目 录 上一节 下一节 
押车的职员站在车门口，正在等邮袋，一个穿着像是猎场看守员的男人走上前去，押运员将已经放在便道上的一个篮子递给他。 'That's for your people,' said the guard. 'Now, look alive in there, will you. Damn that 'ere bag, it warn't ready night afore last; this won't do, you know!' “这是给你家里人的，”押运员说道，“喂，里边的人手脚快一点好不好？这该死的邮袋，前天晚上都还没弄好，这样是不行的，你不是不知道。” 'Anything new up in town, Ben?' asked the game-keeper, drawing back to the window-shutters, the better to admire the horses. “贝恩，城里有啥新闻？”猎场看守一边问一边往窗板退去，这样更便于欣赏一下那几匹马。 'No, nothing that I knows on,' replied the man, pulling on his gloves. 'Corn's up a little. I heerd talk of a murder, too, down Spitalfields way, but I don't reckon much upon it.' “没有，据我所知没什么新闻，”押运员戴上手套，答道，“粮价涨了一点儿。我听说斯皮达菲那一带也出了一起凶杀案，不过我不大相信。” 'Oh, that's quite true,' said a gentleman inside, who was looking out of the window. 'And a dreadful murder it was.' “噢，一点不假，”一位打车窗里往外张望的绅士说道，“真是一起可怕的凶杀。” 
“是吗，先生？”押运员触了一下帽子，问道，“劳您驾，先生，是男的还是女的？” 'A woman,' replied the gentleman. 'It is supposed--' “一个女人，”绅士回答，“据估计--” 'Now, Ben,' replied the coachman impatiently. “得了吧，贝恩。”赶车人不耐烦地嚷了起来。 'Damn that 'ere bag,' said the guard; 'are you gone to sleep in there?' “这该死的邮袋，”押运员嚷嚷着，“你们里边的人是睡着了不是？” 'Coming!' cried the office keeper, running out. “来啦！”邮局职员跑出来，嚷了一声。 
“来啦，”押运员咕哝着，“啊，跟那位千金小姐一样，说是马上就要爱上我了，可我就是不知道什么时候兑现。行了，开车。好--哩！” The horn sounded a few cheerful notes, and the coach was gone. 驿车喇叭发出几个欢快的音符，车开走了。 Sikes remained standing in the street, apparently unmoved by what he had just heard, and agitated by no stronger feeling than a doubt where to go. At length he went back again, and took the road which leads from Hatfield to St. Albans. 赛克斯依旧站在街上，对刚才听到的一席话显然无动于衷。他只是不知道该往哪儿走，没有比这更叫他恼火的了。末了，他又一次往回走去，踏上了从海菲尔德通往圣阿尔班斯的大道。 He went on doggedly; but as he left the town behind him, and plunged into the solitude and darkness of the road, he felt a dread and awe creeping upon him which shook him to the core. Every object before him, substance or shadow, still or moving, took the semblance of some fearful thing; but these fears were nothing compared to the sense that haunted him of that morning's ghastly figure following at his heels. He could trace its shadow in the gloom, supply the smallest item of the outline, and note how stiff and solemn it seemed to stalk along. He could hear its garments rustling in the leaves, and every breath of wind came laden with that last low cry. If he stopped it did the same. If he ran, it followed--not running too: that would have been a relief: but like a corpse endowed with the mere machinery of life, and borne on one slow melancholy wind that never rose or fell. 他闷头闷脑地往前走。可是，当他把小镇抛在身后，来到空荡荡、黑沉沉的的大路上，就有一种恐怖的感觉悄悄爬上心头，他浑身里里外外都哆嗦起来。眼前的每一个物体，不管是实物还是阴影，不管是静的还是动的，全都很像某种可怕的东西。