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Ferruccio was on the point of throwing himself on his grandmother, overcome with emotion, when he fancied that he heard a slight noise, a creaking in the small adjoining room, the one which opened on the garden. But he could not make out whether it was the window-shutters rattling in the wind, or something else.
費魯喬心中充滿了悲哀，正想把身子投到祖母的懷里去。忽然朝著天井的間壁的室中有輕微的軋軋的聲音；聽不出是風打窗門呢，還是什么。
He bent his head and listened.
費魯喬側了頭注意去聽。
The rain beat down noisily.
雨正如注地下著。
The sound was repeated. His grandmother heard it also.
軋軋的聲音又來了，連祖母也聽到了。
"What is it?" asked the grandmother, in perturbation, after a momentary pause.
“那是什么？”祖母過了一會兒很擔心地問。
"The rain," murmured the boy.
“是雨。”費魯喬說。
"Then, Ferruccio," said the old woman, drying her eyes, "you promise me that you will be good, that you will not make your poor grandmother weep again--"
老人拭了眼淚：“那么，費魯喬！以后要規規矩矩，不要再使祖母流淚啊！”
Another faint sound interrupted her.
那聲音又來了，
"But it seems to me that it is not the rain!" she exclaimed, turning pale. "Go and see!"
老人潔白了臉說：“這不是雨聲呢！你去看來！”
But she instantly added, "No; remain here!" and seized Ferruccio by the hand.
慨而又牽住了孫子的手說：“你留在這里。”
Both remained as they were, and held their breath. All they heard was the sound of the water.
兩人屏息不出聲，耳中只聽見雨聲。
Then both were seized with a shivering fit. It seemed to both that they heard footsteps in the next room.
鄰室中好像有人的腳音，兩人不覺栗然震抖。
"Who's there?" demanded the lad, recovering his breath with an effort.
“誰？”費魯喬勉強恢復了呼吸怒叫。
No one replied.
沒有回答。
"Who is it?" asked Ferruccio again, chilled with terror.
“誰？”又震栗著問。
But hardly had he pronounced these words when both uttered a shriek of terror. Two men sprang into the room. One of them grasped the boy and placed one hand over his mouth; the other clutched the old woman by the throat. The first said:--
話猶未完，兩人不覺驚叫起來，兩個男子突然跳進室中來了。一個捉住了費魯喬，把手掩住他的口，別的一個卡住了老婦人的喉嚨。第一個說：
"Silence, unless you want to die!"
“一出聲，就沒有命哩！
The second:"Be quiet!" and raised aloft a knife.
“不許聲張！”另一個說了舉著短刀。
Both had dark cloths over their faces, with two holes for the eyes.
兩個都黑布罩著臉，只留出眼睛。
For a moment nothing was audible but the gasping breath of all four, the patter of the rain; the old woman emitted frequent rattles from her throat, and her eyes were starting from her head.
室中除了四人的粗急的呼吸聲和雨聲以外，一時什么聲音都沒有。老婦人喉頭格格作響，眼珠幾乎要爆裂出來。
The man who held the boy said in his ear, "Where does your father keep his money?"
那捉住著費魯喬的一個，把口附了費魯喬的耳說：“你老子把錢藏在哪里？”
The lad replied in a thread of a voice, with chattering teeth, "Yonder--in the cupboard."
費魯喬震抖著牙齒，用很細的聲音答說：“那里的——櫥中。”
