福爾摩斯探案集·四簽名 第99期:瓊諾贊·斯茂的奇異故事(9)

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First of all it is enormous in size.

首先，它龐大得很，

I should think that the enclosure must be acres and acres.

我估量著占有不少英畝的地方，

There is a modern part, which took all our garrison, women, children, stores, and everything else, with plenty of room over.

較新的一部分面積很大，容納了我們的全部軍隊、婦孺和輜重還富富有余。

But the modern part is nothing like the size of the old quarter, where nobody goes,

可是這較新部分的大小還遠比不上古老的那一部分，沒有人到那里去，

and which is given over to the scorpions and the centipedes.

蝎子蜈蚣盤踞在那里。

It is all full of great deserted halls, and winding passages, and long corridors twisting in and out,

舊堡里邊全是空無人跡的大廳、曲曲折折的甬道和蜿蜒迂回的長廊，

so that it is easy enough for folk to get lost in it.

走進去的人很容易迷路。

For this reason it was seldom that anyone went into it,

因此很少有人到舊堡里去，

though now and again a party with torches might go exploring.

可是偶爾也有拿著火把的人們結(jié)伙進去探險。

"The river washes along the front of the old fort, and so protects it,

由舊堡前面流過的小河，形成了一條護城壕。

but on the sides and behind there are many doors, and these had to be guarded,

堡的兩側(cè)和后面有許多出入的門，

of course, in the old quarter as well as in that which was actually held by our troops.

自然，在這里和我們軍隊居住的地方都必須派人把守。

We were short-handed, with hardly men enough to man the angles of the building and to serve the guns.

我們的人數(shù)太少，不可能既照顧到全堡的每個角落又照顧到全部的炮位，

It was impossible for us, therefore, to station a strong guard at every one of the innumerable gates.

因此在無數(shù)的堡門處都派重兵守衛(wèi)是絕不可能的。

What we did was to organize a central guard-house in the middle of the fort,

我們的辦法是在堡壘中央設置了一個中心守衛(wèi)室，

and to leave each gate under the charge of one white man and two or three natives.

每一個堡門由一個白種人率領(lǐng)兩三個印度兵把守。

I was selected to take charge during certain hours of the night of a small isolated door upon the south-west side of the building.

我被派在每天夜里一段固定時間內(nèi)負責守衛(wèi)堡壘西南面的一個孤立小堡門。

Two Sikh troopers were placed under my command,

在我指揮之下的是兩個錫克教徒士兵。

and I was instructed if anything went wrong to fire my musket, when I might rely upon help coming at once from the central guard.

我所接受的指示是：遇有危急，只要放一槍，就會從中心守衛(wèi)室來人接應。