第26页
“很好。”苏斌库看了看周围围成一圈的那群野蛮人，不知怎的，这群人的脸似乎象征着那个野蛮城墙，自从沙皇的警察第一次在华沙逮捕他以来，这个城墙就一直包围着他。“马卡穆克，拿好你的斧子，这样站着。我要躺下了。我抬起手的时候，你就砍下去，用尽浑身的劲儿砍下去。注意不能有任何人站在你身后。这个药很有效，斧子可能会从我脖子上弹起，直接从你手中脱落。”
He looked at the two sleds, with the dogs in harness, loaded with furs and fish. His rifle lay on top of the beaver skins. The six hunters who were to act as his guard stood by the sleds.
他看了看那两套雪橇，狗已经套好了，雪橇上装满了皮毛和鱼。他的步枪就放在那些海狸皮上面。六个负责保护他的猎手就站在雪橇旁。
"Where is the girl?" the Pole demanded. "Bring her up to the sleds before the test goes on."
“那个女孩在哪儿？”这个波兰人询问道，“在进行测试之前把她带到雪橇这儿来。”
When this had been carried out, Subienkow lay down in the snow, resting his head on the log like a tired child about to sleep. He had lived so many dreary years that he was indeed tired.
这件事办好后，苏斌库躺在雪地里，头枕在原木上，好像一个累了的孩子要睡觉。这么多年他一直活得忧郁悲伤，他真的很累了。
"I laugh at you and your strength, O Makamuk," he said. "Strike, and strike hard."
“哦，马卡穆克，我看不起你，也看不起你的力量。”他说，“砍吧，用力地砍。”
He lifted his hand. Makamuk swung the axe, a broadaxe for the squaring of logs. The bright steel flashed through the frosty air, poised for a perceptible instant above Makamuk's head, then descended upon Subienkow's bare neck. Clear through flesh and bone it cut its way, biting deeply into the log beneath. The amazed savages saw the head bounce a yard away from the blood-spouting trunk.
他抬起手。马卡穆克挥起斧子，一把专砍方形原木的宽刃斧。发亮的钢斧在凛冽的空气中闪了一下，在马卡穆克的头顶稍作停留，然后就朝着苏斌库光溜溜的脖子砍了下去。斧子完全砍断了肉和骨头，深深地插进了下面的原木里。那些野蛮人惊讶地看着头从鲜血直涌的躯干弹到了一码以外。
There was a great bewilderment and silence, while slowly it began to dawn in their minds that there had been no medicine. The fur-thief had outwitted them. Alone, of all their prisoners, he had escaped the torture. That had been the stake for which he played. A great roar of laughter went up. Makamuk bowed his head in shame. The fur-thief had fooled him. He had lost face before all his people. Still they continued to roar out their laughter. Makamuk turned, and with bowed head stalked away. He knew that thenceforth he would be no longer known as Makamuk. He would be Lost Face; the record of his shame would be with him until he died; and whenever the tribes gathered in the spring for the salmon, or in the summer for the trading, the story would pass back and forth across the camp-fires of how the fur-thief died peaceably, at a single stroke, by the hand of Lost Face.
好一阵沉默和疑惑之后，大家开始慢慢醒悟，根本就没有什么药。这个皮毛强盗骗了他们。他成为所有囚犯中唯一免遭折磨的。那就是他下的赌注。狂笑声四起。马卡穆克羞愧地低下了头。这个皮毛强盗愚弄了他。他在所有族人面前丢了脸。他们还在狂笑不止。马卡穆克转过身，低下头，悄悄地离开了。他知道从此以后人们再也不会叫他马卡穆克了。他以后就是丢脸先生，这个耻辱的记录会一直跟随他直到他死去；不管是各部落在春天时一起捕马哈鱼，还是在夏天时在一起做交易，人们都会在篝火旁反复地讲这个故事，讲那个皮毛强盗如何在丢脸先生一刀砍下去之后平静地死掉。
"Who was Lost Face?" he could hear, in anticipation, some insolent young buck demand, "Oh, Lost Face," would be the answer, "he who once was Makamuk in the days before he cut off the fur-thief's head."
“谁是丢脸先生？”他能预先听到某个傲慢的印第安年轻人询问。“哦，丢脸先生啊，”会是这样的回答，“在他砍下那个皮毛强盗的头之前，曾经是马卡穆克。”