“勒索是个难听的词，”马龙气愤地说，“而且，我挣的每一分钱都是应得的。”

“Blackmail is a nasty word,” Malone said indignantly. “Besides, I earned every nickel of it.”

“她们也会同意你的，”海伦说。

“They’ll agree with you, too,” Helene said.”

马龙的眼睛里又露出梦幻般的神情。“如果有人是正当的，那她就是，”他开始说，“莫娜·麦克莱恩杀了他的时候，不仅是在自卫免受子弹伤害，而且是在抵御无法忍受的状况……”他停顿了一下，发现他的听众又不理他了。

The dreamy look came into Malone’s eyes again. “She was justified, if anyone ever was,” he began. “Mona McClane was not only defending herself against bullets when she killed him, but against the intolerable condition of—” He paused and saw that his audience had tuned him out again.

他又叹了口气。他能准确地预见到这个晚上将会如何结束。杰克和海伦会回家，留下他一个人。他会被酒吧里的一些人拉进谈话中。人们会开始互相买酒喝。他会从天使乔那里借二十美元。他会协助临时组成一个四重唱来演唱《有一点天堂》，之后没人能阻止他背诵《罗伯特·埃米特挽歌》。他和他新结识的朋友们（之后他一个也记不起来）会去很多其他酒吧，最后在某个偏僻的地方结束，很可能是在西塞罗。会有一场争斗，他的衬衫领子会被一个来自圣路易斯的完全陌生的人扯掉，最后他要么因行为不检而被关进监狱，要么在某个女人的公寓里醒来，而这个公寓结果会是离卢普区有四十五分钟火车车程的地方。

He sighed once more. He could foresee exactly how the evening was going to end. Jake and Helene would go home, leaving him alone. He was going to be drawn into conversation with some of the men at the bar. People would start buying drinks for each other. He would borrow twenty bucks from Joe the Angel. He would assist in an impromptu quartette arrangement of There’s a Little Bit of Heaven, after which no one could stop him from reciting the “Elegy of Robert Emmet.” He and his newfound friends, none of whom he would remember later, would move to a number of other bars, ending up in some obscure place, probably in Cicero. There would be a fight, and he would get the collar torn off his shirt by some perfect stranger from St. Louis, and he would end up either jailed for disorderly conduct or waking up in some woman’s apartment that would turn out to be a forty-five-minute train ride from the Loop.

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他知道这个晚上会以那样的方式结束，因为每次都是那样。

He knew the night was going to end that way because that was the way it always did.

在所有这些开始发生之前，还有一件事要做。

Before all that started happening, there was one thing still to be done.

他把手伸进口袋，拿出莫娜·麦克莱恩在他们离开房子前刚刚交给他的那个长长的白色信封，递给了杰克。

He reached in his pocket and drew out the long white envelope Mona McClane had given him just before they left the house and gave it to Jake.

杰克把手从海伦温暖的肩膀上移开足够长的时间来打开它。

Jake took his hand off Helene’s warm shoulder just long enough to open it.

那是赌场的契约。

It was the deed to the Casino.

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