Chapter 33 The sun was shining calmly on a scene of complete havoc. Smoke was still billowing across the burnt grass in the wake of the theft of the Ashes by the Krikkit robots. Through the smoke, people were running panicstricken, colliding with each other, tripping over stretchers, being arrested. One policeman was attempting to arrest Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged for insulting behaviour, but was unable to prevent the tall grey-green alien from returning to his ship and arrogantly flying away, thus causing even more panic and pandemonium. In the middle of this, for the second time that afternoon, the figures of Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect suddenly materialized, they had teleported down out of the Heart of Gold which was now in parking orbit round the planet. I can explain, shouted Arthur. I have the Ashes! They’re in this bag. I don’t think you have their attention, said Ford. I have also helped save the Universe, called Arthur to anyone who was prepared to listen, in other words no one. That should have been a crowd-stopper, said Arthur to Ford. It wasn’t, said Ford. Arthur accosted a policeman who was running past. Excuse me, he said. The Ashes. I’ve got them. They were stolen by those white robots a moment ago. I’ve got them in this bag. They were part of the Key to the Slo-Time envelope, you see, and, well, anyway you can guess the rest, the point is I’ve got them and what should I do with them? The policeman told him, but Arthur could only assume that he was speaking metaphorically. He wandered about disconsolately. Is no one interested? he shouted out. A man rushed past him and jogged his elbow, he dropped the paper bag and it spilt its contents all over the ground. Arthur stared down at it with a tight-set mouth. Ford looked at him. Wanna go now? he said. Arthur heaved a heavy sigh. He looked around at the planet Earth, for what he was now certain would be the last time. OK, he said. At that moment, through the clearing smoke, he caught sight of one of the wickets, still standing in spite of everything. Hold on a moment, he said to Ford. When I was a boy… Can you tell me later? I had a passion for cricket, you know, but I wasn’t very good at it. Or not at all, if you prefer. 33 陽光靜靜地投在一片混亂的草坪上。 版求機器人搶走灰燼杯時起火的草坪，此時仍冒着滾滾濃煙。濃煙之中，人們驚慌失措地跑着、撞着、被擔架絆着、被警察抓着。 有位警察試圖逮捕無極長命哇布格，罪名是侮辱他人。但那個瘦高的灰綠色外星人毫不理會地走回飛船，傲慢地飛走了，警察也無能爲力。現場亂成了一鍋粥。 而此時，在球場正中間，阿瑟·鄧特和福特·長官又憑空冒了出來——這是今天下午的第二次了。他們是從黃金之星上穿越時空過來的。飛船就停在地球外面的軌道上。 “我要解釋一下！”阿瑟叫道，“灰燼杯在我這兒！在我包裏！” “我不認爲有人注意到你。”福特說。 “我還幫着拯救了宇宙！”阿瑟大聲喊着，希望有人聽到，但顯然沒有。 “真該有個指揮員！”阿瑟對福特說。 “可惜沒有。”福特說。 阿瑟攔住一個跑過的警察。 “抱歉，”他說，“灰燼杯。在我這兒。剛纔被那些白色機器人偷走的。我把它拿回來了。它是緩時封皮鑰匙的一部分。你懂吧？嗯，剩下的你可以自己想象。總之我把它拿來了，我該怎麼辦？” 警察回答了他的話，可是那回答太奇怪，阿瑟只好猜想他是不是在打比方。 他走過來又走過去，失望至極。 “就沒人在乎嗎？”他大聲喊道。 一個人從他身邊跑過，撞到了他的胳膊肘，他手一鬆，紙袋掉到地下，裏面的東西灑了一地。阿瑟看着地上目瞪口呆。 福特看着他。 “可以走了？”他問。 阿瑟重重地嘆了口氣。他看了看地球，現在他確定這是最後一次見面了。 “OK。”他說。 就在此時，透過逐漸飄散的煙霧，他瞥見一個完好的三柱門，兀自矗立在前方。 “等一下，”他對福特說，“在我小的時候……” “一會兒再說行嗎？” “……我極其迷戀板球，知道嗎，不過不太擅長。” “或者說一點也不擅長，如果你樂意的話。”
