书虫二级 坎特维尔幽灵：3.又一个幽灵现身古堡
3．A second ghost appears at Canterville
3．又一个幽灵现身古堡
The next morning, when the Otis family met at breakfast, they talked about the ghost for some time. Mr Otis was a little cross to find the bottle of Tammany's Sun Oil lying on the floor of the passage.
第二天早晨，奥蒂斯一家一起吃早餐时，谈论了一会儿幽灵的事。奥蒂斯先生对于坦马尼太阳油倒在走廊的地板上有些气恼。
I don't want,' he said, 'to hurt the ghost in any way.' Here he looked at the boys. 'We must remember that he has lived in this house for a very long time, so I don't think it's very nice to throw pillows at him — no, don't laugh, boys, it's not funny. But if the ghost won't use the oil, we will have to take his chains away from him. We can't possibly sleep with that noise going on outside our bedrooms every night.'
“我不希望，”他说，“以任何方式伤害到幽灵。”说到这儿，他看了眼男孩子们。“我们要记得，他在这所宅子里已经住了相当长时间，所以我认为朝他扔枕头可不太好——不，别笑，小伙子们，这不好笑。但是如果幽灵不想擦油，我们就得把铁链从他身上卸下来。每天晚上卧室外面要全是噪音，那我们就别想睡安稳觉啦。”
But for the rest of the week all was quiet. The only interesting thing was the bloodstain. Every day Washington cleaned the floor with Pinkerton's Stain Cleaner, and every night Mr Otis carefully locked the windows and the library door. But the bloodstain was always there again the next morning.
可是这一周的剩下几天平安无事。唯一有趣的事情是那块血迹。每天华盛顿都用平克顿去污剂清理地板，每天晚上奥蒂斯先生都仔细地锁好窗户和书房门。但第二天早晨血迹总是再度出现。
It also changed colour a few times. On some days it was red, on other days it was purple, and once it was bright green. Most of the family thought these colour changes were very funny and they hurried downstairs each morning to find out the new colour. The only person who did not laugh was little Virginia, but she would not explain why. And on the morning the bloodstain was bright green, she nearly cried.
有几次它还变换了颜色。有些天它是红色的，有些天又是紫色的，还有一次变成鲜绿色。家里多数人都觉得这些颜色变换十分好玩儿，每天早上都迫不及待地跑下楼来，查看新换的颜色。唯一一个不觉得好笑的是小弗吉尼娅，可她却不愿说出为什么。在血迹变成鲜绿色的那个早晨，她差一点儿哭了出来。
On Sunday night, soon after the family went to bed, the ghost made his next move. There was a three-hundred-year-old suit of armour downstairs. 'Now, a ghost in armour will surely frighten even modern Americans,' he thought. He began to put on the suit of armour, but it was too heavy for him, and he and the armour fell to the floor with a loud CRASH.
星期天晚上，一家人刚刚就寝，幽灵就采取了下一步的行动。在楼下有一副300年历史的盔甲。“好啦，就算是时髦的美国人肯定也会害怕穿甲胄的幽灵吧。”他暗想。他开始穿戴盔甲，可它太重了，只听“哐当”一声，他连人带盔甲都摔到了地上。
All the men in the Otis family jumped out of bed and hurried downstairs at once. They found the unhappy ghost sitting there, holding his head and crying softly with pain. The twins had their pea-shooters with them and immediately began to shoot little balls of paper at him. Mr Otis brought out his handgun and, like the good Californian he was, called out to the ghost:
奥蒂斯家的所有男子汉都从床上蹦了起来，马上冲到楼下。他们发现倒霉的幽灵坐在原地，双手抱头，疼得在小声哭泣。双胞胎兄弟带着射豆枪，立即用小纸球向他射击。奥蒂斯先生掏出了手枪，像加利福尼亚的好汉一样对幽灵大喝道：
Hold up your hands!'
“把手举起来！”
At this, the ghost jumped up with a wild and angry scream and flew through them. Washington Otis's candle went out, and suddenly everything was dark. At the top of the stairs, the ghost turned to give his terrible ghostly laugh — the famous laugh which once turned Lord Raker's hair white in a single night. It went on and on until the house was full of the sound.
见此情景，幽灵怒喝一声，跳了起来，从他们当中飞了过去。华盛顿·奥蒂斯手中的蜡烛熄灭了，突然间一片黑暗。在楼梯的顶端，幽灵发出了可怕的笑声——这笑声因为曾经让雷克斯勋爵一夜之间变白了头发而闻名天下。笑声持续不断，直到充斥整栋宅邸。
A bedroom door opened and Mrs Otis appeared with a bottle in her hand. 'I'm afraid you're not feeling very well,' she said to the ghost. 'I've brought you some of Dr Dobell's special stomach medicine. If you're having trouble with your stomach, this will soon help you to feel better.'
