银河系漫游指南国语 经典科幻文学:《银河系漫游指南》第1章Part 3

经典科幻文学:《银河系漫游指南》第1章Part 3  

A cloud passed overhead. It cast a shadow over Arthur Dent as he lay propped up on his elbow in the cold mud. It cast a shadow over Arthur Dent's house. Mr Prosser frowned at it.
"It's not as if it's a particularly nice house
" he said.
"I'm sorry
but I happen to like it."
"You'll like the bypass."
"Oh shut up
" said Arthur Dent. "Shut up and go away
and take your bloody bypass with you. You haven't got a leg to stand on and you know it."
Mr Prosser's mouth opened and closed a couple of times while his mind was for a moment filled with inexplicable but terribly attractive visions of Arthur Dent's house being consumed with fire and Arthur himself running screaming from the blazing ruin with at least three hefty spears protruding from his back. Mr Prosser was often bothered with visions like these and they made him feel very nervous. He stuttered for a moment and then pulled himself together.
"Mr Dent
" he said.
"Hello? Yes?" said Arthur.
"Some factual information for you. Have you any idea how much damage that bulldozer would suffer if I just let it roll straight over you?"
"How much?" said Arthur.
"None at all
" said Mr Prosser
and stormed nervously off wondering why his brain was filled with a thousand hairy horsemen all shouting at him.
By a curious coincidence
None at all is exactly how much suspicion the ape-descendant Arthur Dent had that one of his closest friends was not descended from an ape
but was in fact from a small pla in the vicinity of Betelgeuse and not from Guildford as he usually claimed.
Arthur Dent had never
ever suspected this.
This friend of his had first arrived on the pla some fifteen Earth years previously
and he had worked hard to blend himself into Earth society — with
it must be said
some success. For instance he had spent those fifteen years pretending to be an out of work actor
which was plausible enough.
He had made one careless blunder though
because he had skimped a bit on his preparatory research. The information he had gathered had led him to choose the name "Ford Prefect" as being nicely inconspicuous.
"Oh
just looking for flying saucers
" he would joke and everyone would laugh and ask him what sort of flying saucers he was looking for.
"Green ones!" he would reply with a wicked grin
laugh wildly for a moment and then suddenly lunge for the nearest bar and buy an enormous round of drinks.