Chapter 8

Chapter 8 "Who?" asked Josh. "Us! We could look for more clues," Ruth Rose said. "How do we get out there?" Josh asked. "By swimming?" "Morris usually comes by around nine-thirty" Abbi said. "You can hitch a ride with him. He brings hikers and bird-watchers out to the islands all the time." Fifteen minutes later, Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose were sitting on Wallis's dock waiting for the

“谁?”乔希问。 “我们!我们可以寻找更多线索，”露丝·罗斯说。 “我们怎么出去?”杰克问。 “游泳吗?”“莫里斯通常在九点半左右来，”阿比说。 “你可以搭他的便车。 他总是带着徒步旅行者和观鸟者到岛上来。” 十五分钟后，丁克、乔希和露丝·罗斯坐在沃利斯的码头上等着

mail boat. Josh was carrying food in his backpack. Ruth Rose wore a smaller pack holding Abbi's tape recorder. "Why are we bringing the tape recorder?" Dink asked. "Abbi said we should ask Morris to go by those rocks where the seals live," Ruth Rose said. "If we get close enough, I'm going to try to record their voices." "There's Morris!" Dink said, standing and waving. A white flat-bottomed boat chugged up to the dock. A man wearing a sea captain's hat waved at the kids. "Need a lift?" he asked as he pulled his boat up to the dock. "We're friends of Abbi, sir," Ruth Rose said. "She said you might take us out to one of those small islands." "Sure thing, and everyone hereabouts calls me Morris," the man said. "But which island? There are about thirty of them." Dink pointed toward the island where they'd seen the woman tie her boat up to a dock. "It's one of those," he said. "The dock has a blue awning at the end."

邮件的船。乔什的背包里装着食物。 露丝·罗斯带着一个小背包，里面装着阿比的录音机。 “我们为什么要带录音机?”丁克问道。 “阿比说我们应该叫莫里斯去海豹生活的那些岩石旁边，”露丝·罗斯说。 “如果我们离他们足够近，我会试着录下他们的声音。” “莫里斯!”丁克站着挥手说。 一艘白色平底船嘎吱嘎吱地驶近码头。 一个戴着船长帽的人向孩子们挥了挥手。 “需要搭车吗?”他边把船拉到码头边问。 “我们是阿比的朋友，先生。”露丝·罗斯说。 “她说你可以带我们去一个小岛。” “当然，这里的人都叫我莫里斯，”那人说。 “可是哪个岛呢?”大约有三十个。” 丁克指了指他们看到那个女人把船拴在码头上的那个岛。 “这是其中之一，”他说。 码头的尽头有一个蓝色的遮阳篷。

"Yep, I know that one," Morris said. "Some rich gentleman lives out there. His estate takes up half the island!" Morris looked at the kids. "I don't think he welcomes visitors," he said. Josh held up his pack. "We're just going to have a picnic," he said. "Great place for a picnic," Morris said, "as long as you stay off private property. Come aboard!" When the kids were zipped into life vests and seated on a bench, Morris pulled away from the dock. He directed his boat toward a cluster of three small islands. Each had a different-colored awning stretched over the water at the end of a dock. "What are the awnings for?" Josh asked. They protect the boats from the sun and rain," Morris explained. "You step into your boat, you don't want to sit on a hot seat, or a wet one!" Morris headed toward the smallest of the three islands. He pulled up to the dock, and the kids stepped out of the mail boat. They dropped their packs in the shade under the blue awning. Tied to the dock was a motorboat painted the same blue.

“是的，我知道这个，”莫里斯说。 “有个有钱的绅士住在那里。 他的产业占了半个岛!”莫里斯看着孩子们。 “我认为他不欢迎访客，”他说。 乔希举起他的背包。“我们只是去野餐，”他说。 “野餐的好地方，”莫里斯说，“只要你远离私人财产。 来上!”当孩子们穿上救生衣坐在长凳上时，莫里斯离开了码头。 他把船驶向一个由三个小岛组成的群岛。 每个码头尽头的水面上都有一个不同颜色的遮阳篷。 “遮阳篷是做什么用的?”杰克问。 它们可以保护船只免受日晒和雨淋，”莫里斯解释道。 “你跨进你的船，你不想坐在一个热的座位上，或者一个湿的座位上!”莫里斯朝三个岛中最小的那个岛走去。 他把车停在码头上，孩子们下了邮船。 他们把书包丢在蓝色遮阳篷下的阴凉处。 码头上拴着一艘漆成同样蓝色的摩托艇。

The kids slipped out of their life vests and passed them to Morris. "Thanks for the ride," Ruth Rose said. Morris handed Dink a magazine and some other mail. "Would you mind leaving this inside the gate?" he asked, pointing toward the other end of the dock. "Sure," Dink said. "I'll swing by here for you in about a half hour," Morris said. "Can you be finished with your picnic by then?" "No problem!" Josh said. Morris gunned his engine. "Okey-dokey see you later." The kids watched Morris pull away. Soon his boat was just a speck on the water.

孩子们脱下救生衣，递给莫里斯。 “谢谢你载我一程，”露丝·罗斯说。 莫里斯递给丁克一本杂志和其他一些邮件。 “你介意把这个放在大门里面吗?”他指着码头的另一端问道。 “当然，”丁克说。“我半小时后过来接你，”莫里斯说。 “到那时你能吃完野餐吗?”“没问题!”杰克说。 莫里斯加大了引擎的马力。“好吧，好吧，再见。” 孩子们看着莫里斯离开。 不久，他的船就成了水面上的一个小点。

The dock was quiet and cool under the awning. The only sound was made by the water gently slapping against the small blue boat. "Now what?" asked Josh. The kids turned away from the water. The dock was as long as two school buses. At the other end was a small sandy beach. The whole island was covered with trees and bushes. But part of it was fenced off. Behind the fence, among tall trees and thick shrubbery they could see a chimney and part of a roof. "That must be where the rich guy lives," Josh said. He glanced down at the boat. "I wonder if that blond woman lives there, too." "We can't go inside the fence," Dink said. "No, but we can peek through the gate when you leave the mail," Ruth Rose said. "Let's go," Dink said, reaching down for his backpack. "We've only got a half hour." "What's that stuff?" Ruth Rose asked, pointing to a blue smudge on the gray dock. Ruth Rose knelt down for a closer look. She touched the smudge, then smelled the tip of her finger. "What is it?" asked Dink.

遮阳篷下的码头安静而凉爽。 唯一的声音是水轻轻地拍打着那只蓝色的小船。 “现在怎么办?”乔希问。孩子们离开了水。 码头有两辆校车那么长。 在另一端是一个小沙滩。 整个岛被树木和灌木覆盖着。 但有一部分是用栅栏隔开的。 篱笆后面，在高大的树木和茂密的灌木丛中，他们可以看到一个烟囱和屋顶的一部分。 “那一定是那个有钱人住的地方，”乔希说。 他低头看了看小船。 “我想知道那个金发女人是不是也住在那里。” “我们不能进入围栏，”丁克说。 “不知道，不过你寄信的时候我们可以从门里偷看，”露丝·罗斯说。 “我们走吧。”丁克说着，伸手去拿他的背包。 “我们只有半个小时的时间。” “那是什么东西?”露丝·罗斯指着灰色码头上的一个蓝色污迹问道。 露丝·罗斯跪下来仔细看了看。 她摸了摸污迹，然后闻了闻她的指尖。 “这是什么?”丁克问。

Ruth Rose looked up at Dink and Josh. "It's blueberries!" she said.

露丝·罗斯抬头看着丁克和乔希。 “是蓝莓!”