(雙語)月亮和六便士 第47章(3)

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When the doors of the Asile de Nuit were closed to them, Strickland and Captain Nichols sought the hospitality of Tough Bill. This was the master of a sailors' boarding-house, a huge mulatto with a heavy fist, who gave the stranded mariner food and shelter till he found him a berth. They lived with him a month, sleeping with a dozen others, Swedes, negroes, Brazilians, on the floor of the two bare rooms in his house which he assigned to his charges; and every day they went with him to the Place Victor Gelu, whither came ships' captains in search of a man. He was married to an American woman, obese and slatternly, fallen to this pass by Heaven knows what process of degradation, and every day the boarders took it in turns to help her with the housework. Captain Nichols looked upon it as a smart piece of work on Strickland's part that he had got out of this by painting a portrait of Tough Bill. Tough Bill not only paid for the canvas, colours, and brushes, but gave Strickland a pound of smuggled tobacco into the bargain. For all I know, this picture may still adorn the parlour of the tumbledown little house somewhere near the Quai de la Joliette, and I suppose it could now be sold for fifteen hundred pounds. Strickland's idea was to ship on some vessel bound for Australia or New Zealand, and from there make his way to Samoa or Tahiti. I do not know how he had come upon the notion of going to the South Seas, though I remember that his imagination had long been haunted by an island, all green and sunny, encircled by a sea more blue than is found in Northern latitudes. I suppose that he clung to Captain Nichols because he was acquainted with those parts, and it was Captain Nichols who persuaded him that he would be more comfortable in Tahiti.

當(dāng)夜宿店對他們下了逐客令以后，思特里克蘭德同尼柯爾斯船長就在硬漢子彼爾那里找到另外一處歇夜的地方。硬漢子彼爾是一家水手寄宿舍的老板，是一個身軀高大、生著一對硬拳頭的黑白混血兒。他給暫時失業(yè)的水手們提供食宿，直到在船上給他們找到工作為止。思特里克蘭德同尼柯爾斯船長在他這里住了一個月，同十來個別的人，瑞典人、黑人、巴西人，一起睡在寄宿舍兩間屋子的地板上。這兩間屋子什么家具也沒有，彼爾就分配他們住在這里。每天他都帶著這些人到維克多·耶魯廣場去，輪船的船長需要雇用什么人都到這個地方來。這個混血兒的老婆是一個非常邋遢的美國胖女人，誰也不知道這個美國人怎么會墮落到這一地步。寄宿的人每天輪流幫助她做家務(wù)事。思特里克蘭德給硬漢子彼爾畫了一張肖像作為食宿的報酬，尼柯爾斯船長認(rèn)為這對思特里克蘭德來講是一件占了大便宜的事。彼爾不但出錢給他買了畫布、油彩和畫筆，而且還給了他一磅偷運(yùn)上岸的煙草。據(jù)我所知，這幅畫今天可能還掛在拉·柔那特碼頭附近一所破舊房子的客廳里，我估計現(xiàn)在可能值一千五百英鎊了。思特里克蘭德的計劃是先搭一條去澳大利亞或新西蘭的輪船，然后再轉(zhuǎn)途去薩摩亞或者塔希提。我不知道他怎么會動念要到南太平洋去，雖然我還記得他早就幻想到一個充滿陽光的綠色小島，到一個四圍一片碧波、海水比北半球任何海洋更藍(lán)的地方去。我想他所以攀住尼柯爾斯船長不放也是因為尼柯爾斯熟悉這一地區(qū)，最后勸他到塔希提，認(rèn)為這個地方比其他任何地方都更舒服，也完全是尼柯爾斯的主意。

"You see, Tahiti's French," he explained to me. "And the French aren't so damned technical."

“你知道，塔希提是法國領(lǐng)土，”尼柯爾斯對我解釋說，“法國人辦事不他媽的那么機(jī)械?！?/p>

I thought I saw his point.

我想我明白他說這句話的意思。