Chapter 12

Chapter 12 Josh rubbed his stomach. "I think I'm going to explode," he said. "Gee, why?" asked Ruth Rose, eyeing the two empty pizza boxes on Dink's picnic table. "You only ate ten pieces." Josh fed his last crust to Pal under the table. "Nine pieces," Josh said, grinning at Dink. "I wanted to save room for dessert." "There is no dessert," Dink said. "Not until we find out who took those baseballs."

乔希揉了揉肚子。 “我觉得我要爆炸了，”他说。 “咦，为什么?”露丝·罗斯看着丁克野餐桌上的两个空披萨盒问道。 “你只吃了十块。” 乔希在桌子底下把最后一块面包皮喂给了帕尔。 “九个。”乔什笑着对丁克说。 “我想留点时间吃甜点。” “没有甜点，”丁克说。 “除非我们找出是谁拿了那些棒球。”

"I wonder if Officer Fallon had any luck," Ruth Rose said. "Maybe the crook already sold them," Josh said. "Where would he sell them?" Dink asked. "Well, if it were me, I'd use the Internet," Buddy said. "The crook would reach millions of people at the same time." "A lot of people shop online with YuBuy," Ruth Rose said. "Yeah, they sell all kinds of stuff," Dink said. "Do any of you guys know how to use YuBuy? I sure don't." "Me neither," Josh said. "But Mrs. Mackleroy does." "The library closes at six," Ruth Rose said. "Why don't we go see her?" Dink checked his watch. "We've got ten minutes. Come on!" The four kids and Pal trotted to Main Street, then down to West Green Street. It was one minute to six when they ran up the library steps. Mrs. Mackleroy was still sitting at her desk when they hurried inside. "Hi there. I was just

“我想知道法伦警官有没有运气，”露丝·罗斯说。 “也许骗子已经把它们卖了。”乔希说。 “他会在哪里卖呢?”丁克问道。 “嗯，如果是我，我会使用互联网，”巴迪说。 “骗子会同时触及数百万人。” “很多人在优买网上购物，”露丝·罗斯(Ruth Rose)说。 “是的，他们卖各种各样的东西，”丁克说。 “你们有人知道怎么用优买吗?” 我当然不知道。”“我也是。”乔希说。 “但是麦克勒罗伊太太知道。” “图书馆六点关门，”露丝·罗斯说。 “我们为什么不去看看她呢?”丁克看了看表。 “我们只有十分钟。来吧!”四个孩子和帕尔跑到主街，然后又跑到西格林街。 他们跑上图书馆的台阶时已经差一分六点了。 他们匆匆进屋时，麦克勒罗伊太太还坐在书桌前。 “嗨。我只是

getting ready to close," she said. "Do you need something?" The kids introduced Buddy then quickly explained their idea. "And you think the thief would try to sell the baseballs on YuBuy?" she asked. "It would be the fastest way wouldn't it?" Buddy asked. "Well, online shopping is fast," Mrs. Mackleroy said. "Could we try?" Dink asked. "Sure, why not?" Mrs. Mackleroy said. She booted up her computer, clicked on Internet, and typed in YuBuy.com. A few seconds later, they were all looking at YuBuy's home page. "Look, there's a place to type in what you want to buy!" Josh said. "Should we type in baseballs?" "That would give us too many choices," Mrs. Mackleroy said. "How about we try autographed baseballs." She typed in the words. Seconds later a window popped up telling her that there were about fifty possibilities. "How do we choose?" Dink asked.

准备打烊了。”她说。 “你需要什么吗?”孩子们介绍了巴迪，然后迅速解释了他们的想法。 “你觉得小偷会在优买上卖棒球吗?”她问。 “这是最快的方法，不是吗?”朋友问。 “嗯，网上购物很快，”麦克勒罗伊太太说。 “我们能试试吗?”丁克问道。 “当然可以，为什么不呢?”麦克勒罗伊太太说。 她打开电脑，点击互联网，输入“育buy.com”。 几秒钟后，他们都在看优买的主页。 “看，有一个地方可以输入你想买的东西!”杰克说。 “我们应该输入棒球吗?”“那样我们就有太多选择了，”麦克勒罗伊太太说。 “我们试试签名棒球怎么样?” 她把这些字打进去。几秒钟后，一个窗口弹出，告诉她大约有50种可能。 “我们如何选择?”丁克问道。

"We need to be more specific," Mrs. Mackleroy said. "Do you know whose signatures Mr. Pocket had?" "One ball was signed by Babe Ruth," Ruth Rose said. "Okay," said Mrs. Mackleroy. She scrolled back up and typed in baseballs signed by Babe Ruth. A new window popped up. It said there was one Babe Ruth ball for sale. Mrs. Mackleroy clicked, and there was a picture of a baseball. Babe Ruth's signature was clearly visible. Next to the picture were these words: BUY THIS BASEBALL SIGNED BY THE GREAT BABE RUTH! OTHER AUTOGRAPHED BASEBALLS AVAILABLE! "Does that look like it could be Mr. Pocket's ball?" Mrs. Mackleroy asked. The four kids leaned closer to her computer screen. "I don't know," Dink said. "Why don't we call Mr. Pocket?" Ruth Rose suggested. "We should also call Officer Fallon," Dink said. He pointed to the screen. "If this is the thief, Officer Fallon should be the first to know!"

