Chapter 14

Chapter 14 Amy was all in favor of rushing to the Ile St-Louis, but her stomach had other ideas. They passed a boulangerie, which must've meant bakery judging by the yummy smells, and Dan and she exchanged looks. "Just one stop," they said together. A few minutes later they were sitting on the quay of the river, sharing the best meal they'd ever had. It was only a loaf of bread, but Amy had never tasted anything so good. "See that?" Amy pointed to the top of a nearby church, where a black iron spike rose from the bell tower. "Lightning rod." "Umm," Dan said with his mouth full. "The French were the first ones to test Franklin's theories about lightning rods. A lot of

艾美完全赞成冲到圣路易岛去，但她的胃里却另有想法。 他们经过一家面包房，从香味来看一定是面包店，丹和她交换了一下眼神。 “就一站，”他们一起说。 几分钟后，他们坐在河边，分享着他们吃过的最美味的一餐。 那只是一条面包，但艾美从来没有尝过这么好吃的东西。 “看到了吗?”艾米指了指附近一座教堂的顶部，钟楼上竖起了一根黑色的铁钉。 “避雷针”。“嗯，”丹嘴里塞满了东西。 法国人是第一批验证富兰克林关于避雷针理论的人。 很多

the old buildings still have original Franklin models." "Mmm!" Dan said enthusiastically, but Amy wasn't sure whether he liked the story or the bread. The sun was going down behind a bulkhead of black clouds. Thunder rumbled in the distance, but the Parisians didn't seem too concerned. Joggers and skaters crowded the riverside. A sightseeing boat loaded with tourists hummed along on the Seine. Amy tried to use the Starlings' cell phone to call Nellie, but the phone was dead. Apparently, it wasn't set up to get a signal in France. Her nerves were still buzzing from their raid on the Lucian stronghold. Despite all the security, it still seemed like they'd gotten in and out pretty easily, and she wasn't sure why. She also didn't like the stuff Dan had taken — the Franklin battery and that weird metal sphere. She knew better than to argue with him about it, though. Once he got his hands on something, he hardly ever let it go. She wondered how Irina Spasky had gotten

老建筑里还保留着富兰克林的原始模型。” “嗯!”丹热情地说，但艾米不确定他是喜欢这个故事还是喜欢面包。 太阳正落在乌云后面。 远处雷声隆隆，但巴黎人似乎并不太担心。 河边挤满了慢跑者和溜冰者。 一艘载满游客的观光船在塞纳河上嗡嗡地行驶。 艾米试图用斯特林夫妇的手机打给内莉，但电话没电了。 显然，它的设置不是为了在法国接收信号。 她的神经还在因为他们袭击卢西恩的据点而嗡嗡作响。 尽管有这么多安全措施，他们似乎还是很容易进出，她不知道为什么。 她也不喜欢丹拿走的东西——富兰克林电池和那个奇怪的金属球。 不过，她知道最好不要和他争论这件事。 一旦他得到了什么东西，他就不会轻易放手。 她想知道伊琳娜·斯帕斯基是怎么得到的

the book from Uncle Alistair, and why she would be interested in the Ile St-Louis. It felt like a trap, but it was Amy's only lead — or at least, the only lead she wanted to think about. Her mother's note in the Poor Richard's Almanack — the Maze of Bones — still gave her chills. She tried to imagine what her mother or Grace would do in her place. They would be braver. They'd see what to do more clearly. Her mother had once searched for these same clues. Amy was sure of that now. Grace had intended Amy to take up the challenge, but what if Amy wasn't up to it? So far she felt like she'd done a terrible job. Every time she'd needed to speak up, she failed. The other teams probably thought she was a mumbling loser. If it wasn't for Dan, she would've been lost. Just thinking about it made a lump form in her throat. They finished the bread. Amy knew they needed to get moving. She stared at the darkening sky and tried to remember details from her Paris guidebooks. "There aren't any Métro lines to Ile St-Louis," she said. "We'll have to walk." "Let's do it!" Dan hopped to his feet.

阿利斯泰尔叔叔的书，以及她为什么会对圣路易岛感兴趣。 这感觉像是一个陷阱，但这是艾米唯一的线索——或者至少是她想要考虑的唯一线索。 她母亲在《穷理查年鉴》上的注释——《骨头迷宫》——至今仍令她不寒而栗。 她试着想象她的母亲或格蕾丝在她的位置上会怎么做。 他们会更勇敢。他们会更清楚地知道该怎么做。 她的母亲也曾寻找过同样的线索。 艾米现在确信了这一点。格蕾丝希望艾米接受挑战，但如果艾米无法胜任呢？ 到目前为止，她觉得自己做得很糟糕。 每次她需要说出来，她都失败了。 其他球队可能认为她是个喃喃自语的失败者。 如果不是丹，她早就迷路了。 一想到这，她的喉咙里就哽住了。 他们吃完了面包。艾米知道他们需要行动起来。 她凝视着逐渐变暗的天空，努力回忆巴黎旅游指南上的细节。 她说：“到圣路易斯岛（Ile St-Louis）没有任何msamtro线路。” “我们得走着去。”“我们开始吧！”丹跳了起来。

