Chapter 6

Chapter 6 "F-f-fifty thou… holy moly!" Josh squeaked. The kids stared at the small blue stamp. After a minute, Dink slipped it back inside the envelope and put it in his pocket. "No wonder Doris Duncan came all the way to Connecticut!" Ruth Rose said. Dink nodded. "Yeah. She was after the stamp the whole time. I knew that story about her mother smelled fishy." Josh closed the stamp book. "Well, we still have to give the stamp to her." Dink and Ruth Rose looked at each other. "Don't we?" Josh asked.

第六章“你……天哪!”Josh发出“吱吱”的响声。 孩子们盯着那张蓝色的小邮票。 过了一会儿，丁克把信塞回信封里，放进口袋里。 “难怪多丽丝·邓肯千里迢迢来到康涅狄格!”露丝·罗斯说。 丁克点点头。“是的。她一直在找邮票。 我就知道她妈妈的故事很可疑。” 乔希合上邮票册。 “嗯，我们还是得把邮票给她。” 丁克和露丝·罗斯面面相觑。 “不是吗?”杰克问。

"I guess…" Dink said. "What do you mean, 'I guess'?" Josh said. "It's hers, Dink. It was on her letter, no matter who sent it to her." "But why was it hidden?" Dink asked. "Why the whole story about Doris's mother? Why the fake letters? Unless…" "Unless what?" Josh asked. Dink looked at Josh and Ruth Rose. "Unless the stamp is stolen…" "Yes!" Ruth Rose said. "It's worth so much money! Maybe O. Bird stole it. Then he—or she —had to find a way to get it to Doris, so they thought up the letters from 'Mother.'" Josh just looked at them. "You guys are crazy," he finally said. "Besides, there's no way to be sure." Ruth Rose jumped up. "O. Bird sent the letters from New York, right? Maybe that's where the stamp was stolen!" Ruth Rose hurried over to Mrs. Mackleroy's desk, spoke to her quickly, then came back. "What's going on?" Dink asked. "Mrs. Mackleroy is getting us the last few weeks' New York Times," Ruth Rose said. "We

“我想……”丁克说。“你说‘我猜’是什么意思?”杰克说。 “这是她的，丁克。不管是谁寄给她的，她的信上都写着。” “可是为什么要把它藏起来呢?”丁克问道。 “为什么要讲多丽丝妈妈的故事?” 为什么要伪造信件?除非……”“除非什么?”杰克问。 丁克看着乔希和露丝·罗斯。 “除非邮票被偷了……”“是的!”露丝·罗斯说。 “它值这么多钱!”也许阿。 鸟把它偷走了。然后他(或她)必须想办法把信交给多丽丝，所以他们想出了“妈妈”的信。’”乔希只是看着他们。 “你们都疯了，”他最后说。 “再说，也没有办法确定。” 露丝·罗斯跳了起来。“o·伯德从纽约寄的信，对吧?” 也许那就是邮票被偷的地方!”露丝·罗斯急忙走到麦克勒罗伊太太的桌前，迅速地跟她说了几句话，然后又回来了。 “发生什么事了?”丁克问道。 “麦克勒罗伊太太正在给我们拿最近几周的《纽约时报》，”露丝·罗斯说。 “我们

can check to see if there's anything about a missing stamp." Dink looked at the clock. "Five-fifteen. Doris Duncan will be at my house in forty-five minutes!" Mrs. Mackleroy walked over and dumped a pile of New York Timeses on their table. "Here you are, kids. Good luck!" Josh stared at the mountain of papers. "Geez, it'll take us all night to read these!" "We don't have all night," Dink said, reaching for the pile. "Start reading!" The kids each took a stack. They set aside the sections they didn't want, like sports, real estate, and entertainment. For almost half an hour they turned pages.

