12 INSIDE INFORMATION

Chapter 12 INSIDE INFORMATION For a long time the dwarves stood in the dark before the door and debated, until at last Thorin spoke: "Now is the time for our esteemed Mr. Baggins, who has proved himself a good companion on our long road, and a hobbit full of courage and resource far exceeding his size, and if I may say so possessed of good luck far exceeding the usual allowance— now is the time for him to perform the service for which he was included in our Company; now is the time for him to earn his Reward." You are familiar with Thorin's style on important occasions, so I will not give you any more of it, though he went on a good deal longer than this. It certainly was an important occasion, but Bilbo felt impatient. By now he was quite familiar with Thorin too, and he knew what he was driving at.

第十二章 内部消息 矮人们久久站在门前的黑暗中争论不休，最后索林开口说道：“咱们可敬的巴金斯先生，早已在长途旅途中证明了自己是个好伙伴，他身为霍比特人，勇气和智谋都远超他的体型，而且要说好运，也比普通人要多得多——现在，该他完成当初邀他加入队伍的任务了，该他挣得属于自己的报酬了。” 你已经熟悉索林在重要场合的说话风格，所以我就不多啰嗦了，哪怕他原本比这要说长得多。 这确实是个万分重要的时刻，可比尔博早就听得不耐烦了。 这会儿他也摸透索林的脾性了，清楚索林到底打的是什么主意。

"If you mean you think it is my job to go into the secret passage first, O Thorin Thrain's son Oakenshield, may your beard grow ever longer," he said crossly, "say so at once and have done! I might refuse. I have got you out of two messes already, which were hardly in the original bargain, so that I am, I think, already owed some reward. But 'third time pays for all' as my father used to say, and somehow I don't think I shall refuse. Perhaps I have begun to trust my luck more than I used to in the old days"—he meant last spring before he left his own house, but it seemed centuries ago—"but anyway I think I will go and have a peep at once and get it over. Now who is coming with me?" He did not expect a chorus of volunteers, so he was not disappointed. Fili and Kili looked uncomfortable and stood on one leg, but the others made no pretence of offering—except old Balin, the lookout man, who was rather fond of the hobbit. He said he would come inside at least and perhaps a bit of the way too, ready to call for help if necessary. The most that can be said for the dwarves is this: they intended to pay Bilbo really handsomely for his services; they had brought him to do a nasty job for them, and they did not mind the poor little fellow

“要是你说该我第一个进密道，瑟罗因之子橡木盾索林啊，祝你胡子越长越长，”他气冲冲地说，“有话就直说别绕弯子！ 我说不定会直接拒绝的。 我已经帮你们两次脱离险境了，这可都不在当初的约定里，算下来我早就该拿到属于我的报酬了。 不过我父亲常说“事不过三见分晓”，不知道为什么，我觉得这次我不会拒绝。 说不定我比过去更相信自己的运气了”——他说的是离开家前的那个春天，可感觉已经是好几百年前的事了——“不管怎么说，我这就进去看一眼，早点把这事了结。 现在谁愿意跟我一起去？ 他本来就没指望会有一群人主动报名，所以也没什么好失望的。 菲力和奇力浑身不自在，站在那儿只换了换脚，其他人都没提要去——只有负责放哨的老巴林，他一直挺喜欢这个霍比特人。 他说他至少跟着进去走一段，万一出了事也能马上叫人来帮忙。 要说矮人们这点还算坦荡：他们本来就打算给比尔博丰厚的报酬，带他来就是干这份苦差事的，如果可怜的小家伙愿意，他们不介意让他去；

doing it if he would; but they would all have done their best to get him out of trouble, if he got into it, as they did in the case of the trolls at the beginning of their adventures before they had any particular reasons for being grateful to him. There it is: dwarves are not heroes, but calculating folk with a great idea of the value of money; some are tricky and treacherous and pretty bad lots; some are not, but are decent enough people like Thorin and Company, if you don't expect too much. The stars were coming out behind him in a pale sky barred with black when the hobbit crept through the enchanted door and stole into the Mountain. It was far easier going than he expected. This was no goblin entrance, or rough wood-elves' cave. It was a passage made by dwarves, at the height of their wealth and skill: straight as a ruler, smooth-floored and smooth-sided, going with a gentle never- varying slope direct—to some distant end in the blackness below. After a while Balin bade Bilbo "Good luck!" and stopped where he could still see the faint outline of the door, and by a trick of the echoes of the tunnel