一间卧室的门打开，奥蒂斯夫人出现了，手中拿着一个瓶子。“我担心你是感觉不舒服了，”她对幽灵说，“我给你拿了点儿多贝尔医生治胃病的特效药。如果你胃有毛病，这个能让你马上感觉好起来。”
The ghost looked at her angrily, and began to turn himself into a big black dog (one of his most famous tricks). But the sound of young footsteps coming up the stairs stopped him, and he quickly disappeared with a ghostly 'Oooooooh!' before the twins arrived at the top.
幽灵气愤地看着她，摇身变成一条巨大的黑犬（这是他著名的把戏之一）。但是蹦蹦跳跳跑上楼梯的脚步声令他停了下来，“呼——”的一声，他就迅速消失了，那对双胞胎还没来得及跑上楼来呢。
For some days after this he was very ill, and only went out to make the bloodstain again each night. But when he began to feel better, he decided to try for the third time to frighten Hiram B. Otis and his family.
在这之后的很长时间，幽灵都病得十分厉害，每天晚上他仅仅是去把那块血迹变出来。但当他稍稍恢复以后，他决心第三次再去吓唬海勒姆·B. 奥蒂斯一家。
He spent most of Friday, the 17th of August, trying to decide what to wear. At last he decided on a dead man's shroud, a large black hat with a red feather in it, and a long knife.
8月17日星期五，差不多一整天他都在考虑应该怎么打扮自己。他最终决定：身穿裹尸布，头戴大黑帽，帽插红羽毛，手持长刀。
That night the wind shook all the doors and windows, and the rain crashed down onto the roof of the house. The ghost made his plans carefully.
当天晚上，狂风摇曳着所有的门窗，雨滴砸在屋顶之上。幽灵在小心翼翼地计划着：
I'll go first to Washington Otis's room,' he said to himself. 'He cleans away the famous Canterville bloodstain each morning, so I want to be sure that he'll be really frightened. I'll make ghostly noises to wake him up, then I'll push my knife into my neck three times, to the sound of slow music.'
“我要先去华盛顿·奥蒂斯的房间，”他自言自语道，“他每天都来清洗坎特维尔著名的血迹，所以我要好好地吓他一跳。我先一阵鬼叫把他吵醒，然后合着缓慢的音乐节拍，用刀子戳进我的脖子三次。”
Then I'll go to Mr Hiram B. Otis's room. I'll make a terrible noise in his ear, and at the same time put my cold hand on Mrs Otis's face. Now, what about Virginia? She's never played any tricks on me, and she's sweet and pretty. Perhaps I'll just make a soft 'Ooooh!' in her ear ... or move her bed sheets a little with my skeleton's fingers.'
“然后我要去海勒姆·B. 奥蒂斯先生的房间。我要冲着他的耳朵鬼叫，同时把我冰凉的手放在奥蒂斯夫人的脸上。那弗吉尼娅怎么办？她倒从来没对我耍过什么花样，也挺漂亮可爱。要不我只在她耳朵边上轻轻“嗷”一声吧……或者用我的骷髅手指拽一下她的床单。”
And then on to the twins! Those horrible boys are going to learn a lesson tonight! I'll stand between their beds, looking like a dead body — cold and green and smelling of death. They'll be too frightened to move. Then I'll throw off my shroud and do my famous skeleton dance all round the room.'
“接着就轮到那对双胞胎了！今天晚上，要好好教训一下这两个坏小子！我要站在他们俩的床中间，看上去就像具死尸——冰冷、铁青，发出死亡的臭味。他们会被吓得动也不敢动。然后我就扯掉我的尸袍，在屋子里跳起我那著名的骷髅舞。”
He heard the family go to bed at half past ten. For some time he listened to the laughs and shouts of the twins, but by a quarter past eleven all was quiet.
10点半，他听到一家人都上床了。有一段时间他还听到那对双胞胎在又笑又叫，但11点一刻之后，一切都安静下来。
At the sound of midnight, the ghost left his room. He came out of the wall with the knife in his hand and a smile on his face. It was not a nice smile, and when the moon saw it through a window, she hid behind a cloud.
午夜的钟声响了，幽灵离开自己的房间。他穿墙而出，手中拿着刀，脸上带着窃笑。这笑容不怀好意，就连月亮透过窗户看到它时，也躲到了云丛中。
Slowly and silently the ghost moved through the house, while the Otis family went on happily sleeping. At the corner of the passage which went along to Washington's room, the ghost stopped for a minute. A little wind came from nowhere, pulling his long white shroud this way and that, and showing the skeleton arms and neck of the walking dead. He heard the clock sound a quarter past midnight, gave a little laugh, and turned the corner...
