Where have you been? he demanded.
Making some coffee, said Arthur, still wearing his very placid face. He had long ago realized that the only way of being in Ford’s company successfully was to keep a large stock of very placid faces and wear them at all times.
You missed the best bit! raged Ford. You missed the bit where I jumped the guy! Now, he said, I shall have to jump him, all over him!
He hurled himself recklessly at a chair and broke it.
It was better, he said sullenly, last time, and waved vaguely in the direction of another broken chair which he had already got trussed up on the dining table.
I see, said Arthur, casting a placid eye over the trussed up wreckage, and, er, what are all the ice cubes for?
What? screamed Ford. What? You missed that bit too? That’s the suspended animation facility! I put the guy in the suspended animation facility. Well I had to didn’t I?
So it would seem, said Arthur, in his placid voice.
Don’t touch that!!! yelled Ford.
Arthur, who was about to replace the phone, which was for some mysterious reason lying on the table, off the hook, paused, placidly.
OK, said Ford, calming down, listen to it.
Arthur put the phone to his ear.
It’s the speaking clock, he said.
Beep, beep, beep, said Ford, is exactly what is being heard all over that guy’s ship, while he sleeps, in the ice, going slowly round a little-known moon of Sesefras Magna. The London Speaking Clock!
I see, said Arthur again, and decided that now was the time to ask the big one.
Why? he said, placidly.
With a bit of luck, said Ford, the phone bill will bankrupt the buggers.
He threw himself, sweating, on to the sofa.
Anyway, he said, dramatic arrival don’t you think?
vt. 取代,更换,将物品放回原处