The pirate attack had been a complete surprise: —
这次海盗袭击完全是个意外: —

a sure proof that the unscrupulous Hook had conducted it improperly, for to surprise redskins fairly is beyond the wit of the white man.
这清楚地证明了肆无忌惮的胡克的不当操作，因为要出其不意地攻击红人是白人的智商无法达到的。

By all the unwritten laws of savage warfare it is always the redskin who attacks, and with the wiliness of his race he does it just before the dawn, at which time he knows the courage of the whites to be at its lowest ebb. —
根据野蛮战争的所有非书面规则，总是红人发起攻击，并以他种族的狡猾在黎明前的时刻进行，这时候他知道白人的勇气达到最低点。 —

The white men have in the meantime made a rude stockade on the summit of yonder undulating ground, at the foot of which a stream runs, for it is destruction to be too far from water. —
与此同时，白人在那里筑起了一个位于那个起伏的地面顶部的粗糙栅栏，在那个栅栏脚下有一条小溪流过，因为离水源太远是一种毁灭。 —

There they await the onslaught, the inexperienced ones clutching their revolvers and treading on twigs, but the old hands sleeping tranquilly until just before the dawn. —
他们在那里等待着袭击，那些没有经验的人紧紧握着左轮手枪，步行在细树枝上，而老手们则平静地入睡，直到黎明前的时刻。 —

Through the long black night the savage scouts wriggle, snake-like, among the grass without stirring a blade. —
整个漫长的黑夜中，野蛮的侦察兵像蛇一样在草丛间蠕动，连刀草都不动。 —

The brushwood closes behind them, as silently as sand into which a mole has dived. —
灌木丛在他们身后关上，像鼹鼠钻入沙子一样无声无息。 —

Not a sound is to be heard, save when they give vent to a wonderful imitation of the lonely call of the coyote. —
除了模仿孤狼的鸣叫声外，再无其他声音。 —

The cry is answered by other braves; and some of them do it even better than the coyotes, who are not very good at it. —
其他勇士们回应着这个呼声，有些人甚至比孤狼的叫声更好。 —

So the chill hours wear on, and the long suspense is horribly trying to the paleface who has to live through it for the first time; —
寒冷的时光一直持续着，对于第一次经历这种情况的白人来说，漫长的等待实在令人难以忍受； —

but to the trained hand those ghastly calls and still ghastlier silences are but an intimation of how the night is marching.
但对于经验丰富者来说，这些可怕的叫声和更可怕的寂静只是暗示着夜晚的临近。

That this was the usual procedure was so well known to Hook that in disregarding it he cannot be excused on the plea of ignorance.
胡克对于这种惯例非常了解，因此他无法以无知为借口来忽视它。

The Piccaninnies, on their part, trusted implicitly to his honour, and their whole action of the night stands out in marked contrast to his. —
同样，皮肤尼人完全信任他的诚信，他们整个夜晚的行动与他形成鲜明对比。 —

They left nothing undone that was consistent with the reputation of their tribe. —
他们尽全力做到与他们部落的声誉相符的事情。 —

With that alertness of the senses which is at once the marvel and despair of civilised peoples, they knew that the pirates were on the island from the moment one of them trod on a dry stick; —
身处文明社会的人们，那种既是奇迹又令人绝望的感官警觉性，使他们立刻意识到海盗已经登上了岛屿，从其中一人踩到了一根干枯的树枝开始。 —

and in an incredibly short space of time the coyote cries began. —
并在极短的时间内，郊狼的嚎叫声传来。 —

Every foot of ground between the spot where Hook had landed his forces and the home under the trees was stealthily examined by braves wearing their mocassins with the heels in front. —
迈着前脚后跟穿着鞋底的勇士，悄悄地检查了胡克登陆军队所经过的每一寸土地。 —

The found only one hillock with a stream at its base, so that Hook had no choice; —
他们只发现了一座丘陵，脚下有一条小溪，所以胡克别无选择，他必须在这里建立营地，在黎明前等待。 —

here he must establish himself and wait for just before the dawn. —
用近乎邪恶的狡黠，一切都被精心规划好了，印第安人的主力部队把毛毯裹在身上，以他们那种心平气和的方式，白天到来前蹲在孩子们家的上方，等待阴冷的时刻来临。 —

