經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第16章

Random reached the crest of the hill and looked down into the next valley. It had been a longer and harder climb than she had anticipated. She was a little worried that doing the trip at night was not that great an idea, but her father had been mooching around near the hut all day trying to pretend to either her or himself that he wasn’t guarding the parcel. At last he’d had to go over to the forge to talk with Strinder about the knives, and Random had seized her opportunity and done a runner with the parcel.

蘭登在小山頂上俯瞰下一個山谷。這一路爬上來比她想象的還要遠還要難。她有些擔心，夜裏走這條路恐怕不是個太好的主意。可她父親在茅屋裏晃了一整天，努力裝出不是在看守包裹的樣子，也不知道是想騙她還是騙他自己。最後他不得不去鐵匠鋪跟斯林德討論刀子的問題，於是蘭登抓住機會帶上包裹開溜了。

It was perfectly clear that she couldn’t just open the thing there, in the hut, or even in the village. He might have come across her at any moment. Which meant that she had to go where she wouldn’t be followed.

很顯然，她不可能在茅屋裏拆包裹，就算在村子裏也不行，因爲他隨時都可能出現。這意味着她得找個他不會跟來的地方。

She could stop where she was now. She had gone this way in the hope that he wouldn’t follow her, and even if he did he would never find her up in the wooded parts of the hill with night drawing in and the rain starting.

現在這地方應該可以了。他選這條路就是希望他不會跟來，而且就算他跟過來，現在夜色越來越暗，又下起了雨，他根本不可能在這麼一大片山林裏發現自己。

All the way up, the parcel had been jiggling under her arm. It was a satisfyingly hunky sort of thing: a box with a square top about the length of her forearm on each side, and about the length of her hand deep, wrapped up in brown plasper with an ingenious new form of self-knotting string. It didn’t rattle as she shook it, but she sensed that its weight was concentrated excitingly at the centre.

這一路上包裹都在他胳膊底下蹦跳。這是個挺叫人滿意的大塊頭：正方形的盒頂，邊長大概跟她的上臂相當，有她手掌的長度，用棕色的有機材料包裹着，還帶着新型的自動繩結，非常精巧。她把它拿起來搖了搖，裏頭沒什麼動靜，但她能感覺到它的重量集中在中心，真讓人激動。

Having come so far, though, there was a certain satisfaction in not stopping here, but carrying on down into what seemed to be almost a forbidden area – where her father’s ship had come down. She wasn’t exactly certain what the word ‘haunted’ meant, but it might be fun to find out. She would keep going and save the parcel up for when she got there.

不過，既然已經走了這麼遠，她隱約覺得不在這兒逗留會更有成就感，於是繼續往那個幾乎是禁忌的地方走去——那個她父親的飛船墜毀的地方。蘭登不大確定“鬧鬼”究竟是什麼意思，不過去看看應該會挺有意思。她準備繼續前進，等到了那兒再打開包裹。

It was getting darker, though. She hadn’t used her tiny electric torch yet, because she didn’t want to be visible from a distance. She would have to use it now, but it probably didn’t matter since she would be on the other side of the hill which divided the valleys from each other.

可天色越來越暗了。她還沒拿出自己的小手電筒，免得人家遠遠地就能發現自己。現在她不得不用了，但這大概也不會有什麼關係因爲兩個山谷之間有小山隔開，而她馬上就要下到另一邊去。

She turned her torch on. Almost at the same moment a fork of lightning ripped across the valley into which she was heading and startled her considerably. As the darkness shuddered back around her and a clap of thunder rolled out across the land she felt suddenly rather small and lost with just a feeble pencil of light bobbing in her hand. Perhaps she should stop after all and open the parcel here. Or maybe she should go back and come out again tomorrow. It was only a momentary hesitation, though. She knew there was no going back tonight, and sensed that there was no going back ever.

她打開手電。幾乎在同一時刻，一道霹靂照亮了她正要去的那個山谷，把她狠狠地嚇了一跳。黑暗哆哆嗦嗦地回到她周圍，一串轟雷隆隆地滾過大地，她突然覺得自己和手裏細小的光線是那麼的渺小迷惘。或許她還是該停下，就在這兒把包裹拆開。或者她該回去，明天再出來。不過這只是瞬間的憂鬱。她知道今晚不能回去，而且感覺到自己是永遠回不去了。

She headed on down the side of the hill. The rain was beginning to pick up now. Where a short while ago it had been a few heavy blobs it was settling in for a good pour now, hissing in the trees, and the ground was getting slippery under her feet.

她繼續朝山腳下跑。雨勢越來越大。片刻之前還只是幾粒沉甸甸的雨點，現在卻已經打定主意來個傾盆而下。雨水在樹裏嘶嘶叫喚，她的腳底開始打滑。

At least, she thought it was the rain hissing in the trees. Shadows were leaping and leering at her as her light bobbed through the trees. Onwards and downwards.

至少，她覺得在樹裏嘶嘶叫喚的應該是雨水纔對。她的手電從樹上掃過，上上下下，有陰影在跳躍着，在窺視着她。

She hurried on for another ten or fifteen minutes, soaked to the skin now and shivering, and gradually became aware that there seemed to be some other light somewhere ahead of her. It was very faint and she wasn’t certain if she was imagining it or not. She turned off her torch to see. There did seem to be some sort of dim glow ahead. She couldn’t tell what it was. She turned her torch back on and continued down the hill, towards whatever it was.

她又快步走了十到十五步。眼下她已經被雨水澆了個透，渾身發抖，而且漸漸意識到前頭似乎還有別的什麼亮光。光線非常弱，她不大確定這是不是自己的想象。她關掉手電筒想看看清楚。前頭似乎的確有些淡淡的光芒，只是看不出是什麼東西。她再次打開手電，繼續下山，不管那是什麼她都要過去。

There was something wrong with the woods though.

不過這樹林的確有些古怪。