四签名 93琼诺赞·斯茂的奇异故事（3）（在线收听）

"This is a very serious matter, Small," said the detective.

琼斯道："斯茂，这是一件很严重的事情。

"If you had helped justice, instead of thwarting it in this way, you would have had a better chance at your trial."

你如果能帮助法律而不是这样地进行破坏，那么，在判刑的时候就会有得到从轻发落的机会。"

"Justice!" snarled the ex-convict. "A pretty justice! Whose loot is this, if it is not ours?

"法律？！"罪犯咆哮着道，"多么美好的法律啊！宝物不是我们的是谁的？

Where is the justice that I should give it up to those who have never earned it? Look how I have earned it!

宝物不是他们赚来的偏要给他们，难道这算公道吗？你们看看我是怎样把宝物赚到手的：

Twenty long years in that fever-ridden swamp, all day at work under the mangrove-tree,

整整二十年，在那热病猖狂的湿地里住着，白天整日在红树下面做苦工，

all night chained up in the filthy convict-huts, bitten by mosquitoes,

夜晚被锁在污秽的囚棚里，镣铐加身，被蚊子咬着，

racked with ague, bullied by every cursed black-faced policeman who loved to take it out of a white man.

被疟疾折磨着，受着喜欢拿白种人泄愤的每个可恶的黑脸禁卒的种种凌辱，

That was how I earned the Agra treasure, and you talk to me of justice

这是我赚到阿格拉宝物的代价，而你却要来同我讲什么公道。

because I cannot bear to feel that I have paid this price only that another may enjoy it!

难道因为我不肯把我所历尽艰难而取得的东西让别人去享受，你就认为不公道吗？

I would rather swing a score of times, or have one of Tonga's darts in my hide,

我宁愿被绞死或吃童格一毒刺，

than live in a convict's cell and feel that another man is at his ease in a palace with the money that should be mine."

也不甘心在牢狱里活着而叫另外一个人拿着应当是我的钱去快乐逍遥！"

Small had dropped his mask of stoicism, and all this came out in a wild whirl of words,

这时斯茂已经不象以前沉默了，他滔滔不绝地倾泻出这些话来。

while his eyes blazed, and the handcuffs clanked together with the impassioned movement of his hands.

他两眼发亮，手铐随着激动的双手震得作响。

I could understand, as I saw the fury and the passion of the man,

看到他这样忿怒和冲动，我可以理解，

that it was no groundless or unnatural terror which had possessed Major Sholto when he first learned that the injured convict was upon his track.

舒尔托少校为什么一听到这囚犯越狱回来的消息就吓得惊慌失措，这是很自然的和完全有根据的。