“Willie,” he said to me, at last. “Every warden in this country will think I’m crazy. In any other prison in the country the warden would make you serve out your time in isolation, we both know that. But do you know what I’m going to do with you?” His voice became a hush, as if he were overawed by what he was saying. “I’m going to give you a job.”
“威利，”他终于对我开口了。“这个国家的每一个典狱长都会认为我疯了。我们都知道，在这个国家的任何其他监狱里，监狱长都会让你在隔离状态下服刑。但是你知道我要拿你怎么办吗?他的声音变得很安静，好像被他说的话吓到了一样。“我会给你一份工作。”
“But you’re going to watch me,” I said. “All the time.”
“但你要监视我，”我说。“一直都监视着”。
Well, of course, he was going to watch me. What did I think he was crazy or something? “If you ever escaped from here I’d lose my job and the warden would lose his job. Every minute you’re in this place we’re going to watch you.”
当然，他一定会监视我的。我认为他是疯了，还是怎么了?“你要是从这儿逃出来，我就丢了工作，典狱长也丢了工作。”你在这里的每一分钟，我们都要看着你。”
“Dep,” I sighed, “let me tell you about my experience with the warden at Eastern State Pen. A very tough warden, but a very fair warden.” I told him the whole story about how Hard-Boiled Smith had pulled out the desk drawer to show me all the notes from the rats and stool pigeons, and how he had then assured me that he wasn’t going to put me in isolation until he could actually prove something. “Deputy Wilkins,” I said, “the only defense I have in any prison is in the intelligence of the top personnel. If you don’t feel the same as Warden Smith, then I’d rather stay in isolation. I will save myself a lot of trouble and I will save you a lot of trouble.”
“副警长，”我叹了口气，“让我说说，在东部州立监狱的经历吧。一个非常严厉的典狱长，但也是一个非常公正的典狱长。”我告诉他整个故事，史密斯如何拿出抽屉里，显示我所有的音符从老鼠和凳子鸽子，然后他向我保证，不会把我隔离，直到他可以实际证明一些东西。“威尔金斯副警长，”我说，“在任何监狱里，我唯一的防御手段就是听取高层人员的情报。如果你和史密斯典狱长感觉不一样，那我宁愿与世隔绝。我给自己省了很多麻烦，也给你省了很多麻烦。”
He absolutely promised me. “I know there are those who think of me as a hard man,” he said, tucking his chin down into his Adam’s apple. “But you’ll also find me a fair one. I can tell you that I never make a promise that I don’t intend to keep.”
他绝对答应过我。“我知道，有些人认为我是个冷酷的人，”他说，把下巴埋进喉结里。“但是你也会发现，我是一个相当公平的人。”可以告诉你，我永远不会给出那些我不会遵守的诺言。
I said, “Thank you very much.”
“非常感谢”，我说。
I was assigned to the laundry and relocated on A block, 6 company, cell 1.The end cell on the ground floor of the three-tiered cellblock.
我被分配到洗衣房，搬到1号房6个人的合住房。位于三层单元的底层的终端单元。
An officer stood outside a heavily barred door from where he could operate a lock box and open the cell doors. All of the doors together or any individual door separately. In front of the cell was a large window that covered almost the entire wall from top to bottom in such a way that a guard could stand outside the door and see the entire cell reflected there. A special security detail had been set up so that there would always be a guard available to escort me wherever I had to go. As a final precaution, my cell was examined every day by a succession of guards who were required to submit a written statement to the effect that nothing in the way of contraband had been found.
一名警官站在一扇被重重锁住的门外，在那里他可以操作一个锁盒并打开牢房的门。所有的门一起或任何单独的门分开。牢房前面有一扇大窗户，从上到下几乎覆盖了整面墙，门卫可以站在门外，看到整个牢房的倒影。已经设立了一个特别警卫小组，以便随时有一个警卫护送到必须去的任何地方。作为最后的预防措施，我的牢房每天都要接受一系列警卫的检查，他们被要求提交一份书面声明，大意是没有发现任何违禁品。
The laundry was a maximum-security shop manned almost entirely by long-term prisoners. One of my duties was to touch up the warden’s shirts with a hand iron after they had been pressed by machine. The pay was five cents a day before we got a hundred-percent raise to a whole dime.
