言情小说吧【m.yqxsb.com】第一时间更新《马龙探案之三点的迷案》最新章节。
the group at John J. malone’s right had stopped singing did Your mother e from Ireland? and were trying to remember the opening bars of Killarney’s Lakes and dells the little lawyer sighed again. on top of all his other troubles, he could foresee exactly how the night was going to end. he was going to be drawn into conversation with some of the men at the bar. people would start buying drinks for each other. he would lend his silver-plated tenor to there’s a Little bit of heaven, and be coaxed into reciting the “Elegy for Robert Emmet.” they—he and his new-found friends—would move to a number of other bars, ending up in cicero. there would be a fight and he would get the collar torn off his shirt by some perfect stranger from Rock Island. he would wake up eventually, either jailed for disorderly conduct or in some woman’s apartment at least a forty-five-minute train ride from the chicago Loop.
他知道这个夜晚会如此结束，因为每次都是如此。
he knew the night was going to end that way, because that was the way they always did.
约翰·马龙举起酒杯让人再倒满，一口气喝光，提醒自己明天早上是新的一年的开始，他要重新开始生活。
John J. malone held out his glass to be refilled, emptied it with one breath, and reminded himself that tomorrow morning was the beginning of a new year, and he was going to start life all over again.
他听到门开了又关上。他听到门开了又关上。他抬起头，看到乔天使的脸白了一下，然后怪异地僵住，露出惊恐的表情。
he heard the door open and close. he looked up and saw Joe the Angel’s face whiten a shade and then freeze grotesquely into an expression of horror.
“马龙！”
“malone!”
喊出这个名字的声音紧张、沙哑、可怕，是一种怪异的声音。马龙在酒吧凳子上转过身。
the voice that screamed it was strained, hoarse, terrible, a travesty of a voice. malone wheeled around on the bar stool.
一个男人走进门来，站在那里，一只手紧紧地抓着门把手，手指关节发白。对约翰?马龙来说，他是个陌生人。他没戴帽子，光滑的黑发上闪烁着点点雪花。他是个高个子，瘦而棱角分明，穿着一套芥末色的花呢套装，一件破旧但昂贵的骆驼毛大衣搭在肩上。他那骨骼粗大、布满深深皱纹的脸上有很深的晒黑痕迹。但现在，他的脸色是一种可怕的、毫无血色的灰色。
A man had e in the door and stood there clinging to the knob with one white-knuckled hand. he was a stranger to John J. malone. he was hatless, and tiny bits of snow glistened on his smooth, black hair. he was a tall man, lean and angular, dressed in a mustard tweed suit, with a badly worn but expensive camel’s hair topcoat thrown back on his shoulders. there was a deep tan on his big-boned, deeply lined face, but the color now was a hideous, bloodless gray.
他走进房间两步。
he took two steps into the room.
“马龙……”
“malone—”
声音里有一种可怕的、冒泡的声音。
there was a ghastly, bubbling sound in the voice.
乔天使酒吧里的人们像死了一样寂静。这个男人又走了一步，伸出了手。几乎是下意识地、不假思索地，约翰?马龙伸出了自己的手去握住它。但那只手只是握了他的手一下，然后就松开了，马龙感觉像是有个又硬又冷的东西滑进了他的掌心。
the crowd in Joe the Angel’s bar was still as death. the man took one more step, and held out his hand Almost automatically, without thinking, John J. malone reached out his own hand to grasp it. the hand clasped his and loosened again. he felt something hard and cold slip into his palm.
然后这个陌生人开始倒下。先是他的膝盖慢慢地弯曲，以至于他以祈祷的姿势跪在地上，双手向前伸展。在他毫无血色的脸上出现一种惊恐和难以置信的表情。然后他向后倒去，头撞到木地板，发出一种奇怪的、空洞的声音。一条腿猛的以一种奇怪的、弹跳的动作弹直；另一条腿还弯在他身下。刹那间，一阵可怕的抽搐传遍了他的全身，然后，同样突然地，他一动不动了。
then the stranger began to fall. First his knees buckled—slowly—so that he sank to the floor in an attitude of prayer, his hands outstretched in front of him. A look of horror and incredulity came over his colorless face. then he fell backward, his head striking the wood floor with a strange, hollow sound. one knee unbent, the foot flying out in a curious, springing movement; the other leg remained crooked under him. there was a sudden, horrible twitching that shook the entire frame and then, just as suddenly, he lay still.
约翰?马龙是第一个行动的人。他从酒吧凳上滑下来，只微微踉跄了一下，便跪在地上那个扭曲的身影旁边。片刻之后，他站起来，从口袋里掏出一个五分镍币，扔在吧台上。
John J. malone was the first to move. he slid off the bar stool, lurched only a trifle, and knelt beside the twisted figure on the floor. After a divided second he rose, drew a nickel from his pocket, and threw it on the bar.
“给我一个电话代币。”
“Gimme a slug.”
乔天使递给他一个电话代币。其他人没有人动。
Joe the Angel handed him a telephone slug. No one else moved.
小个子律师穿过狭窄的房间来到电话亭，把代币投进电话，拨打了报警的号码。
the little lawyer crossed the narrow room to the telephone booth, dropped the slug in the telephone, and dialed poL-1313
“派一辆警车到迪尔伯恩街的乔天使酒吧。地上有个死人。”
“Send a squad car to Joe the Angel’s, on dearborn Street. there’s a dead man on the floor.”
他第一次没挂上电话听筒，然后砰地一声把听筒挂上。
he slammed down the receiver after missing the hook on the first try.
就在那一刻，一切乱成了一团。酒吧后面的收音机发出的声音变得震耳欲聋。外面，哨子声尖叫，铃铛叮当作响，聚集人群的喧闹声从州街那边一路传来。
At exactly that moment hell broke loose. the radio back of the bar began to let forth sounds that rocked the little machine. outside, whistles began to scream, bells clanged, and the off-pitch roar of voices was heard all the way from State Street where the crowds were gathered.
这是跨年夜的十二点，新的一年开始了。
It was twelve o’clock on New Year’s Eve, the beginning of a new year.
约翰?马龙喝下他留在吧台上的杜松子酒。等酒让他的血液在他的血管里再次流动起来后，这个小个子律师张开手，看着那个陌生人在生命最后一刻塞进他手里的东西。
John J. malone swallowed the gin he had left on the bar. when it had set the blood moving in his veins again the little lawyer opened his hand and looked at what the stranger had slipped there in the last moment of his life.
是一把钥匙。一把普通的钥匙，钥匙的柄上印着数字 114。
It was a key. An ordinary key, with the number 114 printed on its handle.