我可以查一下有没有关于邮票丢失的消息。” 丁克看了看钟。五百一十五。 多丽丝·邓肯四十五分钟后会到我家!”麦克勒罗伊太太走过来，把一叠《纽约时报》扔在他们桌上。 “给你，孩子们。祝你好运!”乔希盯着堆积如山的文件。 “天哪，我们要花一晚上才能读完这些!”“我们没有整晚的时间，”丁克说着，伸手去拿那堆东西。 “开始阅读!”孩子们每人拿了一摞。 他们把不想要的部分放在一边，比如体育、房地产和娱乐。 他们翻了将近半个小时。

The clock above Mrs. Mackleroy's desk ticked the minutes away. "My eyes are getting blurry," Josh said. "There sure is a lot of stolen stuff in New York! Some guy even stole a chimpanzee from the zoo!" Dink's back was hurting from bending over the table. His head ached, too, and his fingers were smudged gray from ink. And then he found it. "Here it is!" Dink said. He pointed to a headline and read:

麦克勒罗伊太太书桌上方的时钟滴答滴答地一分一秒地过去。 “我的眼睛越来越模糊了，”乔希说。 “纽约确实有很多被偷的东西!”有人甚至从动物园偷了一只黑猩猩!”丁克弯腰趴在桌子上，腰疼得厉害。 他的头也疼，手指被墨水弄得灰蒙蒙的。 然后他找到了。“在这儿!”丁克说。 他指着一个标题写道:

SENIOR CITIZEN FINDS, THEN LOSES, FORTUNE JUNE 20. Miss Clementine Painter, 73, was rich for a short time, but now she's poor again. While emptying her vacuu cleaner, she found a rare stamp among the dust. The stamp, worth more than $50,000, was later stolen from her room. New York City police are investigating. Josh gulped. "You were right, Dink," he whispered. "You can't give the stamp to Doris Duncan!" Mrs. Mackleroy approached their table. "I have to close up soon," she said. Dink whipped his head around to look at the clock. Five-forty-eight! "Guys, we have twelve minutes before Doris Duncan comes back to my house!" The kids thanked Mrs. Mackleroy, stacked the newspapers, and hurried out of the library. On the library steps, Dink said, "Maybe we should tell Officer Fallon about Doris Duncan."

6月20日，一位老人发现，然后失去了财富。 73岁的克莱门汀·佩因特小姐曾短暂地富有过，但现在她又变穷了。 在清空吸尘器时，她在灰尘中发现了一张罕见的邮票。 这张价值超过10万美元的邮票后来在她的房间里被盗。 纽约市警方正在调查此事。 杰克一饮而尽。“你说得对，丁克。”他低声说。 “你不能把邮票给多丽丝·邓肯!”麦克勒罗伊太太走近他们的桌子。 “我很快就要打烊了，”她说。 丁克猛地转过头去看了看钟。 五百四十八年!“伙计们，在多丽丝·邓肯回到我家之前，我们还有12分钟!”孩子们谢过麦克勒罗伊太太，把报纸叠好，匆匆走出图书馆。 在图书馆的台阶上，丁克说:“也许我们应该把多丽丝·邓肯的事告诉法伦警官。”

"But we still can't prove she did anything wrong," Josh said. "Josh is right, Dink," Ruth Rose said. "Doris Duncan never got the letters or the stamp. If you tell Officer Fallon that she and O. Bird stole it, they'll say, 'Prove it!'" "But what am I gonna do?" Dink asked. "It's almost six o'clock! I have to tell Doris Duncan something!" The kids began walking toward Woody Street. "I have an idea!" Ruth Rose said. "Why don't we glue the sunflower stamps back on the empty envelope, then hand over all five letters to Doris Duncan? She'll probably take them to her hotel room to read. Then we can run back here, give the Jenny stamp to Officer Fallon, and tell him the whole story." "But how does that prove she's guilty?" Dink asked. "Because then she'll have the letters!" Josh said. Ruth Rose nodded. "And when Officer Fallon gets the letters from Doris and reads the hidden message, he'll know she and O. Bird stole the stamp."

“但我们仍然无法证明她做错了什么，”乔希说。 “乔希说得对，丁克，”露丝·罗斯说。 多丽丝·邓肯从未收到信件或邮票。 如果你告诉法伦警官她和O。 鸟偷了它，他们会说，‘证明给我看!’”“但我该怎么办呢?”丁克问道。 “快六点钟了!”我有事要告诉多丽丝·邓肯!”孩子们开始朝伍迪街走去。 “我有个主意!”露丝·罗斯说。 “我们为什么不把向日葵邮票粘在空信封上，然后把这五封信都交给多丽丝·邓肯呢?” 她可能会拿去酒店房间读。 然后我们可以跑回这里，把詹妮的邮票给法伦警官，告诉他整个故事。” “但这怎么能证明她有罪呢?”丁克问道。 “因为那样她就能拿到信了!”杰克说。 露丝·罗斯点点头。当法伦警官拿到多丽丝的信，读到隐藏的信息，他就会知道她和O。 鸟偷了邮票。”