6 OUT OF THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE FIRE

Chapter 6 OUT OF THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE FIRE Bilbo had escaped the goblins, but he did not know where he was. He had lost hood, cloak, food, pony, his buttons and his friends. He wandered on and on, till the sun began to sink westwards—behind the mountains. Their shadows fell across Bilbo's path, and he looked back. Then he looked forward and could see before him only ridges and slopes falling towards lowlands and plains glimpsed occasionally between the trees. "Good heavens!" he exclaimed. "I seem to have got right to the other side of the Misty Mountains, right to the edge of the Land Beyond! Where and O where can Gandalf and the dwarves have got to? I only hope to goodness they are not still back there in the power of the goblins!" He still wandered on, out of the little high valley,

第六章 刚出油锅 又入火海 比尔博逃脱了哥布林，却不知道自己身在何处。 他弄丢了兜帽、斗篷、食物、小马，弄丢了纽扣，也弄丢了朋友们。 他走啊走，一直走到太阳开始西沉，落到了群山的背后。 群山的影子落在比尔博的小径上，他回头望去。 再朝前望，他只能看见一道道山脊、一片片坡地向下延伸，林间缝隙里时不时能瞧见远方的低地和平原。 "天哪！" 他惊呼道。 "我居然已经走到迷雾山脉的另一边，到了外界的边缘了！" 甘道夫和矮人们到底在哪儿啊？ 求求老天爷，可千万别让他们还留在那边，落到哥布林手里啊！" 他接着往前走，走出了这片高高的小山谷，

over its edge, and down the slopes beyond; but all the while a very uncomfortable thought was growing inside him. He wondered whether he ought not, now he had the magic ring, to go back into the horrible, horrible, tunnels and look for his friends. He had just made up his mind that it was his duty, that he must turn back—and very miserable he felt about it—when he heard voices. He stopped and listened. It did not sound like goblins; so he crept forward carefully. He was on a stony path winding downwards with a rocky wall on the left hand; on the other side the ground sloped away and there were dells below the level of the path overhung with bushes and low trees. In one of these dells under the bushes people were talking. He crept still nearer, and suddenly he saw peering between two big boulders a head with a red hood on: it was Balin doing look-out. He could have clapped and shouted for joy, but he did not. He had still got the ring on, for fear of meeting something unexpected and unpleasant, and he saw that Balin was looking straight at him without noticing him. "I will give them all a surprise," he thought, as he crawled into the bushes at the edge of the dell. Gandalf was arguing with the dwarves. They were

走出山谷边缘，顺着外面的山坡往下走；可与此同时，一个不安的念头在他心里越来越强烈。 他在想，自己现在有了魔法戒指，是不是该回到那恐怖的地道里去找朋友们。 他刚下定决心，这是他的责任，他必须往回走——他心里别提多难受了——就在这时，他听到了说话声。 他停下脚步，仔细聆听。 这声音听着不像哥布林，于是他小心翼翼地朝前爬去。 他走在一条向下蜿蜒的石径上，左侧是石墙；另一侧地势倾斜向下，小径下方有凹谷，凹谷上覆盖着灌木和矮树。 其中一处灌木下的凹谷里，有人在说话。 他爬得更近了，忽然看见两块大石头之间探出一个脑袋，戴着红兜帽：原来是放哨的巴林。 他开心得都想拍手大叫了，但他忍住了。 他还戴着戒指，怕撞见意外的坏事，他看见巴林直盯着他这个方向，却根本没发现他。 "我要给他们所有人一个惊喜，"他一边想，一边爬进了凹谷边缘的灌木丛里。 甘道夫正和矮人们吵得不可开交。 他们在

