Chapter 19

Chapter 19 Dan was thrilled that the second clue had been safely smuggled out of the church in his pants. "So, really, I saved the day," he decided. "Wait a minute," Amy said. "I climbed onto the roof in the middle of a thunderstorm." "Yeah, but the clue was in my pants." Amy rolled her eyes. "You're right, Dan. You are the real hero." Nellie cracked a smile. "You both did pretty good, if you ask me." They were sitting together at a café on the Champs-élysées, watching the pedestrians and enjoying more pain au chocolat. It was the morning after the storm. The sky was blue. They'd already packed their bags and checked out of the Maison des Gardons. All things considered,

第19章丹很激动，因为第二条线索已经被装在他的裤子里偷偷带出了教堂。 “所以，真的，我拯救了这一天，”他决定。 “等一下，”艾米说。 “我在雷雨天爬上了屋顶。” “是的，但线索在我的裤子里。” 艾米翻了个白眼。“你说得对，丹。 你才是真正的英雄。”内莉笑了。 “要我说，你们俩都做得很好。” 他们一起坐在香榭丽舍大街上的一家咖啡馆里，看着行人，享受着更多的巧克力。 那是暴风雨过后的早晨。 天空是蓝色的。他们已经收拾好行李，结帐离开了花园之家。 考虑到所有的事情，

Dan felt lucky. He still had some doubts about what they'd gone through. In particular, he didn't like that Ian and Natalie had gotten away. He'd hated being tied up, and he wanted to get back at Ian. But it could've been worse. At least they hadn't gotten lost forever in the Catacombs or slammed in the face with a box of ice cream. "I still want to know what was in that vial, though," he said. Amy twirled her hair thoughtfully. "Whatever it is, it's supposed to give one team an advantage freeing the truth — that has to mean the final treasure of the contest. Since Ian and Natalie have the vial … well, I've got a bad feeling we'll find out what it does pretty quick." "If these Lucian dudes created it," Nellie said, chewing on her croissant, "maybe it's like some special kind of poison. They seem to love poisons." "Maybe," Dan said, though the answer felt wrong. He still didn't like the idea that Ben Franklin was related to Ian and Natalie. He'd started to admire Franklin — what with the fart

丹感到很幸运。他对他们所经历的一切仍然有些怀疑。 特别是，他不喜欢伊恩和娜塔莉逃走了。 他讨厌被绑起来，他想报复伊恩。 但情况可能会更糟。 至少他们没有在地下墓穴里永远迷路，也没有被一盒冰淇淋砸到脸。 “不过，我还是想知道那个小瓶子里装的是什么，”他说。 艾米若有所思地捻着头发。 “不管是什么，它都应该给一方带来优势，释放真相——这必须意味着比赛的最终宝藏。” 既然伊恩和娜塔莉有药瓶，我有一种不好的预感，我们很快就会知道它的作用了。” “如果是这些卢西恩人发明的，”内莉一边嚼着牛角面包一边说，“也许它就像某种特殊的毒药。 它们似乎喜欢毒药。” “也许吧。”丹说，尽管他觉得答案不对。 他仍然不喜欢本·富兰克林与伊恩和娜塔莉有亲戚关系的想法。 他开始佩服富兰克林了——因为他放了个屁

essays and the lightning and all. Now he wasn't sure if old Ben was a good guy or a bad guy. "But what would poison have to do with a piece of sheet music?" Amy took the parchment out of her backpack and spread it on the table. Dan had already studied it a dozen times. He knew it was an exact copy of the song they'd seen engraved on the stone pedestal in the secret room, but he didn't know why it was important. When he'd woken up that morning, Amy had already been researching on his laptop. Usually she didn't like the Internet. For some weird reason, she said books were better, so Dan knew she must've been really desperate for information. "I found it online," Amy said. "How?" Dan said. "I did a search for Benjamin Franklin plus music. It came up right away. That's an adagio for armonica." "Ben Franklin's instrument," Dan remembered. "The water on the glass rims thing." "Yeah, but I have a feeling this is more than a musical score." Amy sat forward. Her eyes were

随笔，闪电什么的。 现在他不确定老本是好人还是坏人。 “但是毒药和一张乐谱有什么关系呢？”艾米从背包里拿出羊皮纸，铺在桌子上。 丹已经研究了十几遍了。 他知道这是他们在密室里看到的刻在石头基座上的那首歌的一模一样的复制品，但他不知道为什么这很重要。 那天早上他醒来时，艾米已经在他的笔记本电脑上进行研究了。 通常她不喜欢互联网。 出于某种奇怪的原因，她说书更好，所以丹知道她一定非常渴望得到信息。 “我在网上找到的，”艾米说。 “如何?”丹说。“我搜索了本杰明·富兰克林加音乐。 它马上就出现了。这是手风琴的慢板。” “本·富兰克林的乐器，”丹回忆道。 “玻璃边缘上的水” “是的，但我有一种感觉，这不仅仅是一个乐谱。” 艾米向前坐着。她的眼睛是

