10 Bruno Jenkins Disappears

Bruno Jenkins Disappears The Grand High Witch was starting to talk again. 'I am now going to prrrove to you,' she said, 'that this rrrecipe is vurrrking to perrrfection. You understand, of course, that you can set the alarmclock to go off at any time you like. It does not have to be nine o'clock. So yesterday I am personally prrree-paring a small qvantity of the magic formula in order to give to you a public demonstration. But I am making vun small change in the rrrecipe. Before I am rrroasting the alarmclock, I am setting it to go off, not at nine o'clock the next morning, but at half-past thrrree the next afternoon. Vhich means half-past thrrree this afternoon. And that,' she said, glancing at her wrist-watch, 'is in prrree-cisely seven minutes' time!' The audience of witches was listening intently, sensing that something dramatic was about to happen.

布鲁诺·詹金斯消失了大女巫又开始说话了。 “现在我要向你证明，”她说，“这个配方做得很完美。 当然，你明白，你可以设置闹钟在你喜欢的任何时候响。 它不一定是9点钟。 所以昨天我个人倾向于删减一小部分神奇的公式以便给你们一个公开的演示。 但是我没有对配方做一点小小的改变。 在我拨闹钟之前，我先把它定在第二天下午三点半，而不是第二天早上九点。 也就是说今天下午三点半。 “这，”她看了看手表说，“正好是七分钟的时间!”女巫们聚精会神地听着，感觉有什么戏剧性的事情要发生了。

'So vot am I doing yesterday vith this magic liqvid?' asked The Grand High Witch. 'I vill tell you vot I am doing. I am putting vun drrroplet of it into a very sqvishy chocolate bar and I am giving this bar to a rrree-pulsive smelly little boy who is hanging rrround the lobby of the hotel.' The Grand High Witch paused. The audience remained silent, waiting for her to go on. 'I votched this rrree-pulsive little brrrute gobbling up the sqvishy bar of chocolate and vhen he had finished, I said to him, "Vos that good?" He said it vos great. So I said to him, "Vould you like some more?" And he said, "Yes." So I said, "I vill give you six more chocolate bars like that if you vill meet me in the Ballroom of this hotel at tventy-five-past thrrree tomorrow afternoon." "Six bars!" cried this greedy little svine. "I'll be there! You bet I'll be there!" 'So the stage is set!' shouted The Grand High Witch. 'The prrroof of the pudding is about to begin! Do not forget that before I am rrroasting the alarm-clock yesterday, I am setting it for halfpast thrrree today. It is now' – she glanced again at

“那么我昨天用这种神奇的液体做什么呢?”大女巫问。 “我要告诉你我在做什么。 我把一小滴它滴在一块非常粘稠的巧克力棒里，然后把这块巧克力棒送给一个在酒店大厅里闲逛、浑身散发着恶臭的小男孩。”大女巫停了下来。 观众保持沉默，等着她继续讲下去。 “我看到这个脉搏跳动的小畜生狼吞虎咽地吃着那块软绵绵的巧克力，当他吃完后，我对他说:‘这么好吃吗?’”他说它很棒。 于是我对他说:“你还想再来点吗?”他说:“是的。” 于是我说:“如果你明天下午3点25分在这家酒店的宴会厅见我，我就再给你6块这样的巧克力棒。” “六根杠!”这个贪婪的小藤蔓叫道。 “我会去的!”我当然会去的!”“舞台准备好了!”大女巫喊道。 “布丁的检验就要开始了!”别忘了，昨天我拨闹钟之前，我把今天的闹钟调到三点半。 “现在是——”她又看了一眼

her watch – 'it is now exactly tventy-five minutes past thrrree and the nasty little stinker who vill be turning into a mouse in five minutes' time should at this very moment be standing outside the doors!' And by gum, she was absolutely right. The boy, whoever he might be, was already rattling the door-handle and banging on the doors with his fist. 'Qvick!' shrieked The Grand High Witch. 'Put on your vigs! Put on your gloves! Put on your shoes!' There was a great rustle and bustle of putting on wigs and gloves and shoes, and I saw The Grand High Witch herself reach for her face-mask and put it on over that revolting face of hers. It was astonishing how that mask transformed her. All of a sudden she became once again a rather pretty young lady. 'Let me in!' came the boy's voice from behind the doors. 'Where are those chocolate bars you promised me? I'm here to collect! Dish them out!'

她的表——“现在正好是三点十五分，那个再过五分钟就要变成老鼠的讨厌的小臭虫此刻应该站在门外!”当然，她是完全正确的。 那个男孩，不管他是谁，已经在不停地摇门把手，用拳头敲着门了。 “Qvick !大女巫尖叫道。 “戴上你的眼罩!”戴上手套!把鞋穿上!”人们戴上假发、手套和鞋子，窸窸窣窣，忙乱不堪。我看见至尊女巫伸手去拿她的面具，把它戴在她那张令人作呕的脸上。 那张面具如何改变了她，真是令人惊讶。 突然间，她又变成了一位相当漂亮的年轻女士。 “让我进去!”门后传来男孩的声音。 “你答应我的巧克力棒在哪儿?” 我是来收钱的!把它们扔出来!”

