Chapter 8

Chapter 8 She held the autograph book so the kids could see it. "The thief was in such a hurry to get away that he left me holding this," she said. Penelope Gwinn handed the book to Ruth Rose. It was square, and the word AUTOGRAPHS had been stamped in gold on the dark red cover. "I don't remember the other two autograph books very well," Dink said. "They were fat like

她拿着签名簿让孩子们看。 她说:“小偷急于逃跑，把这个留给了我。” 佩内洛普·格温把书递给了露丝·罗斯。 它是方形的，暗红色的封面上印着金色的AUTOGRAPHS字样。 “我不太记得另外两本签名簿，”丁克说。 “他们很胖

this one, with dark covers, I think." Ruth Rose studied the book in her hand. "I wonder if the police could get the thief's fingerprints from this," she said. "I asked about that, but he was wearing gloves," Penelope said. "That guy at the hot-dog cart wore gloves when he served us!" Josh said. Penelope shrugged. "Anyone could slip on a pair of gloves," she said. "Could the thief be a woman?" Ruth Rose asked. "She could have worn gloves to disguise her hands." "I suppose it's possible," Penelope said. "Everyone was wearing penguin masks, so I didn't really look at faces." Penelope sighed as she sat down. "Anyone could have grabbed my pendant. As soon as I realized what had happened, I started screaming," she said. "But by then the thief had disappeared in the crowd. Later, I stood by the gate with the officers, but I wasn't able to recognize him or her." Ruth Rose flipped through the pages.

我想是这一本，封面是深色的。” 露丝·罗斯端详着手里的书。 她说:“我想知道警察是否能从这里得到小偷的指纹。” “我问过他，但他戴着手套，”佩内洛普说。 “卖热狗车的那个人给我们服务的时候戴着手套!”杰克说。 佩内洛普耸耸肩。“任何人都可能戴上手套，”她说。 “小偷会是个女人吗?”露丝·罗斯问。 “她可能戴了手套来伪装她的手。” “我想这是可能的，”佩内洛普说。 “每个人都戴着企鹅面具，所以我没有真正去看他们的脸。” 佩内洛普坐下时叹了口气。 “任何人都可能抢走我的吊坠。 我一意识到发生了什么，就开始尖叫。”她说。 但这时小偷已经消失在人群中了。 后来，我和警察一起站在门口，但我没能认出他或她。” 露丝·罗斯翻着书页。

There were a lot of signatures in the book. The last name wasn't complete. "I was signing that page when he grabbed my necklace," Penelope said. Ruth Rose started to hand the book back. "No, I really don't want the thing," Penelope said. "Do me a favor and drop it in the first trash can you come to!" Penelope stood up. "I appreciate your coming to see me," she said. She noticed the picture Ruth Rose had brought with her. "You boys want one of those?" she asked, smiling for the first time. "Sure!" Josh gushed. "I'm a huge fan!" Penelope signed two more pictures and gave them to Dink and Josh. The kids thanked her and left. There was a trash can outside the hotel. "Are you gonna throw the book away?" Dink asked Ruth Rose. "No way!" she said. They sat on a bench and waited for the next bus to Green Lawn. Ruth Rose was reading signatures when Dink poked her and Josh. "Look who's coming this way!"

书里有很多签名。 姓氏不完整。 佩内洛普说:“我在那页上签名的时候，他抓住了我的项链。” 露丝·罗斯开始把书还给她。 “不，我真的不想要这个东西，”佩内洛普说。 “帮我个忙，把它扔到你看到的第一个垃圾桶里!”佩内洛普站了起来。 “谢谢你来看我，”她说。 她注意到露丝·罗斯带来的照片。 “你们想要一个吗?”她问道，第一次露出了笑容。 “当然!”Josh涌。“我是你的超级粉丝!”佩内洛普又签了两张照片给丁克和乔希。 孩子们谢过她就走了。 旅馆外面有一个垃圾桶。 “你要把书扔掉吗?”丁克问露丝·罗斯。 “不可能!”她说。他们坐在长凳上等下一辆去绿草坪的公共汽车。 露丝·罗斯在读签名时，丁克戳了戳她和乔希。 “看谁朝这边来了!”

