“Well, the matter ended by a second meeting, at which Mahomet Singh, Abdullah Khan, and Dost Akbar were all present. We talked the matter over again, and at last we came to an arrangement. We were to provide both the officers with charts of the part of the Agra fort, and mark the place in the wall where the treasure was hid. Major Sholto was to go to India to test our story. If he found the box he was to leave it there, to send out a small yacht provisioned for a voyage, which was to lie off Rutland Island, and to which we were to make our way, and finally to return to his duties. Captain Morstan was then to apply for leave of absence, to meet us at Agra, and there we were to have a final division of the treasure, he taking the major’s share as well as his own. All this we sealed by the most solemn oaths that the mind could think or the lips utter. I sat up all night with paper and ink, and by the morning I had the two charts all ready, signed with the sign of four – that is, of Abdullah, Akbar, Mahomet, and myself.

「事は二回目の打ち合わせでまとまった / マホメット・シン / アブドーラ・カーン / ドスト・アクバル全員が出席した◆我々はこの件についてもう一度話し合い / 遂にある合意に達した◆我々は二人の軍人に用意する / アグラ砦の一部の地図を / そして財宝が隠してある壁の場所に印をつける◆ショルト少佐が我々の話が本当かどうかを確認しにインドに行く◆もし彼が箱を見つけたら彼はそれをそこに残し / 航海できる備えをした小さなヨットを手配する / それをラットランド島に係留しておく / そしてそれに乗って我々は航海をし / 最後に彼は仕事に戻る◆モースタン大尉はそれから休暇を取り / アグラで我々と会う / そしてそこで我々は最終的な財宝の分配をする / 彼は少佐の取り分を自分と一緒に受け取る◆これら全てを / 我々はもっとも厳粛な誓いで封じた / 考え付く限りの心や口に出せる限りの言葉で◆俺は徹夜をして書き物をし / 朝までに二つの地図をすべて用意した / 四人の印を署名として / / これは / アブドーラ / アクバル / マホメット / そして俺自身だ」

“Well, gentlemen, I weary you with my long story, and I know that my friend Mr. Jones is impatient to get me safely stowed in chokey. I’ll make it as short as I can. The villain Sholto went off to India, but he never came back again. Captain Morstan showed me his name among a list of passengers in one of the mail-boats very shortly afterwards. His uncle had died, leaving him a fortune, and he had left the Army; yet he could stoop to treat five men as he had treated us. Morstan went over to Agra shortly afterwards and found, as we expected, that the treasure was indeed gone. The scoundrel had stolen it all without carrying out one of the conditions on which we had sold him the secret. From that I lived only for vengeance. I thought of it by day and I nursed it by night. It became an overpowering, absorbing passion with me. I cared nothing for the law – nothing for the gallows. To escape, to track down Sholto, to have my hand upon his throat – that was my one thought. Even the Agra treasure had come to be a smaller thing in my mind than the slaying of Sholto.

「さて、みなさん方 / 俺の長い話でうんざりだろう / そして分かっている / ジョーンズの旦那は / 俺を安全な独房に入れたくてうずうずしている事を◆出来るだけ手短に話そう◆その悪党ショルトはインドに向かって出かけた / しかし彼は二度と戻ってこなかった◆モースタン大尉は俺に見せた / 彼の名前をある郵便船の乗客名簿の中に / その後すぐの◆彼の叔父が死に / 彼に財産を遺し / 彼は軍隊を退役していた / しかし彼は我々五人を囚人として扱えるほど汚いやつだった / かつて扱っていたように◆モースタンはすぐ後にアグラに行き、見つけた / 我々が予想していたように / 財宝は実際に持ち去られていた◆この悪党はそれを全部盗んでいた / 一つの条件を実行することなく / 我々が秘密を売った条件を◆その時から俺は復讐のためだけに生きていた◆俺はそれを昼に考え夜に暖めた◆それは圧倒的で / 俺を飲み込む情念になっていた◆俺は法律など気にしなかった / / 絞首台もどうということはなかった◆脱走する事 / ショルトを追いかけること / 奴の喉に俺の手をかけること / / それが俺のただ一つの考えだった◆アグラの財宝さえも俺の心では小さなことになっていた / ショルトを惨殺することに比べれば」

“Well, I have set my mind on many things in this life, and never one which I did not carry out. But it was weary years before my time came. I have told you that I had picked up something of medicine. One day when Dr. Somerton was down with a fever a little Andaman Islander was picked up by a convict-gang in the woods. He was sick to death and had gone to a lonely place to die. I took him in hand, though he was as venomous as a young snake, and after a couple of months I got him all right and able to walk. He took a kind of fancy to me then, and would hardly go back to his woods, but was always hanging about my hut. I learned a little of his lingo from him, and this made him all the fonder of me.

