經典科幻文學:《銀河系漫遊指南》第1章Part 5
For a few seconds Ford seemed to ignore him, and stared fixedly into the sky like a rabbit trying to get run over by a car. Then suddenly he squatted down beside Arthur.
"We've got to talk," he said urgently.
"Fine," said Arthur, "talk."
"And drink," said Ford. "It's vitally important that we talk and drink. Now. We'll go to the pub in the village."
He looked into the sky again, nervous, expectant.
"Look, don't you understand?" shouted Arthur. He pointed at Prosser. "That man wants to knock my house down!"
Ford glanced at him, puzzled.
"Well he can do it while you're away can't he?" he asked.
"But I don't want him to!"
"Ah."
"Look, what's the matter with you Ford?" said Arthur.
"Nothing. Nothing's the matter. Listen to me — I've got to tell you the most important thing you've ever heard. I've got to tell you now, and I've got to tell you in the saloon bar of the Horse and Groom."
"But why?"
"Because you are going to need a very stiff drink."
Ford stared at Arthur, and Arthur was astonished to find that his will was beginning to weaken. He didn't realize that this was because of an old drinking game that Ford learned to play in the hyperspace ports that served the madranite mining belts in the star system of Orion Beta.
The game was not unlike the Earth game called Indian Wrestling, and was played like this:
Two contestants would sit either side of a table, with a glass in front of each of them.
The bottle would then be refilled. The game would be played again. And again.
有幾秒鐘的時間，福特像是完全忽略了他，怔怔地盯着空中看，就像一隻準備躲過一輛車的兔子。然後，他突然在阿瑟身邊蹲下來。
“我們必須談談。”他急切地說。
“好吧，”阿瑟說，“談談。”
“還得喝點兒。”福特說。“交談和喝酒都相當重要。噢，我們這就去村裏的酒吧。”
他又看了看天上，緊張而又期待。
“嘿，難道你還不明白嗎？”阿瑟嚷道。他指着普洛塞說：“這傢伙想推平我的房子！”
福特望着他，顯得很困惑。
“那好啊，你離開了，他不就可以幹成這件事了嗎？”他問道。
“可是我並不想讓他這樣做啊！”
“哦。”
“嘿，你這是怎麼了，福特？”阿瑟說。
“沒什麼。真的沒什麼。你聽我說——我必須告訴你一件事，這也許是你聽說過的最重要的事情了。我必須現在就告訴你，還必須在‘馬和馬伕’沙龍酒吧裏。”
“爲什麼？”
“因爲到時候你會需要一杯夠勁兒的酒的。”
福特盯着阿瑟，阿瑟驚訝地發覺自己的意願開始變得薄弱起來。他絲毫沒有意識到這是由於福特使出了一種古老的喝酒遊戲的伎倆，那是福特在那些爲獵戶座貝塔星系的礦區提供服務的超空間港口裏學會的。
這種遊戲和地球上稱爲印第安摔跤的遊戲差不多，具體是這樣玩的：
兩名比賽者分別坐在桌子的兩側，每人面前都擺着一個玻璃杯子。
然後，酒瓶會被重新灌滿。遊戲繼續進行。然後再繼續下去。
