"This is a very serious matter, Small," said the detective.
瓊斯道:"斯茂,這是一件很嚴重的事情。
"If you had helped justice, instead of thwarting it in this way, you would have had a better chance at your trial."
你如果能幫助法律而不是這樣地進行破壞,那么,在判刑的時候就會有得到從輕發(fā)落的機會。"
"Justice!" snarled the ex-convict. "A pretty justice! Whose loot is this, if it is not ours?
"法律?!"罪犯咆哮著道,"多么美好的法律??!寶物不是我們的是誰的?
Where is the justice that I should give it up to those who have never earned it? Look how I have earned it!
寶物不是他們賺來的偏要給他們,難道這算公道嗎?你們看看我是怎樣把寶物賺到手的:
Twenty long years in that fever-ridden swamp, all day at work under the mangrove-tree,
整整二十年,在那熱病猖狂的濕地里住著,白天整日在紅樹下面做苦工,
all night chained up in the filthy convict-huts, bitten by mosquitoes,
夜晚被鎖在污穢的囚棚里,鐐銬加身,被蚊子咬著,
racked with ague, bullied by every cursed black-faced policeman who loved to take it out of a white man.
被瘧疾折磨著,受著喜歡拿白種人泄憤的每個可惡的黑臉禁卒的種種凌辱,
That was how I earned the Agra treasure, and you talk to me of justice
這是我賺到阿格拉寶物的代價,而你卻要來同我講什么公道。
because I cannot bear to feel that I have paid this price only that another may enjoy it!
難道因為我不肯把我所歷盡艱難而取得的東西讓別人去享受,你就認為不公道嗎?
I would rather swing a score of times, or have one of Tonga's darts in my hide,
我寧愿被絞死或吃童格一毒刺,
than live in a convict's cell and feel that another man is at his ease in a palace with the money that should be mine."
也不甘心在牢獄里活著而叫另外一個人拿著應(yīng)當是我的錢去快樂逍遙!"
Small had dropped his mask of stoicism, and all this came out in a wild whirl of words,
這時斯茂已經(jīng)不象以前沉默了,他滔滔不絕地傾瀉出這些話來。
while his eyes blazed, and the handcuffs clanked together with the impassioned movement of his hands.
他兩眼發(fā)亮,手銬隨著激動的雙手震得作響。
I could understand, as I saw the fury and the passion of the man,
看到他這樣忿怒和沖動,我可以理解,
that it was no groundless or unnatural terror which had possessed Major Sholto when he first learned that the injured convict was upon his track.
舒爾托少校為什么一聽到這囚犯越獄回來的消息就嚇得驚慌失措,這是很自然的和完全有根據(jù)的。