‘I think it may be something unimaginably dangerous.

“我猜那可能是种危险的要命的东西。”

‘And you sent it to me?’ protested Arthur.

“于是你就把它寄给我？”阿瑟抱怨道。

‘Safest place I could think of. I thought I could rely on you to be absolutely boring and not open it. Anyway, coming in at night I couldn’t find this village place. I was going by pretty basic information. I couldn’t find any signal of any kind. I guess you don’t have signals and stuff here.’

“我能想到的最安全的地方。我觉得你这人靠得住，你无趣到极点，肯定不会拆开看。反正，因为是夜里过来，我找不到你那什么村子。我手里的情报又不多，又搜索不到任何信号，我猜你们这儿还没有信号什么的。”

‘That’s what I like about it.’

“我喜欢的就是这一点。”

‘Then I did pick up a faint signal from your old copy of the Guide, so I homed in on that, thinking that would take me to you. I found I’d landed in some kind of wood. Couldn’t figure out what was going on. I get out, and then see this woman standing there. I go up to say hello, then suddenly I see that she’s got this thing!’

“然后我居然收到了你的老《指南》发出的一点点信号，所以我就往那边飞，以为能找到你。我发现自己降落在一片林子之类的地方，想不通到底是怎么回事，于是我就下了飞机，然后就看见那女人站在那儿。我走过去想打个招呼，突然发现那东西在她那！”

‘What thing?’

“什么东西？”

‘The thing I sent you! The new Guide! The bird thing! You were meant to keep it safe, you idiot, but this woman had the thing right there by her shoulder. I ran forward and she hit me with a rock.’

“我寄给你的那个东西。新《银河系漫游指南》！那鸟儿一样的玩意。你本来该确保它的安全，你这傻瓜，结果却让那个女人把它搞到手了，就在她肩膀上。我跑过去然后她就拿块石头砸我。”

‘I see,’ said Arthur. ‘What did you do?’

“明白了。”阿瑟说，“你又是怎么办的？”

‘Well, I fell over of course. I was very badly hurt. She and the bird started to make off towards my ship. And when I say my ship, I mean an RW6.’

“唔，我当然是摔倒了。我伤的很重。她跟那只鸟开始朝我的飞船走。还有，当我说我的飞船的时候，我指的是一艘RW6。”

‘A what?’

“一艘什么？”

‘An RW6 for Zark’s sake. I’ve got this great relationship going now between my credit card and the Guide’s central computer. You would not believe that ship, Arthur, it’s…

“一艘RW6，看在老天的份上。现在我的信用卡跟《指南》的中央电脑关系铁着呢。那艘船简直让人难以置信，阿瑟，它……”

‘So an RW6 is a spaceship, then?’

“这么说RW6是艘飞船了？”

‘Yes! It’s – oh never mind. Look, just get some kind of grip will you, Arthur? Or at least get some kind of catalogue. At this point I was very worried. And, I think, semi-concussed. I was down on my knees and bleeding profusely, so I did the only thing I could think of, which was to beg. I said, please, for Zark’s sake don’t take my ship. And don’t leave me stranded in the middle of some primitive zarking forest with no medical help and a head injury. I could be in serious trouble and so could she.’

“对！它是——哦，算了。听着，拜托你稍微振作些好吗阿瑟，或者至少搞本商品目录看看也好。总之，到那时候我已经非常担心了。而且，我猜，稍微有点脑震荡。我跪在地上使劲流血，于是我就做了自己唯一能想到的事，就是苦苦哀求。我说，求求你，看在老天的份上别开走我的飞船。而且别留我一个人在这么个见鬼的原始森林里，我脑袋受了伤又得不到医疗护理。我可能会有大麻烦的，你也一样。”

‘What did she say?’

“那她怎么说？”