Ford named a figure. The barman fell over amongst the bottles and glasses. Ford vaulted quickly over the bar to check that he was all right and help him back up to his feet. He’d cut his finger and his elbow a bit and was feeling a little woozy but was otherwise fine. The big guy started to sing. The barman hobbled off with Ford’s credit card to get authorisation.

福特说了个数。酒保倒进了瓶子，杯子中间。福特迅速翻过吧台看他有没有问题，然后帮他站起来。他割伤了手指和胳膊，脑袋有些晕乎，但除此之外安然无恙。那个大块头开始唱歌，酒保拿了福特的信用卡，一瘸一拐地划卡去了。

‘Is there stuff going on here that I don’t know about?’ said Arthur to Ford.

“有没有发生什么我不知道的事情？”阿瑟问福特。

‘Isn’t there usually?’ said Ford.

“通常不是都有吗？”

‘No need to be like that,’ said Arthur. He began to wake up. ‘Shouldn’t we be going?’ he said suddenly. ‘Will that ship get us to Earth?’

“没必要这样。”阿瑟说，他慢慢清醒了，“我们是不是该走了？”他突然问，“那艘船能带我们去地球吗？”

‘Sure will,’ said Ford.

“那是当然。”福特说。

‘That’s where Random will be going!’ said Arthur with a start. ‘We can follow her! But… er…’

“兰登肯定就是去了那儿！”阿瑟猛然惊醒，“我们可以跟上去！可……呃……”

Ford let Arthur get on with thinking things out for himself while he got out his old edition of The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

福特任阿瑟自己去瞎琢磨，他掏出了自己那本老版的《银河系漫游指南》。

‘But where are we on the probability axis thing?’ said Arthur. ‘Will the Earth be there or not there? I spent so much time looking for it. All I found was planets that were a bit like it or not at all like it, though it was clearly the right place because of the continents. The worst version was called NowWhat where I got bitten by some wretched little animal. That’s how they communicated, you know, by biting each other. Bloody painful. Then half the time, of course, the Earth isn’t even there because it’s been blown up by the bloody Vogons. How much sense am I making?’

“可我们又是在那什么概率轴线的什么位置上？”阿瑟道，“地球到底在不在？我花了那么多时间找她，结果只找到些有点像她或者一点不像她的星球。可我显然没找错地方，因为大陆的模样都是对的。最糟的版本是那个叫现在咋整的，我被一只该死的小个畜牲咬了。那是它们的沟通方式，你知道，就是相互咬。痛得要命。然后当然了，还有一半时间地球压根不存在，因为她已经给那些该死的沃贡人轰上了天。我说的你明白吗？”

Ford didn’t comment. He was listening to something. He passed the Guide over to Arthur and pointed at the screen. The active entry read ‘Earth. Mostly harmless.’

福特没有发表任何意见，他在听着什么。他把《指南》递给阿瑟，指了指屏幕，上头被激活的条目上写着：“地球，基本上无害。”

‘You mean it’s there!’ said Arthur excitedly. ‘The Earth is there! That’s where Random will be going! The bird was showing her the Earth in the rainstorm!’

“你是说它在！”阿瑟激动了，“地球还在！兰登肯定是去了那儿！那只鸟在暴风雨里给她看的就是地球！”

Ford motioned Arthur to shout a little less loudly. He was listening.

福特招呼阿瑟小声点，他正听歌呢。

Arthur was growing impatient. He’d heard bar singers sing ‘Love Me Tender’ before. He was a bit surprised to hear it here, right in the middle of wherever the hell this was, certainly not Earth, but then things tended not to surprise him these days as much as formerly. The singer was quite good, as bar singers went, if you liked that sort of thing, but Arthur was getting fretful.

阿瑟越来越不耐烦。他从前听过酒吧歌手唱《温柔的爱我》。当然，在这么个天晓得是什么鬼地方但反正不是地球的地方，听到这首歌他也的确有些吃惊，但话说回来，如今事情也不再像过去那么容易让他吃惊。那歌手唱的还不错，酒吧歌手的风格，如果你喜欢那种东西的话。可阿瑟已经越来越沉不住气了。

‘Don’t you think we should be going?’ he said, insistently.

“你不觉得我们该上路了吗？”他坚持道。