“听着。” 杰克坚定地开口。“我们和这个人从那边的楼梯下来时，听到了 ——” 他意识到没人在听。“该死。” 他说，“这里有人知道发生谋杀案时该怎么做吗？”

“Look here,” Jake began firmly. “We were ing down those stairs over there, with this man here, when we heard -” He realized that nobody was listening. “Damn it,” he said, “doesn’t anybody here know what to do when a murder’s been mitted?”

甚至在他问这个问题的时候，他就知道答案了。没人知道。杰克逊县已经三十二年没有发生过谋杀案了。

Even as he asked the question, he knew the answer. No one did know. Jackson County hadn’t had a murder for thirty-two years.

海伦的手指紧紧抓住他的胳膊。“我越看这个地方，” 她低声对他说，“就越觉得我们能去的任何其他地方都好。” 她的上唇有细小的汗珠。

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Helene’s fingers dug into his arm. “The more I see of this place,” she whispered to him, “the better I like any other place we could be.” There were tiny beads of perspiration on her upper lip.

“别担心，” 他低声回应，让人安心。“很快就会没事的，只要他们明白我们只是无辜的旁观者。”

“Don’t worry,” he whispered back, reassuringly. “It’ll be all right, soon as they get the idea we’re just innocent spectators.”

“只要他们明白就好。这可能会耗费我们一生中最好的时光。” 她喃喃地说。

“Just so they get the idea. It may take the best years of our life,” she murmured.

突然一声雷鸣，震得这座老建筑摇摇欲坠。杰克能透过公路部门办公室的窗户看到闪电。法院里面有一种奇怪的昏暗光线。

A sudden roar of thunder shook the old building to its foundations. Jake could see the lightning flashes through the window in the Highway Department office. Inside the courthouse there was a curious, murky light.

这一幕有些奇妙而不可思议。一动不动的人群围成一圈，脸色苍白的年轻地方检察官，以及倒在地上的已故参议员佩维利，他就那样脸朝下倒着，无力的胳膊和腿平摊在地上，他的白色亚麻外套上有一块红色污渍在扩散。在杰克看来，他已经在那里站了好几个小时，海伦的手指冰凉地搭在他的胳膊上，直到他抬头看了看大厅的大钟，才意识到仅仅过了三分钟。

There was something fantastic and incredible about the scene. The circle of motionless people, the white-faced young district attorney, and the late Senator Peveley on the floor, exactly as he had fallen, face down, limp arms and legs sprawled flatly on the floor, a red stain spreading on his white linen coat. It seemed to Jake that he had been standing there for hours, Helene’s fingers cold on his arm, until he glanced up at the big hall clock and realized that it had only been three minutes.

“我们应该给某人打电话。” 人群中的一个人说。

“We ought to call up somebody,” a man in the group said.

杰克说：“终于你有主意了。你认识谁？”

Jake said, “Now you’re getting the idea. Who do you know?”

“我们得让报纸知道。” 另一个人说。

“We’ve got to let the newspapers know,” another man said.

“得有人告诉他女儿。” 埃德?斯金丁斯鲁德说，同时瞥了一眼年轻的地方检察官。

“Somebody has to tell his daughter,” Ed Skindingsrude said, with a sidelong glance at the young district attorney.

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英俊的灰发麦高恩小姐清了清嗓子。“杰瑞，给治安官打电话。”

The handsome, gray-haired Miss MacGowan cleared her throat. “Jerry, call the sheriff.”

每个人都放松下来。地方检察官微微脸红，嘟囔了一句听起来像 “当然” 的话，然后匆匆走进一间办公室。人群开始分成小群体，这里两个人，那里三个人。一阵低沉的交谈声开始了。

Everyone relaxed. The district attorney blushed faintly, muttered something that sounded like “Of course,” and hurried into one of the offices. The group began breaking up into subgroups, two people here, three people there. A subdued murmur of voices began.

“在治安官来之前我们不能移动尸体。” 一个女孩说。

“We mustn’t move the body until the sheriff gets here,” a girl said.

杰克突然想到这是第一次有人提到触碰尸体。

It occurred to Jake that was the first time anyone had mentioned touching the body.

突然，走廊里的每个人都盯着海伦。杰克首先感觉到她放在他胳膊上的手指先是变成了钢铁钳子，然后是沉重的负担，接着完全松开了。在下一瞬间，他还没来得及有所行动，她就已经成了地板上一小堆皱巴巴的东西。

Suddenly everyone in the corridor was staring at Helene. Jake felt the fingers on his arm first bee steel pincers, then a deadly weight, then slip away entirely. In the next instant, before he had time to make a move, she was a little crumpled heap on the floor.

这就像敲响了一口钟。每个人同时行动起来。法院地板上的一具被谋杀的尸体是没人知道如何处理的事情，而一个晕倒的女人又是另一回事。立刻有十几个人的声音同时响起，说着 “水”“氨水”“法院书记员办公室的沙发”“医生”。

It was as though a bell had been rung. Every person sprang into action at the same time. A murdered man on the courthouse floor was something nobody knew how to cope with, a fainting woman was something else again. There were a dozen voices at once, saying “water,” “ammonia,” “the couch in the clerk of the court’s office,” “a doctor.”

有人说了些关于急救以及曾是童子军辅导员的事情。

Someone said something about first aid and having been a Boy Scout counselor.

另一个人告诉他们有一个海伦阿姨过去在葬礼上经常晕倒。

Another person informed them of an Aunt Helen who used to faint at funerals.

人们挤在杰克和海伦之间。在他能做任何事之前，一个矮壮的灰发男人已经把她抱起来，带进了法院书记员的办公室。杰克和走廊里的大多数旁观者都落后两步。

People crowded between Jake and Helene. Before he could do anything, a stocky, gray-haired man had picked her up and carried her into the office of the clerk of court. Jake, and most of the spectators in the corridor, were two steps behind.

小主，

在破旧的皮沙发上，她看起来非常小而且非常苍白，一缕银色的头发落在她毫无血色的脸颊上。一阵突如其来的恐惧攫住了杰克。他以前从未见过海伦晕倒。他扑倒在沙发旁边，握住她冰冷的手。

On the worn leather couch, she looked very small and very pale, one strand of her silvery hair fallen across her colorless cheek. A sudden pang of terror seized Jake. He had never seen Helene faint before. He flung himself down beside the couch and took her cold hand in his.

“一定是热的。” 那个曾是童子军辅导员的男人说。

“It must have been the heat,” the man who’d been a Boy Scout counselor said.

“她看起来很虚弱。” 县委员会主席评论道。

“She looks puny,” the chairman of the county board mented.