信号者 (1866)

《号志员》（The Signal-Man）是查尔斯·狄更斯所写的一个短篇鬼故事，收录于杂志《一年四季》（All the Year Round）1866年圣诞版。这是一个关于维克多利亚时代的典型歌德小说，是他晚年杰出的作品之一。

故事简介

主要讲述一个孤独的信号者被鬼或他心中的幻影缠绕，他经常梦见那鬼影向他预言一些可怕的悲剧——一个接一个的发生在他所工作的铁路上，但他却没有任何办法阻止它们，他感到十分痛苦。鬼影最后一次给他的预告是，他将死在铁路上！在结尾他似乎完全绝望，放弃了求生，接受了这个可悲的宿命。

情节非常简单，但狄更斯的气氛营造非常出色，人物也非常鲜明，有血有肉。故事虽短，但寓意深刻。故事中有很多谜团和没有答案的疑问，这给了读者极大的想象空间，需要自己去猜测答案。另外，鬼影这个角色几乎没有什么细节性的描写，是一个完全神秘的角色。

中文译本

收录于《狄更斯鬼魅小说集》（余毓淳、杨瑞宾译，2009年），好读出版，ISBN:9789861781365

"The Signal-Man" is a horror mystery story by Charles Dickens, first published as part of Mugby Junction, the 1866 Christmas edition of All the Year Round, as "No. 1 Branch Line. The Signal-Man." The story is told from a fictional first-person perspective.

The railway signal-man of the title tells the narrator of an apparition that has been haunting him. Each spectral appearance precedes a tragic event on the railway on which the signalman works. The signalman's work is at a signal-box in a deep cutting near a tunnel entrance on a lonely stretch of the railway line, and he controls the movements of passing trains. When there is danger, his fellow signalmen alert him by telegraph and alarms. Three times, he receives phantom warnings of danger when his bell rings in a fashion that only he can hear. Each warning is followed by the appearance of the spectre, and then by a terrible accident.

The first accident involves a terrible collision between two trains in the tunnel. Dickens may have based this incident on the Clayton Tunnel rail crash that occurred in 1861, five years before he wrote the story. Readers in 1866 would have been familiar with this major disaster. The second warning involves the mysterious death of a young woman on a passing train. The final warning is a premonition of the signalman's own death.

Plot

The story begins with the narrator calling "Halloa! Below there!" into a railway cutting. The signalman standing on the railway below does not look up, as the narrator expects, but rather turns about and stares into the railway tunnel that is his responsibility to monitor. The narrator calls down again and asks permission to descend. The signalman seems reluctant.

The railway hole is a cold, gloomy, and lonely place. The signalman still seems to be in fear of the narrator, who tries to put him at ease. The signalman feels that he had seen the narrator before, but the narrator assures him that this is impossible. Reassured, the signalman welcomes the newcomer into his little cabin, and the two men speak of the signalman's work. The narrator describes that the signalman seems like a dutiful employee at all times, except when he twice looks at his signal bell when it is not ringing. There seems to be something troubling the signalman, but he will not speak of it. Before the narrator leaves, the signalman asks of him not to call for him when he's back on the top of the hill or when he sees him the following day.

The next day, as directed by the signalman, the narrator returns and does not call. The signalman tells the narrator that he will reveal his troubles. He is haunted by a recurring spirit which he has seen at the entrance to the tunnel on separate occasions, and, with each appearance, there has followed a tragedy. In the first instance, the signalman heard the same words which the narrator said and saw a figure with its left arm across its face, while waving the other in desperate warning; he questioned it, but it vanished. He then ran into the tunnel, but found no-one; a few hours later, there was a terrible train crash with many casualties. During its second appearance, the figure was silent, with both hands before the face in an attitude of mourning; then, a beautiful young woman died in a train passing through. Finally, the signalman admits that he has seen the spectre several times during the past week.