Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4 As the kids walked home, Josh studied his drawing of the left footprint. "How can we find the guy who wears this sneaker?" he asked. "It could be a woman," Ruth Rose said.

孩子们走回家的时候，乔希仔细研究着他画的左边的脚印。 “我们怎么才能找到穿这双运动鞋的人呢?”他问。 “可能是个女人，”露丝·罗斯说。

Josh turned and grinned. "What about Mrs. Eagle?" he said. "Maybe she stole Mr. Bones." Ruth Rose laughed. "No, her feet look as small as my mom's," she said. "My mom wears size six." "Let's go to my house and make a list of all the grown-ups at the school," Dink suggested. "Then we can figure out how to check their shoes." "Why don't we go to your house and make a snack?" Josh asked. "How about a turkey sandwich and apple pie with vanilla ice cream on top?" "How about guinea-pig food?" Dink said. In his kitchen, Dink found a plate of cookies and a note from his mom, saying she was shopping. The kids walked up to Dink's room with the cookies and Josh's drawing. Dink handed Ruth Rose a pad. While she wrote, Dink went to his dad's closet and found a pair of his sneakers. On the bottom he found a circle with SIZE TEN stamped inside. Then

乔希转过身，咧嘴一笑。“那鹰太太呢?”他说。 “也许她偷走了博恩斯先生。” 露丝·罗斯笑了。“不，她的脚看起来和我妈妈的一样小，”她说。 “我妈妈穿6码。”“我们去我家列一张学校里所有成年人的名单吧，”丁克建议道。 “然后我们就能想办法检查他们的鞋子了。” “我们为什么不去你家做点零食呢?”杰克问。 “火鸡三明治和苹果派再加香草冰淇淋怎么样?”“豚鼠的食物怎么样?”丁克说。 在他的厨房里，丁克发现了一盘饼干和一张妈妈的纸条，上面写着她正在购物。 孩子们拿着饼干和乔希的画走向丁克的房间。 丁克递给露丝·罗斯一本便笺簿。 在她写作的时候，丁克走到他父亲的衣橱里，找到了一双他的运动鞋。 在盒子底部，他发现了一个圈，里面印着十号的图案。 然后

he got a ruler and measured the sneaker. It was eleven inches long, the same as the footprint they had found in Miss Shotsky's office. "Guys, I think the skeleton snatcher wears a size ten," he said. "I'll bet a lot of the male teachers wear that size," Josh said. Ruth Rose showed them her list. "I got thirteen people," she said. "Did you count Mr. Dillon and Mr. Neater?" Dink asked. Ruth Rose nodded. "Yup. All the adults who work at the school." "We can cross off five names," Josh said. "Mrs. Eagle, Mrs. Waters, and Miss Shotsky all have smaller feet. And Mr. Dillon was wearing loafers today." "Who's the fifth?" Dink asked. "The custodian, Mr. Neater," Josh said. "Why cross him off?" Ruth Rose asked. "He wears sneakers." Josh laughed. "But they're the biggest sneakers I've ever seen. I think he wears about size thirteen!"

他拿来一把尺子，量了量那只运动鞋。 它有十一英寸长，和他们在肖特斯基小姐的办公室里发现的脚印一模一样。 “伙计们，我想这个盗骨贼穿的是十号的。”他说。 “我敢打赌很多男老师都穿这个尺码，”乔希说。 露丝·罗斯给他们看了她的名单。 “我有13个人，”她说。 “你算上狄龙先生和尼特先生了吗?”丁克问道。 露丝·罗斯点点头。“是的。所有在学校工作的成年人。” “我们可以划掉五个名字，”乔希说。 “鹰太太、沃特斯太太和肖特斯基小姐的脚都比较小。 狄龙先生今天穿的是便鞋。” “第五个是谁?”丁克问道。 “看门人，尼特先生。”乔希说。 “为什么把他划掉?”露丝·罗斯问。 “他穿运动鞋。”杰克笑了。 “但这是我见过的最大的运动鞋。 我想他大概穿13号吧!”

