04 Mr Coombes

Mr Coombes The flush of triumph over the dead mouse was carried forward to the next morning as we all met again to walk to school. 'Let's go in and see if it's still in the jar,' somebody said as we approached the sweet-shop. 'Don't,' Thwaites said firmly. 'It's too dangerous. Walk past as though nothing has happened.' As we came level with the shop we saw a cardboard notice hanging on the door.

库姆斯先生对死老鼠的得意之情一直延续到第二天早上，我们又聚在一起步行去学校。 “我们进去看看它是不是还在罐子里。”当我们走近糖果店时，有人对我们说。 “别这样，”思韦茨坚决地说。 “太危险了。就像什么也没发生过一样走过去吧。”当我们走到商店的水平时，我们看到门上挂着一张纸板告示。

We stopped and stared. We had never known the sweetshop to be closed at this time in the morning, even on Sundays. 'What's happened?' we asked each other. 'What's going on?' We pressed our faces against the window and looked inside. Mrs Pratchett was nowhere to be seen. 'Look!' I cried. 'The Gobstopper jar's gone! It's not on the shelf! There's a gap where it used to be!' 'It's on the floor!' someone said. 'It's smashed to bits and there's Gobstoppers everywhere!' 'There's the mouse!' someone else shouted. We could see it all, the huge glass jar smashed to smithereens with the dead mouse lying in the wreckage and hundreds of many-coloured Gobstoppers littering the floor. 'She got such a shock when she grabbed hold of the mouse that she dropped everything,' somebody was saying.

我们停下来凝视着。我们从来不知道糖果店会在早上这个时候关门，即使是在星期天。 “发生了什么?我们互相问。 “出什么事了?”我们把脸贴在窗户上往里看。 普拉切特太太不见了。 “看!”我哭了。“玻璃球罐不见了!”它不在架子上!原来的地方有个缺口!“在地板上!”有人说。 “它被砸得粉碎，到处都是跳跳糖!”“老鼠在那儿!”另一个人喊道。 我们可以看到这一切，巨大的玻璃罐被撞得粉碎，死老鼠躺在残骸里，数百个五颜六色的玻璃球扔在地上。 有人说:“当她抓住鼠标时，吓了一跳，把所有东西都掉了。”

'But why didn't she sweep it all up and open the shop?' I asked. Nobody answered me. We turned away and walked towards the school. All of a sudden we had begun to feel slightly uncomfortable. There was something not quite right about the shop being closed. Even Thwaites was unable to offer a reasonable explanation. We became silent. There was a faint scent of danger in the air now. Each one of us had caught a whiff of it. Alarm bells were beginning to ring faintly in our ears. After a while, Thwaites broke the silence. 'She must have got one heck of a shock,' he said. He paused. We all looked at him, wondering what wisdom the great medical authority was going to come out with next. 'After all,' he went on, 'to catch hold of a dead mouse when you're expecting to catch hold of a Gobstopper must be a pretty frightening experience. Don't you agree?' Nobody answered him.

“可是她为什么不把所有的东西都打扫干净，然后开门营业呢?”我问。 没有人回答我。我们转身向学校走去。 突然间，我们开始感到有点不舒服。 商店关门的事有点不对劲。 就连思韦茨也无法给出一个合理的解释。 我们沉默了。现在空气中有一种危险的气味。 我们每个人都闻到了一点味道。 警钟开始在我们耳边隐约响起。 过了一会儿，思韦茨打破了沉默。 “她一定吓了一大跳，”他说。 他停顿了一下。我们都看着他，想知道这位伟大的医学权威接下来会提出什么智慧。 “毕竟，”他接着说，“在你想抓跳跳糖的时候，却抓住了一只死老鼠，这肯定是一种相当可怕的经历。 你不同意吗?”没有人回答他。

'Well now,' Thwaites went on, 'when an old person like Mrs Pratchett suddenly gets a very big shock, I suppose you know what happens next?' 'What?' we said. 'What happens?' 'You ask my father,' Thwaites said. 'He'll tell you.' 'You tell us,' we said. 'It gives her a heart attack,' Thwaites announced. 'Her heart stops beating and she's dead in five seconds.' For a moment or two my own heart stopped beating. Thwaites pointed a finger at me and said darkly, 'I'm afraid you've killed her.' 'Me?' I cried. 'Why just me?' 'It was your idea,' he said. 'And what's more, you put the mouse in.' All of a sudden, I was a murderer.