然而，这些恐惧比起那个从清晨以来与他寸步不离的怪影就算不得什么了。朦胧中，他分辨得出它的影子，说得出最细微的特征，记得它是怎样身体僵直、面孔冷峻地行走的。他听得到它的衣服擦着树叶沙沙作响，每一阵微风都会送来那最后一声低沉的惨叫。他如果停下，影子也停下。他如果疾走飞奔，影子也紧随在后--它并不跑--真要是跑倒还好些，而是像一具仅仅赋有生命机理的躯体，由一股既不增强也不停息的阴风在后面缓缓地推动。 At times, he turned, with desperate determination, resolved to beat this phantom off, though it should look him dead; but the hair rose on his head, and his blood stood still, for it had turned with him and was behind him then. He had kept it before him that morning, but it was behind now--always. He leaned his back against a bank, and felt that it stood above him, visibly out against the cold night-sky. He threw himself upon the road--on his back upon the road. At his head it stood, silent, erect, and still--a living grave-stone, with its epitaph in blood. 他几次把心一横转过身来，决心把这个幻影赶走，哪怕它会下死劲地瞅着自己，却不由得毛骨悚然，连血液也凝滞了：因为幻影也随着自己一起转过来，又跑到身后去了。上午他一直是面对着它，而眼下它就在自己身后--寸步不离。他如果背靠土坡，便会感到它悬在头上，寒冷的夜空清晰地映出它的轮廓。他仰天倒在路上--背贴着路面，它就直挺挺地站在他的头上，一言不发，一动不动--一块活生生的墓碑，刻有用鲜血写下的墓志铭。 
谁也不要说什么凶手可以逍遥法外，老天没长眼睛。这样提心吊胆地熬过漫长的一分钟，与横死几百回也差不了多少。 There was a shed in a field he passed, that offered shelter for the night. Before the door, were three tall poplar trees, which made it very dark within; and the wind moaned through them with a dismal wail. He COULD NOT walk on, till daylight came again; and here he stretched himself close to the wall--to undergo new torture. 他经过的野地里有一个茅棚，提供了过夜的栖身之所。小屋门前长着三棵高大的杨树，里边一片漆黑，晚风卷着一阵悲凉的哭泣声呜呜咽咽地刮过树梢。天亮以前，他没法再走了。他直挺挺地紧贴墙根躺着--等来的却是新的折磨。 For now, a vision came before him, as constant and more terrible than that from which he had escaped. Those widely staring eyes, so lustreless and so glassy, that he had better borne to see them than think upon them, appeared in the midst of the darkness: light in themselves, but giving light to nothing. There were but two, but they were everywhere. If he shut out the sight, there came the room with every well-known object--some, indeed, that he would have forgotten, if he had gone over its contents from memory--each in its accustomed place. The body was in ITS place, and its eyes were as he saw them when he stole away. He got up, and rushed into the field without. The figure was behind him. He re-entered the shed, and shrunk down once more. The eyes were there, before he had laid himself along. 这时候，一个幻影出现在他的面前，与他躲开的那个一样顽固，但更加可怕。一片黑暗之中，出现了一双睁得大大的眼睛，那样暗淡，那样呆滞，他宁可眼睁睁地看着它们，也不愿让它们走进自己的想像。眼睛本身在闪光，却没有照亮任何东西。眼睛只有两只，可它们无处不在。如果他合上双眼，脑海里便会出现那个房间，每一样东西都是熟悉的--的确，如果让他凭记忆将屋里的东西过一遍的话，有几样也许还想不起来--一件一件全在各自的老地方。那具尸体仍在它原来的地方，眼睛与他偷偷溜走时看见的一样。他一跃而起，冲进屋外的野地里。那个影子又跟上他了。他又一次走进小屋，钻到角落里。他还没来得及躺下，那双眼睛又出现了。 