Chapter 3

Chapter 3 Josh burst through the barn doors first. Dink and Ruth Rose barreled in right behind him. Josh immediately pounced on the cookie tin. He opened it, then gasped. "Call the cops!" he yelled. "I've been robbed!" Dink grinned at his friend. "What'd they take, your brain?" "Worse," Josh said, peering into the empty cookie tin. "They took my cookies!" "Hey, my piggy bank is missing!" Ruth Rose said. "I left it right on my sleeping bag."

乔希第一个冲进了谷仓的门。 丁克和露丝·罗斯紧跟在他身后。 乔希立刻扑向饼干罐头。 他打开它，然后倒吸了一口气。 “报警!”他喊道。 “我被抢劫了!”丁克朝他的朋友咧嘴一笑。 “他们拿走了什么，你的脑子吗?”“更糟，”乔希说，盯着空的饼干罐头。 “他们拿走了我的饼干!”“嘿，我的扑满不见了!”露丝·罗斯说。 “我把它落在睡袋上了。”

Dink poked his hand into the opening of his sleeping bag. He felt around. "My money jar isn't here, either!" he said. Josh pulled open his sleeping bag. "Now I'm really mad!" he said. "My money sock is gone!" Josh looked at his friends. "Someone snuck in here while we were gone," he said. "Raccoons might have taken the cookies," Ruth Rose said, glancing around the barn. "And I read that crows sometimes steal shiny coins," Dink offered. Suddenly Josh grinned. "No, it wasn't raccoons or crows," he said, wiggling his eyebrows. "I think it was two little monkeys!" "The twins!" shouted Dink and Ruth Rose at the same time. The three kids charged out of the barn and raced across the yard. Josh stormed through the kitchen door and yelled, "Freeze!" Brian and Bradley were kneeling on kitchen chairs, playing with a pile of coins on the table. On the counter were Josh's blue sock, Dink's peanut butter jar, and Ruth Rose's piggy bank. "Josh!" cried Bradley. "Look what we found in the barn!"

丁克把手伸进睡袋的开口。 他摸索着四周。“我的钱罐也不在这里!”他说。 乔希拉开了他的睡袋。 “现在我真的疯了!”他说。 “我的钱包不见了!”乔希看着他的朋友们。 “有人趁我们不在的时候溜进来了，”他说。 “浣熊可能把饼干拿走了，”露丝·罗斯环顾谷仓说。 “我读到乌鸦有时会偷闪亮的硬币，”丁克说。 突然，乔希咧嘴一笑。“不，不是浣熊，也不是乌鸦，”他一边说，一边摆动着眉毛。 “我想是两只小猴子!”“双胞胎!”丁克和露丝·罗斯同时喊道。 三个孩子冲出谷仓，跑过院子。 乔希冲进厨房门，喊道:“不许动!”布莱恩和布拉德利跪在厨房的椅子上，把玩桌子上的一堆硬币。 柜台上放着乔希的蓝袜子、丁克的花生酱罐和露丝·罗斯的存钱罐。 “乔希!”“看我们在谷仓里发现了什么!”

"It's pirate treasure!" yelled Brian. "No, it's not. It's our treasure," Josh growled at his little brothers. Bradley made a face. "But we found it. Nobody was there!" "This is special money," Dink told the twins. "We saved it for the ducks." "Why do ducks need money?" asked Brian. Ruth Rose explained how the money would be used to build a bridge so mommy ducks and baby ducks could cross the road safely. "Okay," the twins said together.

“这是海盗的宝藏!”布赖恩喊道。 “不，不是。这是我们的宝藏，”乔希对他的弟弟们咆哮道。 布拉德利做了个鬼脸。“但我们找到了。 没有人在那儿!”“这是特别的钱，”丁克告诉双胞胎。 “我们把它留给鸭子吃。” “为什么鸭子需要钱?”布赖恩问。 露丝·罗斯解释了如何用这笔钱建一座桥，这样鸭妈妈和鸭宝宝就可以安全地过马路了。 “好吧，”双胞胎一起说。

"Now, what about my cookies?" Josh asked, waving the cookie tin. "Give 'em back!" The two little boys erupted in giggles. "We can't—they're in our stomachs!" Brian crowed. The five kids ate breakfast, and then Josh told Bradley and Brian to go wake up their parents. Dink scooped all their coins into the cookie tin while Josh and Ruth Rose cleaned up. Then Josh reached for Pal's leash. But Pal was already sitting by the door with his leash in his mouth. "Smart doggie," Josh said as he clipped the leash to Pal's collar. Dink lugged the heavy cookie tin. Pal and the kids took Eagle Lane to Silver Circle, then crossed Main Street to the fire station. They saw Officer Fallon getting out of his cruiser in front of the station. "'Morning, kids," the police chief said. "You're up early." He bent down and stroked Pal's soft ears. Dink held up the cookie tin. "We came to make a deposit!" Officer Fallon grinned. He reached into his cruiser and pulled out a jar of coins. "Me too."

