血字的研究 58和先知的会谈(2)（在线收听）

At first this vague and terrible power was exercised only upon the recalcitrants who, having embraced the Mormon faith, wished afterwards to pervert or to abandon it.Soon, however, it took a wider range.

最初，这种神秘莫测的可怕势力只是对付那些叛教之徒的。可是不久，它的范围就扩大了。

The supply of adult women was running short, and polygamy without a female population on which to draw was a barren doctrine indeed.

这时，成年妇女的供应也已渐感不足。没有足够的妇女，一夫多妻制的教条就要形同虚设。

Strange rumours began to be bandied about –rumours of murdered immigrants and rifled camps in regions where Indians had never been seen.

于是各种奇怪的传闻到处传布：在印第安人从来没有到过的地方，移民中途被人谋杀，旅行人的帐篷也遭到抢劫。

Fresh women appeared in the harems of the Elders–women who pined and wept, and bore upon their faces the traces of an unextinguishable horror.

同时，摩门教长老的深屋内室里却出现了陌生的女人。她们面容憔悴，嘤嘤啜泣，脸上流露出难以磨灭的恐惧。

Belated wanderers upon the mountains spoke of gangs of armed men, masked, stealthy, and noiseless, who flitted by them in the darkness.

据山中迟暮未归的游民传说，在黄昏薄暮时刻，他们看见一队队戴着面具的武装匪徒骑着马，静悄悄地从他们身旁疾驰而过。

These tales and rumours took substance and shape, and were corroborated and recorroborated, until they resolved themselves into a definite name.

这些故事和传说最初不过是一鳞半爪，但是愈来愈有眉目，经过人们一再印证之后，也就知道这是某人的所作所为了。

To this day, in the lonely ranches of the West, the name of the Danite Band, or the Avenging Angels, is a sinister and an ill-omened one.

直到今天，在西部荒凉的大草原上，"丹奈特帮"和"复仇天使"仍然还是罪恶与不祥的名称。

Fuller knowledge of the organization which produced such terrible results served to increase rather than to lessen the horror which it inspired in the minds of men.

进一步了解这个罪恶渊薮的组织，只能使人们思想中已经引骑的那种恐怖加深，而不是减轻。

None knew who belonged to this ruthless society.

谁也不知道都是哪些人算在这个残暴的组织里。

The names of the participators in the deeds of blood and violence done under the name of religion were kept profoundly secret.

这些在宗教幌子下进行残酷、血腥行动分子的姓名是绝对保守秘密的。

The very friend to whom you communicated your misgivings as to the Prophet and his mission might be one of those who would come forth at night with fire and sword to exact a terrible reparation.

你把你对于先知及其教会不满的言论讲给他听的那个朋友，可能就是夜晚明火执杖前来进行恐怖报复人们中的一个。

Hence every man feared his neighbour, and none spoke of the things which were nearest his heart.

因此，每个人对于他的左邻右舍都不免心怀疑惧，更没有一个人敢于说出他的内心话了。