Everything being thus mapped out with almost diabolical cunning, the main body of the redskins folded their blankets around them, and in the phlegmatic manner that is to them, the pearl of manhood squatted above the children’s home, awaiting the cold moment when they should deal pale death.
他们等待的时刻，即将带来死亡的冷血。

Here dreaming, though wide-awake, of the exquisite tortures to which they were to put him at break of day, those confiding savages were found by the treacherous Hook. From the accounts afterwards supplied by such of the scouts as escaped the carnage, he does not seem even to have paused at the rising ground, though it is certain that in that grey light he must have seen it: —
在梦中，尽管清醒，他们对于天亮时将要加诸于他身上的残酷折磨怀有憧憬，这些信任的野蛮人被背信弃义的胡克找到了。从后来逃离屠杀的侦察兵所提供的情报中，他似乎甚至都没有在那个升起的地方停留，尽管可以肯定在那灰色的光线中他一定看到了它： —

no thought of waiting to be attacked appears from first to last to have visited his subtle mind; —
从头到尾，他的狡诈心灵似乎没有考虑过等待被攻击； —

he would not even hold off till the night was nearly spent; —
他甚至没有等到夜晚接近尽头； —

on he pounded with no policy but to fall to. —
他猛砸着，除了倒下来，没有其他策略； —

What could the bewildered scouts do, masters as they were of every war-like artifice save this one, but trot helplessly after him, exposing themselves fatally to view, the while they gave pathetic utterance to the coyote cry.
困惑的侦察兵能做些什么呢，虽然他们掌握着各种战争策略，但却没有掌握这个，只能无助地跟在他后面，暴露自己致命地被发现，同时他们发出了可悲的丛林狼呼声。

Around the brave Tiger Lily were a dozen of her stoutest warriors, and they suddenly saw the perfidious pirates bearing down upon them. —
围绕着勇敢的虎百合的是一打她最勇敢的战士，他们突然看见那信奸的海盗向他们扑来。 —

Fell from their eyes then the film through which they had looked at victory. —
从他们的眼中滚落下的，是他们曾凝视胜利的薄膜。 —

No more would they torture at the stake. For them the happy hunting-grounds now. They knew it; —
他们再也不会在火刑柱上受苦。对他们来说，快乐的狩猎场已经到来了。他们知道这一点； —

but as their father’s sons they acquitted themselves. —
但作为他们父亲的儿子，他们挺身而出。 —

Even then they had time to gather in a phalanx that would have been hard to break had they risen quickly, but this they were forbidden to do by the traditions of their race. —
即使在那时，他们也有时间聚集成一支难以被打破的方阵，如果他们迅速起身反抗的话。但根据他们种族的传统，他们被禁止这样做。 —

It is written that the noble savage must never express surprise in the presence of the white. —
据说高尚的野蛮人在白人面前绝不能表现出惊讶之情。 —

Thus terrible as the sudden appearance of the pirates must have been to them, they remained stationary for a moment, not a muscle moving; —
尽管海盗的突然出现对他们来说一定是可怕的，他们停在原地不动，一动不动； —

as if the foe had come by invitation. Then, indeed, the tradition gallantly upheld, they seized their weapons, and the air was torn with the war-cry; —
仿佛敌人是受邀而来一样。然后，传统英勇地得到了维持，他们抓起了武器，战吼声撕裂空气； —

but it was now too late.
但现在已经太晚了。

It is no part of ours to describe what was a massacre rather than a fight. —
我们没有责任来描述这场更像是屠杀而不是战斗的事件。 —