Amy couldn't believe how quickly his spirits had rebounded. A few minutes ago, he'd been complaining about his feet and his heavy backpack. Now, a hunk of bread later, he was as good as new. Amy wished she was like that. She felt like lying down and sleeping for a century, but she wasn't going to tell that to Dan. It was full dark by the time they got to the Pont Louis-Philippe. The old stone bridge was lined with streetlamps that glowed against the water. On the opposite side rose a cluster of trees and mansions — the Ile St-Louis. To the north was a larger island, with a huge cathedral lit up yellow in the night. "That's the Ile de la Cité over there," Amy said as they walked across, mostly to keep herself calm. "And that's Notre Dame Cathedral." "Cool," Dan said. "You think we can see the hunchback?" "Um … maybe later." Amy decided not to tell him that the hunchback of Notre Dame was just a character in a book. "Anyway, the smaller island we're going to — the Ile St-Louis — the tour books hardly said anything about it. Mostly old

艾米简直不敢相信他的情绪恢复得这么快。 几分钟前，他还在抱怨自己的脚和沉重的背包。 现在，吃了一大块面包后，他就像新的一样了。 艾米希望她也像那样。 她想躺下睡上一个世纪，但她不想告诉丹。 当他们到达路易-菲力浦桥时，天已经完全黑了。 那座古老的石桥两旁挂着街灯，在水面的映衬下闪闪发光。 对面耸立着一簇树木和豪宅——圣路易岛。 北边是一个更大的岛，岛上有一座巨大的大教堂，在夜晚亮着黄色的光。 “那边是橘子岛，”她们走过来时，艾米说，她这样做主要是为了让自己保持冷静。 “那就是巴黎圣母院。” “酷，”丹说。“你觉得我们能看见驼背吗？”“嗯……等会儿吧。” 艾米决定不告诉他，巴黎圣母院的驼背只是书中的一个人物。 “不管怎么说，我们要去的那个小岛——圣路易岛——旅游手册上几乎没有提到它。 主要是老

houses and shops and stuff. I don't know why Irina would be looking there." "No Ben Franklin history?" Amy shook her head. "It used to be called the Island of the Cows, because that's all that lived there. Then they turned it into a neighborhood." "Cows," Dan said. "Exciting." After the other parts of Paris they'd seen, the Ile St-Louis felt like a ghost town. The narrow streets were lined with elegant old apartments — five stories tall with black gabled roofs. Most of the windows were dark. A lot of the shops were closed. Streetlamps cast weird shadows through the branches of the trees, making monster shapes on the walls. Amy was too old to believe in monsters, but the shadows still made her uneasy. An elderly couple crossed the street in front of them. Amy wondered if it was her imagination, or if the couple really glanced at her suspiciously before they disappeared into an alleyway. On the next block, a guy in a beret was walking a Labrador retriever. He smiled as he passed Amy and Dan, but his expression reminded Amy of Ian Kabra — like he knew a secret.

房子，商店等等。 我不知道为什么伊琳娜会看那里。” “没有本·富兰克林的历史？”艾米摇了摇头。 “它过去被称为牛岛，因为那里住的都是牛。 然后他们把它变成了一个社区。” “奶牛，”丹说。“令人兴奋”。 在他们看过巴黎的其他地方之后，圣路易岛感觉就像一座鬼城。 狭窄的街道两旁排列着优雅的老式公寓——五层楼高，屋顶是黑色的山墙。 大多数窗户都是黑的。 许多商店都关门了。 路灯在树枝上投下奇怪的阴影，在墙上形成怪物的形状。 艾米年纪太大了，不相信有怪物，但阴影仍然让她感到不安。 一对老夫妇在他们前面过马路。 艾米不知道这是她的想象，还是那对夫妇在消失在小巷之前真的怀疑地瞥了她一眼。 在下一个街区，一个戴贝雷帽的人正在遛一条拉布拉多猎犬。 他微笑着走过艾米和丹，但他的表情让艾米想起了伊恩·卡布拉——就像他知道一个秘密。

You're just getting paranoid, she told herself. Or was it possible there were other people seeking the clues, people that weren't even part of the seven teams? She glanced at Dan but decided not to say anything about this … not yet. The contest was already overwhelming enough. After another hundred yards, they found the Rue des Jardins. It was narrower than the streets around it, with crumbling stone buildings that might've stood there for centuries. Amy counted the street numbers. She stopped abruptly. "Dan … 23 Rue des Jardins. Are you sure?" "Yeah. Why?" Amy pointed. There was no building at 23 Rue des Jardins. Instead, ringed with a rusty iron fence, was a tiny cemetery. At the back stood a marble mausoleum. In front, a dozen weathered headstones slanted every direction like crooked teeth. The cemetery was sandwiched by tall buildings on either side. The one on the right said MUSéE. The one on the left must've been some kind of shop once, but the windows were painted black

你只是多疑了，她对自己说。 或者有可能还有其他人在寻找线索，这些人甚至不是七个小组的成员？ 她瞥了丹一眼，但决定什么也不说……暂时不说。 这场竞争已经足够势不可挡了。 又走了一百码，他们找到了花园街。 它比周围的街道要窄，周围是摇摇欲坠的石头建筑，这些建筑可能已经矗立了几个世纪。 艾米数着街道号码。 她突然停了下来。“丹……花园街23号。” 你确定吗？”“是的。为什么?”艾米指出。 花园街23号没有房子。 取而代之的是一个小小的墓地，周围是生锈的铁栅栏。 屋后矗立着一座大理石陵墓。 在前面，十几块风化的墓碑像歪歪扭扭的牙齿一样向各个方向倾斜。 墓地两侧被高楼大厦夹在中间。 右边的那个写的是mus<e:1>。 左边的那间肯定曾经是什么商店，但窗户被漆成了黑色