评论
打印
'Is he the man,'asked the Secretary, 'who wrote a History of Witchcraft about ten years ago?'
“他是不是那个大约十年前写《巫术的历史》那本书的人呀？”秘书问道。
'Yes, that's the man,'replied Mr Bennett. 'Do you re- member what the newspaers said about it?'
“是的，就是他，”贝内特先生回答，“你还记得报界是怎么评价这本书的吗？”
'Yes, I do,'said the Secretary.'They all said that it was a really bad book. In fact, I knew the man who wrote the sharpest report of them all. So did you, of course. You re-member John Harrington? He was at Cambridge with us.'
“记得，”秘书说，“报界都说这本书确实很糟糕。而且我认识其中那篇最尖刻的评论的作者。当然你们也认识了。你们记得约翰·哈林顿吗？他和我们一起在剑桥大学呆过。”
'Oh, very well indeed. But I had heard nothing of him between the time we left university and the day I read about his accident in the newspaper.'
“噢，当然记得。可从我们离开剑桥大学到在报上读到他出事的消息就一直没有他的消息。”
'What happened to him?'asked one of the ladies.
“他出了什么事？”其中一位夫人问道。
'It was very strange,'said Mr Bennett.' He fell out of a tree and broke his neck. The mystery was why he had climbed the tree in the first place. There he was, an ordinary man walking home along a country road late one evening, and suddenly he began to run as fast as he could. Finally he climbed up a tree beside the road; a dead branch broke, he fell and was killed. When they found him the next morning, he had a terrible expression of fear on his face. It was quite clear that he had been chased by something and people talked about mad dogs and so on, but no one ever found the answer. That was in 1889 and ever since then his brother, Henry, who was also at Cambridge with us, has been trying to find out the truth of what happened.
“事情非常奇怪，”贝内特先生说，“他从树上掉下来摔断脖颈而死。首先他为什么会爬到树上去就是个谜。他一个平平常常的人夜晚沿着一条乡间小路往家走着，突然就开始拼命跑起来，最后爬上了路边的一棵树，一根枯枝折了，于是他掉下来摔死了。第二天早上人们发现他时，他脸上带着一种极度恐惧的表情。很明显后面有什么追他，人们说是疯狗什么的，可没人知道到底是什么。这是1889年的事，从那以后他弟弟亨利，当时也和我们一起在剑桥大学的那位，就一直在努力想了解事情的真相。