discussing all that had happened to them in the tunnels, and wondering and debating what they were to do now. The dwarves were grumbling, and Gandalf was saying that they could not possibly go on with their journey leaving Mr. Baggins in the hands of the goblins, without trying to find out if he was alive or dead, and without trying to rescue him. "After all he is my friend," said the wizard, "and not a bad little chap. I feel responsible for him. I wish to goodness you had not lost him." The dwarves wanted to know why he had ever been brought at all, why he could not stick to his friends and come along with them, and why the wizard had not chosen someone with more sense. "He has been more trouble than use so far," said one. "If we have got to go back now into those abominable tunnels to look for him, then drat him, I say." Gandalf answered angrily: "I brought him, and I don't bring things that are of no use. Either you help me to look for him, or I go and leave you here to get out of the mess as best you can yourselves. If we can only find him again, you will thank me before all is over. Whatever did you want to go and drop him for, Dori?"

讨论他们在地道里遇到的所有事，不停琢磨争论接下来该怎么办。 矮人们怨声连连，甘道夫却说，总不能就这么继续赶路，把巴金斯先生丢在哥布林手里，不查清他是死是活，也不试着救他出来。 "他毕竟是我的朋友，"巫师说，"而且他是个很不错的小家伙。 我得对他负责。 我真希望你们没把他弄丢。" 矮人们纳闷当初干嘛要带他来，为什么他不能跟紧同伴一起走，为什么巫师不选一个更机灵的人。 "到现在为止，他带来的麻烦比用处多，"一个矮人说。 "要是咱们现在还得回那些讨厌的地道去找他，那我说，他可真碍事！" 甘道夫生气地回答："我带他来，我带的人绝不会没用。 要么你们帮我找他，要么我就走，留你们在这儿自己想办法收拾烂摊子。 要是咱们能找到他，等一切结束你们肯定会谢我。 多瑞，你们当初干嘛把他丢下了？"

"You would have dropped him," said Dori, "if a goblin had suddenly grabbed your legs from behind in the dark, tripped up your feet, and kicked you in the back!" "Then why didn't you pick him up again?" "Good heavens! Can you ask! Goblins fighting and biting in the dark, everybody falling over bodies and hitting one another! You nearly chopped off my head with Glamdring, and Thorin was stabbing here there and everywhere with Orcrist. All of a sudden you gave one of your blinding flashes, and we saw the goblins running back yelping. You shouted 'follow me everybody!' and everybody ought to have followed. We thought everybody had. There was no time to count, as you know quite well, till we had dashed through the gate-guards, out of the lower door, and helter-skelter down here. And here we are —without the burglar, confusticate him!" "And here's the burglar!" said Bilbo stepping down into the middle of them, and slipping off the ring. Bless me, how they jumped! Then they shouted with surprise and delight. Gandalf was as astonished as any of them, but probably more pleased than all the others. He called to Balin and told him what he

"换了你也会丢下他，"多瑞说，"黑灯瞎火里哥布林突然从后面抓你的腿，把你绊倒，还踹你后背！" "那你为什么不把他再扶起来？" "天哪！ 你还好意思问！ 黑夜里哥布林又打又咬，所有人都摔在尸体上，撞得东倒西歪！ 你用格兰德瑞几乎砍了我的脑袋，索林拿着奥克瑞斯特到处乱刺。 突然间你发出一道刺眼的闪光，我们看见哥布林嗷嗷叫着跑回去了。 你喊‘所有人跟我走！’，本来所有人都该跟上的。 我们还以为所有人都跟上了。 你很清楚，我们根本没时间数人数，冲过守门的哥布林，出了外门，慌慌张张逃到这儿之后才发现不对。 结果我们现在在这儿——就是少了那个飞贼，真该死他！" "飞贼这不就在这儿嘛！"比尔博说着走到人群中间，摘下了戒指。 我的天，他们全都吓了一大跳！ 接着他们又惊又喜，大叫起来。 甘道夫和所有人一样吃惊，但心里说不定比谁都要开心。 他喊巴林过来，告诉他他

