巴斯克维尔的猎犬 华生医生的第二份报告（21）

 

　　"You'll be all right to-morrow."

　　“您明天就会好的。”

　　"I don't think I'll get that cry out of my head. What do you advise that we do now?"“我想我已无法不使那种叫声深印在我的脑中了 。 您认为咱们现在应当怎么办呢？ ”

　　"Shall we turn back?"

　　“咱们回去好吗？ ”

　　"No, by thunder; we have come out to get our man, and we will do it. We after the convict,and a hell-hound, as likely as not, after us. Come on! We'll see it through if all the fiends of the pitwere loose upon the moor."

　　“不， 决不， 咱们是出来捉人的， 一定得干下去。 咱们是搜寻罪犯， 可是说不定正有一只魔鬼似的猎狗在追踪着咱们呢。 来吧！ 就是把所有洞穴里的妖魔都放到沼地里来， 咱们也要坚持到底。”

　　We stumbled slowly along in the darkness, with the black loom of the craggy hills around us,and the yellow speck of light burning steadily in front. There is nothing so deceptive as thedistance of a light upon a pitch-dark night, and sometimes the glimmer seemed to be far awayupon the horizon and sometimes it might have been within a few yards of us. But at last we couldsee whence it came, and then we knew that we were indeed very close. A guttering candle wasstuck in a crevice of the rocks which flanked it on each side so as to keep the wind from it and alsoto prevent it from being visible, save in the direction of Baskerville Hall. A boulder of graniteconcealed our approach, and crouching behind it we gazed over it at the signal light. It was strangeto see this single candle burning there in the middle of the moor, with no sign of life near it -- justthe one straight yellow flame and the gleam of the rock on each side of it.

　　我们在暗中跌跌撞撞地缓缓前进着， 黑暗而参差不齐的山影环绕着我们， 那黄色的光点依然在前面稳定地亮着。 在漆黑的夜晚， 再没有比一盏灯光的距离更能骗人了， 有时那亮光好象是远在地平线上， 而有时又似乎是离我们只有几码远。 可是我们终于看出它是放在什么地方了， 这时我们才知道确已距离很近了。 一支流着蜡油的蜡烛被插在一条石头缝里， 两面都被岩石挡住， 这样既可避免风吹， 又可使除了 巴斯克维尔庄园以外的其他方向都看不到。

　　一块突出的花岗石遮住了我们。 于是我们就在它后面弯着腰， 从石头上面望着那作为信号的灯光。 看到一支蜡烛点在沼地的中央， 而周围却毫无生命的迹象， 确是奇事——只有一条向上直立的黄色火苗和它两侧被照得发亮的岩石。