I give you my word, professor, Ned Land replied in an unenthusiastic tone.

尼德兰带着不大能使人安心得语气回答,

No vehement phrases will leave my mouth, no vicious gestures will give my feelings away, not even when they don't feed us on time.

我不说一句粗话，也不露一个结果对我不利的粗暴动作，就是桌上的菜饭不按照心中想望的时间端出来，我也同样不动火。

I have your word, Ned, I answered the Canadian.

尼德·兰，这么说，那就一言为定了。我这样回答了加拿大人。

Then our conversation petered out, and each of us withdrew into his own thoughts.

随后，我们的谈话停止了，我们各自思考。

For my part, despite the harpooner's confident talk, I admit that I entertained no illusions.

至于我个人，我承认，不管鱼叉手怎样有信心，我对他的办法丝毫没有什么幻想。

I had no faith in those promising opportunities that Ned Land mentioned.

我不承认会有像尼德·兰所说的那些机会。

To operate with such efficiency, this underwater boat had to have a sizeable crew, so if it came to a physical contest, we would be facing an overwhelming opponent.

这艘潜水艇既然能开得这样稳稳当当的，上面一定有不少人，因此，万一斗起来，我们碰到的对手是强大的。

Besides, before we could do anything, we had to be free, and that we definitely were not.

再说，最要紧的是能够自由，可是我们现在根本就没有自由。

I didn't see any way out of this sheet-iron, hermetically sealed cell.

我简直想不出有什么方法可以从这关闭得密密实实的铁板房里逃出去。

And if the strange commander of this boat did have a secret to keep-which seemed rather likely-he would never give us freedom of movement aboard his vessel.

其次，这位古怪的船长只要有点保守秘密的意：思—至少看来是这样—他决不让我们随便在船上自由行动。

Now then, would he resort to violence in order to be rid of us, or would he drop us off one day on some remote coast?

现在，他会不会用暴力把我们于掉，或者有一天把我们抛弃在某一个角落里?

There lay the unknown. All these hypotheses seemed extremely plausible to me, and to hope for freedom through use of force, you had to be a harpooner.

这都是不可知的事。不过这些假设在我看来都十分可能，都可以讲得通，只有那脑筋简单盼鱼叉手才指望能够重新取得自己的自由。