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"Now look out," he said; "the salvation of this detachment lies in your courage and in your legs."
“喂！這分隊的安危，就靠你的勇氣和你的腳力了！”
"Trust to me, Signor Captain," replied the drummer-boy, as he let himself down.
“憑我！大尉！”少年一邊回答一邊往下溜。
"Bend over on the slope," said the captain, grasping the rope, with the sergeant.
大尉和軍營握住了繩：“下山坡的時候，要把身子伏倒！”
"Never fear."
“放心！”
"God aid you!"
“但愿你成功！”
In a few moments the drummer-boy was on the ground; the sergeant drew in the rope and disappeared; the captain stepped impetuously in front of the window and saw the boy flying down the slope.
鼓手立刻落到地上了。軍曹取了繩子走開了。大尉很不放心，在窗畔踱來踱去，看少年下坡。
He was already hoping that he had succeeded in escaping unobserved, when five or six little puffs of powder, which rose from the earth in front of and behind the lad, warned him that he had been espied by the Austrians, who were firing down upon him from the top of the elevation: these little clouds were thrown into the air by the bullets. But the drummer continued to run at a headlong speed. All at once he fell to the earth. "He is killed!" roared the captain, biting his fist. But before he had uttered the word he saw the drummer spring up again. "Ah, only a fall," he said to himself, and drew a long breath. The drummer, in fact, set out again at full speed; but he limped. "He has turned his ankle," thought the captain. Again several cloudlets of powder smoke rose here and there about the lad, but ever more distant. He was safe. The captain uttered an exclamation of triumph. But he continued to follow him with his eyes, trembling because it was an affair of minutes: if he did not arrive yonder in the shortest possible time with that billet, which called for instant succor, either all his soldiers would be killed or he should be obliged to surrender himself a prisoner with them.
差不多快要成功了。忽然在少年前后數步之間冒出五六處煙來。原來奧軍已發見了少年，從高處射擊著他。少年拼了命跑，突然倒下了。“糟了！”大尉咬著牙焦急地向自己說。正在此時，少年又站起來了。“啊，啊！只是跌了一跤！”大尉吐了一口氣。少年雖然拼命地跑著，可是，望過去一條腿像有些破。大尉想：“踝骨受了傷了哩！”接著煙塵又從少年的近旁冒起來，都很遠，沒有打中。“好呀！好呀！”大尉歡喜地叫，目光仍不離少年。一想到這是十分危險的事，不覺就要戰栗！那紙條如果幸而送到本隊，援兵就會來；萬一誤事，這六十人只有戰死與被虜兩條路了。
The boy ran rapidly for a space, then relaxed his pace and limped, then resumed his course, but grew constantly more fatigued, and every little while he stumbled and paused.
遠遠望去：見少年跑了一會兒，忽而把腳步放緩，只是跛著走。再重新起跑，力就漸漸減弱，坐下休息了好幾次。
"Perhaps a bullet has grazed him," thought the captain, and he noted all his movements, quivering with excitement; and he encouraged him, he spoke to him, as though he could hear him; he measured incessantly, with a flashing eye, the space intervening between the fleeing boy and that gleam of arms which he could see in the distance on the plain amid the fields of grain gilded by the sun. And meanwhile he heard the whistle and the crash of the bullets in the rooms beneath, the imperious and angry shouts of the sergeants and the officers, the piercing laments of the wounded, the ruin of furniture, and the fall of rubbish.
“大概子彈穿過了他的腳。”大尉一邊這樣想，一邊目不轉睛地注視著少年，急得身子發震。他眼睛要迸出火星來了，測度著少年距離發光的槍刺間的距離。樓下呢，只聽見子彈穿過聲，士官與軍曹的怒叫聲，凄絕的負傷者的哭泣聲，器具的碎聲和物件的落下聲。