可要是他真遇上麻烦，他们也会拼尽全力救他出来，就像当初刚出发遇到巨魔那次，那时候他们还没理由感激比尔博，也照样出手相救。 事实就是这样：矮人们不是英雄，他们精于算计，把金钱看得很重，有些狡猾阴险，不是好人，可也有不错的，就像索林他们这伙人，只要你不对他们要求太高就好。 当霍比特猫钻进魔法门、偷偷溜进山里的时候，带道道黑影的淡色天空里，星星已经在他身后慢慢露出来了。 进去之后的路比他预想的要好走多了。 这既不是哥布林的入口，也不是粗陋的木精灵洞穴。 这是矮人们在国力鼎盛的时候修的通道：直得像尺子，地面洞壁都平平整整，一路平缓不变地向下延伸，通向黑暗深处遥远的终点。 走了一会儿，巴林跟比尔博说了句“好运！”，就停在了还能隐约看见门洞轮廓的地方，隧道回声刚好能

hear the rustle of the whispering voices of the others just outside. Then the hobbit slipped on his ring, and warned by the echoes to take more than hobbit's care to make no sound, he crept noiselessly down, down, down into the dark. He was trembling with fear, but his little face was set and grim. Already he was a very different hobbit from the one that had run out without a pocket-handkerchief from Bag-End long ago. He had not had a pocket- handkerchief for ages. He loosened his dagger in its sheath, tightened his belt, and went on. "Now you are in for it at last, Bilbo Baggins," he said to himself. "You went and put your foot right in it that night of the party, and now you have got to pull it out and pay for it! Dear me, what a fool I was and am!" said the least Tookish part of him. "I have absolutely no use for dragon-guarded treasures, and the whole lot could stay here for ever, if only I could wake up and find this beastly tunnel was my own front-hall at home!" He did not wake up of course, but went still on and on, till all sign of the door behind had faded away. He was altogether alone. Soon he thought it

听见外面其他人说话的细碎声响。 接着霍比特人戴上戒指，他知道隧道会放大回声，所以比普通霍比特人加倍小心，一点声音都不敢出，悄无声息地一路往下，往下，走进黑暗深处。 他吓得浑身发抖，可小小的脸却绷得紧紧的，毫无退意。 他早就不是很久之前那个没带手帕就从袋底洞跑出来的霍比特人了。 他都已经好久没手帕用了。 他松了松鞘里的匕首，紧了紧腰带，继续往前走。 “这下你真得闯一闯了，比尔博·巴金斯，”他对自己说。 “当初派对那晚你一脚踩进这摊事，现在你总得自己把它收拾完！ “天呐，我过去和现在都是个大傻瓜！”，他心里那点不爱冒险的念头嘀咕道。 “我一点都不想要恶龙看守的宝藏，这些宝藏全留在这儿我也不在乎，我就想醒过来发现这讨厌的隧道其实是我家的门厅！” 当然，他当然没有醒过来，只能一直往前走啊走，直到身后门洞的影子完全消失不见。 完完全全只剩下他一个人了。 没过多久，他就觉得