“现在，我的饼干怎么办?”乔希挥舞着饼干罐问道。 “还给我!”两个小男孩咯咯地笑了起来。 “不行——它们在我们的胃里!”布莱恩拥挤。 五个孩子吃了早饭，然后乔希叫布拉德利和布莱恩去叫醒他们的父母。 丁克把他们所有的硬币都舀进饼干罐里，而乔什和露丝·罗斯则在打扫。 然后乔希伸手去拿帕尔的皮带。 但帕尔已经坐在门边，嘴里叼着皮带。 “聪明的小狗，”乔希边说边把狗绳拴在帕尔的项圈上。 丁克拖着沉重的饼干罐头。 帕尔和孩子们从鹰巷到银圈，然后穿过主街到消防站。 他们看见法伦警官在警察局前从他的巡逻车里出来。 “早上好，孩子们，”警察局长说。 “你起得真早。”他弯下腰抚摸着帕尔柔软的耳朵。 丁克举起饼干罐头。 “我们是来存钱的!”法伦警官咧嘴一笑。 他把手伸进巡逻车，拿出一罐硬币。 “我也是。”

"Did you hear about the fire last night?" Ruth Rose asked. "Yes, I did," Officer Fallon said. "It was small, and I guess the fire department put it out easily. The question is, who started it?" "I saw a car's headlights near there," Dink reported. "But that was before the fire." "How long before?" Officer Fallon asked. Dink thought back. "I don't know, maybe ten minutes or so." Officer Fallon set his coin jar on the roof of his cruiser. Then he pulled out his pad, flipped it open, and made a few notes. "Could this be a clue?" Ruth Rose asked. She pulled the partly burned wood from her pocket. "Where'd you find that, Ruth Rose?" he asked. "We went to the scene of the fire this morning," she told him. "This was in the ashes."

“你听说昨晚的火灾了吗?”露丝·罗斯问。 “是的，我说了，”法伦警官说。 “它很小，我想消防部门很容易就把它扑灭了。 问题是，是谁挑起的?”“我看到附近有一辆汽车的前灯，”丁克报告说。 “但那是在火灾之前。” “多久以前?”法伦警官问。 丁克想了想。“我不知道，大概十分钟左右吧。” 法伦警官把他的硬币罐放在巡洋舰的车顶上。 然后他拿出笔记本，翻开，做了一些笔记。 “这会是个线索吗?”露丝·罗斯问。 她从口袋里掏出烧了一半的木柴。 “你从哪儿找到的，露丝·罗斯?”他问。 “我们今天早上去了火灾现场，”她告诉他。 “这是在灰烬中。”

Officer Fallon examined the four letters. "CO is usually short for company," he said, "but there should be a period after the O." "Maybe the period got burned off?" Ruth Rose said. Officer Fallon made a note on his pad. "Good detective work," he said to Ruth Rose. Josh's eyes lit up. "Maybe the wood was from a snake's cage," he said. "Don't pet cobra." They all laughed. "Well, let's add our money so we can save those ducks," Officer Fallon said, slipping his notebook into a pocket and reaching for his money jar. They walked into the fire station together. Somewhere a radio played softly. A clock on the rear wall said nine o'clock.

法伦警官检查了这四封信。 “CO通常是company的缩写，”他说，“但o后面应该有一个句号。” “也许经期被烧掉了?”露丝·罗斯说。 法伦警官在记事本上做了记录。 “很好的侦探工作，”他对露丝·罗斯说。 乔希的眼睛亮了起来。“也许这些木头是蛇笼子里的，”他说。 “不要摸眼镜蛇。”他们都笑了。 “好吧，让我们把钱加进去，这样我们就能救那些鸭子了，”法伦警官说着，把笔记本塞进口袋，伸手去拿他的存钱罐。 他们一起走进了消防站。 收音机在某处轻轻地播放着。 后墙上的钟显示九点。