猩红瘟疫

一

I

这条路沿着一道昔日铁路的路堤延伸，可是已经许多年没有火车驶过了。路堤两侧的森林向坡上蔓延，在堤顶汇成一片由树木和灌木组成的绿浪。小径窄得只容一个人的身体通过，不过是野兽踏出的一条通道。偶尔，一截生锈的铁从腐殖土里露出来，表明钢轨和枕木仍然留在那里。有一处，一棵直径十英寸的树从接头处顶了出来，把一段钢轨的末端清楚地抬到了地面上。枕木显然曾跟着钢轨一起被抬起，靠道钉连着钢轨，时间长得足以让它下面的空隙填满碎石和腐叶，所以如今那根朽烂的木头正以一种古怪的斜度戳在那里。这条路虽然古老，却明显是单轨式的。

The way led along upon what had once been the embankment of a railroad. But no train had run upon it for many years. The forest on either side swelled up the slopes of the embankment and crested across it in a green wave of trees and bushes. The trail was as narrow as a man’s body, and was no more than a wild-animal runway. Occasionally, a piece of rusty iron, showing through the forest-mould, advertised that the rail and the ties still remained. In one place, a ten-inch tree, bursting through at a connection, had lifted the end of a rail clearly into view. The tie had evidently followed the rail, held to it by the spike long enough for its bed to be filled with gravel and rotten leaves, so that now the crumbling, rotten timber thrust itself up at a curious slant. Old as the road was, it was manifest that it had been of the mono-rail type.

一个老人和一个男孩沿着这条通道走着。他们走得很慢，因为老人年纪极大，带着些许瘫痪般的颤抖，动作发颤，整个人重重地倚在手杖上。一顶粗糙的山羊皮小帽遮着他的头，挡住阳光。帽子下垂着一圈稀疏的、沾着污渍的脏白色头发。他用一片大树叶巧妙地做了一个遮阳帽檐，护着眼睛，他就从帽檐下端详脚下的小路。他的胡子本该雪白，却和头发一样带着风吹日晒的痕迹和营地里沾上的污渍，乱糟糟地结成一大团，几乎垂到腰间。他的胸口和肩膀上披着一件破旧的山羊皮衣。他的手臂和腿干瘪瘦削，透露出极大的年纪，上面的晒痕、伤疤和抓痕，也同样说明他多年来饱经风吹雨打。

An old man and a boy travelled along this runway. They moved slowly, for the old man was very old, a touch of palsy made his movements tremulous, and he leaned heavily upon his staff. A rude skull-cap of goat-skin protected his head from the sun. From beneath this fell a scant fringe of stained and dirty-white hair. A visor, ingeniously made from a large leaf, shielded his eyes, and from under this he peered at the way of his feet on the trail. His beard, which should have been snow-white but which showed the same weather-wear and camp-stain as his hair, fell nearly to his waist in a great tangled mass. About his chest and shoulders hung a single, mangy garment of goat-skin. His arms and legs, withered and skinny, betokened extreme age, as well as did their sunburn and scars and scratches betoken long years of exposure to the elements.

男孩走在前面，把年轻肌肉的急切压下来，迁就老人缓慢的步子。他同样只穿一件衣服，那是一块边缘参差的熊皮，中间开了个洞，他的头就从洞里钻出来。他至多不过十二岁。一只刚割下来的猪尾巴俏皮地别在他一只耳朵上。他一只手里拿着一张中等大小的弓和一支箭。

The boy, who led the way, checking the eagerness of his muscles to the slow progress of the elder, likewise wore a single garment—a ragged-edged piece of bear-skin, with a hole in the middle through which he had thrust his head. He could not have been more than twelve years old. Tucked coquettishly over one ear was the freshly severed tail of a pig. In one hand he carried a medium-sized bow and an arrow.

他背上有一袋满满的箭。脖子上用皮带挂着一个刀鞘，里面露出一把猎刀破旧的刀柄。他晒得像浆果一样黑褐，走路悄无声息，几乎像猫一样轻。与他晒黑的皮肤形成鲜明对比的是他的眼睛——蓝色，深蓝色，却像两把锥子一样锐利。它们似乎习惯性地要钻透周围的一切。他一路走，一路嗅着，张大的、微微颤动的鼻孔不断把外部世界的消息送进他的脑子。他的听觉也很灵敏，而且训练得已经成了自动反应。他毫不费力就能听见表面寂静中的所有细微声响——听见，分辨，归类——不论是风吹树叶的沙沙声，蜜蜂和蚊虫的嗡嗡声，只有风停时才隐约传来的远处海涛的轰鸣，还是就在他脚下的地鼠把一口袋泥土推进洞口的声音。

