翻訳お願いします
Kate hurriedly put on her old coat and took a lantern. She rushed out. Her mother watched , wondering if she would ever see Kate again. She thought of the trestle , high above the Des Moines River. The danger of crossing it was great even in the daytime when the weather was clear. Now , at night , in a storm , it would be frightening. Kate might easily fall through into the raging river below.
To Kate , the farmhouse yard looked like a big bowl of water. The water was lapping over the track which went by the house. Kate had to climb the hill behind the house to a place where the tracks cut through. The tracks were not flooded there , and she ran along them to Honey Creek Bridge.
Part of the bridge was still up. The rest of it hung down in the water. Kate could see the shine of the engine down there in the flooding river. She heard cries. Then she saw two of the four men from the helper engine. They were hanging desperately onto a piece of wood. It seemed that the other two men were lost.
Cupping her hands around her mouth , she tried to shout above the sound of the flood and storm. “I'm going for help ,” she cried. “I have to flag down the express!”
She watched them call back to her. Then she knew that they couldn't have heard her voice , for she couldn't hear theirs.
With Honey Creek Bridge down , the only way to town was over the railroad trestle crossing the Des Moines River. She began to run along the creek toward it.
When she saw the railroad trestle , she knew something of what she was in for. Wet and shining black above her , the trestle was shaking hard from the raging water. The river was now almost flooding its banks. The water was swirling close to the tracks on the trestle.
The rain came down harder. Kate stopped to think. Was there any other way into town? No. Would anyone else know about Honey Creek Bridge collapsing? No , not anyone on the town side , where the express would come from. There was no one else.
Only Kate. And if she didn't get there in time , a whole express train of people would plunge over the edge into Honey Creek. Hundreds of innocent people would be drowned.
She had to do it.
お礼
80_SUPRA さん 解説ありがとうございます。