23 No Smoke, No Fire

CHAPTER 23 No Smoke, No Fire Years and years passed, and nothing much changed on my island. The rains came and went. The sun shone. My days continued as they had for many, many months. I came to love my early morning walks. Nothing made me happier than to make my way to my summer house, to see my goats, to look at my crops.

第二十三章无烟无火一年又一年过去了，我的岛上没有什么变化。 雨来了又去。太阳照耀着。 我的日子一如既往地过了好几个月。 我开始喜欢在清晨散步。 没有什么比去我的避暑别墅，看看我的山羊，看看我的庄稼更让我开心的了。

Then, as quickly as the rains could come, everything changed in an instant. I was walking to the other side of the island one morning when I saw them—the natives! There were great numbers of their canoes on shore. They were busy building a giant fire. I hid and watched them, wondering what to do. Instead of fleeing back to camp, I sat down and thought about it logically. I have been here for almost twenty years, and they have never found me. They have never even seen me. If I stay hidden, they might never find me. I slipped away from the shore and went home. I wanted to get on with my life, but I knew things would never be the same. My morning ritual from that day forward included safety measures. I would hike up to the top of the lookout hill with my old binoculars and take a look around. Instead of watching for ships, I looked out for the

然后，就像下雨一样快，一切都在一瞬间改变了。 一天早晨，当我走到岛的另一边时，我看到了他们——土著人！岸上有许多他们的独木舟。 他们正忙着生一堆大火。 我躲起来看着他们，不知道该怎么办。 我没有逃回营地，而是坐下来理性地思考这件事。 我在这里已经快二十年了，他们从来没有找到过我。 他们甚至都没见过我。 如果我藏起来，他们可能永远找不到我。 我溜出海岸回家去了。 我想继续我的生活，但我知道事情永远不会和以前一样了。 从那天起，我早上的例行公事包括安全措施。 我会带着我的旧双筒望远镜爬到瞭望山的山顶，四处看看。 我没有留意船只，而是留意

canoes. Weeks, then months, went by. I came to the conclusion that my island must not be a spot they visited often. Maybe years would pass again before they came back. Maybe they would never come back. The most important thing on my mind was making my life on the island as invisible as possible. The biggest problem I had to solve was how to make a fire without smoke. I didn't want to start a fire in my cold storage cave; that would smoke out my entire camp. No, I needed to find a cave away from my camp. The smoke was really the only evidence that another human being was living on the island. Without the smoke, the natives might never discover my camp or my summer home. It took me a couple of days before I found a place that would work. The cave was quite big. As I walked deeper inside, I found that I could easily stand up in the middle of it.

独木舟。几个星期，几个月过去了。 我得出结论，我的岛一定不是他们常去的地方。 也许要过好几年他们才会回来。 也许他们再也不会回来了。 我脑子里最重要的事情是让我在岛上的生活尽可能地隐形。 我要解决的最大问题是如何生火而不冒烟。 我可不想在我的冷库里生火；那会把我整个营地的烟都熏出来。 不，我得找个远离营地的山洞。 烟雾确实是另一个人住在岛上的唯一证据。 没有烟，当地人可能永远不会发现我的营地或我的避暑别墅。 我花了几天时间才找到一个合适的地方。 这个洞相当大。当我向里面走得更深时，我发现我可以很容易地站在中间。

Then, something happened that scared me to my bare bones! While exploring the cave, I turned a corner and came face-to-face with a pair of bright eyes staring right back at me. What a shock! After getting my breath back, I took a closer look. There was a sick, old billy goat just lying there. He didn't want to move and I didn't make him. I just gave him a sip of my water and left him alone. The next day I came back to the cave with some supplies. I had some candles and some other things. The cave had a long narrow hallway that led to a beautiful room. It sparkled in the light with bright, twinkling lights. Maybe it's diamonds! I thought. But now was not the time to think about mining! The cave was safe and dry so I decided to store the rest of my gunpowder there, along with my extra guns. I also did most of my cooking inside, where no one could see the

然后，发生了一件事，把我吓得魂不附体！在探索洞穴时，我拐了个弯，迎面看见一双明亮的眼睛正盯着我。 太震惊了！缓过气来后，我凑近看了看。 有一只又老又病的公山羊躺在那里。 他不想动，我也没逼他动。 我只是让他喝了一口我的水，然后离开了。 第二天，我带着一些补给品回到了山洞。 我有一些蜡烛和其他一些东西。 山洞里有一条狭长的走廊通向一间漂亮的房间。 它在灯光下闪闪发光，闪烁着明亮的光芒。 也许是钻石！我想。 但现在不是考虑采矿的时候！山洞里既安全又干燥，所以我决定把剩下的火药和额外的枪都储存在那里。 我也经常在室内做饭，这样就没人能看到

smoke from my fire.

我的火里冒出的烟。