《金银岛》第一章 老海员(2)

"Do many people come here？" he asked.

“有很多人来这里吗？”他问。

"No,"my father told him.

“不，”我父亲说。

"Then it's the place for me,"said the seaman¹."I'll stay here for a bit. You can call me Captain."He threw down three or four gold coins."Tell me when I've spent all that."

“那么这就是我要找的地方，”老海员说。“我要在这儿住上一段时间，你们叫我老船长好了。”他拿出三四个金币。“钱花完了就告诉我。”

He was a silent man. All day he walked around the cove², or up on the cliffs ;all evening he sat in a corner of the room, and drank rum and water. He only spoke³ to our other customers when he was drunk. Then he told them terrible stories of his wild and criminal life at sea. Our customers were mostly quiet, farming people; the captain frightened them and they soon learned to leave him alone.

他是个沉默的人，整天在海湾走来走去，或是站在悬崖上；晚上则坐在屋子的一个角落，喝着搀水的朗姆酒。他只在喝醉时才和别的客人说话。那时他就给客人们讲他在海上野蛮和罪恶生活的可怕经历。我们的客人大都是生性安静的农民；老船长的经历令他们惊恐不安，后来他们就避免和他在一起了。

Every day, he asked if any seamen⁴ had gone along the road. At first we thought he wanted friends of his own kind, but then we began to understand that there was a different reason. He told me to watch for a seaman with one leg and to let him know the moment when a man like that appeared. He promised to give me a silver coin every month for doing this. I dreamed about this one－legged seaman for many nights afterwards.

每天他都问有没有水手从此路过。开始我们以为他是想念自己的朋友，后来我们才意识到还有别的原因。他告诉我要注意一个一条腿的水手，如果此人一出现，立刻向他报信。他许诺每月给我一个银币。那以后我经常梦到他说的那个一条腿的水手。

1 seaman   

n.海员，水手，水兵

参考例句：

• That young man is a experienced seaman.那个年轻人是一个经验丰富的水手。
• The Greek seaman went to the hospital five times.这位希腊海员到该医院去过五次。

2 cove   

n.小海湾，小峡谷

参考例句：

• The shore line is wooded,olive-green,a pristine cove.岸边一带林木蓊郁，嫩绿一片，好一个山外的小海湾。
• I saw two children were playing in a cove.我看到两个小孩正在一个小海湾里玩耍。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 seamen   

n.海员

参考例句：

• Experienced seamen will advise you about sailing in this weather. 有经验的海员会告诉你在这种天气下的航行情况。
• In the storm, many seamen wished they were on shore. 在暴风雨中，许多海员想，要是他们在陆地上就好了。