6 The Axe of Doom Decides

6. THE AXE OF DOOM DECIDES Hiccup's mind raced desperately. He couldn't move, but inspiration suddenly struck… 'CAN YOU READ THE TICKING-THING, NORBERT?' screamed Hiccup. Norbert looked at the ticking-thing… Curses!… He couldn't… …but the axe was steaming towards the deck of the ship, and the Axe of Doom was never allowed to be wrong… So Norbert the Nutjob gave Verociously Violent a big shove so that Verociously got in between the axe and the deck, getting a nasty scratch on his arm in the process. 'NOW LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!' roared Norbert the Nutjob. 'OK, untie the

6. 厄运之斧决定了小嗝嗝的思想拼命地奔跑。 他动弹不得，但灵感突然闪现……“你能读懂滴答作响的东西吗，诺伯？”嗝嗝尖叫道。 诺伯看着滴答作响的东西……诅咒！……他不能... ...，但是斧头正冒着蒸汽朝甲板冲去，而毁灭之斧是绝不允许出错的……于是，疯子诺伯狠狠地推了猛兽威洛西一把，威洛西挤在斧头和甲板之间，胳膊被严重划伤。 “现在看看你让我做了什么！”疯伯诺伯吼道。 “好，把绳子解开。

wretched little burglars!' Muttering with disappointed bloodlust, the Hysterics unwound the ropes tying Hiccup, Fishlegs and Camicazi, who fell on to the deck, deeply relieved to be the right way up again, but very dizzy. 'Follow me,' barked Norbert the Nutjob. Hiccup followed Norbert to the central tent in the middle of the deck. This tent was Norbert's cabin. Now, Vikings normally travelled very light on board ship. And they didn't generally have cabins at all, just maybe a couple of upturned landing-boats to shield them from the wildness of the wind. But Norbert was intending to sail to America FOR EVER, so he had packed this ship with every possible thing that a Future Emperor might need over there in a New World. Tables, chairs, chessboards, smashsticks-on-ice sticks, bashyballs, skis. The walls of this tent-cabin of his were covered with crazy drawings of Norbert's latest inventions, and also with maps. Norbert jabbed a fat finger at one particular map with some little squiggly numbers drawn on it. 'THIS was the Map my father Bigjob used to go to America,' said Norbert.

可怜的小窃贼！”歇斯底里的人失望地嘟囔着，想要杀戮，他们解开绑着嗝嗝、鱼腿和卡米卡齐的绳子，他们倒在甲板上，因为又正确地爬了上去而深感宽慰，但非常头晕。 “跟我来。”疯子诺伯吼道。 小嗝嗝跟着诺伯特来到甲板中央的帐篷里。 这个帐篷是诺伯的小屋。 维京人通常在船上很轻便。 他们通常根本没有船舱，也许只有几艘上翘的登陆艇，以保护他们免受狂风的侵袭。 但诺伯特打算永远航行到美洲，所以他在这艘船上装满了未来皇帝在新大陆可能需要的一切东西。 桌子，椅子，棋盘，冰棍，棒球，滑雪板。 他的帐篷小屋的墙上挂满了诺伯最新发明的疯狂图画和地图。 诺伯特用胖乎乎的手指戳了戳一张特别的地图，上面画着一些弯弯曲曲的数字。 “这是我父亲比乔布去美国时用过的地图。”诺伯特说。

'He read those funny little numbers, and he checked the ticking-thing, and that would tell him which way to go.' Norbert handed Hiccup the map and the ticking-thing. There were nine arrows on the dial. The two little ordinary arrows told the time much

“他会读那些有趣的小数字，还会检查滴答声，这样他就能知道该走哪条路了。”诺伯把地图和滴答的东西递给了小嗝嗝。 表盘上有九个箭头。 这两支普通的小箭透露了很多时间

more accurately than Old Wrinkly's complicated candlesticks. The little fat arrow always pointed to the north, like the North Star. The one with the round circle on the end was a lie detector. Hiccup didn't yet know what the one shaped like a question mark did, or the funny little jagged one like a piece of lightning. But the remaining two told him how far to go upwards, and how far to go westwards.* This suggests that the ticking-thing contains a device for calculating LONGTITUDE (what Hiccup describes as 'going westwards'). It was previously thought that the first device for predicting longtitude was the chronometer created in 1773, but Hiccup's memoirs show otherwise. He sat there staring back and forth from the ticking-thing to the Map for such a long time that Norbert grew impatient, and roared: 'HURRY UP BOY, HURRY UP! We haven't got all DAY!' 'The quickest way to America, if such a place really exists, is in that direction.' Hiccup pointed over towards some distant storm-clouds to the north. 'But we'd have to go through the Ice Islands and there are some really unpleasant Ice-Dragons we could meet that way—'

比老皱纹复杂的烛台更准确。 那只胖胖的小箭头总是指向北方，就像北极星一样。 末端有圆圈的那个是测谎仪。 小嗝嗝还不知道那个形状像问号的是什么，也不知道那个形状像闪电的小锯齿是什么。 但剩下的两个人告诉他向上走多远，向西走多远。*这表明滴答的东西包含一个计算LONGTITUDE的装置（Hiccup将其描述为“向西移动”）。 以前人们认为，第一个预测经度的仪器是1773年发明的计时器，但Hiccup的回忆录显示并非如此。 他坐在那里，盯着滴答作响的东西，又盯着地图，看了好长时间，弄得诺伯不耐烦了，吼道：“快点，孩子，快点！我们没有一整天的时间！“去美国最快的路，如果真有这样一个地方的话，就是在那个方向。”小嗝嗝指着远处北面的一些暴风云。 “但是我们必须穿过冰岛，在那里我们可能会遇到一些非常讨厌的冰龙——”

'WA-HOOOO!!!!!' yelled Norbert the Nutjob, grabbing the map off Hiccup and running excitedly on to the deck. 'Man the main masts! Stoke up the steam-dragons! Put on your winter woollies and set the course the way the little weirdo is pointing! AMERICA, HERE WE COME!' All around the three small dripping Vikings, great burly Hysterics burst into rousing cheers, and began to pull on ropes and climb masts and grab steering wheels. Great belches of smoke poured out of the chimney tube, and filled the deck in a dense pea- green fog, as slowly, slowly, the enormous ship turned around like some great cumbersome whale or wooden sea ceature. It set its nose towards the north, and began to puff and breast the waves out of the Archipelago and into the Icy Seas.

“WA-HOOOO ! !疯伯诺伯喊道，从小嗝嗝手里抢过地图，兴奋地跑到甲板上。 “到主桅上去！”点燃蒸汽龙！穿上你的冬衣，按照那个小怪人所指的方向前进！美国，我们来了！”在三个浑身湿漉漉的小维京人周围，高大魁梧的歇斯底里者爆发出激动人心的欢呼声，开始拉绳子，爬桅杆，抓方向盘。 滚滚浓烟从烟囱里喷涌而出，弥漫在甲板上的是一层浓浓的豆绿色的雾，这艘巨大的船慢慢地，慢慢地，像一条笨重的大鲸或木制的海洋生物似的转过身来。 它把鼻子朝向北方，开始卷起波浪，冲出群岛，进入冰冷的海洋。