海底兩萬里 第61期 第6章 開足馬力(3)

Right your helm! Engines forward! Commander Farragut called.

法拉古艦長喊:舵向右，向前開!

These orders were executed, and the frigate swiftly retreated from this core of light.

以上命令執(zhí)行了，戰(zhàn)艦很快離開了發(fā)光的中心。

My mistake. It wanted to retreat, but the unearthly animal came at us with a speed double our own.

我弄錯(cuò)了。我們船要走開，但那神秘的動物卻以加借的速度逼近來。

We gasped. More stunned than afraid, we stood mute and motionless. The animal caught up with us, played with us.

我們氣都喘不過來。當(dāng)時(shí)，驚呆更甚于恐懼，弄得我們靜默不動。

It made a full circle around the frigate--then doing fourteen knots-and wrapped us in sheets of electricity that were like luminous dust.

這個(gè)動物好像開玩笑似的在海面上向我們沖來。它繞著戰(zhàn)艦，并且把船罩在像光塵一樣的電光網(wǎng)中。

Then it retreated two or three miles, leaving a phosphorescent trail comparable to thoseswirls of steam that shoot behind the locomotive of an express train.

然后它走出兩三海里遠(yuǎn)，后面拖著一條磷光的尾巴，好像快車的機(jī)車留在后面的一團(tuán)團(tuán)煙霧般的氣體。

Suddenly, all the way from the dark horizon where it had gone to gather momentum, the monster abruptly dashed toward the Abraham Lincoln with frightening speed,

忽然間，這個(gè)怪物從天邊的盡頭。以驚人的速度突然向林肯號沖來，在離船身二十英尺的海而上又突然停住，

stopped sharply twenty feet from our side plates, and died out-not by diving under the water,

光全滅了—不是潛入水中，因?yàn)樗墓獠皇锹叵ⅲ?/p>

since its glow did not recede gradually-but all at once, as if the source of this brilliant emanation had suddenly dried up.

而是猝然地，像光的來源陡然斷了一般!