書蟲二級 坎特維爾幽靈：4.四面受敵

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4．Enemies everywhere!

4．四面受敵

For the next five days the ghost stayed in his room. He was very tired, and he didn't feel well. He decided to stop putting the bloodstain on the library floor.

接下來的五天幽靈都待在自己的房間里。他疲憊極了，感覺也不好。他決定不再去書房的地板上染血跡。

The Otis family don't want it,' he thought, 'so they're not going to have it!'

“奧蒂斯一家不想要它，”他想，“所以他們不會擁有它！”

Ghostly appearances were different, of course. It was his job to appear in the passage once a week, and to 'Oooooh!' and 'Aaaaagh!' from the great window on the stairs on the first and third Wednesday in every month.

幽靈的外形是可以變化的，這是肯定的。每周，他都要出現(xiàn)在走廊里一次，每個月的第一和第三個星期三，他還要在樓梯旁的大窗戶那兒“啾”、“啊”地鬼叫一番。

So for the next three Saturdays, as usual, he walked along the passages between midnight and three o'clock. But he didn't want anybody to see or hear him. He took off his shoes and walked as quietly as he could. He wore a large black coat, and was careful to use Tammany's Sun Oil on his chains. At first he didn't want to, but one evening, while the family was at dinner, he went into Mr Otis's bedroom and took the bottle. After a time, he saw that the oil was really very useful.

在接下來的三個星斯六，他會跟往常一樣，從午夜到凌晨3點，一直在走廊里游走。但他卻不想讓任何人看到或聽到。他脫下鞋子，盡可能輕手輕腳地走著，身穿一件大黑袍，還小心翼翼地在鎖鏈上涂上坦馬尼太陽油。最開始他不愿意這么做，但是有天晚上，在一家人吃晚飯時，幽靈跑進奧蒂斯先生的臥室，拿走了瓶子。經(jīng)過一段時間之后，他發(fā)現(xiàn)這潤滑油真是非常有用。

But the twins still went on with their tricks. They put things in his way in dark corners, and he fell over them. They put butter on the top stair, and one night his feet went from under him and he went crashing down the stairs to the bottom. This made him very angry, and he decided to visit the boys the next night, as the famous 'Duke with No Head', and frighten them half to death.

可是那對雙胞胎仍在不斷地搞花樣。他們在黑暗的角落里擺上東西擋他的路，結果他被絆倒了。他們還在樓梯頂端抹上黃油，有天晚上幽靈腳一滑，從樓梯頂上一直滾到最底下。這令他惱羞成怒，決心變成著名的“無頭公爵”，在第二天晚上去找這兄弟倆，要把他們嚇個半死。

He spent three hours getting ready, and was very pleased with how he looked. At a quarter past one he walked through the wall and moved silently through the passages to the twins' bedroom.

他花了三個小時準備，對自己的扮相十分滿意。1點1刻，他穿過墻壁，靜悄悄地走過走廊，來到那對雙胞胎的臥室。

The door was open a little way. Pushing it hard, the ghost walked into the room — and a heavy jug of water fell right down on him. At the same time, he heard the twins laughing in their beds.

臥室門虛掩著。幽靈用力推開門，走進房間——一大壺水正好澆在他身上，同時，他聽到那對雙胞胎在床上大笑。

The ghost — wet from top to bottom — turned and ran from the room. He did not stop until he was back in his room. The next day he was ill with a bad cold.

幽靈從頭到腳全都濕透了，他轉(zhuǎn)身就跑出了臥室，直到回到自己的房間，才停了下來。第二天，他患上了重感冒。

After this, the ghost stopped trying to frighten the American family. He walked silently round the passages in soft shoes, carrying an old gun, and tried to stay away from everyone.

在這之后，幽靈再不想嚇唬這家美國佬了。他穿著柔軟的鞋子，悄悄地漫游于走廊上，還拿著一把老槍，試圖躲開任何人。

The last of the tricks happened on the 19th of September. That night the ghost was wearing one of his favourite shrouds, and he decided to walk down to the library. He wanted to see what was left of the bloodstain. He was on his way there when two shapes jumped out of a dark corner of the passage and shouted 'BOO!' in his ear.

