Thurston was in the habit of visiting his girl-friend's apartment from time to time,

沙斯敦经常去他女友的公寓住处，

but always managed to get home at a decent hour with a plausible¹ excuse.

但他总是设法找个理由以免太晚回家。

But this time, both he and his girlfriend had fallen asleep,

但这一次，他和女朋友都睡着了，

and it was 2:00 a. m before Thurston came to.

当他醒来时都已经凌晨两点了，

Thinking fast, he immediately called home,

沙斯敦脑筋一转，立刻打电话回家，

and when his wife answered, panted, "Don't pay the ransom²! I've escaped!"

当他太太接电话时，他故意喘着气说：“千万不要付赎金！我已经安全逃出来了！”