幽灵蹑手蹑脚地穿过宅邸，这时奥蒂斯一家还在酣美地睡着。在通向华盛顿房间的走廊拐角处，幽灵停了一会儿。不知哪儿来了一股微风，吹得他身上长长的白色尸袍摇曳起来，露出了骷髅胳膊和脖子。他听到钟声响过零点一刻后，就干笑一声，转过拐角……
...And stopped — in terror! There, in front of him, was standing the most horrible ghost. It had a large head with no hair on it, and a fat round face with a deathly smile across its open mouth. A red light burned like fire inside its mouth and behind both of its eyes. Its great body was hidden under a long shroud, and it carried a large piece of paper with strange writing on it.
……停在那儿了——太可怕了！就在他面前，矗立着一个最最可怕的幽灵。它的头硕大无比，没长头发，肥胖的圆脸上咧着张嘴，露出死一般的微笑。嘴和双眼燃烧着火一般的红光。庞大的身躯隐藏在长长的裹尸布下，还带着一大张纸，上面写着奇形怪状的文字。
The Canterville ghost did not wait to read it. He was too frightened. When you see your first ghost, you don't stop to talk, you turn and run — so the Canterville ghost turned and ran. His long shroud got caught around his feet and he nearly fell over, but he ran as fast as he could, away from the horrible thing that was watching him with fire in its eyes. He turned the corner, dropped his knife into one of Hiram B. Otis's shoes, which were outside his bedroom door (Mr Otis found it there the next morning) , and ran on to his room.
坎特维尔幽灵都没等停下来读一读，他给吓坏了。当你头一遭碰到幽灵时，你不会停下来搭讪吧，你肯定转身便逃——所以坎特维尔幽灵转身就跑。长长的尸袍缠着脚，害得他差点儿摔了一跤，但是他以最快的速度跑着，逃离这个眼中冒火还死盯着他的可怕家伙。他转过墙角，把刀子掉在了海勒姆·B. 奥蒂斯的一只鞋里——他的鞋是放在卧室门外的（奥蒂斯先生第二天早上在鞋里发现了那把刀）——逃回了自己的房间。
He threw himself onto his bed, and hid his head under his pillow. It was some time before he began to feel better. Then he told himself that he was a Canterville, and that Cantervilles were fighters to the end.
他一头扎在床上，把头埋进枕头。过了好一阵子，他才稍稍缓过劲儿来。他告诫自己，他是坎特维尔人，而坎特维尔人都会战斗到底。
When it gets light,' he thought, 'I'll go and speak to this other ghost. Perhaps we can be friends. After all, two ghosts are better than one, and if the two of us work together, perhaps we can frighten those terrible twins at last.'
“等天亮了，”他思忖着，“我就去找那个幽灵聊聊。或许我们还能做朋友哩。毕竟，二鬼强似一鬼，如果我们两个联合起来，说不定最终能够吓坏那对可恶的双胞胎。”
Very early the next morning, while the family was still sleeping, he went back to the passage. The other ghost was still there, but now there was something wrong with it. There was no fire in its eyes, and it was resting against the wall like a sick man. The Canterville ghost moved forward quickly and put his arms round the other ghost and its head fell off! Then the body fell to the floor, and the Canterville ghost saw that he was holding a white bed sheet. And there was a brush, and a turnip with holes in it, lying at his feet.
第二天一大早，当奥蒂斯一家还在熟睡的时候，幽灵就又回到走廊里。那个幽灵仍然在那儿，但现在好像有点儿不大对劲儿。它的眼中没有了火焰，而且还病歪歪地靠在墙上。坎特维尔幽灵赶快跑过去，搂住了那个幽灵——可它的脑袋居然掉了下来。接着身体也倒在地板上，坎特维尔幽灵发现自己拿着的是一张白床单。他的脚下躺着一把刷子和一个上面有洞的芜菁。
What's happened?' he thought. 'Where has the ghost gone?'
“怎么回事？”他想，“那个幽灵去哪儿啦？”
Then he saw the piece of paper on the front of the sheet, and there, in the grey morning light, he read these terrible words:
这时他看到床单上的那张纸。在灰色的晨光中，他读到了这些可怕的字：
The Otis Ghost
奥蒂斯幽灵，
The only true and real ghost,
唯一真正的幽灵，
All others are false.
余者皆为冒充。
At once he understood everything. It was a trick — another horrible trick! He stood there, too angry to move, and tried to think of a plan to finish these terrible Americans once and for all. But he couldn't think of any plan, so after a while he went to find a quiet dark place to lie down in.
他马上就明白了一切。这是个骗局——又一个可恶的骗局！他站在那儿，气得连动也不能动啦。他绞尽脑汁，要彻底干掉这些美国佬。可是他一个主意也想不出来，所以过了一会儿，他去找了个又黑又静的地方，躺下了。
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