'He is not only smelly, he is also grrreedy,' said The Grand High Witch. 'Rrree-moof the chains from the doors and let him come in.' The extraordinary thing about the mask was that its lips moved quite naturally when she spoke. You really couldn't see it was a mask at all. One of the witches leapt to her feet and unfastened the chains. She opened the two huge doors. Then I heard her saying, 'Why hello, little man. How lovely to see you. You have come for your chocolate bars, have you not? They are all ready for you. Do come in.' A small boy wearing a white T-shirt and grey shorts and gymshoes entered the room. I recognized him at once. He was called Bruno Jenkins and he was staying in the hotel with his parents. I didn't care for him. He was one of those boys who is always eating something whenever you meet him. Meet him in the hotel lobby and he is stuffing sponge cake into his mouth. Pass him in the corridor and he is fishing potato crisps out of a bag by the fistful. Catch sight of him in the hotel garden and he is wolfing a Dairy Milk Bar and has

“他不仅臭，而且贪吃。”大女巫说。 “把门上的铁链解开，让他进来。”面具的特别之处在于，当她说话时，它的嘴唇会很自然地动起来。 你根本看不出那是个面具。 一个女巫跳了起来，解开了铁链。 她打开了两扇巨大的门。 然后我听到她说:“你好，小家伙。 见到你真高兴。你是来拿巧克力棒的，对吗? 他们都准备好了。 请进。”一个穿着白色t恤、灰色短裤和运动鞋的小男孩走进了房间。 我立刻认出了他。他叫布鲁诺·詹金斯，和他的父母住在酒店里。 我不喜欢他。他是那种你一见到他就吃东西的男孩。 在酒店大厅见他，他正往嘴里塞海绵蛋糕。 在走廊里与他擦肩而过时，他正从一个袋子里一把一把地捞起薯片。 我在旅馆的花园里看见他，他正狼吞虎咽地吃着一个牛奶吧

two more sticking out of his trouser-pocket. What's more, Bruno never stopped boasting about how his father made more money than my father and that they owned three cars. But worse than that, yesterday morning I had found him kneeling on the flagstones of the hotel terrace with a magnifying-glass in his hand. There was a column of ants marching across one of the flagstones and Bruno Jenkins was focusing the sun through his magnifying-glass and roasting the ants one by one. 'I like watching them burn,' he said. 'That's horrible!' I cried. 'Stop doing it!' 'Let's see you stop me,' he said. At that point I had pushed him with all my might and he had crashed sideways on to the flagstones. His magnifying-glass had splintered into many pieces and he had leapt up shrieking, 'My father is going to get you for this!' Then he had run off, presumably to find his wealthy dad. That was the last time I had seen Bruno Jenkins until now. I doubted very much that he was about to be turned into a mouse, although I must confess that I was secretly hoping it might happen. Either way, I didn't envy him being up there in front of all those witches.

裤兜里又插了两根。 更重要的是，布鲁诺不停地吹嘘他父亲如何比我父亲赚得多，他们有三辆汽车。 但更糟糕的是，昨天早上我发现他跪在旅馆露台的石板上，手里拿着放大镜。 一队蚂蚁正从一块石板上走过，布鲁诺·詹金斯正用放大镜聚焦太阳，一只一只地烤着蚂蚁。 他说，我喜欢看着它们燃烧。 “这是可怕的!”我哭了。 “别这样!”“让我们看看你能不能阻止我，”他说。 就在那时，我用尽全力推了他一把，他侧身摔在石板上。 他的放大镜碎成了许多碎片，他跳起来尖叫道:“我父亲会为此惩罚你的!”然后他就跑了，大概是去找他有钱的爸爸。 那是我最后一次见到布鲁诺·詹金斯，直到现在。 我非常怀疑他会变成一只老鼠，尽管我必须承认我私下里希望它会发生。 不管怎样，我并不羡慕他站在那些女巫面前。

'Darling boy,' cooed The Grand High Witch from up on the platform. 'I have your chocolates all rrready for you. Do come up here firrrst and say hello to all these lovely ladies.' Her voice was quite different now. It was soft and gentle and absolutely dripping with syrup. Bruno was looking a bit bewildered, but he allowed himself to be led up on to the platform, where he stood beside The Grand High Witch and said, 'OK, where are my six bars of chocolate?' I saw the witch who had let him in quietly putting the chain back on the door-handles. Bruno didn't notice this. He was too busy asking for his chocolate. 'The time is now vun minute before half-past thrrree!' announced The Grand High Witch. 'What the heck's going on?' Bruno asked. He wasn't frightened, but he wasn't looking exactly comfortable either. 'What is this?' he said. 'Gimme my chocolate!'

“亲爱的孩子。”最高女巫在台上低声说。 “我已经为你准备好了巧克力。 一定要先到这儿来，跟这些可爱的女士们打个招呼。”她的声音现在完全不同了。 它软软的，完全滴着糖浆。 布鲁诺看起来有点困惑，但他还是被领上了讲台，站在至尊女巫旁边说:“好吧，我的六块巧克力在哪里?”我看见放他进来的那个女巫悄悄地把链子拴在门把手上。 布鲁诺没有注意到这一点。他忙着要他的巧克力。 “现在是三点半差一分钟!”大女巫宣布。 “这到底是怎么回事?”布鲁诺问道。 他并不害怕，但看上去也不太舒服。 “这是什么?”他说。“把我的巧克力给我!”