Chapter 3

Chapter Three IN WHICH Simon Solves a Riddle What are we going to do?" Simon asked as they walked back down the hallway. "They have her," Jared said softly. He had to blot out what he'd just heard, blot everything from his mind except Mallory. "They want to trade her for the Guide." "But we don't have it." "Shhh!" Jared said. He had an idea, but he didn't want to say it aloud, out in the open air.

第三章西蒙解谜我们该怎么办？”他们走回走廊时，西蒙问道。 “他们抓住她了。”杰瑞德轻声说。 他不得不抹去刚才听到的一切，抹去脑子里的一切，只留下马洛里。 “他们想用她交换《指南》。” “但我们没有。”“嘘!”杰瑞德说。 他有一个主意，但他不想在户外大声说出来。

"Come on." Jared went to his locker and got a towel from his gym bag. He picked out a textbook—Advanced Mathematics—that was about the same size as the Guide and folded it in the cloth. "What are you doing?" "Here," he whispered, shoving the wrapped package at Simon. He grabbed his backpack from the locker. "Thimbletack fooled us with this trick. Maybe we can fool whoever took Mallory." Simon nodded once. "Okay, I think Mom has a flashlight in the car." They clamored over a chain-link fence at the edge of the schoolyard and crossed the highway. The other side of the road was overgrown with weeds. It was hard to walk in the dark, and the flashlight gave off only a faint narrow light. They climbed over a large pile of rocks, some covered in slick moss, others cracked in parts. As

“来吧。”杰瑞德从他的健身包里拿出一条毛巾。 他挑出一本和《指南》差不多大小的教科书——《高等数学》，把它包在布里。 “你在干什么？”“给，”他小声说，把包裹好的包裹推给西蒙。 他从储物柜里抓起他的背包。 “西姆布兰蒂克用这个把戏愚弄了我们。 也许我们能骗过带走马洛里的人。” 西蒙点了点头。“好的，我想妈妈在车里有手电筒。” 他们越过了校园边上的铁丝网，穿过了高速公路。 路的另一边长满了杂草。 在黑暗中行走很困难，手电筒只发出微弱的光线。 他们爬过一大堆岩石，有些上面长满了光滑的苔藓，有些则部分开裂。 作为

they went, Jared couldn't stop replaying what he'd overheard. He thought about the awful things that his mother believed and the even more-awful things she was likely to believe now that he'd disappeared. No matter what he did, he wound up in deeper and deeper trouble. What if he were expelled? What if she were to send him out to live with his dad, who wouldn't want him? "Jared, look," said Simon. They had come to the edge of the old quarry. The rock had been mined jaggedly; chunks of stone stuck out like ledges along the nearly thirty- foot drop to the uneven valley below. Scrubby bits of grass grew along the walls from thick veins of dirt. The highway ran over the top of the cavern, elevated on a thick stone bridge. "It's weird to mine rocks, isn't it?" Simon asked. "I mean, they're just rocks. "Probably granite," he continued when Jared didn't answer. Simon wrapped his thin jacket tighter around himself.

他们走了，杰瑞德不停地回放他听到的东西。 他想到了他母亲所相信的可怕的事情，以及他失踪后她可能会相信的更可怕的事情。 不管他做什么，他最终陷入越来越深的困境。 如果他被开除了呢？如果她把他送去和他爸爸住呢，他爸爸不想要他？ “杰瑞德，你看，”西蒙说。 他们来到了旧采石场的边缘。 这块岩石被开采得参差不齐；大块的石头像突出的突出架一样，沿着近30英尺高的落差，通向下面凹凸不平的山谷。 粗壮的草叶沿着墙壁从粗壮的泥土中生长出来。 公路从洞顶延伸而过，由一座厚厚的石桥架起。 “开采岩石很奇怪，不是吗？”西蒙问。 “我的意思是，它们只是石头。 “可能是花岗岩，”他看到贾里德没有回答，继续说道。 西蒙把他的薄夹克裹得更紧了。

Jared shone his flashlight along the walls, catching a streak of rust and a blush of ochre in the beam. He had no idea what kind of stone it was. Simon shrugged. "So, uh, how are we going to get down there?" "I don't know. Why don't you tell me, if you know so much?" Jared snapped. "We could...," Simon started, but he trailed off and Jared felt bad. "Let's just try to climb down," said Jared, pointing. "We can jump to that ledge and then try to get to another one." "That's pretty far down. We should get a rope or something."

贾里德用手电照着墙壁，在光线中捕捉到一丝铁锈和一抹赭石。 他不知道那是什么石头。 西蒙耸耸肩。“那么，呃，我们怎么下去呢？”“我不知道。 既然你知道这么多，为什么不告诉我呢？”Jared厉声说。 “我们可以…西蒙开口了，但话音没了，杰瑞德感到很难过。 “我们试着爬下去吧。”杰瑞德指着说。 “我们可以跳到那个窗台上，然后再试着爬到另一个。” “那是相当低的地方。我们应该找根绳子什么的。”

"That's pretty far down."

“那是相当低的地方。”

"We don't have time," Jared said. "Here, hold the light." Thrusting the metal cylinder into his twin's hands, Jared sat on the edge of the cliff. Without the flashlight, when he looked down, he saw only the deep darkness below. Taking a breath, he scooted off, letting himself drop to a stone shelf he could not see. Turning, he started to stand. Light shone in his eyes, blinding him. He stumbled and fell forward. "Are you all right?" Simon called. Jared shaded his face and tried to keep calm. "Yeah. Come on. Your turn." He heard the crunching of dirt above him as Simon got into position. Quickly Jared moved out of the way, feeling ahead of him for an edge he only dimly remembered. Simon landed heavily beside him with a yelp. The flashlight tumbled from Simon's hands and fell into the darkness, hitting the valley floor hard, bouncing once and then lying still, illuminating a thin path of scrub and stone.

“我们没时间了，”贾里德说。 “来，拿着灯。”杰瑞德把金属圆筒塞进双胞胎的手里，坐在悬崖边上。 没有手电筒，当他往下看的时候，他只能看到下面一片漆黑。 他吸了一口气，飞快地跑开了，让自己掉到一个看不见的石头架子上。 他转身站了起来。 光线照在他的眼睛里，使他看不清。 他绊了一下，向前摔倒了。 “你没事吧？”西蒙。 贾里德遮住脸，试图保持冷静。 “是的。来吧。轮到你。” 当西蒙就位时，他听到了头顶泥土的嘎吱声。 贾里德迅速闪开，摸索着前面的边缘，只是依稀记得。 西蒙重重地落在他身边，大叫一声。 手电筒从西蒙手中滑落，落入黑暗中，重重地打在山谷的地面上，弹跳了一下，然后静止不动，照亮了一条由灌木和石头组成的狭窄小路。