Thus perished many of the flower of the Piccaninny tribe. —
许多皮肯尼部落的花朵就这样消逝了。 —

Not all unavenged did they die, for with Lean Wolf fell Alf Mason, to disturb the Spanish Main no more, and among others who bit the dust were Geo. Scourie, Chas. Turley, and the Alsatian Foggerty. —
并非所有的未报复之人都死去了，因为伴随着瘦狼的去世，阿尔夫·梅森也离开了西班牙海域，烦扰不再；而乔治·斯科里、查尔斯·特利和阿尔萨斯弗格蒂等人也都倒下了。 —

Turley fell to the tomahawk of the terrible Panther, who ultimately cut a way through the pirates with Tiger Lily and a small remnant of the tribe.
特利惨遭可怕的黑豹拿着战斧袭击，黑豹最终带着老虎百合和部落的少数人，为自己开辟了一条通道，穿越了海盗的阵线。

To what extent Hook is to blame for his tactics on this occasion is for the historian to decide. —
关于胡克在此次战术上的责任究竟有多大，应由历史学家来决定。 —

Had he waited on the rising ground till the proper hour he and his men would probably have been butchered; —
如果他一直等在高地上直到合适的时刻，他和他的手下很可能会被屠杀； —

and in judging him it is only fair to take this into account. —
在评判他时，考虑到这一点是公正的。 —

What he should perhaps have done was to acquaint his opponents that he proposed to follow a new method. —
也许他应该告诉对手他打算采用一种新方法。 —

On the other hand, this, as destroying the element of surprise, would have made his strategy of no avail, so that the whole question is beset with difficulties. —
然而，这样做会破坏惊喜因素，使他的战略无效，所以整个问题充满了困难。 —

One cannot at least withhold a reluctant admiration for the wit that had conceived so bold a scheme, and the fell genius with which it was carried out.
至少不能不对构想出如此大胆计划的机智心生羡慕，以及这计划被实施的可怕天才。

What were his own feelings about himself at that triumphant moment? —
在那胜利的时刻，他对自己有何感受？ —

Fain would his dogs have known, as breathing heavily and wiping their cutlasses, they gathered at a discreet distance from his hook, and squinted through their ferret eyes at this extraordinary man. —
他们喘着粗气、擦着刀剑，聚集在勾钩远离的地方，努力想了解这位非凡人物。 —

Elation must have been in his heart, but his face did not reflect it: —
愉快必定在他的心中，但却没有在他的脸上反映出来： —

ever a dark and solitary enigma, he stood aloof from his followers in spirit as in substance.
他始终是一个阴暗而孤独的谜，他身体上和精神上都与追随者保持着疏远。

The night’s work was not yet over, for it was not the redskins he had come out to destroy; —
夜晚的工作尚未结束，他来此并非为了消灭红人； —

they were but the bees to be smoked, so that he should get at the honey. —
红人只是用来被迷晕以便他能得到蜂蜜的蜜蜂。 —

It was Pan he wanted, Pan and Wendy and their band, but chiefly Pan.
他所想要的是波恩、温蒂和她们的团队，但尤其是波恩。

Peter was such a small boy that one tends to wonder at the man’s hatred of him. —
彼得是个如此小的男孩，以至于人们很难相信这个男人对他的仇恨。 —

True he had flung Hook’s arm to the crocodile, but even this and the increased insecurity of life to which it led, owing to the crocodile’s pertinacity , hardly account for a vindictiveness so relentless and malignant. —
真的，他把胡克的手臂扔给了鳄鱼，但即使这个行为以及由此带来的生活不安全增加，都很难解释他如此无情和恶毒的复仇心态。 —

The truth is that there was a something about Peter which goaded the pirate captain to frenzy. —
事实上，彼得的某种特质让海盗船长变得极其狂怒。 —

It was not his courage, it was not his engaging appearance, it was not–. —
这不是他的勇气，也不是他迷人的外貌，也不是… —

There is no beating about the bush, for we know quite well what it was, and have got to tell. —
毫不隐瞒地说，我们非常清楚是什么原因，并且必须说出来。 —

It was Peter’s cockiness.
那就是彼得的自大。

This had got on Hook’s nerves; it made his iron claw twitch, and at night it disturbed him like an insect. —
这让胡克非常恼火；它让他的铁钩抽搐，在夜晚像一只昆虫一样困扰着他。 —

