13 The Duke’s Plan

CHAPTER 13 The Duke's Plan The news was all over town in minutes and pretty soon we were in the middle of a crowd. The windows and front yards were full. Every so often somebody would say over a fence: "Is it them?" And somebody walking along with us would answer: "You bet it is." When we got to the house, the street in front was packed with people. There were three girls

第十三章公爵的计划消息在几分钟内传遍了全城，很快我们就挤到了人群中间。 窗户和前院都挤满了人。 偶尔会有人隔着栅栏说：“是他们吗？”和我们走在一起的人会回答：“当然是。” 当我们到达那所房子时，前面的街道上挤满了人。 有三个女孩

standing at the door. Luckily, we knew who everyone was from the story the young man had told us the other day. Mary Jane was the oldest. She had red hair and she was very beautiful. Her face and eyes were all lit up. She was so happy her uncles had come. The king spread his arms and Mary Jane jumped for them. Another daughter, who had a hard time speaking, hugged the duke. The third daughter just stood by and watched. Then the king and the duke saw the coffin, which was propped up on two chairs. They walked over to it very seriously and covered their eyes as if they were upset. Everybody gave them room and all the talk and noise stopped. The two men stood in front of the coffin for a few seconds and then burst out crying. Then they kneeled next to the coffin and pretended to pray over it. That worked on the crowd so well. You've never seen anything like it. Everybody broke down crying.

站在门口。幸运的是，从那个年轻人那天给我们讲的故事中，我们知道了每个人是谁。 玛丽·简是最大的。她长着红头发，非常漂亮。 她的脸和眼睛都亮了起来。 她很高兴她的叔叔们来了。 国王张开双臂，玛丽·简跳了起来。 另一个女儿，说话很困难，拥抱了公爵。 第三个女儿只是站在旁边看着。 然后国王和公爵看到了用两把椅子支撑着的棺材。 他们很严肃地走过去，捂着眼睛，好像很难过。 每个人都给了他们空间，所有的谈话和噪音都停止了。 这两个人在棺材前站了几秒钟，然后突然哭了起来。 然后他们跪在棺材旁边，假装为它祈祷。 这招对观众很管用。 你从来没见过这样的东西。 每个人都哭了。

By and by, the king stood and gave a speech. It was all full of tears and nonsense about how hard it was for him and his poor brother to lose Peter. He talked about how upset he was to miss seeing him alive after the long journey from England. He talked about almost everybody in town, mentioning as many people by name as the young man the other day had told us. The king also mentioned all sorts of little things that had happened at one time or another around town, or to George's or Peter's family. He always made it sound as if Peter had written to him about all of these things, but that was a lie. He had heard every little detail from that young man on the steamboat. Then Mary Jane fetched the letter that her uncle had left behind. The king read it out loud and cried over it. It explained how Peter wanted his fortune divided up among the girls and his brothers. It also described where six thousand dollars was hidden in the cellar. The two frauds

过了一会儿，国王站起来讲话了。 里面全是眼泪和废话，说失去彼得对他和他可怜的弟弟来说是多么艰难。 他谈到，从英国长途跋涉而来，没能见到活着的父亲，他感到多么难过。 他几乎谈到了镇上的每一个人，正如那天那个年轻人告诉我们的那样，他提到了许多人的名字。 国王还提到了镇上发生过的各种小事，也提到了乔治和彼得家发生过的各种小事。 他总是说得好像彼得写信给他说了所有这些事，但那是谎言。 他从汽船上那个年轻人那里听到了每一个细节。 然后玛丽·简拿起了她叔叔留下的信。 王就大声念出来，哭了起来。 它解释了彼得是如何希望他的财产在女儿们和他的兄弟们之间分配的。 它还描述了六千美元藏在地窖里的地方。 两个骗局

took me downstairs with them. When we found the bag, they spilled the money out on the floor. "I've got an idea," the duke said. "Let's go upstairs, count out the money, and then give it to the girls!" "Why, that's the best idea you've had. They've got to believe we're their uncles if we give them the money," the king said. Back upstairs, the king made another slobbering speech about old Peter Wilks and then gave the bag full of money to Mary Jane. She hugged him and the other two daughters went to hug and kiss the duke. Well pretty soon the king was talking about the dead man again. The duke had to pretend he couldn't hear or speak, but the king didn't have any problems with talking. He went on and on. I thought it was terrible, even though most of the people seemed to believe him. Just then there was a loud noise in the crowd and someone spoke up:

