Chapter 5. A Tragedy In The Woods Kapitel 5. Eine Tragödie in den Wäldern Capítulo 5. Una tragedia en el bosque Chapitre 5. Une tragédie dans les bois Rozdział 5. Tragedia w lesie Capítulo 5. Uma tragédia no bosque

We didn't get done tinkering the machinery till away late in the afternoon, and so it was so close to sundown when we got home that we never stopped on our road, but made a break for the sycamores as tight as we could go, to tell Jake what the delay was, and have him wait till we could go to Brace's and find out how things was there. Мы закончили возиться с механизмами только ближе к вечеру, и поэтому, когда мы вернулись домой, было так близко к закату, что мы никогда не останавливались на дороге, а шли к платанам изо всех сил. сказать Джейку, в чем задержка, и попросить его подождать, пока мы не поедем к Брейсу и не узнаем, как там дела. It was getting pretty dim by the time we turned the corner of the woods, sweating and panting with that long run, and see the sycamores thirty yards ahead of us; and just then we see a couple of men run into the bunch and heard two or three terrible screams for help. "Poor Jake is killed, sure," we says. We was scared through and through, and broke for the tobacker field and hid there, trembling so our clothes would hardly stay on; and just as we skipped in there, a couple of men went tearing by, and into the bunch they went, and in a second out jumps four men and took out up the road as tight as they could go, two chasing two. Мы были перепуганы насквозь, бросились к тобакерному полю и спрятались там, дрожа так, что наша одежда едва держалась; и как только мы вскочили туда, пара мужчин промчалась мимо, и они вошли в группу, и через секунду выскочили четверо мужчин и помчались по дороге так плотно, как только могли, двое гнались за двумя.

We laid down, kind of weak and sick, and listened for more sounds, but didn't hear none for a good while but just our hearts. We was thinking of that awful thing laying yonder in the sycamores, and it seemed like being that close to a ghost, and it give me the cold shudders. The moon come a-swelling up out of the ground, now, powerful big and round and bright, behind a comb of trees, like a face looking through prison bars, and the black shadders and white places begun to creep around, and it was miserable quiet and still and night-breezy and graveyardy and scary. Луна вынырнула из-под земли, мощная, большая, круглая и яркая, из-за гребня деревьев, как лицо, смотрящее сквозь тюремную решетку, и черные тени и белые пятна начали расползаться вокруг, и было жалкая тишина и безмолвие, ночная свежесть, кладбищенская и страшная. All of a sudden Tom whispers:

"Look!--what's that?" "Don't!" I says. "Don't take a person by surprise that way. «Не заставай человека врасплох таким образом. I'm 'most ready to die, anyway, without you doing that." В любом случае, я почти готов умереть, если ты этого не сделаешь». "Look, I tell you. It's something coming out of the sycamores." "Don't, Tom!" "It's terrible tall!" "Oh, lordy-lordy! let's--" "Keep still--it's a-coming this way." He was so excited he could hardly get breath enough to whisper. Он был так взволнован, что едва мог перевести дух, чтобы прошептать. I had to look. I couldn't help it. So now we was both on our knees with our chins on a fence rail and gazing--yes, and gasping too. Итак, теперь мы оба стояли на коленях, упираясь подбородками в перила забора, и смотрели — да, и задыхались. It was coming down the road--coming in the shadder of the trees, and you couldn't see it good; not till it was pretty close to us; then it stepped into a bright splotch of moonlight and we sunk right down in our tracks--it was Jake Dunlap's ghost! That was what we said to ourselves.

We couldn't stir for a minute or two; then it was gone We talked about it in low voices. Мы не могли пошевелиться минуту или две; затем он ушел Мы говорили об этом вполголоса. Tom says:

"They're mostly dim and smoky, or like they're made out of fog, but this one wasn't." "No," I says; "I seen the goggles and the whiskers perfectly plain." "Нет," говорю я; «Я видел очки и бакенбарды совершенно простыми». "Yes, and the very colors in them loud countrified Sunday clothes--plaid breeches, green and black--" "Cotton velvet westcot, fire-red and yaller squares--" "Весткот из хлопкового бархата, огненно-красные и желтые квадраты..." "Leather straps to the bottoms of the breeches legs and one of them hanging unbottoned--" "Yes, and that hat--" "What a hat for a ghost to wear!" You see it was the first season anybody wore that kind--a black stiff-brim stove-pipe, very high, and not smooth, with a round top--just like a sugar-loaf.

"Did you notice if its hair was the same, Huck?" "No--seems to me I did, then again it seems to me I didn't." "I didn't either; but it had its bag along, I noticed that." "So did I. How can there be a ghost-bag, Tom?" "Sho! I wouldn't be as ignorant as that if I was you, Huck Finn. Я бы не был таким невеждой на твоем месте, Гек Финн. Whatever a ghost has, turns to ghost-stuff. They've got to have their things, like anybody else. You see, yourself, that its clothes was turned to ghost-stuff. Вы сами видите, что его одежда превратилась в призрачную материю. Well, then, what's to hender its bag from turning, too? Ну, а что же удерживает его сумку от переворачивания? Of course it done it." That was reasonable. Это было разумно. I couldn't find no fault with it. Я не мог найти в этом никакой вины. Bill Withers and his brother Jack come along by, talking, and Jack says:

"What do you reckon he was toting?" "I dunno; but it was pretty heavy." "Yes, all he could lug. "Да, все, что он мог тащить. Nigger stealing corn from old Parson Silas, I judged." По-моему, негр ворует кукурузу у старого пастора Сайласа». "So did I. And so I allowed I wouldn't let on to see him." "That's me, too." Then they both laughed, and went on out of hearing. It showed how unpopular old Uncle Silas had got to be now. Это показало, насколько непопулярным стал теперь старый дядя Сайлас. They wouldn't 'a' let a nigger steal anybody else's corn and never done anything to him. We heard some more voices mumbling along towards us and getting louder, and sometimes a cackle of a laugh. It was Lem Beebe and Jim Lane. Jim Lane says:

"Who?--Jubiter Dunlap?" "Yes." "Oh, I don't know. I reckon so. I seen him spading up some ground along about an hour ago, just before sundown--him and the parson. Я видел, как он копал землю около часа назад, как раз перед заходом солнца, — он и пастор. Said he guessed he wouldn't go to-night, but we could have his dog if we wanted him." Сказал, что догадался, что сегодня вечером не пойдет, но мы могли бы взять его собаку, если бы захотели. "Too tired, I reckon." "Слишком устал, я считаю." "Yes--works so hard!" "Oh, you bet!" They cackled at that, and went on by. Tom said we better jump out and tag along after them, because they was going our way and it wouldn't be comfortable to run across the ghost all by ourselves. Том сказал, что нам лучше выскочить и поплестись за ними, потому что они шли в нашу сторону, и было бы неудобно бегать по призраку в одиночку. So we done it, and got home all right.

That night was the second of September--a Saturday. I sha'n't ever forget it. You'll see why, pretty soon.