美國語文第四冊 第182期：白蘭地酒河淺灘（04）
The moon was low in the west, and there was a pale glimmer of the coming dawn in the sky, when Gilbert Potter suddenly raised his head.
月已西斜，空中閃爍著清晨的微光，吉爾伯特.波特突然抬起頭。
Above the noise of the water and the whistle of the wind, he heard a familiar sound,—the shrill, sharp neigh of a horse.
在風(fēng)的呼嘯和水聲中，他聽到了一個熟悉的聲音——馬的嘶鳴。
Lifting himself with great exertion, to a sitting posture, he saw two men, on horseback, in the flooded meadow, a little below him.
費力地撐身坐起，他看到在已被洪水淹沒的低洼地里有兩個人騎在馬上。
They stopped, seemed to consult, and presently drew nearer.
他們停了下來，商量著什么，很快向他靠攏。
Gilbert tried to shout, but the muscles of his throat were stiff, and his lungs refused to act.
吉爾伯特想要喊叫，可是喉部肌肉僵硬，發(fā)不出聲。
The horse neighed again. This time there was no mistake; it was Roger that he heard!
馬又發(fā)出了一聲嘶鳴。沒錯，是羅杰！
Voice came to him, and he CRIed aloud,—a hoarse, strange, unnatural cry.
他終于可以發(fā)出聲音了，他大聲喊叫——聲音嘶啞、奇怪，極其不自然。
The horsemen heard it, and rapidly pushed up the bank, until they reached a point directly opposite to him.
騎馬的人聽到聲音，迅速上了河岸，來到和他正相對的一個地方。
The prospect of escape brought a thrill of life to his frame; he looked around and saw that the flood had indeed fallen.
獲救的前景使他興奮起來；看看四周，洪水確實已經(jīng)退了。
"We have no rope," he heard one of the men say. "How shall we reach him?”
“我們沒有繩子，”他聽到其中一個人說，“我們怎么才能夠到他呢？”
"There is no time to get one now," the other answered.
“沒有時間取繩子了，”另一個人回答，
My horse is stronger than yours.
我的馬比你的健壯。
I'll go into the creek just below, where it's broader and not so deep, and work my way up to him.
我去稍微靠下的河里，那里寬一些，水也不太深，我爭取靠近他。
But one horse can't carry both.
可是一匹馬馱不了兩個人。
His will follow, be sure, when it sees me.
他的馬會跟來，我敢肯定，它看到我時就會跟來的。
As the last speaker moved away, Gilbert saw a led horse plunging through the water beside the other.
后一個說話的人走過去，吉爾伯特看到一匹灰馬趟著水，走在另一匹馬旁邊。
It was a difficult and dangerous undertaking.
非常艱難而且危險。
The horseman and the loose horse entered the main stream below, where its divided channel met and broadened, but it was still above the saddle girths, and very swift.
騎手和馬進入了下方河流的主干，這里兩股水渠相交，河流變寬，可是水仍高過馬的腹帶，而且水流很急。