洗衣店是一家戒备森严的商店，里面几乎全是长期关押的囚犯。我的职责之一是用熨斗烫好典狱长的衬衫。工资一天涨了五分钱，我们才得到百分之百的加薪，涨到一毛钱。
The inmate who operated the pressing machine was Jimmy Callahan, an ex-air force colonel who was serving a life sentence for killing a state trooper. Colonel Callahan had been sent home from overseas on special leave to see his dying wife, and after he buried her he bought some civilian clothes, packed a duffel bag, and went out into the woods in the dead of winter to become a hermit. It was an area of hunting lodges, and when the owners began to come up over the weekends to find their food missing they notified a pair of state troopers. Caught red-handed inside one of the lodges, Callahan fired through the window and killed one of them. The largest manhunt in the history of the state of New York was mounted, with thousands of hunters and scores of bloodhounds joining the troopers. Every road was blocked. But Jimmy Callahan had been trained by the air force in the techniques of survival. By doubling around so that he was always in back of the nearest bloodhounds, sometimes only a few feet in back of them, he broke out of the trap and headed west. He was all the way to Nevada before he stopped running. Having pulled off such a miraculous escape, and removed himself three thousand miles, he had also done something very dumb. He had brought along a newspaper clipping about the search and it was spotted by the manager of a rooming house within hours after he checked in.
操作这台压力机的囚犯是前空军上校吉米卡拉汉(Jimmy Callahan)，他因杀害一名州警而被判终身监禁，目前正在服刑。卡拉汉上校从海外特别请假回家看望他垂死的妻子，在埋葬了她之后，他买了一些便服，装了一个行李袋，在隆冬时节到树林里去隐居。这是一个狩猎小屋的区域，当店主周末来找他们时，发现他们的食物不见了，他们通知了两名州警。卡拉汉在其中一间小屋被当场抓获，他从窗户开枪打死了其中一人。纽约州历史上最大规模的搜捕行动已经展开，数千名猎人和数十只警犬加入了骑警的行列。每条路都被堵住了。但是吉米·卡拉汉已经接受了空军的生存技能训练。他绕了一圈，总是躲在最近的猎犬后面，有时离它们只有几英尺远。他挣脱了陷阱，向西走去。他一路跑到内华达州才停止跑步。他奇迹般地逃脱了，跑了三千英里，还做了一件十分愚蠢的事。他带来了一份关于这次搜寻的剪报，在他入住后的几个小时内，一间公寓的经理就发现了这张剪报。
I got along with Jimmy Callahan so well that the next thing I knew he was transferred to another job. Same thing in yardout. Anytime I became friendly enough with anybody to talk to them for a second time, they were transferred right out of A block. So I stayed in my cell during yardout and read. After about a week, Wilkins came up to my cell. The Shadow Knows. And The Shadow wanted me to know that I wasn’t fooling him any. I was staying in the cell as part of some devilish plan I had concocted for escaping.
我和吉米·卡拉汉相处得很好，后来我知道他被调到另一份工作了。码外也是一样。每当我和任何人变得足够友好，可以和他们第二次交谈时，他们就会被从一个街区调来。所以我在码外的时候呆在牢房里看书。大约一周后，威尔金斯来到我的牢房。影子知道。影子想让我知道我并没有骗他。我呆在牢房里是我为逃跑而策划的邪恶计划的一部分。
“I’m staying in the cell,” I told him, “because you’ve made my position here untenable. It’s got so I feel I’m jeopardizing everybody I talk to.”
“我呆在牢房里，”我对他说，“因为你让我在这里的地位站不住脚。”所以我觉得我在危害和我谈话的每一个人。”
The dep promised that it wouldn’t happen any more, and I was able to go out and get some air.
副部长保证这种事不会再发生了，我就可以出去透透气了。
A short time afterward, however, I was taken out of the laundry along with about a dozen other inmates and taken back to my cell to await a hearing in the warden’s court. Over the next two days, all the others went before the court and every one of them went right back to work. Finally, Wilkins sent for me. “Willie,” he said, “I’m very sorry, but I’m going to have to put you in isolation. Now, don’t jump to conclusions. It’s not my fault and it’s not the warden’s fault. The order comes from Albany. That’s all I can tell you because that’s all I know.”
然而，没过多久，我和其他十几名囚犯被带出了洗衣房，带回牢房，等待监狱长法庭的听证会。在接下来的两天里，所有的人都去了法庭，每个人都回去工作。最后，威尔金斯派人来找我。“威利，”他说，“我很抱歉，但我得把你隔离起来。”现在，不要妄下结论。这不是我的错，也不是典狱长的错。该订单来自奥尔巴尼。我只能告诉你这些，因为我只知道这些。
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