“我们需要更具体一些，”麦克勒罗伊说。 “你知道普凯特先生有谁的签名吗?”“有一个球是贝比·鲁斯签名的，”鲁斯·罗斯说。 “好吧，”麦克勒罗伊太太说。 她翻了回去，输入了贝比·鲁斯签名的棒球。 弹出一个新窗口。上面说有一个贝比·鲁斯的球出售。 麦克勒罗伊太太点了一下，出现了一张棒球的照片。 贝比·鲁斯的签名清晰可见。 照片旁边是这样的文字:购买这个棒球由伟大的贝比鲁斯签名!其他签名棒球可用!“那看起来像是口袋先生的球吗?”麦克勒罗伊太太问。 四个孩子更靠近她的电脑屏幕。 “我不知道，”丁克说。 “我们为什么不叫口袋先生来呢?”露丝·罗斯建议道。 “我们也应该打电话给法伦警官，”丁克说。 他指着屏幕。“如果这就是小偷，法伦警官应该第一个知道!”

"This is exciting!" Mrs. Mackleroy said, reaching for the telephone. A few minutes later, Officer Fallon and Mr. Pocket hurried into the library. Mr. Pocket put on his glasses and leaned close to the monitor. "That's my baseball!" he announced. "How can you tell?" Officer Fallon said, also peering at the picture. "Look closely," Mr. Pocket said. "Right above Babe's signature there's a dent in the ball. That's where his bat struck. Babe Ruth signed this ball for my father personally." Everyone moved closer to the screen. "I see it," Officer Fallon said. "But a lot of used baseballs would have bat dents, wouldn't they?" "But not in the same place," Mr. Pocket insisted. "If I held the ball in my hands, I'd be sure." "Why don't you buy the ball?" Dink suggested to Mr. Pocket. "Have the thief mail it to you. Then, once you have it, Officer Fallon can arrest the guy and get your money back!" "It won't work," Buddy said. "The guy'll be suspicious if someone who lives in Green Lawn

“这太令人兴奋了!”麦克勒罗伊太太说着伸手去拿电话。 几分钟后，法伦警官和朴凯特先生匆匆走进图书室。 朴凯特先生戴上眼镜，凑近显示器。 “那是我的棒球!”他宣布。 “你怎么知道?”法伦警官也盯着照片说。 “仔细看，”朴凯特说。 “就在贝比签名的上方，球上有一个凹痕。 那就是他的球棒击中的地方。 贝比·鲁斯亲自为我父亲签了名。” 每个人都靠近屏幕。 “我看到了，”法伦说。 “但是很多用过的棒球都会有球棒凹痕，不是吗?”“但不是在同一个地方，”朴凯特坚持说。 “如果我把球拿在手里，我就肯定了。” “你为什么不买这个球呢?”丁克向普凯特先生建议。 “叫小偷寄给你。 然后，一旦你拿到钱，法伦警官就可以逮捕那个家伙，把你的钱拿回来!”“没用的，”巴迪说。 “如果有人住在绿草坪，那家伙会怀疑的

tries to buy the ball. This is where he stole it!" "Buddy's right," Officer Fallon said. "And our thief may very well live in this town. So what do we do?" "I have a suggestion," Ruth Rose said. "E-mail the guy, saying you want to buy the baseball. Then ask him where you should send the check." "And if he really does live around here, you can go arrest him right now!" Dink said. "Yeah," Josh said with a grin. "The dude will probably still be sitting at his computer when you ring his doorbell!" They all looked at each other. Then Officer Fallon nodded at Mrs. Mackleroy She clicked on a small window that said BUY IT NOW FOR $1,000. Under the window was a space to type a reply. "A thousand bucks!" Josh squeaked. "Okay, Mrs. Mackleroy, let's reel this fish in," Officer Fallon said. Mrs. Mackleroy typed a message that said: I wish to buy the Babe Ruth baseball. Please e-mail me your address, and I'll send $1,000 immediately. I may want to buy other balls as well.

试图买球。他就是在这里偷的!”“巴迪说得对，”法伦警官说。 “我们的小偷很可能就住在这个镇上。 那么我们该怎么办呢?”“我有个建议，”露丝·罗斯说。 “给他发邮件，说你想买这个棒球。 然后问他你应该把支票寄到哪里。” “如果他真的住在这附近，你现在就可以去逮捕他!”丁克说。 “是啊，”乔希笑着说。 “当你按他的门铃时，他可能还坐在他的电脑前!”他们都面面相觑。 然后，法伦警官向麦克勒罗伊太太点点头。她点击了一个小窗口，上面写着:现在以1000美元的价格购买。 窗户下面有一个空格，可以输入回复。 “一千美元!”Josh发出“吱吱”的响声。 “好了，麦克勒罗伊太太，我们把这条鱼卷起来吧，”法伦警官说。 麦克勒罗伊夫人打了一条信息，上面写着:我想买贝比·鲁斯的棒球。 请把你的地址发电子邮件给我，我马上给你寄去。 我可能还想买其他的球。