Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10 Dan peeked into a cradle. It held a doll, meant to represent the infant William Shakespeare. Maybe the next clue is hidden on that doll somehow, Dan thought. Under its clothes? In its stuffing? Dan reached toward the doll— And felt his whole body jerked backward. Someone had grabbed him by his collar. "Young man!" It was the guide, a woman who had looked deceptively friendly when he, Amy, and Nellie had first walked into the room that was supposedly where Shakespeare had been born. Now she glared down at him. "No touching the artifacts!" she said sternly. "But you just said none of the furniture was original, so—" "It's still hundreds of years old!" the guide said.

丹往摇篮里偷看。 它拿着一个娃娃，代表婴儿时期的威廉·莎士比亚。 也许下一个线索不知怎么就藏在那个娃娃上了，丹想。 在它的衣服下面？在它的填料里？ 丹伸手去摸娃娃，却觉得整个身体都往后一拉。 有人抓住了他的衣领。 “年轻人!”原来是导游，当他、艾米和内莉第一次走进那个据说是莎士比亚出生地的房间时，她看上去很友好。 现在她低头瞪着他。 “不许碰那些神器！”她严厉地说。 “但是你刚才说这些家具都不是原装的，所以——”“还有几百年的历史呢！”向导说。

Would it be pushing his luck if Dan said, "Not the doll. The doll looks plastic"? Before Dan had a chance to decide, the guide shoved him toward the next room. "Out!" she commanded. Amy and Nellie hung back, pretending they didn't know him. Maybe they'd find a lead without him. But when they rejoined him in the garden behind the Shakespeare Birthplace, Amy shook her head glumly. "That guide was a rising bollard!" Dan complained. "Is that another one of the Shakespeare insults?" Nellie asked. "No— it's just something I saw on a road sign a few blocks back," Dan admitted. "'Beware rising bollards'— it must mean speed bumps or something like that. But it sounds like a great insult, doesn't it?" Amy shrugged off her backpack and let it drop to the ground. She'd been carrying around about a dozen Shakespeare books, "just in case." She

如果丹说"不是娃娃。 娃娃看起来是塑料的”？丹还没来得及做出决定，向导就把他推到了隔壁房间。 “出去！”她命令道。艾米和内莉退缩了，假装不认识他。 也许没有他他们也能找到线索。 但当他们在莎士比亚出生地后面的花园里与他重逢时，艾米闷闷不乐地摇了摇头。 “那个向导是一根上升的柱子！”丹抱怨。 “这又是莎士比亚的侮辱吗？”内莉问道。 “不——这只是我在几个街区前的路标上看到的。”丹承认道。 “‘小心上升的护柱’——它一定是指减速带之类的东西。 但这听起来像是一种极大的侮辱，不是吗？”艾米耸耸肩，让背包掉在地上。 她随身带着十几本莎士比亚的书，“以防万一”。 她

seemed to be aiming the backpack at Dan's toes, but he dodged it. "Really, Dan," Amy said. "Did you think you could just grab whatever you wanted with the guide right there? Use your brain!" "I was using my brain," Dan insisted. "I thought that the guide wasn't looking. And that the doll would be the best place to hide a lead. And that we don't have much time. What if somebody else gets the next clue before us?" Amy put her hands on her hips. "Do you see any of the other teams lurking around?" Amy demanded. "No, but—" Dan stopped because Amy was no longer listening. She was glancing around the deserted garden, a baffled look on her face. She walked over to the fence and peered up and down the street. "What are you looking for?" Dan asked. Amy came back, grimacing. "Cahills," she said. "Isn't it weird that none of

似乎把背包对准了丹的脚趾，但他躲开了。 “真的吗，丹，”艾米说。“你以为你可以在导游的陪同下随便拿你想要的东西吗？” 动动脑筋吧！”“我在动脑筋，”丹坚持说。 “我还以为导游没看见呢。 玩偶是藏线索的最佳地点。 而且我们的时间不多了。 如果有人比我们先得到下一条线索怎么办？”艾米把手放在屁股上。 “你看到其他球队在附近潜伏吗？”艾米要求。 “不，但是——”丹停住了，因为艾米不再听了。 她环视着无人居住的花园，一脸困惑。 她走到篱笆旁，上下打量着街道。 “你在找什么？”丹问道。 艾米回来了，做着鬼脸。“卡希尔，”她说。 “这不是很奇怪吗

the others are here?" It was surprising, Dan realized. The other teams had had eighteen hours to catch up with Amy and Dan and Nellie. The Shakespeare Birthplace was already closed when they arrived in Stratford last night— and the house had been locked up tight, with serious-looking bars on every window. So the three of them had had to check into a hotel and wait for morning. "I bet nobody else got as much of the poem back at the Globe as I did," Dan said proudly. "They couldn't figure it out." "Yeah, but coming to Stratford-upon-Avon is pretty obvious if you're looking for something about Shakespeare," Amy argued. "And all of them know about Shakespeare, or they wouldn't have been at the Globe. Maybe we missed something. Maybe the others are at one of the other Shakespeare houses." "Wait— how many Shakespeare birthplaces are there?" Dan asked. He tried not to sound panicked. "The dude was only born once. And that was here. Right?"

