29 缺少空气(3)
After two hours of energetic work, Ned Land reentered, exhausted. He and his companions were replaced by newworkmen, including Conseil and me. The Nautilus's chief officer supervised us.
经过两小时的努力工作，尼德·兰疲倦不堪地回来。他的同伴们和他，由别的人员替代，康塞尔和我，我们这次也加入。诺第留斯号的船副来指导我们。
The water struck me as unusually cold, but I warmed up promptly while wielding my pick. My movements were quite free, although they were executed under a pressure of thirty atmospheres.
我觉得海水特别冷，但我挥动铁锨，不久就暖和了。我的动作虽然在三十度气压下一面进行，但是很轻松自在。
After two hours of work, reentering to snatch some food and rest, I found a noticeable difference between the clean elastic fluid supplied me by the Rouquayrol device and the Nautilus's atmosphere, which was already charged with carbon dioxide. The air hadn't been renewed in forty-eight hours, and its life-giving qualitieswere considerably weakened. Meanwhile, after twelve hours had gone by, we had removed from the outlined surface area a slice of ice only one meter thick, hence about 600 cubic meters. Assuming the same work would be accomplished every twelve hours, it would still take five nights and four days to see the undertaking through to completion.
当我工作了两小时，回来吃点东西，休息一会儿的时候，我觉得卢格罗尔气箱供一应我的纯洁空气，跟已经很多碳酸气的诺第留斯号船中的大气，很为不同。空气自四十一八小时来没有调换，它的刺一激兴奋力量已经很薄弱。可是，过了十二小时，我们在画出的冰面上，只挖去了厚一米的冰，就是约六百立方米的冰。假定每十二小时可以做同样工作，把这个工作好好的完成，还要五夜和四天的工夫。
"Five nights and four days!" I told my companions. "And we ha一ve oxygen in the air tanks for only two days.""Without taking into account," Ned answered, "that once we're out of this damned prison, we'll still be cooped up beneath the Ice Bank, without any possible contact with the open air!"
“五夜和四天的工夫！”我对我的同伴们说，“但在储藏库中我们只有够用两天的空气”“并且，”尼德·兰回答，“又没有算上我们脱离了这座魔鬼监牢后，我们可能还要被禁在冰山下，仍不能立即跟上面的大气相交通！”
An apt remark. For who could predict the minimum time we would need to free ourselves? Before the Nautilus could return to the surface of the wa一ves, couldn't we all die of asphyxiation? Were this ship and everyone onboard doomed to perish in this tomb of ice? It was a dreadful state of affairs. But we faced it head-on, each one of us determined to do his duty to the end.
这是正确的想法。那时谁能预料我们得救所需要的最小限度的时间是多少呢？在诺第留斯号可能回到水面之前，缺乏氧气不是就把我们窒息死了吗？难道这船是连同它载上的所有的人都注定死在这冰的坟墓中吗？看来情形十分可怕。但人人都正视它，人人都决心尽各人的责任，坚持到底。
During the night, in line with my forecasts, a new one-meter slice was removed from this immense socket. Butin the morning, wearing my diving suit, I was crossing through the liquid mass in a temperature of -6 degrees to -7 degrees centigrade, when I noted that little by little the side walls were closing in on each other.The liquid strata farthest from the trench, not warmed by the movements of workmen and tools, were showing atendency to solidify. In the face of this imminent new danger, what would happen to our chances for salvation, and how could we prevent this liquid medium from solidifying, then cracking the Nautilus's hull like glass?
照我的预见，在夜间，又有一片一米厚的冰从这巨大的圆圈中挖去。但是，到了早晨，当我穿上了潜水衣，在零下六、七度温度下，走过海水时，我看到旁边的冰墙渐渐地连接起来了。在水坑中远一点的水，因为人的劳力和工具的作用不能使它温一热，现出要冻结的情势。面前发生了这个新的危险，我们得救的机会将是怎样呢？这种海水中间的冻结作用，可能把诺第留斯号的船壳像玻璃一样压碎，怎样加以防止呢？