On his back was a quiverful of arrows. From a sheath hanging about his neck on a thong, projected the battered handle of a hunting knife. He was as brown as a berry, and walked softly, with almost a catlike tread. In marked contrast with his sunburned skin were his eyes—blue, deep blue, but keen and sharp as a pair of gimlets. They seemed to bore into aft about him in a way that was habitual. As he went along he smelled things, as well, his distended, quivering nostrils carrying to his brain an endless series of messages from the outside world. Also, his hearing was acute, and had been so trained that it operated automatically. Without conscious effort, he heard all the slight sounds in the apparent quiet—heard, and differentiated, and classified these sounds—whether they were of the wind rustling the leaves, of the humming of bees and gnats, of the distant rumble of the sea that drifted to him only in lulls, or of the gopher, just under his foot, shoving a pouchful of earth into the entrance of his hole.

他突然警觉地绷紧了身体。声音、景象和气味同时向他发出了警告。他的手向后伸到老人身上，碰了碰他，两人都站住不动。前方路堤顶的一侧传来噼啪的响声，男孩的目光紧盯着晃动的灌木丛顶端。接着一头大熊，一头灰熊，冲撞着闯进视野，看见人类也猛地停住了。它不喜欢他们，不满地低吼起来。男孩慢慢地把箭搭上弓，又慢慢地把弓弦拉紧。可他的眼睛始终没有离开那头熊。

Suddenly he became alertly tense. Sound, sight, and odor had given him a simultaneous warning. His hand went back to the old man, touching him, and the pair stood still. Ahead, at one side of the top of the embankment, arose a crackling sound, and the boy’s gaze was fixed on the tops of the agitated bushes. Then a large bear, a grizzly, crashed into view, and likewise stopped abruptly, at sight of the humans. He did not like them, and growled querulously. Slowly the boy fitted the arrow to the bow, and slowly he pulled the bowstring taut. But he never removed his eyes from the bear.

老人从绿叶下面望着危险，和男孩一样安静地站着。这样互相打量了几秒钟，熊的烦躁越来越明显，男孩便用头部的动作示意老人必须离开小径，走下路堤。男孩倒退着跟下去，仍然拉着弓，随时准备射击。他们等到路堤另一侧的灌木丛中传来一阵噼啪声，知道熊已经走远了。男孩咧嘴一笑，领着老人回到小径上。

The old man peered from under his green leaf at the danger, and stood as quietly as the boy. For a few seconds this mutual scrutinizing went on; then, the bear betraying a growing irritability, the boy, with a movement of his head, indicated that the old man must step aside from the trail and go down the embankment. The boy followed, going backward, still holding the bow taut and ready. They waited till a crashing among the bushes from the opposite side of the embankment told them the bear had gone on. The boy grinned as he led back to the trail.

“好大一只呢，爷爷。”他咯咯笑着说。

“A big un, Granser,” he chuckled.

老人摇了摇头。

The old man shook his head.

“它们一天比一天多了，”他用细弱而不稳的假嗓子抱怨道，“谁想得到我竟活到这么一天，一个人去悬崖屋的路上还得担心性命。我小时候，埃德温，天气好的时候，男男女女，连小婴儿，成千上万地从旧金山到这里来玩。那时候这里可没有熊。没有，先生。熊那么稀罕，人们还得花钱去笼子外面看它们呢。”

“They get thicker every day,” he complained in a thin, undependable falsetto. “Who’d have thought I’d live to see the time when a man would be afraid of his life on the way to the Cliff House. When I was a boy, Edwin, men and women and little babies used to come out here from San Francisco by tens of thousands on a nice day. And there weren’t any bears then. No, sir. They used to pay money to look at them in cages, they were that rare.”

“钱是什么，爷爷？”

“What is money, Granser?”

老人还没来得及回答，男孩想起来了，得意地把手伸进熊皮下的小袋里，掏出一枚破旧发暗的银元。老人把硬币凑近眼睛，眼里闪出光来。

Before the old man could answer, the boy recollected and triumphantly shoved his hand into a pouch under his bear-skin and pulled forth a battered and tarnished silver dollar. The old man’s eyes glistened, as he held the coin close to them.

“我看不清，”他喃喃地说，“你看看，埃德温，看你能不能认出日期来。”

“I can’t see,” he muttered. “You look and see if you can make out the date, Edwin.”

男孩笑了。

The boy laughed.