第八章（第3/11页）

次日过午，她再度前往树林。她沿着宽阔的马道前行，道路穿过落叶松林，蜿蜒而上，来到某个唤作约翰井的泉眼处。这侧的山坡气温较低，松林的荫翳下见不到半点花影。可彻骨的细流仍从井台上喷涌而出，那窄小的井台用略带红色的纯白卵石砌成。泉水那样冰凉，那样清澈！闪闪发光！新来的守林人想必又添加过石子。这涓涓细流从泉眼中溢出，向山下流去，发出微弱的叮当声。就算是漫山遍野黑沉沉的松林发出低沉的怒吼，都无法掩盖这银铃般清脆的叮当声。

This place was a little sinister, cold, damp. Yet the well must have been a drinking-place for hundreds of years. Now no more. Its tiny cleared space was lush and cold and dismal.

这地方颇为阴森可怖，寒冷潮湿。几百年来，这眼泉想必始终扮演着水源的角色。而如今却已荒弃。井台狭小的空地四周野草丛生，阴冷而又凄凉。

She rose and went slowly towards home. As she went she heard a faint tapping away on the right, and stood still to listen. Was it hammering, or a woodpecker? It was surely hammering.

她站起身，缓步踏上归途。轻微的敲击声从右侧传来，她停住脚步，侧耳倾听。是锤击声，还是啄木鸟在劳作？肯定是锤击声。

She walked on, listening. And then she noticed a narrow track between young fir-trees, a track that seemed to lead nowhere. But she felt it had been used. She turned down it adventurously, between the thick young firs, which gave way soon to the old oak wood. She followed the track, and the hammering grew nearer, in the silence of the windy wood, for trees make a silence even in their noise of wind.

她循声而进。不久，她发现新栽的杉树丛中有条窄径，似乎通不到任何去处。但她觉得这条小径准有人走过。她壮着胆子，踏上这条林间小路，没走多久，两边幼嫩的杉树便被古老的橡树所取代。她继续前进，距离敲击声越来越近，有风的树林依然宁静，因为即使风声不绝于耳，树木仍能营造出静默的氛围。

She saw a secret little clearing, and a secret little hot made of rustic poles. And she had never been here before! She realized it was the quiet place where the growing pheasants were reared; the keeper in his shirt-sleeves was kneeling, hammering. The dog trotted forward with a short, sharp bark, and the keeper lifted his face suddenly and saw her. He had a startled look in his eyes.

一小块隐蔽的空地出现在眼前，还有座粗糙圆木搭成的秘密小屋。她之前从未到过这里！她恍然大悟，这个安静的所在是饲养雉鸡的地方。那守林人身着衬衣，正跪在地上，敲打着什么。狗儿快步向她冲来，发出短促而尖利的叫声，守林人猛地抬起头，这才发现她。他的双眼流露出错愕的神情。

He straightened himself and saluted, watching her in silence, as she came forward with weakening limbs. He resented the intrusion; he cherished his solitude as his only and last freedom in life.

他起身行礼，默默看着她四肢无力地走上前来。她不请自来，让他感到非常不满。他无比珍视这方净土，只有在这里，他才能远离尘嚣，安享自由。

"I wondered what the hammering was," she said, feeling weak and breathless, and a little afraid of him, as he looked so straight at her.

“我在奇怪这锤声是怎么回事。”康妮说，感到全身无力，呼吸急促，被他逼视，让她心里稍有畏惧。

"Ah'm gettin' th' coops ready for th' young bods," he said, in broad vernacular.

“俺在给鸡仔搭窝。”他操着浓重的土语解释道。

She did not know what to say, and she felt weak. "I should like to sit down a bit," she said.

她不知道如何作答，只是感到虚弱无力。“我想稍坐片刻。”她说。

"Come and sit 'ere i'th'ut," he said, going in front of her to the hut, pushing aside some timber and stuff, and drawing out a rustic chair, made of hazel sticks.

“进屋坐吧。”他说完，便将她引进小屋，将柴火和杂物推到一旁，拉出把榛条做成的粗木靠椅。

"Am Ah t'light yer a little fire?" he asked, with the curious naïveté of the dialect.

“俺给恁生点火吧？”他的土腔土调中透出难得的质朴。

"Oh, don't bother," she replied.

“噢，不用麻烦了。”她答道。

But he looked at her hands; they were rather blue. So he quickly took some larch twigs to the little brick fire-place in the corner, and in a moment the yellow flame was running up the chimney. He made a place by the brick hearth.

可他发觉她的双手都冻青了。于是，他急忙拾起松枝，填进角落里砖砌的壁炉，不一会儿，金黄色的火焰便蹿向烟囱。他在壁炉旁给她设座。