最后一個惡作劇發(fā)生在9月19日。那天晚上，幽靈穿著他最喜歡的一件尸袍，決定到書房去，看看那塊血跡怎么樣了。他正走到半路，突然，在走廊的一個黑暗角落里，有兩個人影跳了出來，沖著他大叫一聲：“噓！”

The ghost was very frightened, of course, and ran to the stairs. But Washington Otis was waiting for him there, with a big garden-syringe. There were enemies on all sides! 'Aaaagh!' the ghost cried, then turned quickly and disappeared into the fireplace, which, luckily for him, was not lit. When at last he got back to his room, he was terribly dirty, with black all over his favourite shroud, and very unhappy.

幽靈被嚇壞了，連忙向樓梯跑去。可是華盛頓·奧蒂斯正在那兒恭候著，手中拿著澆花用的巨大噴水器。真是四面受敵??！幽靈大叫一聲：“??！”接著迅速轉(zhuǎn)身，消失在壁爐里——好在壁爐沒有點火。當他最終回到自己的屋里時，幽靈邋遢得一塌糊涂，最心愛的裹尸袍全被染黑了，他委屈極了。

After this, nobody saw him again at night. The twins waited to play tricks on him three or four times. They put nutshells all along the passages, which made walking around difficult for everyone in the house, but the ghost did not appear.

這之后，再也沒有人在晚上見過他。有三四次那對雙胞胎都在等著捉弄他。他們在走廊里全部撒上果殼，這下倒讓屋里的人走起路來都別別扭扭的，可幽靈還是沒有出現(xiàn)。

Oh dear, he's too unhappy to come out,' they said.

“哎呀，他都不樂意出來了。”雙胞胎說。

Mr Otis began work again on his book. Mrs Otis gave a number of big 'American parties' for the English people who lived near them. The boys played in the house and garden, and Virginia went horse-riding with the young Duke of Cheshire. He was staying at Canterville Chase for the last week of his holidays.

奧蒂斯先生又重新鉆研起書籍來。而奧蒂斯夫人為附近的英國鄰居們舉行了一系列的“美國社交會”。男孩子們在房子和花園里玩耍，弗吉尼婭和年輕的柴郡公爵一起去騎馬。公爵要在坎特維爾古堡度過他假期的最后一個星期。

Mr Otis wrote a letter to Lord Canterville and said: 'We think that the ghost has gone away.'

奧蒂斯先生給坎特維爾勛爵去了一封信說：“我們覺得那個幽靈已經(jīng)離開了。”

And Lord Canterville wrote back: 'I am happy to hear it!'

坎特維爾勛爵回信說：“我真高興聽到這消息！”

But Mr Otis was wrong. The ghost was still in the house. It is true that he was ill, but he was not yet ready to stop his ghostly work. The young Duke of Cheshire was staying in the house, and the ghost knew the Duke's family well. He once appeared before the brother of the Duke's grandfather as the Horseman of Death. The poor man's hair turned white in one night, and for the rest of his life he could only say the words, 'Turn out the light, turn out the light.' Now the ghost wanted to do the Horseman of Death for the young Duke too.

可是奧蒂斯先生錯了。幽靈仍然在宅子里。雖然他確實是生病了，可他不打算停止作怪。年輕的柴郡公爵正待在古堡里，而幽靈非常熟悉公爵一家。曾經(jīng)有一次，他變成死神騎士出現(xiàn)在公爵的一個叔爺面前。那個可憐人一夜之間便白了頭發(fā)，而且在余生當中只會說幾個字：“熄掉燈，熄掉燈。”現(xiàn)在幽靈打算給公爵也來這么一下。

He got everything ready, but in the end he never left his room. He was too frightened of the twins to go out, and the young Duke slept happily in his bed, thinking of pretty Virginia.

他一切就緒，但最終還是沒離開自己的房間。他太害怕那對雙胞胎了，都不敢出門。年輕的公爵在床上美美地睡著，思念著可愛的弗吉尼婭。