带我下楼。 当我们找到包时，他们把钱洒在地板上。 “我有个主意，”公爵说。 “我们上楼去，把钱数出来，然后给姑娘们！”“啊，这是你想到的最好的主意。 如果我们给他们钱，他们就会相信我们是他们的叔叔，”国王说。 回到楼上，国王又流口水地说了几句关于老彼得·威尔克斯的话，然后把装满钱的袋子交给了玛丽·简。 她拥抱了他，另外两个女儿去拥抱和亲吻公爵。 很快，国王又谈起了那个死人。 公爵不得不假装他听不见或说不出话来，但国王说话却没有任何问题。 他说了又说。我觉得这太可怕了，尽管大多数人似乎都相信他。 就在这时，人群中响起了一声巨响，有人大声说：

"Why, Doctor Robinson! Haven't you heard? That man is Harvey Wilks," said someone. The king smiled and tried to shake hands with the doctor. "Keep your hands off me!" the doctor said. "You think you talk with an English accent? That's the worst imitation I've ever heard. You aren't Peter Wilks' brother. You're a fraud!" Well the crowd became very upset at that. The king was able to convince almost everybody that he really was Harvey Wilks. When Mary Jane said she believed him, that seemed to settle it for everybody but old Doctor Robinson. That night we had a big dinner with the daughters. Then they set the king, the duke, and me up with a room each. I spent some time talking with each daughter. It wasn't easy, let me tell you. I was trying to imitate the king's English accent. I thought they would see through me right away, but they didn't. I started to see that these girls were kind and didn't deserve to

“怎么了，罗宾逊医生！”你没听说吗？ 那个人就是哈维·威尔克斯。”有人说。 国王笑了笑，想和医生握手。 “别碰我！”医生说。 “你以为你说话有英国口音？” 这是我听过的最拙劣的模仿。 你不是彼得·威尔克斯的兄弟。 你是个骗子！”群众对此非常不满。 国王能够说服几乎所有人他真的是哈维·威尔克斯。 当玛丽·简说她相信他的时候，除了老鲁宾逊医生之外，大家似乎都放心了。 那天晚上，我们和女儿们吃了一顿丰盛的晚餐。 然后他们给国王、公爵和我每人安排了一个房间。 我花了一些时间和每个女儿交谈。 让我告诉你，这并不容易。 我试着模仿国王的英语口音。 我以为他们会立刻看穿我，但他们没有。 我开始发现，这些女孩都很善良，她们不值得这样做

have their money stolen by those two old frauds. I felt so mean and low down that I made up my mind to get that money away from the king and the duke. I laid in bed that night trying to think up a way to fool those two men. I decided to steal the money from them and hide it somewhere. Then I could leave a note for Mary Jane telling her where I hid it. That way she could get the money after we left. I started to search the king's room, but I had to hide when I heard the two men coming up the stairs. The came in and talked about their plans. It was awful to hear. They wanted to steal the six thousand dollars. I knew that much already. But they also wanted to sell the house and all of the property that Peter Wilks owned. They wanted to leave the girls with nothing! The duke grumbled that he didn't want to rob a lot of orphans of everything they had. "How you talk," said the king. "We'll only be

他们的钱被那两个老骗子偷走了。 我觉得自己很卑鄙，很自卑，所以我下定决心要把那笔钱从国王和公爵那里抢过来。 那天晚上我躺在床上想办法骗过那两个男人。 我决定从他们那里偷钱并把它藏起来。 然后我可以给玛丽·简留个便条，告诉她我把钱藏在哪儿了。 这样她就能在我们离开后拿到钱。 我开始搜查国王的房间，但当我听到那两个人上楼时，我不得不躲起来。 他们进来谈论他们的计划。 听起来很可怕。他们想偷那六千美元。 我早就知道了。但他们也想卖掉房子和彼得·威尔克斯拥有的所有财产。 他们想让女孩们一无所有！公爵抱怨说，他不想夺走许多孤儿的一切。 “你说得真好，”国王说。 “我们只是