地下墓穴（17）

 

“You seem uneasy, friend Kennedy,” said he.

“Go on, man, light the candle!” said Kennedy impatiently.

“It’s very strange, Kennedy, but I could not in the least tell by the sound in which direction you stand. Could you tell where I am?”

“No; you seem to be on every side of me.”

“If it were not for this string which I hold in my hand I should not have a notion which way to go.”

“I dare say not. Strike a light, man, and have an end of this nonsense.”

“Well, Kennedy, there are two things which I understand that you are very fond of. The one is an adventure, and the other is an obstacle to surmount¹. The adventure must be the finding of your way out of this catacomb. The obstacle will be the darkness and the two thousand wrong turns which make the way a little difficult to find. But you need not hurry, for you have plenty of time, and when you halt for a rest now and then, I should like you just to think of Miss Mary Saunderson, and whether you treated her quite fairly.”

“You devil, what do you mean?” roared Kennedy. He was running about in little circles and clasping at the solid blackness with both hands.

“Good-bye,” said the mocking voice, and it was already at some distance. “I really do not think, Kennedy, even by your own showing that you did the right thing by that girl. There was only one little thing which you appeared not to know, and I can supply it. Miss Saunderson was engaged to a poor ungainly devil of a student, and his name was Julius Burger.”

There was a rustle² somewhere, the vague sound of a foot striking a stone, and then there fell silence upon that old Christian³ church—a stagnant⁴, heavy silence which closed round Kennedy and shut him in like water round a drowning man.

“你感到不安了，肯尼迪朋友，"他说。

“嘿，伙计，把蜡烛点上！"肯尼迪不耐烦地说。

“肯尼迪，真奇怪，凭你的声音我完全不知道你在哪儿。

你知道我在哪儿吗？”

“不知道，你好像在我前后左右每一个地方，”

“要不是我拿着这条线，我根本不知道该往哪儿走，"“确实如此。点个亮吧，伙计，别胡闹了，"“喂，肯尼迪，据我所知，有两件事情是你特别喜欢的。一件是冒险，另一件是克服障碍。冒险，就是要找到从这个墓穴走出去的路。障碍，就是黑暗和两千个假岔道，它们给你找到出口增添了一点麻烦。不过不用着急，你的时间有的是，当你停下来休息的时候，不妨想一想玛丽桑德森小姐，想想你待她是否公平。”

“你这个坏蛋，你这是什么意思？”肯尼迪咆哮了，他跑起来—不过只是在原地绕圈，伸出手去抓——可抓到的只是仿佛有形的黑暗。

再见啦，”嘲弄的声音已经远了。“肯尼迪，就算你讲的全是真实的，我也不认为你对那姑娘做的事是对的。有个小小的细节你好像还不清楚，我可以补充一下：桑德森小姐曾经和一个穷愁倒的坏蛋学者订婚，他的名字叫尤利乌斯伯格。”

不知何处传来一阵籁籁声，还有踏在石板地上的轻微的脚步声，然后，寂静降临在这个古老的基督教教堂，凝滞、沉重的寂静将肯尼迪包裹起来，就像水把一个行将淹死的人包裹起来一样。

1 surmount   

vt.克服；置于…顶上

参考例句：

• We have many problems to surmount before we can start the project.我们得克服许多困难才能著手做这项工作。
• We are fully confident that we can surmount these difficulties.我们完全相信我们能够克服这些困难。

2 rustle   

v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声

参考例句：

• She heard a rustle in the bushes.她听到灌木丛中一阵沙沙声。
• He heard a rustle of leaves in the breeze.他听到树叶在微风中发出的沙沙声。

3 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

4 stagnant   

adj.不流动的，停滞的，不景气的

参考例句：

• Due to low investment,industrial output has remained stagnant.由于投资少，工业生产一直停滞不前。
• Their national economy is stagnant.他们的国家经济停滞不前。