经典科幻文学:《银河系漫游指南》第1章Part 6
Ford stared at Arthur, who began to think that perhaps he did want to go to the Horse and Groom after all.
"But what about my house ...?" he asked plaintively.
Ford looked across to Mr Prosser, and suddenly a wicked thought struck him.
"He wants to knock your house down?"
"Yes, he wants to build ..."
"And he can't because you're lying in front of the bulldozers?"
"Yes, and ..."
"I'm sure we can come to some arrangement," said Ford. "Excuse me!" he shouted.
Mr Prosser (who was arguing with a spokesman for the bulldozer drivers about whether or not Arthur Dent constituted a mental health hazard, and how much they should get paid if he did) looked around. He was surprised and slightly alarmed to find that Arthur had company.
"Yes? Hello?" he called. "Has Mr Dent come to his senses yet?"
"Can we for the moment," called Ford, "assume that he hasn't?"
"Well?" sighed Mr Prosser.
"And can we also assume," said Ford, "that he's going to be staying here all day?"
"So?"
"So all your men are going to be standing around all day doing nothing?"
"Could be, could be ..."
"Well, if you're resigned to doing that anyway, you don't actually need him to lie here all the time do you?"
"What?"
"You don't," said Ford patiently, "actually need him here."
Mr Prosser thought about this.
"Well no, not as such...", he said, "not exactly need ..." Prosser was worried. He thought that one of them wasn't making a lot of sense.
Ford said, "So if you would just like to take it as read that he's actually here, then he and I could slip off down to the pub for half an hour. How does that sound?"
福特盯着阿瑟，于是阿瑟开始认为也许自己真的想去“马和马夫”。
“不过我的房子怎么办？”他悲哀地问。
福特望向普洛塞先生，突然间，一个坏主意在他脑海中冒了出来。
“就是他要把你的房子推倒吗？”
“是的，他想修成……”
“你躺在他的推土机前面，所以他不能得逞？”
“是的，而且……”
“我保证我们能把这事儿解决好。”福特说。“不好意思！”他喊了一声。
普洛塞先生四下望了几眼（他正在和推土机司机们的一个代表争论阿瑟·邓特是否神经不太正常，他要真是那样的话，他们应该得到多少钱的补偿）。当他发现阿瑟居然还有同伴时，吃了一惊，还稍稍有点儿警惕。
“嗯？什么事？”他问，“邓特先生恢复他的理智了吗？”
“我们能否暂时——”福特说，“假设他还没有？”
“是吗？”普洛塞先生叹了口气。
“我们又能否假设——”福特说，“他会在这里躺上一整天？”
“又怎么样？”
“那么这就意味着你的人将要在这里白白等上一整天，什么事都干不成。”
“有可能，有可能……”
“好吧，如果你无论如何都只能听任这种情况发生的话，你实际上也就不需要他一直躺在这儿了。”
“什么？”
“你实际上不需要，”福特耐心地说，“他在这里。”
普洛塞先生开始思考这个问题。
“噢，不，不怎么……”他说，“确实不需要。”普洛塞很担心。他认为仅仅一个词还不足以表达自己的意思。
福特说：“好的，如果你认为他确实没有必要待在这里的话，我和他就可以溜到酒吧去待上半个小时了。你觉得怎么样？”
