Later, the two men played cards together and, as Parkins played cards much better than he played golf, the Colonel became quite friendly and they arranged to play golf together again the next day.
后来他们一起玩牌,由于帕金斯的牌技比他的高尔夫球技强很多,上校变得很友好起来。他们还安排了第二天再去打球。
When Parkins returned to his room, he found the little met-al pipe where he had put it on the table. He looked at it carefully and realized that it was a whistle. He tried to blow it but it was full of earth, so he took out his knife and cleared the earth out onto a piece of paper, which he then shook out of the window As he stood at the open window, he was surprised to see someone standing on the grass in front of the hotel, although it was almost midnight.
帕金斯回到房间便看到了自己放在桌子上的那一小段金属管,他仔细看了看,发现它是个口哨。他想吹吹,可里面都是土,于是他拿出刀子把土掏出来倒在一张纸上,抖落在窗外。他站在开着的窗户旁时很惊讶地发现虽然已经快半夜了,却有个人站在旅馆前面的草地上。
He shut the window and took the whistle over to the light to look at it again He cleaned the dirt off and found that there were letters deeply cut along the side of the whistle.
他关上窗户把口哨拿到亮处又看了看,把上面的土擦干净后发现口哨上深深地刻着:
QUIS EST ISTE QUI VENIT
QUIS EST ISTE QUI VENIT
'Now, that's Latin, 'he said to himself. 'I think it means, "Who is this who is coming?" Well, the best way to find out is clearly to whistle for him.'
“噢,这是拉丁文,”他自语道,“我想它的意思是'来者是谁?'哦,知道来者是谁最好的办法显然是给他吹口哨听。”
He put the whistle to his lips and blew, then stopped suddenly, surprised and pleased at the sound he had made. It was a soft sound, but also seemed to travel a long way. And it brought a picture into his mind—a picture of a wide, dark place at night, with a fresh wind blowing, and in the middle a lonely figure…
他把口哨放在嘴边吹起来,突然又停了下来,吹出的声音使他自已都感到既惊讶又高兴。那声音很柔和,可似乎又能传出很远,并且把一幅画面呈现在他脑海中——画面是夜里一个宽阔黑暗的地方,清风吹拂,画面中间还有个孤零零的人影……