我从一个谁也无权要求告诉它这个故事 我，或任何其他。我可能影响信用的诱惑 一个老年份后开始为它的叙述者， 和我自己的怀疑怀疑在接下来的日子里 为平衡的离奇故事。 当我欢乐的主人发现，他曾告诉我，让 那么多，我是容易可疑性，他的愚蠢的骄傲 承担了旧的老式已经开始工作，因此他 出土的霉味手稿形式的书面证据， 与英国殖民部干燥正式记录支持 许多他的非凡叙事的突出特点。 我不是说这个故事是真实的，因为我没有看到 发生的事情，它描绘，但事实上，在告诉 它给你，我已采取使用假名的主要 字符相当充分的证据我自己的诚意 认为它可能是真的。 === I had this story from one who had no business to tell it to me, or to any other. I may credit the seductive influence of an old vintage upon the narrator for the beginning of it, and my own skeptical incredulity during the days that followed for the balance of the strange tale. When my convivial host discovered that he had told me so much, and that I was prone to doubtfulness, his foolish pride assumed the task the old vintage had commenced, and so he unearthed written evidence in the form of musty manuscript, and dry official records of the British Colonial Office to support many of the salient features of his remarkable narrative. I do not say the story is true, for I did not witness the happenings which it portrays, but the fact that in the telling of it to you I have taken fictitious names for the principal characters quite sufficiently evidences the sincerity of my own belief that it MAY be true.

我不得不承认，尽管我已经走过很长的距离，位置在父亲的手鲍文泰勒的手稿，我还是小事，以怀疑的诚意，因为我无法记得，但没有多年因为鲍文曾经是他的母校最臭名昭著的实际双王之一。事实是，由于我坐在圣莫尼卡我开始感到一种愚蠢的小事，并希望我只是转发，而不是亲自表示轴承的手稿泰勒库，我得承认，我不喜欢被嘲笑。我有一个幽默发达的意义 - 当笑话不是我。 泰勒先生，老，预计几乎每小时。最后轮船从檀香山带来了对他的游艇斗牛士，而现在24小时逾期预计航行的最新资料。泰勒先生的助理国务卿，谁被留在家中，向我保证，毫无疑问，但在航行的斗牛士按照承诺，因为他知道他的雇主足够好，没有什么是积极的天灾短会阻止他做他曾计划做。我也知道，该斗牛士的无线设备发送装置，密封的事实，那它只能在极为必要时使用。有，因此，没有任何事情可做，只有等待，我们等待着。 === I am forced to admit that even though I had traveled a long distance to place Bowen Tyler's manuscript in the hands of his father, I was still a trifle skeptical as to its sincerity, since I could not but recall that it had not been many years since Bowen had been one of the most notorious practical jokers of his alma mater. The truth was that as I sat in the Tyler library at Santa Monica I commenced to feel a trifle foolish and to wish that I had merely forwarded the manuscript by express instead of bearing it personally, for I confess that I do not enjoy being laughed at. I have a well-developed sense of humor--when the joke is not on me. Mr. Tyler, Sr., was expected almost hourly. The last steamer in from Honolulu had brought information of the date of the expected sailing of his yacht Toreador, which was now twenty-four hours overdue. Mr. Tyler's assistant secretary, who had been left at home, assured me that there was no doubt but that the Toreador had sailed as promised, since he knew his employer well enough to be positive that nothing short of an act of God would prevent his doing what he had planned to do. I was also aware of the fact that the sending apparatus of the Toreador's wireless equipment was sealed, and that it would only be used in event of dire necessity. There was, therefore, nothing to do but wait, and we waited.