but Potts leaned suddenly farther out, peering with wrinkled face up the track. 但波茨突然向外探去，满脸皱纹的脸凝视铁道。

Behind the headlight of the freight he saw the dark hulks of the box cars half shrouded in smoke from the engine stack. 在这列货运列车前灯后面，他看到引擎发出的浓烟已经覆盖了棚车的一半。

Behind them a long chain of tank cars, filled with gasoline, naphtha, and kerosene, 棚车后面是长长的油槽车，里面是汽油，轻油和煤油，

was dimly outlined in the moonlit distance. To the engineer they looked, as they moved, like a continuous black cylinder. 在月光下隐隐约约看到了它的轮廓，工程师看着不断转动的火车，认为它很像不断转动的黑色圆筒。

It's a long train, he muttered. Then, as his quick eye traveled again from the yellow headlight back to the green lantern on the faraway caboose, 他嘟囔道这列火车很长，当他敏捷的眼睛从黄色头灯再次回到守车的绿色灯光时，

he saw with a sudden sinking of his heart that the train was much too long. 他突然心一沉，发现这列火车的确很长。

He knew that somewhere in the middle a coupling had broken, 他知道中间不知道什么地方，车钩断裂了，

and the front end of the train with the engine was roaring down the grade with the rear end pursuing it. 前端最尾部的火车引擎在斜坡上发出轰鸣声，而后端尾部正在追赶。

Sooner or later, unless the freight crew manned the brakes, there must be a terrible collision. 除非货运列车员人工操作刹车，早早晚晚将发生重大相撞事故。

In the face of sudden danger an engineer's first impulse is to stop his train. Potts sprang back to his place. 在危险来临之际，工程师的第一个念头就是停车，波茨跑回了他的位置。

He jammed the throttle forward and drew back the quivering reverse lever. 他将节流阀向前推，将颤抖的倒车杆向后推。

Then his hand closed on the brass handle that controlled the air brake. 之后，他的手即将触摸到控制风闸的铜制杆。

There was a deafening hissing and crackling, and the needle on the air pressure indicator dropped from 70 to 65 to 60 pounds in two seconds. 之后发出了震耳欲聋的嘶嘶声和噼啪声，气压计上的指针在两秒内从70降到65，降到60磅。

The wheels underneath whipped up a fountain of sparks, and the sleepers in their berths turned and grumbled at being disturbed. 下面的轮胎产生了大量火花，卧铺乘客因被打扰而埋怨起来。

Most difficult to believe, all these events had taken place within the bounds of a long breath. 很难相信，所有这些事件是在一口长呼吸中发生的。

Now there were three biting shrieks of the whistle, Potts's cry of warning to the freight engineer that his train was broken. 火车发出了三声刺耳的汽笛声，波茨叫嚷着警告货车工程师，他的火车损坏了。

Harrison, the fireman, who well knew the meaning of the signal, sprang to his window on the left. 消防员哈里森熟悉这个信号，他跳到了左边的窗户旁。

His hair blew loose in the back draft. The break is among the tanks, he shouted, as he saw the approaching freight. 在逆风中，他的头发迎风飘扬，他叫嚷到刹车在油槽车，这时他看到了不断接近的货运车。

The cab was dark except for the shaded light at the indicator, 驾驶室很黑，除了指示器上的阴影，

but Harrison saw the engineer nod grimly, and again the three warning whistles cut the night air. 但哈里森看到工程师严肃地点着头，之后火车在夜空上又发出了三声警告笛声。

He must do his best to warn the crew of the freight. But the tank train continued to advance. 他必须尽可能地来警告火车上的员工，但油槽车继续向前。

Its engineer either failed to hear the signal or else its fearful meaning did not impress him. 车上的工程师或者是没有听到信号声，或是信号发出的可怕内容没有影响到他。

He would have known well enough, had he stopped to think, that a collision meant an explosion such as would put to shame a powder mill. 他应该早就清楚，如果他没有想到撞击产生的爆炸将让炸药厂相形见绌。