25 The Man from Dorris

The Man from D.o.R.R.i.S. W-W-What?" said Ebenezer. "No, you can't be, Mr. Clinke!" "I can be and I am. But I'm afraid my name isn't Clinke. I like to jumble up the letters of my name when I'm creating a new identity. The name's Nickle. Well, Mr. Nicholas Nickle the Twenty-Third, if you want to be accurate about it," said the old man. "Do you remember my great-great-great-great-greatgreat- great-great-great-great-great-great

从d.r.r.i.s.来的人……什么？”埃比尼泽说。 “不，你不可能，克林克先生！”“我可以，我就是。 但恐怕我的名字不叫克林克。 当我创建一个新身份时，我喜欢把我名字的字母混在一起。 我叫尼克。嗯，如果你想准确地说，是尼古拉斯·尼克尔第二十三先生。”老人说。 “你还记得我的伟大的伟大的伟大的伟大的伟大的伟大的伟大的伟大的伟大的伟大的伟大

great-great-great-great-great-great-greatgreat- great-grandfather? The whole reason I joined D.o.R.R.i.S. in the first place was because of a story passed down in my family—one of an evil beast who threatened to puddle people, and a strange child named Loser." "Ebenoozer Loser is not my name," said Ebenezer, with as much dignity as he could muster. "Is anyone gonna explain what the flip is going on?" asked Bethany. "This is the retirement-home man I was telling you about," said Ebenezer. "The one who I thought I was helping." "You were helping me," said Mr. Nickle the Twenty-Third. "But perhaps not in the way that you expected…"

great-great-great-great-great-great-greatgreat -曾祖父? 我加入dr。r。r。I。s的全部原因。 首先是因为我们家流传的一个故事——一个扬言要把人弄成水坑的邪恶野兽，还有一个叫Loser的奇怪孩子。” “失败者埃比尼泽不是我的名字，”埃比尼泽说，尽量装出一副庄重的样子。 “有人能解释一下翻转是怎么回事吗？”宝芬妮问。 “这就是我跟你说过的那个住在养老院的人，”埃比尼泽说。 “那个我以为我在帮助的人。” “你是在帮我，”第二十三岁的尼克先生说。 “但也许不是你所期望的那样……”

Mr. Nickle explained how one of the global D.o.R.R.i.S. knowledge gatherers flagged the beastly yard sale and conducted a sweep for supernatural activity. After the sweep came back with intriguing results, D.o.R.R.i.S. decided to send their head agent and number one beast expert into the field. "I arrived the day after the sale. I wanted to stay in a hotel, but D.o.R.R.i.S. insisted that I would blend in more at the retirement home," said Mr. Nickle. "I headed straight for the house to inspect the items from the sale, and that's when you invited me in, Squeezer. As I was leaving, I planted a long-range listening device so I would be able to hear everything that was going on." Mr. Nickle produced the formerly waxy hearing aid from his pocket. The audience

尼克尔解释说，全球d.r.r.i.之一是如何做到这一点的。 知识收集者标记了可怕的庭院拍卖，并进行了一场超自然活动的扫荡。 扫描结果很有趣，d.o.r.r.i.。 决定派他们的首席探员和头号野兽专家去现场。 “我在拍卖的第二天就到了。 我本想住酒店，但dr。r。r。I。s。 坚持让我更多地融入养老院，”尼克尔说。 “我直接去房子里检查拍卖的物品，然后你就邀请我进去了，挤压者。 在我离开的时候，我安装了一个远程监听装置，这样我就能听到发生的一切。” 尼克先生从口袋里掏出了原先是蜡状的助听器。 观众

would have oohed and aahed if they'd had a clue what the heck was happening. "Of course, my suspicions were on this Claudette character from the beginning, but every time I scanned her, the results just suggested that she was an incredibly healthy parrot," continued Mr. Nickle. "So I bided my time and continued looking for clues. Those words you played during Word Jumble helped me an awful lot, Squeezer." At the mention of Claudette's name, Bethany ran across the stage to check on her friend. She was unconscious, but she was breathing. On the other side of the stage, next to an increasingly perplexed Gloria, the beastly egg began to crack. "In my time at D.o.R.R.i.S., I've captured werewolves, humanoids, vengeful ghosts,

如果他们知道发生了什么，他们就会啧啧称赞了。 “当然，我从一开始就怀疑这个名叫克劳德特的角色，但每次我扫描她的时候，结果都表明她是一只非常健康的鹦鹉，”尼克尔继续说。 所以我等待时机，继续寻找线索。 你在拼字游戏中玩的那些词帮了我很大的忙，Squeezer。” 听到克劳德特的名字，宝芬妮跑到舞台另一边去看看她的朋友。 她失去了意识，但还有呼吸。 在舞台的另一边，在越来越困惑的格洛丽亚旁边，那只可恶的蛋开始裂开了。 "我在d.r.r.i.s工作时，抓过狼人，类人生物，复仇心强的鬼魂，

psychopathic printers, demonic iguanas, and even the great slug of the Black Sea. But nothing compares to this—after all, the beast was the whole reason why the organization was set up in the first place," said Mr. Nickle. "I don't know what I'll do next.…" The cracks spread across the egg like a spider stretching its legs. A few of the audience members who were seasoned pantomimegoers were quite tempted to shout out, IT'S BEHIND YOU! but sheer terror prevented them from opening their mouths. "What happens to me?" asked Ebenezer nervously. "What do you mean?" asked Mr. Nickle. "I mean my beastly behavior. All that time I kept it hidden," said Ebenezer.

精神变态的印刷工，恶魔般的鬣蜥，甚至黑海的大蛞蝓。 但没有什么能与此相比——毕竟，这头野兽是该组织成立的全部原因，”尼克尔说。 “我不知道接下来要做什么。裂缝在鸡蛋上蔓延开来，就像蜘蛛伸展腿一样。 一些观众是经验丰富的哑剧观众，他们很想大喊：“它在你身后！”但是纯粹的恐惧使他们不敢开口。 “我怎么了？”埃比尼泽紧张地问。 “你是什么意思？”尼克尔先生问。 “我是说我的野蛮行为。 我一直把它藏起来，”埃比尼泽说。

"Oh, I see," said Mr. Nickle. He scrunched up his wrinkly brow, creating even more lines in his forehead. "Well, I think that your punishment for hiding the beast for five hundred years will have to be… well… the fact that you've lived with the beast for five hundred years. In my books, that's plenty of time served for bad behavior." Ebenezer was so exhausted from the sleeplessness in the attic that he nearly collapsed into sobs of relief; however, he managed to pull himself together, because he didn't want to look stupid in front of his very first secret agent. Whilst he was pulling himself together, a tiny, beastly hand pushed out of the egg. A few seconds later, the other did the same.

“哦，我明白了，”尼克先生说。 他皱起满是皱纹的额头，额头上的皱纹更多了。 “好吧，我认为你把野兽藏了五百年的惩罚应该是……嗯……你和野兽一起生活了五百年。 在我看来，这是为不良行为服刑的足够时间了。” 埃比尼泽在阁楼上睡不着觉，累得几乎要哭起来了。然而，他设法振作起来，因为他不想在他的第一个秘密特工面前显得愚蠢。 正当他振作起来的时候，一只像野兽一样的小手从蛋里伸出来。 几秒钟后，另一个也跟着做了。