其他人都在吗？”丹意识到，这很令人惊讶。 其他队有18个小时赶上艾米、丹和内莉。 当他们昨晚到达斯特拉特福德时，莎士比亚的出生地已经关闭了，房子被锁得严严实实，每扇窗户上都装着严肃的铁栏。 所以他们三个不得不住进旅馆，等待天亮。 “我敢打赌，在《环球报》，没有人能像我一样对这首诗有如此深刻的理解，”丹自豪地说。 “他们搞不明白。” “是的，但是如果你想找一些关于莎士比亚的东西，来埃文河畔的斯特拉特福是很明显的，”艾米争辩道。 “他们都知道莎士比亚，不然他们也不会来环球剧院。 也许我们漏掉了什么。 也许其他的还在别的莎士比亚故居呢。” “等等——莎士比亚的出生地有多少？”丹问道。 他尽量装出惊慌失措的样子。 “这家伙只出生一次。 就在这里。对吗?”

Amy laughed. "Right, as far as anyone knows. But there are four other Shakespeare houses around Stratford," she said. She pulled a book out of her backpack and began leafing through it. "The houses where his wife grew up, where his mother grew up, where his daughter and son-in- law lived, where his granddaughter lived…" "Jeez, why didn't they just save every house the man ever stepped in?" Dan muttered. "Oh, I wish they had!" Amy said wistfully. "Joking, Amy," Dan said. "Big-time joking." "Well, I think we should go to all the other Shakespeare houses, just to be sure," Amy said, looking through the book. "We could start with—" "Oh, no," Dan said, shaking his head. "Remember the poem?" He dug into his pocket and pulled out the scraps they'd brought back from the Globe. They'd carefully taped everything together last night at their hotel. "See this line?" He stabbed his finger at the paper. "'For this great man we sing was bo-orn here.' You said that word had to be 'born.' We wrote it in! So that's where

艾米笑了。“是的，就大家所知。 但斯特拉特福德附近还有另外四处莎士比亚故居。” 她从背包里拿出一本书，开始翻阅。 “他妻子长大的房子，他母亲长大的房子，他女儿和女婿住的房子，他孙女住的房子……”“天哪，他们为什么不把他踏进过的每一栋房子都救出来呢？”丹喃喃自语。 “哦，我真希望他们这么做了！”艾米若有所思地说。 “开玩笑的，艾米，”丹说。“一流的在开玩笑。” “嗯，我想我们应该去所有其他的莎士比亚故居看看，以防万一，”艾米边说边翻阅这本书。 “我们可以从——”“哦，不，”丹摇着头说。 “还记得那首诗吗？”他把手伸进口袋，拿出他们从《环球报》带回来的残片。 昨晚他们在旅馆里小心翼翼地把所有东西粘在一起。 “看到这条线了吗？”他用手指戳报纸。 “我们唱的这位伟人是在这里出生的。”你说那个词必须是“出生”。我们把它写进去了！这就是

we have to look. Just where Shakespeare was born. Just. This. One. Old. House." "Where he was bo-orn," Nellie mocked. "Well, I had to say it that way," Dan said. "It's like the words forced me." Nellie started to laugh. Then she stopped and gaped at him. "Give me that," she said, snatching the paper from Dan. She seemed to be reading it to herself. Her lips moved. Her head bounced up and down, just like it did when she was listening to her iPod. "Iambic pentameter," she muttered. "It's supposed to be iambic pentameter, isn't it?" She bent over and began digging through Amy's backpack. "Got any books analyzing Shakespeare's sonnets?" she asked. "No," Amy said apologetically. "I couldn't buy everything. I only had so much room in my backpack." Nellie sprang up. She looked toward the gift shop, shook her head, and then dashed back into the Shakespeare Birthplace. Amy and Dan exchanged glances and ran after

我们必须看看。就是莎士比亚出生的地方。 而已。这一点。一个。老了。房子。” “他出生的地方，”耐莉嘲笑道。 “嗯，我不得不这么说，”丹说。 “就像这些话逼着我一样。” 内莉笑了起来。然后她停了下来，目瞪口呆地看着他。 “给我，”她说着，从丹手里抢过报纸。 她似乎是在读给自己听。 她的嘴唇动了动。她的头上下跳动，就像她听iPod时那样。 “抑扬格五音步，”她喃喃地说。 “应该是抑扬格五音步，对吧？”她弯下腰开始翻艾米的背包。 “有分析莎士比亚十四行诗的书吗？”她问。 “不，”艾米抱歉地说。 “我不能买所有的东西。 我的背包里只有这么多空间。” 内利跳了起来。她朝礼品店看了看，摇了摇头，然后冲回了莎士比亚的出生地。 艾米和丹交换了一下眼色，然后追了上去