Penelope Gwinn's manager, Hans, was barreling toward them, wearing wrap-around sunglasses. As he marched down the sidewalk, he kept turning his head, checking both sides of the street. "Is he after us?" Josh whispered. "I don't think he sees us," Ruth Rose said. Suddenly Hans stopped in front of a store window. He peered through the glass, then opened the door and disappeared inside. A sign on the window said: YE OLDE JEWELRY SHOPPE. WE BUY AND SELL UNUSUAL ITEMS. "Oh my gosh!" Ruth Rose said. "Maybe Penelope's manager is the thief. He could be in there selling the penguin right now!"

佩内洛普·格温的经纪人汉斯(Hans)戴着环绕式太阳镜，飞快地朝他们走来。 他走在人行道上，不停地转过头来，看看街道的两边。 “他在追我们吗?”杰克小声说。 “我想他没看见我们，”露丝·罗斯说。 突然，汉斯在一家商店的橱窗前停了下来。 他透过玻璃往外看，然后打开门，消失在里面。 橱窗上的牌子上写着:YE old JEWELRY shop。 我们买卖不寻常的物品。 “我的天哪!”露丝·罗斯说。 “也许佩内洛普的经理就是小偷。 他现在可能正在里面卖企鹅呢!”

"He'd have to be pretty dumb to sell the thing on the same street where he just stole it," Dink said. "Or maybe he's pretty smart," Josh said. "He could be selling it here because no one would expect him to do that! I wondered why Hans didn't stop the thief. Wasn't he standing at the bottom of the stage steps?" "That's a good question," Ruth Rose said. "Should we follow him into the shop?"

丁克说:“他一定很蠢，才会在偷东西的那条街上把它卖掉。” “也许他很聪明，”乔希说。 “他可能会在这里卖，因为没人会指望他这么做!”我想知道汉斯为什么不阻止小偷。 他不是站在舞台台阶底下吗?”“这是个好问题，”露丝·罗斯说。 “我们要跟着他到店里去吗?”

"I don't think so," Dink said. "If he went in there to sell the pendant, he'll stop when he sees us walk in. Plus, then he'll know we suspect him." "So what should we do?" asked Josh. "I don't know," Dink said. "We can't accuse Hans just because he walked into a jewelry store. And we can't accuse that woman I saw, or Frank the hot-dog man. The thief was wearing a mask and didn't leave any clues behind!" "Just this," Ruth Rose said as their bus came along. She held up the red autograph book. A half hour later, the kids were back in Dink's room. While Dink fed Loretta, Ruth Rose read the rest of the pages in the autograph book. Josh was prowling in Dink's things, looking for candy. "Hey, what's this?" he asked, holding up Dink's souvenir X-ray. "That's one of the X-rays the doctor took yesterday" Dink said. "Why does it have this big X over it?" asked Josh. Dink explained that the X-ray was blurred because of the bandage. "He took a second X-ray

“我不这么认为，”丁克说。 “如果他是进去卖吊坠的，他看到我们进去就会停下来。 而且，这样他就知道我们怀疑他了。” “那我们该怎么办?”乔希问。 “我不知道，”丁克说。 “我们不能因为汉斯走进珠宝店就指责他。 我们不能指控我看到的那个女人，或者那个卖热狗的弗兰克。 小偷戴着面具，没有留下任何线索!”“就是这样，”露丝·罗斯在他们的公共汽车开过来的时候说。 她举起那本红色的签名簿。 半小时后，孩子们回到丁克的房间。 当丁克喂洛蕾塔的时候，露丝·罗斯读着签名簿上剩下的书页。 乔什在丁克的东西里找糖吃。 “嘿，这是什么?”他问，举起丁克的纪念x光片。 “这是医生昨天拍的一张x光片。”丁克说。 “为什么上面有个大X ?”乔希问。 丁克解释说，由于绷带的缘故，x光片模糊不清。 他又照了一张x光片