was beginning to feel warm. "Is that a kind of a glow I seem to see coming right ahead down there?" he thought. It was. As he went forward it grew and grew, till there was no doubt about it. It was a red light steadily getting redder and redder. Also it was now undoubtedly hot in the tunnel. Wisps of vapour floated up and past him and he began to sweat. A sound, too, began to throb in his ears, a sort of bubbling like the noise of a large pot galloping on the fire, mixed with a rumble as of a gigantic tomcat purring. This grew to the unmistakable gurgling noise of some vast animal snoring in its sleep down there in the red glow in front of him. It was at this point that Bilbo stopped. Going on from there was the bravest thing he ever did. The tremendous things that happened afterwards were as nothing compared to it. He fought the real battle in the tunnel alone, before he ever saw the vast danger that lay in wait. At any rate after a short halt go on he did; and you can picture him coming to the end of the tunnel, an opening of much the same size and shape as the door above. Through it peeps the hobbit's little head. Before him lies the great bottom-most cellar or dungeon-hall of the ancient

周遭开始渐渐变得暖和起来了。 “我好像看到前头那儿有道光？”他心想。 还真的是光。 他往前走，光越来越亮，这下绝对错不了。 那是一道红光，还在变得越来越红。 这会儿隧道里毫无疑问已经变热了。 一缕缕雾气从他身边飘升而过，他开始冒起汗来。 一阵声响也开始在他耳边突突作响，像是大锅架在火上咕嘟冒泡，还混着巨型公猫低沉的呼噜声。 这声响越来越清晰，分明就是一头巨兽在前方红光里沉睡打鼾的声音。 就在这时，比尔博停住了脚步。 从这儿继续往前走，是他这辈子做过最勇敢的事。 之后发生的那些惊天大事，和这件比起来根本不值一提。 在他见到那潜藏的巨大危险之前，他就已经在隧道里独自打赢了这场真正的硬仗。 总之，稍作停顿之后，他还是往前走了；你可以想象，他走到了隧道尽头，那儿有个出口，大小形状都和山上的那扇门差不多。 霍比特人把小脑袋从洞口探了出去。 出现在他面前的，是古代矮人最深处的大地窖，也就是地下城大厅，

dwarves right at the Mountain's root. It is almost dark so that its vastness can only be dimly guessed, but rising from the near side of the rocky floor there is a great glow. The glow of Smaug! There he lay, a vast red-golden dragon, fast asleep; a thrumming came from his jaws and nostrils, and wisps of smoke, but his fires were low in slumber. Beneath him, under all his limbs and his huge coiled tail, and about him on all sides stretching away across the unseen floors, lay countless piles of precious things, gold wrought and unwrought, gems and jewels, and silver red-stained in the ruddy light. Smaug lay, with wings folded like an immeasurable bat, turned partly on one side, so that the hobbit could see his underparts and his long pale belly crusted with gems and fragments of gold from his long lying on his costly bed. Behind him where the walls were nearest could dimly be seen coats of mail, helms and axes, swords and spears hanging; and there in rows stood great jars and vessels filled with a wealth that could not be guessed. To say that Bilbo's breath was taken away is no

就坐落在山脉的根脉之处。 洞里几乎全黑，只能隐约猜出它有多辽阔，但是靠近这边的岩石地面上，腾起一团巨大的光晕。 那就是史矛革的光！ 巨龙史矛革就躺在那儿，这庞大金红龙睡得正沉；鼾声从他口鼻里传出，还飘着缕缕烟雾，不过他熟睡时龙火压得很低。 在他身下，四肢和巨大盘卷的尾巴底下，财宝四处绵延，一直铺到看不见的远处，堆满了数不清的宝贝：铸好的和未加工的金子，宝石钻石，还有被红光染成红色的白银。 史矛革躺着，翅膀折起来像一只大得无边的蝙蝠，身子侧转了一点，所以霍比特人能看见他的肚腹，苍白的长肚子上，因为长年躺在价值连城的床铺上，结了一层宝石和金片的硬壳。 他身后紧邻墙壁的地方，隐约能看见挂着铠甲、头盔、斧剑和长矛，还有一排排大罐子大容器，装着根本无法估算的巨额财富。 说比尔博惊得屏住呼吸，都完全