Ruth Rose put an X in front of the names of the five people Josh had mentioned. Dink looked at the eight remaining names. "Four women and four men," he said, dropping a hunk of cookie into his guinea pig's cage. "Do you think one of them took the skeleton?" "One way to find out," Josh said. "Check their shoes against my drawing." "How do we do that?" Dink asked. "Just tell them about the footprint we found, then ask them if we can measure their feet and check the treads of their sneakers." "There's one problem," Ruth Rose said. "If one of the teachers did take the skeleton, he won't let us measure his feet!" "Then we'll know he's the guilty one," Josh said. "But what if two teachers say no?" Dink asked. "Then we still wouldn't know which one did it." "But at least we'd have narrowed it down to two," Ruth Rose said. "Then we could figure out what to do next."

露丝·罗斯在乔什提到的五个人的名字前打了个X。 丁克看了看剩下的八个名字。 “四个女人和四个男人，”他说着，把一大块饼干扔进了他的豚鼠笼子里。 “你认为他们中有人拿走了骨架吗?”“有一个办法可以知道，”乔希说。 “把他们的鞋子和我的画对照一下。” “我们该怎么做?”丁克问道。 “只要告诉他们我们发现的脚印，然后问他们我们是否可以测量他们的脚，检查他们的运动鞋的踏面。” “有一个问题，”露丝·罗斯说。 “如果真有一位老师拿走了骨架，他也不会让我们量他的脚!”“那我们就知道他有罪了。”乔希说。 “但是如果两个老师说不呢?”丁克问道。 “那我们还是不知道是谁干的。” “但至少我们可以把范围缩小到两个，”露丝·罗斯说。 “然后我们就能想出下一步该怎么做了。”

"We'd better decide," Josh said. "Every kid at school wants to win those aquarium tickets." "But we're the only ones who know about the footprint," Ruth Rose said. "We've got a head start." "Not for long," Josh said. "Miss Shotsky and Mr. Neater saw the footprint, too. And I showed the drawing to Mrs. Waters and Mr. Dillon. Pretty soon the whole school will know." "Okay, let's talk to those eight teachers tomorrow," Dink said. "We could put notes in their mailboxes," Ruth Rose suggested. "Great idea!" Dink said. He sat at his computer, and Josh and Ruth Rose gave him suggestions.

“我们最好决定一下，”乔希说。 “学校里的每个孩子都想赢得水族馆的门票。” “但我们是唯一知道脚印的人，”露丝·罗斯说。 “我们有了一个良好的开端。”“不会太久的，”乔希说。 肖特斯基小姐和尼特先生也看到了脚印。 我把画给沃特斯太太和狄龙先生看了。 很快整个学校都会知道的。” “好吧，明天我们和那八位老师谈谈，”丁克说。 “我们可以在他们的邮箱里放纸条，”露丝·罗斯建议道。 “好主意!”丁克说。他坐在电脑前，乔希和露丝·罗斯给他提建议。

This is what they came up with: DEAR ___________, WE HAVE A CLUE TO THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING SKELETON. MAY WE TALK TO YOU TODAY? PLEASE CHECK YES ________ OR NO ________ AND PUT THIS IN MRS. EAGLE'S MAILBOX. THANK YOU! SIGNED, DINK DUNCAN, JOSH PINTO, AND RUTH ROSE HATHAWAY Dink printed eight copies. Using Ruth Rose's list of names, the kids addressed a letter to each. "That should do it," Dink said when they were finished. "We'll ask Mrs. Waters to put them in the mailboxes tomorrow morning." "And by afternoon, our class will have tickets to the aquarium," Josh said, grinning at his friends. "Don't get your hopes up yet, Josh," Ruth Rose said. "Why not? If we find the right shoe, we find the person who took Mr. Bones, right? So we win the tickets, right?"

这是他们想出的:亲爱的___________，我们有一个线索，失踪的骨骼之谜。 我们今天可以和你谈谈吗?请勾选是________或否________，并把这个放在Mrs。 鹰的邮箱。谢谢你！签名:丁克·邓肯、乔什·平托和露丝·罗斯·海瑟薇·丁克印了八份。 根据露丝·罗斯的名单，孩子们给每个人写了一封信。 “应该可以了，”他们吃完后，丁克说。 “我们会让沃特斯太太明天早上把它们放进邮箱里。” “到下午，我们班就会有去水族馆的票了，”乔希对他的朋友们咧嘴笑着说。 “别抱太大希望，乔希，”露丝·罗斯说。 “为什么不呢?如果我们找到了正确的鞋子，我们就找到了带走骨头先生的人，对吧? 所以我们赢了票，对吧?”