Within minutes of setting out he had gone back again and equipped himself with a lamp. Not an electric one. The only electric light in the place was the one that Random had brought with her. This was a kind of dim hurricane lamp: a perforated metal canister from Strinder’s forge, which contained a reservoir of inflammable fish oil, a wick of knotted dried grass and was wrapped in a translucent film made from dried membranes from the gut of a Perfectly Normal Beast.

他冲出村子没几分钟就折了回去，给自己装备上一盏灯。不是电灯，这地方唯一靠电发光的就是兰登的手电筒。阿瑟拿的是某种光线暗淡的马灯：斯林德的铁匠铺里弄的，一个凿了孔的金属罐头，里头装着一小筒可供燃烧的鱼油和一根干草拧成的灯芯，再把绝对正常兽的肠子晒干，做成半透明的薄膜，把灯包裹起来。

It had now gone out.

现在它已经熄灭了。

Arthur jiggled around with it in a thoroughly pointless kind of a way for a few seconds. There was clearly no way he was going to get the thing suddenly to burst into flame again in the middle of a rainstorm, but it’s impossible not to make a token effort. Reluctantly he threw the thing aside.

阿瑟拿着它，以一种全无意义的方式晃了好几秒。很显然，他无论如何也不可能让这东西在暴风雨里自己重新亮起来，不过象征性的努力不能没有。最后他不情不愿地把它丢到了一边。

What to do? This was hopeless. He was absolutely sodden, his clothes heavy and billowing with the rain, and now he was lost in the dark as well.

怎么办？这简直毫无希望。他浑身淋得湿透，衣服沉甸甸的，随着雨水翻滚，现在他还在黑暗里迷了路。

For a brief second he was lost in the blinding light, and then he was lost in the dark again.

有一瞬间他被刺眼的光芒笼罩，然后又重新陷入了黑暗。

The sheet of lightning had at least shown him that he was very close to the brow of the hill. Once he had breasted that he would… well, he wasn’t certain what he would do. He’d have to work that out when he got there.

不过先前的闪电至少告诉他，原来自己离山脊已经很近了。一旦翻过山去他就……好吧，他不大清楚他该怎么办。这个问题等到了那儿再想吧。

He limped forward and upwards.

他一瘸一拐地往前走，往上走。

A few minutes later he knew that he was standing panting at the top. There was some kind of dim glow in the distance below him. He had no idea what it was, and indeed he hardly liked to think. It was the only thing he had to make towards, though, so he started to make his way, stumbling, lost and frightened towards it.

几分钟之后他发现自己已经到了山顶。山脚下远远能看见些亮光，他不知道是什么东西，事实上他连想都不大愿意去想。不过反正他也没有别的什么目标可以前进，于是他朝着它跌跌撞撞地走过去，完全不知道自己身在何处，心里还怕得要死。

The flash of lethal light passed straight through Random and, about two seconds later, so did the man who had shot it. Other than that he paid her no attention whatsoever. He had shot someone standing behind her, and when she turned to look, he was kneeling over the body and going through its pockets.

那道致命的光束穿透了兰登的身体，然后，大约两秒钟后，开枪的那个男人也从她身上穿了过去。除此之外他连看也没看她一眼。他打的是她背后的什么人，兰登转身一看，发现他正跪在尸体旁边搜它的口袋。

The tableau froze and vanished. It was replaced a second later by a giant pair of teeth framed by immense and perfectly glossed red lips. A huge blue brush appeared out of nowhere and started foamily to scrub at the teeth, which continued to hang there gleaming in the shimmering curtain of rain.

这个画面凝固了，消失了。一秒钟后，一对门牙取代了它，牙齿外是一张巨大的红唇，口红抹得无懈可击，在雨帘中闪闪发光。然后一把超大号牙刷突然现身，带着丰富的泡泡刷起牙来。

Random blinked at it twice before she got it.

兰登对着它眨巴了两次眼睛，终于弄明白这是怎么回事。