“好了，”思韦茨接着说，“像普拉切特太太这样的老人突然受到很大的打击，我想你知道接下来会发生什么吧?“什么?我们说。 “发生了什么?“你去问我父亲吧，”思韦茨说。 “他会告诉你的。“你告诉我们吧，”我们说。 “这会让她心脏病发作，”思韦茨宣布。 “她的心脏停止跳动，五秒钟后就死了。”有那么一会儿，我自己的心也停止了跳动。 思韦茨用手指着我，阴沉地说:“恐怕你把她杀了。“我吗?”我哭了。 “为什么只有我?”“这是你的主意，”他说。 “更重要的是，你把老鼠放进去。”突然之间，我成了杀人犯。

At exactly that point, we heard the school bell ringing in the distance and we had to gallop the rest of the way so as not to be late for prayers. Prayers were held in the Assembly Hall. We all perched in rows on wooden benches while the teachers sat up on the platform in armchairs, facing us. The five of us scrambled into our places just as the Headmaster marched in, followed by the rest of the staff. The Headmaster is the only teacher at Llandaff Cathedral School that I can remember, and for a reason you will soon discover, I can remember him very clearly indeed. His name was Mr

就在这时，我们听到远处学校的钟声响起，我们不得不飞奔着走完剩下的路，以免迟到。 祈祷在大会堂举行。 我们一排一排地坐在木凳上，老师们坐在扶手椅上，面对着我们。 校长走了进来，我们五个人匆匆地各就各位，后面跟着其他教职员工。 校长是我唯一记得的兰达夫教堂学校的老师，你很快就会发现，我对他的印象非常清楚。 他的名字是

Coombes and I have a picture in my mind of a giant of a man with a face like a ham and a mass of rusty-coloured hair that sprouted in a tangle all over the top of his head. All grown-ups appear as giants to small children. But Headmasters (and policemen) are the biggest giants of all and acquire a marvellously exaggerated stature. It is possible that Mr Coombes was a perfectly normal being, but in my memory he was a giant, a tweedsuited giant who always wore a black gown over his tweeds and a waistcoat under his jacket. Mr Coombes now proceeded to mumble through the same old prayers we had every day, but this morning, when the last amen had been spoken, he did not turn and lead his group rapidly out of the Hall as usual. He remained standing before us, and it was clear he had an announcement to make. 'The whole school is to go out and line up around the playground immediately,' he said. 'Leave your books behind. And no talking.' Mr Coombes was looking grim. His hammy pink face had taken on that dangerous scowl

库姆斯和我在脑海中勾勒出一个巨人的形象，他的脸像火腿，头顶上长满了一团铁锈色的头发。 在小孩子看来，所有的大人都是巨人。 但是校长(和警察)是所有人中最大的巨人，他们的身材夸张得惊人。 库姆斯先生可能是一个完全正常的人，但在我的记忆中，他是一个巨人，一个穿着粗花呢衣服的巨人，他总是在粗花呢外面穿一件黑色长袍，在夹克里面穿一件马甲。 库姆斯先生现在开始喃喃地念着我们每天都要念的那些老祷文，但是今天早晨，在念完最后一个阿门之后，他没有像往常一样转身带领他的队伍迅速走出庄园。 他仍然站在我们面前，显然他有话要说。 他说，全校师生都要立即到操场周围排队。 “把书留下。不许说话。”库姆斯先生脸色阴沉。 他那张瘦削的红脸露出了凶险的怒容