And here he remained in such terror as none but he can know, trembling in every limb, and the cold sweat starting from every pore, when suddenly there arose upon the night-wind the noise of distant shouting, and the roar of voices mingled in alarm and wonder. Any sound of men in that lonely place, even though it conveyed a real cause of alarm, was something to him. He regained his strength and energy at the prospect of personal danger; and springing to his feet, rushed into the open air. 他呆在这地方，唯有他才清楚自己是多么恐惧，他手脚捉对儿地打着哆嗦，冷汗从每一个毛孔涌出来。突然，晚风中腾起一阵喧闹声，喊声叫声在远处响成一片，其中交织着慌乱与惊愕。在这个凄凉冷落的地方听到人的声响，即便真正是不祥的预兆，对于他也是一大安慰。危险临头，他又有了力量与精神，他猛然跳起来，冲到门外的旷野里。 The broad sky seemed on fire. Rising into the air with showers of sparks, and rolling one above the other, were sheets of flame, lighting the atmosphere for miles round, and driving clouds of smoke in the direction where he stood. The shouts grew louder as new voices swelled the roar, and he could hear the cry of Fire! mingled with the ringing of an alarm-bell, the fall of heavy bodies, and the crackling of flames as they twined round some new obstacle, and shot aloft as though refreshed by food. The noise increased as he looked. There were people there--men and women--light, bustle. It was like new life to him. He darted onward--straight, headlong--dashing through brier and brake, and leaping gate and fence as madly as his dog, who careered with loud and sounding bark before him. 广阔的天空像是着了火。一片高过一片的火头挟着阵雨般的火星，旋转着冲天而起，点亮了方圆几英里的天空，把一团团浓烟朝他站的方向驱赶过来。又有新的声音加入了呐喊，呼声更高了。他听得出那是一片呼喊“失火了！”喊声中混合着警钟鸣响，重物倒塌，火柱爆裂的声音。烈焰围住一个新的障碍物，火舌箭一般蹿起来，像是补充了食物似的。在他远远旁观的当儿，喧闹声越来越嘈杂，那边有人--男的女的都有--火光熊熊，人来人往。这情景在他看来如同是一种新的生活。他飞奔过去--直端端的，一头冲了过去--冲过荆棘灌丛，跃过栅栏和篱笆，和他那条汪汪地高声吠叫着跑在前边的狗一样像是发了疯。 
他赶到现场。衣冠不整的人影往来狂奔，有几个人正拚命把受惊的马从马厩里拉出来，另一些人在把牛群从院子和草棚里轰出去，还有一些顶着纷飞的火星，冒着烧得通红的屋梁滚落下来的危险，从燃烧的木桩、柱子当中往外搬东西。一小时前还有门有窗的地方张开大日，吐出团团烈火，墙壁摇摇晃晃，坍塌在燃烧的火井里。铅和铁熔化了，白热的液体倾泻到地上。女人、小孩在尖声喊叫，男人们用喧闹的吆喝与欢呼相互壮胆。救火泵哐卿哐啷，水声哗哗，溅落在滚烫的木板上，发出咝咝的声音，汇成一片可怕的喧嚣声。他也跟着吆喝起来，直到喊哑了嗓子。他摆脱了记忆，也摆脱了他自己，一头扎进了最稠密的人群之中。 Hither and thither he dived that night: now working at the pumps, and now hurrying through the smoke and flame, but never ceasing to engage himself wherever noise and men were thickest. Up and down the ladders, upon the roofs of buildings, over floors that quaked and trembled with his weight, under the lee of falling bricks and stones, in every part of that great fire was he; but he bore a charmed life, and had neither scratch nor bruise, nor weariness nor thought, till morning dawned again, and only smoke and blackened ruins remained. 这一夜，他东冲西闯，一会儿用救火泵抽水，一会儿在浓烟烈火中奔忙，从不让自己脱离声音和人群最稠密的地方。他跑上跑下，爬梯子，上房顶，穿楼层，不顾在他的重压下颤颤悠悠的地板，冒着掉落下来的砖石，在大火蔓延的每一个地方都有他的身影。然而，他真是生了一副鬼神庇护的命，身上没有落下一丝擦伤，也没有碰着压着，没有感到疲倦，脑子里空空如也，一直于到又一个黎明到来，火场上只剩下缕缕烟雾和黑乎乎的废墟。
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