bright, like she knew a secret. "We found the song and downloaded it. Listen." Nellie handed over her iPod. "Not my kind of music. But whatever." Dan listened. He felt like he was being filled with helium. The music was so familiar and beautiful it made him want to float across Paris, but it also confused him. Usually he had no trouble remembering things, but he could not recall where he'd heard this music before. "I know this song …" "Dad used to play it," Amy said. "In his study, when he was working. He played it all the time." Dan wanted to remember what Amy was talking about. He wanted to listen to the song over and over until he could see their dad in his study. But Nellie took back the iPod. "Sorry, kiddo. You've still got, like, mud in your ears." "The notes are a code," Amy said. "The whole piece of music is some kind of message." "And our parents knew about it," Dan said in amazement. "But what does it mean?" "I don't know," Amy admitted. "But, Dan, you remember how Mr. McIntyre said the thirty-nine

很聪明，好像她知道什么秘密。 “我们找到了这首歌并下载了它。 听。”内莉把她的iPod递了过来。 “不是我喜欢的那种音乐。但不管。” 丹听。他觉得自己被氦气填满了。 音乐是如此熟悉和美丽，使他想漂浮在巴黎，但也让他感到困惑。 通常情况下，他的记忆力很好，但他记不起以前在哪里听过这种音乐。 “我知道这首歌……”“爸爸以前经常弹这首歌，”艾米说。 “在他的书房里，在他工作的时候。 他一直在玩。” 丹想记住艾米在说什么。 他想一遍又一遍地听这首歌，直到他能看到他们的爸爸在书房里。 但内莉收回了iPod。 “对不起,老姐。你耳朵里好像还有泥巴。” “这些纸条是密码，”艾米说。 “整首曲子都在传递某种信息。” “我们的父母也知道这件事，”丹惊讶地说。 “但这是什么意思呢？”“我不知道，”艾米承认。 “可是，丹，你还记得麦金太尔先生是怎么说那三十九个人的

clues are pieces of a puzzle?" "Yeah." "I started thinking about that last night, after you decoded that message on the vial. I started wondering … why wasn't the first clue like that?" She brought out the crème paper they'd paid two million dollars for. Dan's scrawled notes filled the back side. On the front side was their first clue: RESOLUTION: The fine print to guess, Seek out Richard S_______. Nellie frowned. "That led you to Franklin, right? Wasn't that the answer?" "Only partly," Amy said. "It's also the first piece of the puzzle. It's a clue to an actual thing.

线索是拼图的一部分吗？”“是的。” “昨晚你破译了药瓶上的信息之后，我就开始想这件事了。 我开始想……为什么第一个线索不是这样的？”她拿出了那份他们花了两百万美元买下的报纸。 丹潦草的笔记填满了背面。 在正面是他们的第一个线索：决议：猜测的小字，寻找理查德S_______。 内莉皱起了眉头。“这让你想到了富兰克林，对吗？” 这不就是答案吗？”“只有一部分，”艾米说。 “这也是拼图的第一块。 这是真实存在的线索。

That clicked for me last night when you mentioned anagrams, Dan." He shook his head. "I don't get it." She took out a pen and wrote RESOLUTION. "You asked me why this word was part of the clue. I didn't understand until now. We're supposed to guess the fine print." She passed the paper and pen to Dan. "Solve the anagram." Dan stared at the letters. Suddenly, he felt like he'd been zapped by a Frankin battery. The letters rearranged themselves in his mind. He picked up the pen and wrote: IRON SOLUTE "I don't believe it," Nellie said. "This whole thing was about iron solute?" "It's the first piece of the puzzle," Amy said. "It's an ingredient, or a component, or something like that." "For what?" Dan asked. Amy pursed her lips. "Iron solute could be used for chemistry, or metalworking, or even printing. There's no way to tell, yet. And we don't know how much we're supposed to use. Every time Franklin mentioned iron solute, he just wrote

昨晚你提到字谜游戏时，我恍然大悟，丹。” 他摇了摇头。“我不明白。” 她拿出一支笔，写下了“决心”。 “你问我为什么这个词是线索的一部分。 直到现在我才明白。 我们应该去猜细则。” 她把纸和笔递给丹。 “解字谜。”丹盯着那些字母。 突然，他觉得自己被富兰克林电池击中了。 这些字母在他的脑子里重新排列起来。 他拿起笔写道：“我不相信，”内莉说。 “这整件事都是关于铁溶质的？”“这是拼图的第一块，”艾米说。 “它是一种成分，或一个组成部分，或类似的东西。” “为了什么?”丹问道。艾米噘起了嘴。 “铁溶质可以用于化学，金属加工，甚至印刷。 目前还没有办法知道。 我们不知道应该用多少。 每次富兰克林提到溶质铁，他就写