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An ordinary engineer might have rested on his arm pad and left the throttle wide open;
普通工程師或許已經靠著臂墊上休憩，讓節流閥完全敞開；
but Potts leaned suddenly farther out, peering with wrinkled face up the track.
但波茨突然向外探去，滿臉皺紋的臉凝視鐵道。
Behind the headlight of the freight he saw the dark hulks of the box cars half shrouded in smoke from the engine stack.
在這列貨運列車前燈后面，他看到引擎發出的濃煙已經覆蓋了棚車的一半。
Behind them a long chain of tank cars, filled with gasoline, naphtha, and kerosene,
棚車后面是長長的油槽車，里面是汽油，輕油和煤油，
was dimly outlined in the moonlit distance. To the engineer they looked, as they moved, like a continuous black cylinder.
在月光下隱隱約約看到了它的輪廓，工程師看著不斷轉動的火車，認為它很像不斷轉動的黑色圓筒。
It's a long train, he muttered. Then, as his quick eye traveled again from the yellow headlight back to the green lantern on the faraway caboose,
他嘟囔道這列火車很長，當他敏捷的眼睛從黃色頭燈再次回到守車的綠色燈光時，
he saw with a sudden sinking of his heart that the train was much too long.
他突然心一沉，發現這列火車的確很長。
He knew that somewhere in the middle a coupling had broken,
他知道中間不知道什么地方，車鉤斷裂了，
and the front end of the train with the engine was roaring down the grade with the rear end pursuing it.
前端最尾部的火車引擎在斜坡上發出轟鳴聲，而后端尾部正在追趕。
Sooner or later, unless the freight crew manned the brakes, there must be a terrible collision.
除非貨運列車員人工操作剎車，早早晚晚將發生重大相撞事故。
In the face of sudden danger an engineer's first impulse is to stop his train. Potts sprang back to his place.
在危險來臨之際，工程師的第一個念頭就是停車，波茨跑回了他的位置。
He jammed the throttle forward and drew back the quivering reverse lever.
他將節流閥向前推，將顫抖的倒車桿向后推。
Then his hand closed on the brass handle that controlled the air brake.
之后，他的手即將觸摸到控制風閘的銅制桿。
There was a deafening hissing and crackling, and the needle on the air pressure indicator dropped from 70 to 65 to 60 pounds in two seconds.
之后發出了震耳欲聾的嘶嘶聲和噼啪聲，氣壓計上的指針在兩秒內從70降到65，降到60磅。
The wheels underneath whipped up a fountain of sparks, and the sleepers in their berths turned and grumbled at being disturbed.
下面的輪胎產生了大量火花，臥鋪乘客因被打擾而埋怨起來。
Most difficult to believe, all these events had taken place within the bounds of a long breath.
很難相信，所有這些事件是在一口長呼吸中發生的。
Now there were three biting shrieks of the whistle, Potts's cry of warning to the freight engineer that his train was broken.
火車發出了三聲刺耳的汽笛聲，波茨叫嚷著警告貨車工程師，他的火車損壞了。
Harrison, the fireman, who well knew the meaning of the signal, sprang to his window on the left.
消防員哈里森熟悉這個信號，他跳到了左邊的窗戶旁。
His hair blew loose in the back draft. The break is among the tanks, he shouted, as he saw the approaching freight.
在逆風中，他的頭發迎風飄揚，他叫嚷到剎車在油槽車，這時他看到了不斷接近的貨運車。
The cab was dark except for the shaded light at the indicator,
駕駛室很黑，除了指示器上的陰影，
but Harrison saw the engineer nod grimly, and again the three warning whistles cut the night air.
但哈里森看到工程師嚴肅地點著頭，之后火車在夜空上又發出了三聲警告笛聲。
He must do his best to warn the crew of the freight. But the tank train continued to advance.
他必須盡可能地來警告火車上的員工，但油槽車繼續向前。
Its engineer either failed to hear the signal or else its fearful meaning did not impress him.
車上的工程師或者是沒有聽到信號聲，或是信號發出的可怕內容沒有影響到他。
He would have known well enough, had he stopped to think, that a collision meant an explosion such as would put to shame a powder mill.
他應該早就清楚，如果他沒有想到撞擊產生的爆炸將讓炸藥廠相形見絀。
