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The Darkest Hour
最黑暗的时刻
If anything had been needed to give an impetus to Jack McMurdo's popularity among his fellows it would have been his arrest and acquittal.
杰克·麦克默多自从被捕和无罪释放以后，在他那一伙人中，声名大噪。
That a man on the very night of joining the lodge should have done something which brought him before the magistrate was a new record in the annals of the society.
一个人在入会的当夜就干了一些事，使他在法官面前受审，在这个社团是史无前例的。
Already he had earned the reputation of a good boon companion, a cheery reveller, and withal a man of high temper, who would not take an insult even from the all powerful Boss himself.
他已赢得很高的声望，人们认为他是一个好酒友，兴致很高的狂欢者，性情高傲，绝不肯受人侮辱，即便对具有无上权威的首领本人，他也绝不让步。
But in addition to this he impressed his comrades with the idea that among them all
可是除此之外，他还给同伙留下了很深的印象：大家认为，在全分会，
there was not one whose brain was so ready to devise a bloodthirsty scheme, or whose hand would be more capable of carrying it out.
没有一个人的头脑能像他那样转眼就能想出一个嗜血成性的阴谋诡计，也没有一个人的手能象他那样把阴谋诡计付诸实施。
"He'll be the boy for the clean job," said the oldsters to one another, and waited their time until they could set him to his work.
"他一定是一个手脚利落的家伙，"那些老家伙们议论道，他们等待着时机，让麦克默多开始大显身手。
McGinty had instruments enough already; but he recognized that this was a supremely able one.
麦金蒂手中已有足够的役使工具，可是他认为麦克默多是一个最有才干的人。
He felt like a man holding a fierce bloodhound in leash.
他觉得自己好像一个主人用皮带系住一条凶残嗜血的猎犬。
There were curs to do the smaller work; but some day he would slip this creature upon its prey.
用一些劣种狗去做小事，但总有一天要放开这个凶兽去捕食。
A few members of the lodge, Ted Baldwin among them, resented the rapid rise of the stranger and hated him for it;
少数会员，其中也有鲍德温，对这个外来人升得很快深感不满，甚至怀恨在心，
but they kept clear of him, for he was as ready to fight as to laugh.
可是他们却回避他，因为麦克默多就像轻易笑闹一样随时可以和人决斗。
But if he gained favour with his fellows, there was another quarter, one which had become even more vital to him, in which he lost it.
不过，假如说麦克默多在党羽中赢得了荣誉，而他却失去了另外一个、甚至是对他更重要的方面。
Ettie Shafter's father would have nothing more to do with him, nor would he allow him to enter the house.
那就是伊蒂·谢夫特的父亲从此不再和他打交道，也不许他上门。
Ettie herself was too deeply in love to give him up altogether, and yet her own good sense warned her of what would come from a marriage with a man who was regarded as a criminal.
伊蒂深深沉湎于对麦克默多的爱情之中，但她善良的心性却也觉得，倘若和一个暴徒结婚，很难料想后果如何。
