The moon was low in the west, and there was a pale glimmer of the coming dawn in the sky, when Gilbert Potter suddenly raised his head.
月已西斜，空中闪烁着清晨的微光，吉尔伯特.波特突然抬起头。
Above the noise of the water and the whistle of the wind, he heard a familiar sound,—the shrill, sharp neigh of a horse.
在风的呼啸和水声中，他听到了一个熟悉的声音——马的嘶鸣。
Lifting himself with great exertion, to a sitting posture, he saw two men, on horseback, in the flooded meadow, a little below him.
费力地撑身坐起，他看到在已被洪水淹没的低洼地里有两个人骑在马上。
They stopped, seemed to consult, and presently drew nearer.
他们停了下来，商量着什么，很快向他靠拢。
Gilbert tried to shout, but the muscles of his throat were stiff, and his lungs refused to act.
吉尔伯特想要喊叫，可是喉部肌肉僵硬，发不出声。
The horse neighed again. This time there was no mistake; it was Roger that he heard!
马又发出了一声嘶鸣。没错，是罗杰！
Voice came to him, and he cried aloud,—a hoarse, strange, unnatural cry.
他终于可以发出声音了，他大声喊叫——声音嘶哑、奇怪，极其不自然。
The horsemen heard it, and rapidly pushed up the bank, until they reached a point directly opposite to him.
骑马的人听到声音，迅速上了河岸，来到和他正相对的一个地方。
The prospect of escape brought a thrill of life to his frame; he looked around and saw that the flood had indeed fallen.
获救的前景使他兴奋起来；看看四周，洪水确实已经退了。
"We have no rope," he heard one of the men say. "How shall we reach him?”
“我们没有绳子，”他听到其中一个人说，“我们怎么才能够到他呢？”
"There is no time to get one now," the other answered.
“没有时间取绳子了，”另一个人回答，
My horse is stronger than yours.
我的马比你的健壮。
I'll go into the creek just below, where it's broader and not so deep, and work my way up to him.
我去稍微靠下的河里，那里宽一些，水也不太深，我争取靠近他。
But one horse can't carry both.
可是一匹马驮不了两个人。
His will follow, be sure, when it sees me.
他的马会跟来，我敢肯定，它看到我时就会跟来的。
As the last speaker moved away, Gilbert saw a led horse plunging through the water beside the other.
后一个说话的人走过去，吉尔伯特看到一匹灰马趟着水，走在另一匹马旁边。
It was a difficult and dangerous undertaking.
非常艰难而且危险。
The horseman and the loose horse entered the main stream below, where its divided channel met and broadened, but it was still above the saddle girths, and very swift.
骑手和马进入了下方河流的主干，这里两股水渠相交，河流变宽，可是水仍高过马的腹带，而且水流很急。
