And now the iron hook fell at his feet, and the fireman stood upon the step with the rescued lad in his arms, just as the pentup flame burst lurid from the attic window, reaching with impotent fury for its prey. The next moment they were safe upon the great ladder waiting to receive them below.
這時候,鐵鉤落到了孩子的腳下,接著,消防隊員站在踏腳上,用雙手抱下了小男孩。就在這一剎那,一片火光,烈焰終于沖破濃煙,猛地從頂樓窗口噴了出來,想攫住它嘴邊的獵物,可是卻只能白白地冒火了。接著,消防隊員和小男孩安然踏上了在下面候著他們的大梯子。
Then such a shout went up! Men fell on each other's necks, and cried and laughed at once. Strangers slapped one another on the back with glistening faces, shook hands, and behaved generally like men gone suddenly mad. Women wept in the street. The driver of a car stalled in the crowd, who had stood through it all speechless, clutching the reins, whipped his horses into a gallop and drove away, yelling like a Comanche, to relieve his feelings. The boy and his rescuer were carried across the street without anyone knowing how. Policemen forgot their dignity and shouted with the rest. Fire, peril, terror, and loss were alike forgotten in the one touch of nature that makes the whole world kin.
一下于,爆發出一陣熱烈的歡呼聲。男人們互相摟著脖子,又是叫,又是笑。互不相識的人拍打著對方的背脊,相互握手,臉上喜氣洋洋,一個個象突然瘋了似的。女人們在街上哭泣。一個馬車夫連車帶入被阻塞在人群牛,他緊握韁繩,自始至終沒說過一句話,這時一聲響鞭,策馬驅車,飛馳而去,象科曼契人那樣叫喊著,以發泄他心中的情感。那個小男孩和他的救命恩人被人們高抬著穿過大街,誰也不知道怎么會這樣的。警察也忘了他們自己的身分,跟著別人高聲歡呼。這四海之內皆兄弟的本性使人們把大火、險情、恐懼和損失全都忘得一千二凈。
Fireman John Binns was made captain of his crew, and the Bennett medal was pinned on his coat on the next parade day.
救火員約翰.賓斯被任命為消防隊長。在下一次檢閱中,賓斯的外衣上給佩上了一枚貝內特獎章。