13号牢房之谜

一

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奥古斯塔斯·S·F·X·范·杜森的名字起好之后，字母表里剩下的字母，几乎都在他辉煌的科学生涯中被他一一得到。这些头衔来得光彩，就被加在了名字的后面。因此，他的名字连同所有头衔，成了一个格外气派的整体。他是哲学博士、法学博士、皇家学会会员、医学博士，还是牙科外科医学博士。此外他还有一些别的头衔，具体是什么，他自己也说不清，那是各国教育和科学机构对他才能的认可。

Practically all those letters remaining in the alphabet after Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen was named were afterward acquired by that gentleman in the course of a brilliant scientific career, and, being honorably acquired, were tacked on to the other end. His name, therefore, taken with all that belonged to it, was a wonderfully imposing structure. He was a Ph.D., an LL.D., an F.R.S., an M.D., and an M.D.S. He was also some other things—just what he himself couldn’t say—through recognition of his ability by various foreign educational and scientific institutions.

他的外表和他的名字一样引人注目。他身材瘦削，单薄的肩膀有些下垂，像个读书人；他不爱出门，常年坐着，刮得干干净净的脸上带着苍白。他的眼睛总是眯着，一副让人不敢亲近的样子，那是常年研究细小事物的人才有的眼神。透过厚厚的眼镜勉强能看到他的眼睛时，那也只是两道泛着水光的蓝色细缝。不过，他最引人注目的是眼睛上方的部分：那是一个又高又宽的额头，高度和宽度都几乎不正常，上面还盖着一大团蓬乱的黄头发。这一切合在一起，让他显得很特别，甚至有点古怪。

In appearance he was no less striking than in nomenclature. He was slender with the droop of the student in his thin shoulders and the pallor of a close, sedentary life on his clean-shaven face. His eyes wore a perpetual, forbidding squint—the squint of a man who studies little things—and when they could be seen at all through his thick spectacles, were mere slits of watery blue. But above his eyes was his most striking feature. This was a tall, broad brow, almost abnormal in height and width, crowned by a heavy shock of bushy, yellow hair. All these things conspired to give him a peculiar, almost grotesque, personality.

范·杜森教授有一点遥远的德国血统。他的祖先好几代都是有名的科学家，而他正是这样一个家族自然而然的结果，一个最出色的头脑。他首先是一位逻辑学家，而且比什么都看重这一点。他这五十来年的人生里，至少有三十五年完全用来证明二加二永远等于四，只有在少数特别的情况下，才会等于三或者五，要看具体情况。他的基本想法是：凡是开始的事物，都一定会走向某个地方。他能把祖先留下的全部思考力量集中起来，用来解决眼前的问题。顺便说一句，范·杜森教授戴八号的帽子。

Professor Van Dusen was remotely German. For generations his ancestors had been noted in the sciences; he was the logical result, the master mind. First and above all he was a logician. At least thirty-five years of the half-century or so of his existence had been devoted exclusively to proving that two and two always equal four, except in unusual cases, where they equal three or five, as the case may be. He stood broadly on the general proposition that all things that start must go somewhere, and was able to bring the concentrated mental force of his forefathers to bear on a given problem. Incidentally it may be remarked that Professor Van Dusen wore a No. 8 hat.

外面的世界只是模模糊糊地听说过，范·杜森教授是“思考机器”。这个称呼是报纸在一次了不起的国际象棋表演时起的。那一次他证明了，一个从没下过棋的人，只靠无可回避的逻辑，也能打败一位花了一辈子研究棋艺的冠军。思考机器！也许这个称呼比他所有的荣誉头衔更能说明他是什么人。他一周又一周、一个月又一个月地待在自己那间安静的小实验室里，从那里传出的思想，让科学界的同行大吃一惊，也深深震动了整个世界。

The world at large had heard vaguely of Professor Van Dusen as The Thinking Machine. It was a newspaper catch-phrase applied to him at the time of a remarkable exhibition at chess; he had demonstrated then that a stranger to the game might, by the force of inevitable logic, defeat a champion who had devoted a lifetime to its study. The Thinking Machine! Perhaps that more nearly described him than all his honorary initials, for he spent week after week, month after month, in the seclusion of his small laboratory from which had gone forth thoughts that staggered scientific associates and deeply stirred the world at large.

“思考机器”很少有客人来访，来的通常是本身在科学界地位很高的人，他们顺路来和他争论一个问题，也许还想说服自己。其中两位，查尔斯·兰塞姆医生和阿尔弗雷德·菲尔丁，有一天晚上来拜访他，讨论某个理论，那个理论在这里并不重要。

It was only occasionally that The Thinking Machine had visitors, and these were usually men who, themselves high in the sciences, dropped in to argue a point and perhaps convince themselves. Two of these men, Dr. Charles Ransome and Alfred Fielding, called one evening to discuss some theory which is not of consequence here.

“这种事是不可能的，”谈话中，兰塞姆医生斩钉截铁地说。

“Such a thing is impossible,” declared Dr. Ransome emphatically, in the course of the conversation.

“没有什么是不可能的，”“思考机器”同样坚决地说。他说话总是一副不耐烦的样子。“头脑是一切的主人。等到科学完全承认了这一点，就会有很大的进步。”

“Nothing is impossible,” declared The Thinking Machine with equal emphasis. He always spoke petulantly. “The mind is master of all things. When science fully recognizes that fact a great advance will have been made.”

“那飞艇呢？”兰塞姆医生问。

“How about the airship?” asked Dr. Ransome.

“那根本不是不可能，”“思考机器”断然说。“总有一天会被发明出来。我自己也能做，可是我很忙。”

“That’s not impossible at all,” asserted The Thinking Machine. “It will be invented some time. I’d do it myself, but I’m busy.”

兰塞姆医生宽容地笑了。

Dr. Ransome laughed tolerantly.

“这样的话我以前听你说过，”他说。“可是那没有意义。头脑也许是物质的主人，但它还没有找到用在现实里的办法。有些东西，不是想一想就能让它消失的，或者说，不管怎么想，它们都不会让步。”

“I’ve heard you say such things before,” he said. “But they mean nothing. Mind may be master of matter, but it hasn’t yet found a way to apply itself. There are some things that can’t be thought out of existence, or rather which would not yield to any amount of thinking.”

“比如说什么？”“思考机器”追问。

“What, for instance?” demanded The Thinking Machine.

兰塞姆医生一边抽烟，一边想了一会儿。

Dr. Ransome was thoughtful for a moment as he smoked.