While Peter lived, the tortured man felt that he was a lion in a cage into which a sparrow had come.
当彼得还活着时，这个受折磨的人感觉自己就像是被关在笼子里的狮子，而里面进来一只麻雀。

The question now was how to get down the trees, or how to get his dogs down? —
现在的问题是如何下树，或者如何让他的狗下来？ —

He ran his greedy eyes over them, searching for the thinnest ones. —
他贪婪地扫视着它们，寻找最瘦的。 —

They wriggled uncomfortably, for they knew he would not scruple to ram them down with poles.
它们不安地蠕动着，因为它们知道他会毫不犹豫地用杆子撞下它们。

In the meantime, what of the boys? We have seen them at the first clang of the weapons, turned as it were into stone figures, open-mouthed, all appealing with outstretched arms to Peter; —
与此同时，那些男孩怎么样了？我们在第一次交战的铿锵声中看到他们，仿佛变成了石头般的人物，张开嘴巴，伸出胳膊，向彼得求助。 —

and we return to them as their mouths close, and their arms fall to their sides. —
然后，当他们的嘴巴合上，胳膊沉下来时，我们又回到了他们的身边。 —

The pandemonium above has ceased almost as suddenly as it arose, passed like a fierce gust of wind; —
上方的喧嚣几乎和它产生时一样突然停止了，就像一阵狂风过后那样。 —

but they know that in the passing it has determined their fate.
但他们知道，喧嚣过去之后便决定了他们的命运。

Which side had won?
哪一方获胜了呢？

The pirates, listening avidly at the mouths of the trees, heard the question put by every boy, and alas, they also heard Peter’s answer.
海盗们急切地凑到树丛旁听，他们听到每一个男孩都在问这个问题，遗憾的是，他们也听到了彼得的回答。

“If the redskins have won,” he said, “they will beat the tom-tom; —
“如果印第安人获胜了，他们将打鼓；这总是他们的胜利信号。” —

it is always their sign of victory.”
此刻史密先找到了鼓，而且正坐在上面。

Now Smee had found the tom-tom, and was at that moment sitting on it. —
“你再也听不到鼓声了，”他喃喃自语，当然是无声的，因为严格要求保持安静。 —

“You will never hear the tom-tom again,” he muttered, but inaudibly of course, for strict silence had been enjoined . —
“那你相信我们赢了吗？”鲁弗斯问彼得，并为了达到目的，他在放低声音说。 —

To his amazement Hook signed him to beat the tom-tom, and slowly there came to Smee an understanding of the dreadful wickedness of the order. —
令他惊讶的是，胡克让他敲击竹鼓，慢慢地斯密开始明白这个邪恶的命令。 —

Never, probably, had this simple man admired Hook so much.
可能从来没有这么简单的人这么崇拜过胡克。

Twice Smee beat upon the instrument, and then stopped to listen gleefully.
斯密两次敲击竹鼓，然后停下来愉快地倾听。

“The tom-tom,” the miscreants heard Peter cry; “an Indian victory!”
“竹鼓！”恶棍们听到彼得喊道，“印第安人的胜利！”

The doomed children answered with a cheer that was music to the black hearts above, and almost immediately they repeated their good-byes to Peter. This puzzled the pirates, but all their other feelings were swallowed by a base delight that the enemy were about to come up the trees. —
命运将要降临在这些孩子身上，他们欢呼着回应道，对上面那些被黑暗笼罩的心灵来说，这几乎是一曲美妙的乐曲，几乎立即他们又重复向彼得道别。这让海盗们困惑不解，但除此之外，所有其他的感受都被一种卑鄙的喜悦所吞噬，就是敌人要爬上树了。 —

They smirked at each other and rubbed their hands. Rapidly and silently Hook gave his orders: —
他们互相偷笑，擦着双手。迅速而寂静地，胡克下达了命令： —

one man to each tree, and the others to arrange themselves in a line two yards apart.
每棵树一个人，其他的人排成两码远的一行。