「俺はこの人生で沢山のことをしようと心に決めていた / しかしただの一つも実行できなかった◆しかし俺の好機が来るまではきつい年月だった◆俺が薬に関してちょっと知識をつけた話はしただろう◆ある日 / ソマートン先生が熱で倒れている時 / 小さなアンダマン島民が / 受刑者の集団に森の中から運ばれてきた◆彼は死病に犯され一人きりで死のうとしていた◆俺は彼の面倒を見た / 彼は若い蛇のように悪意に満ちていたが / そして何ヶ月か後 / 俺は彼を健康にし歩けるようにした◆彼はそれから俺のことがちょっと気に入り / そして森の中に帰ろうとせず / いつも俺の小屋のあたりをうろついていた◆俺は彼からちょっと言葉を習い / これで彼は俺のことが好きになった」

“Tonga – for that was his name – was a fine boatman and owned a big, roomy canoe of his own. When I found that he was devoted to me and would do anything to serve me, I saw my chance of escape. I talked it over with him. He was to bring his boat round on a certain night to an old wharf which was never guarded, and there he was to pick me up. I gave him directions to have several gourds of water and a lot of yams, cocoanuts, and sweet potatoes.

「トンガは / / それが彼の名前だった / / 素晴らしい船乗りで / 自分の大きく広いカヌーを持っていた◆彼が俺に尽くし俺のために何でもしてくれることに気づいた時 / 俺は脱走のチャンスを見た◆俺はそれを彼とよく話し合った◆彼は船をある夜持ってくる / 警備がいない古い桟橋に / そこで彼が俺を拾い上げる◆俺は彼に指示を与えた / 何個かのヒョウタンに水を入れること / 沢山のヤム芋、ココナツ、サツマイモを持ってくること」

“He was staunch and true, was little Tonga. No man ever had a more faithful mate. At the night named he had his boat at the wharf. As it chanced, however, there was one of the convict-guard down there – a vile Pathan who had never missed a chance of insulting and injuring me. I had always vowed vengeance, and now I had my chance. It was as if fate had placed him in my way that I might pay my debt before I left the island. He stood on the bank with his back to me, and his carbine on his shoulder. I looked about for a stone to beat out his brains with, but none could I see.

「彼は頑強で忠実だった / この小さなトンガは◆こんなに忠実な友人を持った男はおらんだろう◆指示した夜に / 彼はその桟橋にボートを持ってきた◆しかしたまたま / そこに一人の囚人警護がいた / / パサン族の嫌な男だ / こいつは俺を侮辱したり痛めつけたりする機会があれば絶対逃がさなかった◆俺はいつも復讐を誓っていた / そして今俺にチャンスが来た◆それはあたかも運命が俺の前に彼を置いたようだった / この島を抜ける前に借りを返せるように◆彼は土手に俺に背を向けて立っていた / カービン銃は肩にかけていた◆俺は奴の頭を殴る石がないか周りを見回した / しかし一つも見つけられなかった」

“Then a queer thought came into my head and showed me where I could lay my hand on a weapon. I sat down in the darkness and unstrapped my wooden leg. With three long hops I was on him. He put his carbine to his shoulder, but I struck him full, and knocked the whole front of his skull in. You can see the split in the wood now where I hit him. We both went down together, for I could not keep my balance; but when I got up I found him still lying quiet enough. I made for the boat, and in an hour we were well out at sea. Tonga had brought all his earthly possessions with him, his arms and his gods. Among other things, he had a long bamboo spear, and some Andaman cocoanut matting, with which I made a sort of a sail. For ten days we were beating about, trusting to luck, and on the eleventh we were picked up by a trader which was going from Singapore to Jiddah with a cargo of Malay pilgrims. They were a rum crowd, and Tonga and I soon managed to settle down among them. They had one very good quality: they let you alone and asked no questions.

「その時奇妙な考えを思いつき / どこで俺が武器を手に出来るかを示した◆俺は暗闇の中でしゃがみ、木の義足を外した◆3歩長い跳躍をすると彼のところに届いた◆彼はカービン銃を肩に当てた / しかし俺は力いっぱい殴った / そして奴の頭蓋骨の前全体をへし折って陥没させた◆今、木のひび割れを見ることが出来るだろう / 俺があいつを殴ったところに◆俺たちは一緒に落ちていった / 俺はバランスを保てなかったので / しかし俺が立ち上がった時、彼が完全に倒れたままなのを見つけた◆俺は船に向かい / そして1時間後俺たちは海の遠くまで来ていた◆トンガは手持ちの財産を全部持ってきていた / 武器も神像も◆これらの中に / 彼は長い竹槍 / そしてアンダマンヤシのムシロがあった / それを使って俺は帆のようなものを作った◆10日間の間 / あちこちに進路を変えた / 運を天に任せて / そして11日目 / 俺たちは拾い上げられた / シンガポールからジッダに向かう貿易船に / マレー人の巡礼者を乗せた◆彼らは奇妙な集団だった / トンガと俺はすぐに彼らの中に溶け込んだ◆彼らは一つの非常にいい性質があった / 人を放っておき、質問をしないことだ」