The hatch opened. Just a little dim light escaped. A moment or two passed and a figure emerged. He stood still for a moment or so, obviously trying to accustom his eyes to the darkness. Then he caught sight of Random standing there, and seemed a little surprised. He started to walk towards her. Then suddenly he shouted in surprise and started to run at her.

舱门开了。一点点暗淡的光线漏出来。几秒钟过去，一个人影出现。他在舱门口站了一两秒，显然为了让眼睛适应船外的黑暗，然后他发现了兰登，似乎有些惊讶。他开始朝她这边走，然后突然吃惊地大吼大叫，快步朝她跑过来。

Random was not a good person to take a run at on a dark night when she was feeling a little strung out. She had unconsciously been fingering the rock in her pocket from the moment she saw the craft coming down.

今晚兰登的神经很受了些考验，在这种状态下，她绝不应该试图奔跑逃命。自从看见飞船下落的那一刻起，她就下意识地抚弄口袋里的石头。

Still running, slithering, hurtling, bumping into trees, Arthur saw at last that he was too late. The ship had only been on the ground for about three minutes, and now, silently, gracefully it was rising up above the trees again, turning smoothly in the fine speckle of rain to which the storm had now abated, climbing, climbing, tipping up its nose and, suddenly, effortlessly, hurtling up through the clouds.

阿瑟还在跑，扭，冲，撞树，但他终于还是明白自己赶不及了。飞船只在地面停了大约三分钟，现在它静静地，优雅地升上了树顶，暴风雨已经减弱为细雨，它在雨滴中流畅地转个弯，爬升，爬升，抬起鼻子，然后轻轻松松地冲上了云霄。

Gone. Random was in it. It was impossible for Arthur to know this, but he just went ahead and knew it anyway. She was gone. He had had his stint at being a parent and could scarcely believe how badly he had done at it. He tried to continue running, but his feet were dragging, his knee was hurting like fury and he knew that he was too late.

走了。而兰登就在里面。其实阿瑟不可能知道她是不是在里面，但他还是不管不顾地认定了她就在里面。他完成了自己的家长份额，而且简直没法相信自己干得有多糟糕，他试着继续跑，可他的脚拖在地上，他的膝盖疼得像火烧，而且他知道自己已经迟了一步。

He could not conceive that he could feel more wretched and awful than this, but he was wrong.

他以为自己已经达到了悲惨和不幸的顶点，但他错了。

He limped his way at last to the cave where Random had sheltered and opened the box. The ground bore the indentations of the spacecraft that had landed there only minutes before, but of Random there was no sign. He wandered disconsolately into the cave, found the empty box and piles of missing matter pellets strewn around the place. He felt a little cross about that. He’d tried to teach her about cleaning up after herself. Feeling a bit cross with her about something like that helped him feel less desolate about her leaving. He knew he had no means of finding her.

他终于一瘸一拐地走到了兰登避雨，拆包裹的山洞。洞外的地面上有飞船降落时留下的痕迹——就在仅仅几分钟之前——可兰登却不见踪影。他怏怏不乐地晃到山洞里，发现了空荡荡的盒子和满地的失落物质。他有些生气。他一直想教会她，自己的东西要自己收拾。为这种事情生她的气倒减轻了由于她离开而产生的郁闷。他知道自己根本没法找到她了。

His foot knocked against something unexpected. He bent down to pick it up, and was thoroughly surprised to discover what it was. It was his old Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. How did that come to be in the cave? He had never returned to collect it from the scene of the crash. He had not wanted to revisit the crash and he had not wanted the Guide again. He had reckoned he was here on Lamuella, making sandwiches for good. How did it come to be in the cave? It was active. The words on the cover flashed DON’T PANIC at him.

他不经意间踢到了什么东西。他弯腰把它捡起来，结果惊得膛目结舌。那是他过去那本《银河系漫游指南》。它怎么会出现在山洞里？他从没回飞船坠毁的地方找它。他不想回到那个地方，也不想再要这本《指南》。他以为自己会待在拉姆拉，做一辈子的三明治。它怎么会跑到山洞里来了？而且还打开着。封面上“不要恐慌”四个字对着他闪啊闪啊。

He went out of the cave again into the dim and damp moonlight. He sat on a rock to have a look through the old Guide, and then discovered it wasn’t a rock, it was a person.

阿瑟从山洞回到阴暗，潮湿的月光里。他在一块石头上坐下，翻看起自己的老《指南》，然后他发现屁股底下的不是块石头，那是人。