經典科幻文學:《銀河系漫遊指南》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，於是阿瑟開始認爲也許自己真的想去“馬和馬伕”。
“不過我的房子怎麼辦？”他悲哀地問。
福特望向普洛塞先生，突然間，一個壞主意在他腦海中冒了出來。
“就是他要把你的房子推倒嗎？”
“是的，他想修成……”
“你躺在他的推土機前面，所以他不能得逞？”
“是的，而且……”
“我保證我們能把這事兒解決好。”福特說。“不好意思！”他喊了一聲。
普洛塞先生四下望了幾眼（他正在和推土機司機們的一個代表爭論阿瑟·鄧特是否神經不太正常，他要真是那樣的話，他們應該得到多少錢的補償）。當他發現阿瑟居然還有同伴時，吃了一驚，還稍稍有點兒警惕。
“嗯？什麼事？”他問，“鄧特先生恢復他的理智了嗎？”
“我們能否暫時——”福特說，“假設他還沒有？”
“是嗎？”普洛塞先生嘆了口氣。
“我們又能否假設——”福特說，“他會在這裏躺上一整天？”
“又怎麼樣？”
“那麼這就意味着你的人將要在這裏白白等上一整天，什麼事都幹不成。”
“有可能，有可能……”
“好吧，如果你無論如何都只能聽任這種情況發生的話，你實際上也就不需要他一直躺在這兒了。”
“什麼？”
“你實際上不需要，”福特耐心地說，“他在這裏。”
普洛塞先生開始思考這個問題。
“噢，不，不怎麼……”他說，“確實不需要。”普洛塞很擔心。他認爲僅僅一個詞還不足以表達自己的意思。
福特說：“好的，如果你認爲他確實沒有必要待在這裏的話，我和他就可以溜到酒吧去待上半個小時了。你覺得怎麼樣？”