thought of a look-out man who let people walk right into them like that without warning. It is a fact that Bilbo's reputation went up a very great deal with the dwarves after this. If they had still doubted that he was really a first-class burglar, in spite of Gandalf's words, they doubted no longer. Balin was the most puzzled of all; but everyone said it was a very clever bit of work. Indeed Bilbo was so pleased with their praise that he just chuckled inside and said nothing whatever about the ring; and when they asked him how he did it, he said: "Oh, just crept along, you know—very carefully and quietly." "Well, it is the first time that even a mouse has crept along carefully and quietly under my very nose and not been spotted," said Balin, "and I take off my hood to you." Which he did. "Balin at your service," said he. "Your servant, Mr. Baggins," said Bilbo. Then they wanted to know all about his adventures after they had lost him, and he sat down and told them everything—except about the finding of the ring ("not just now" he thought). They were particularly interested in the riddle-competition, and shuddered most appreciatively at his

居然有这么个放哨的，不提前警告，就放任人们直直撞进他们的窝里去。 这件事之后，比尔博在矮人堆里的声望实实在在大涨了好多。 哪怕之前他们听了甘道夫的话，还是不信他是一流飞贼，现在也彻底不怀疑了。 巴林是所有人里最摸不着头脑的，但大家都说这事干得太聪明了。 比尔博听了夸奖别提多高兴，只在心里偷偷笑，半字都没提戒指的事；大家问他怎么办到的，他就说：“哦，就是偷偷摸过去呀，你懂的——走得特别小心，特别轻。” “嘿，就算是一只老鼠，安安静静摸到我鼻子底下都没被发现，这还是头一遭，”巴林说，“我给你摘兜帽致敬。” 说完他就真的摘下了兜帽。 “巴林听您差遣，”他说。 “在下巴金斯，也为您效劳，”比尔博说。 接着大家想知道走散后他的全部历险，比尔博就坐下讲了所有事——唯独没提找到戒指的事（他心想“现在先不说”）。 他们尤其对那场猜谜比赛感兴趣，听完他讲到

description of Gollum. "And then I couldn't think of any other question with him sitting beside me," ended Bilbo; "so I said 'what's in my pocket?' And he couldn't guess in three goes. So I said: 'what about your promise? Show me the way out!' But he came at me to kill me, and I ran, and fell over, and he missed me in the dark. Then I followed him, because I heard him talking to himself. He thought I really knew the way out, and so he was making for it. And then he sat down in the entrance, and I could not get by. So I jumped over him and escaped, and ran down to the gate." "What about the guards?" they asked. "Weren't there any?" "O yes! lots of them; but I dodged 'em. I got stuck in the door, which was only open a crack, and I lost lots of buttons," he said sadly looking at his torn clothes. "But I squeezed through all right—and here I am." The dwarves looked at him with quite a new respect, when he talked about dodging guards, jumping over Gollum, and squeezing through, as if it was not very difficult or very alarming. "What did I tell you?" said Gandalf laughing.

咕噜的模样。 “那时候他就坐在我旁边，我想不出别的问题，”比尔博讲完，“所以我就问‘我口袋里是什么？’ 他猜了三次都没猜对。 于是我就说：你的承诺呢？ 快带我出去！'” 可他扑过来要杀我，我跑的时候摔了一跤，黑暗里他没抓到我。 然后我跟着他走，因为我听见他自言自语。 他以为我真的知道出口在哪，所以正往那边走呢。 后来他坐在入口那里，我根本过不去。 所以我就从他身上跳过去逃了，一直跑到大门那里。” “守卫呢？”他们问。 连一个都没有吗？ 哦当然有！ 好多守卫，不过我都躲开了。 我被卡在门缝里，门只开了一道缝，还掉了好多扣子，”他难过地看着自己破破烂烂的衣服说。 不过我还是挤出来了——这不就站在这儿了。” 听比尔博说躲守卫、跳咕噜、挤出门，说得好像一点不难一点不吓人，矮人看他的眼神都多了全新的敬意。 “我之前怎么说来着？”甘道夫笑着说。