5. 職員的變形

thE cLERK’S tRANSFoRmAtIoN

我們當然沒有忘記那個守夜人。過了一會兒，他想起了自己找到並送到醫院的那雙套鞋，於是他去把它們取了回來。

the watchman, whom we of course have not forgotten, thought, after a while, of the goloshes which he had found and taken to the hospital; so he went and fetched them.

但是中尉和街上的任何人都認不出這是他們的套鞋，所以他把它們交給了警察。

but neither the lieutenant nor any one in the street could recognize them as their own, so he gave them up to the police.

“它們看起來和我的套鞋一模一樣。”一個職員說道，他檢查著放在自己那雙套鞋旁邊的這雙不知名的鞋子。“即使是鞋匠的眼睛也很難分辨出這兩雙鞋。”

“they look exactly like my own goloshes,” said one of the clerks, examining the unknown articles, as they stood by the side of his own. “It would require even more than the eye of a shoemaker to know one pair from the other.”

“職員先生。”一個拿著一些檔案走進來的僕人說道。

“master clerk,” said a servant who entered with some papers.

職員轉過身跟那個人說話；但跟那人說完後，他又轉回去看那雙套鞋，現在他比以往任何時候都更疑惑右邊的那雙還是左邊的那雙是他的。

the clerk turned and spoke to the man; but when he had done with him, he turned to look at the goloshes again, and now he was in greater doubt than ever as to whether the pair on the right or on the left belonged to him.

“那雙溼的一定是我的。” 他想；但他想錯了，恰恰相反。

“those that are wet must be mine,” thought he; but he thought wrong, it was just the reverse.

幸運女神的套鞋是那雙溼的；而且，再說，警察局的一個職員為什麼就不能有時犯錯呢？

the goloshes of Fortune were the wet pair; and, besides, why should not a clerk in a police office be wrong sometimes?

於是他穿上那雙套鞋，把檔案塞進口袋，腋下夾著幾份手