跟自己妥协了——因为人处在是非之间摇摆时，不都这样么？——并决心，若再碰上能助查袭击者的新机会，便和盘托出。
巡警和伦敦鲍街的探员——这事发生在红坎肩警察还没取消的年代——在屋子周围转了一两周，做的尽是我听来读来那些同行在类似案子里的勾当。他们抓了几个明显搞错的人，拿错误念头死命撞，硬要把情形套进念头里，而不肯从情形里推念头。他们还带着了然又深沉的神色站在“快活船夫”门口，引得四邻钦佩不已；他们喝酒也神神秘秘，几乎像把罪犯喝出来一样。可还差一点，因为他们从没喝出来。
这些官差散去许久之后，我妹妹还病卧在床。她视线错乱，看东西成倍重影，伸手去抓虚幻的茶杯酒杯而非实物；听力大损；记性也差；说话含混不明。终于能扶下楼时，仍须把我的石板常放她身边，好让她写不出话时写下来。她字写得糟（且不论），拼写更是一塌糊涂；乔认字也极勉强，两人之间便生出种种离奇误会，总得我去解。把羊肉当药喂、把茶当乔、把面包师当咸肉，都算我最轻的错。
不过，她脾气好多了，也耐得住。四肢动作总发颤不稳，很快成了常态；之后每隔两三个月，她常两手抱头，陷入约一周的阴郁神智迷乱。我们苦于找不到合宜的看护，直到碰巧一件事解了围。伍甫赛先生的姑婆改掉了她沾上的老习惯，毕蒂便进了我们家门。
大约妹妹回厨房一个月后，毕蒂带只小斑驳盒子来，里头是她全部家当，从此成了家里的福星。尤其对乔是福星，因为这老实人天天看着妻子这副残样，心如刀割，晚上服侍时总转头看我，蓝眼睛湿着说：“皮普，她当年可是个标致女人哪！”毕蒂立刻以最伶俐的看护接手，像打小就熟识她；乔多少能安享家里清静，偶尔去“快活船夫”换换口味，于身心有益。那些警察个个或多或少疑过可怜的乔（他自己从不知晓），且众口一词，视他为遇过的最深沉的角色——这正是他们的做派。
毕蒂上任头一件得意事，是解了我全然无解的难题。我使劲试过，毫无办法。事情是这样：
妹妹在石板上反复描一个像怪异“T”的字，又急切指给我们看，说她特别要这个。我从焦油试到吐司、木桶，凡T开头的都试遍了，没用。末了我灵光一现，那符号像把锤子，便冲她耳朵大喊“锤子”，她竟在桌上敲起来，勉强算认了。我便把家里锤子一把把拿来，仍不行。我又想到拐杖，形状相近，便从村里借来，颇自信地给她看。她见了一径摇头，摇得我们怕她虚弱的脖子给摇脱了臼。
妹妹发现毕蒂极懂她，那神秘符号又在石板上出现。毕蒂若有所思看看它，听我解释，又若有所思看看妹妹，再若有所思看看乔（石板上乔总以首字母代），便跑进铁匠铺，乔和我跟了去。
“哎呀，当然啦！”毕蒂一脸喜色，“你们没瞧见？是‘他’！”
奥立克，错不了！她忘了他名字，只能以锤子指代。我们说明唤他进厨房的缘由，他慢慢放下锤，臂膀抹额，围裙又抹一把，懒洋洋出来，膝盖奇异地松垮垮弯着，一看便知是他。
我承认，本以为妹妹会指认他，结果不然，倒叫我失落。她极想与他和好，见他终被叫来显然欢喜，还打手势要给他些喝的。她盯着他脸色，像极盼确认他受待见；她百般示好，一言一行都带着卑微讨好，像孩子对着严主。自那日后，她少有哪天不画锤子，奥立克也少有哪天不懒步进来，闷立她面前，像我一样不知这算什么。
With my head full of George Barnwell, I was at first disposed to
believe that _I_ must have had some hand in the attack upon my sister,
or at all events that as her near relation, popularly known to be under
obligations to her, I was a more legitimate object of suspicion than
any one else. But when, in the clearer light of next morning, I began
to reconsider the matter and to hear it discussed around me on all
sides, I took another view of the case, which was more reasonable.
Joe had been at the Three Jolly Bargemen, smoking his pipe, from a
quarter after eight o’clock to a quarter before ten. While he was
there, my sister had been seen standing at the kitchen door, and had
exchanged Good Night with a farm-labourer going home. The man could not
be more particular as to the time at which he saw her (he got into
dense confusion when he tried to be), than that it must have been
before nine. When Joe went home at five minutes before ten, he found
her struck down on the floor, and promptly called in assistance. The
fire had not then burnt unusually low, nor was the snuff of the candle
very long; the candle, however, had been blown out.
Nothing had been taken away from any part of the house. Neither, beyond
the blowing out of the candle,—which stood on a table between the door
and my sister, and was behind her when she stood facing the fire and
was struck,—was there any disarrangement of the kitchen, excepting such
as she herself had made, in falling and bleeding. But, there was one
remarkable piece of evidence on the spot. She had been struck with
something blunt and heavy, on the head and spine; after the blows were
dealt, something heavy had been thrown down at her with considerable
violence, as she lay on her face. And on the ground beside her, when
Joe picked her up, was a convict’s leg-iron which had been filed
asunder.
Now, Joe, examining this iron with a smith’s eye, declared it to have
been filed asunder some time ago. The hue and cry going off to the
Hulks, and people coming thence to examine the iron, Joe’s opinion was
corroborated. They did not undertake to say when it had left the
prison-ships to which it undoubtedly had once belonged; but they
claimed to know for certain that that particular manacle had not been
worn by either of the two convicts who had escaped last night. Further,
one of those two was already retaken, and had not freed himself of his
iron.
Knowing what I knew, I set up an inference of my own here. I believed
the iron to be my convict’s iron,—the iron I had seen and heard him
filing at, on the marshes,—but my mind did not accuse him of having put
it to its latest use. For I believed one of two other persons to have
become possessed of it, and to have turned it to this cruel account.
Either Orlick, or the strange man who had shown me the file.
Now, as to Orlick; he had gone to town exactly as he told us when we
picked him up at the turnpike, he had been seen about town all the
evening, he had been in divers companies in several public-houses, and
he had come back with myself and Mr. Wopsle. There was nothing against
him, save the quarrel; and my sister had quarrelled with him, and with
everybody else about her, ten thousand times. As to the strange man; if
he had come back for his two bank-notes there could have been no
dispute about them, because my sister was fully prepared to restore
them. Besides, there had been no altercation; the assailant had come in
so silently and suddenly, that she had been felled before she could
look round.
