Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14 This is terrible! Amy thought, staring at Dan's tombstone rubbing. We can't dig up Shakespeare's grave! We can't! It wasn't like the Clue hunt hadn't forced them to be grave diggers before. But this was William Shakespeare…. "Amy," Dan said very, very softly, so no one else could hear. "If we don't do this, one of the others will. Eventually, they'll find the rest of the poem or just start digging because they can't think of anything else to try." Amy looked around. Just ahead of them, Jonah was saying into his cell phone, probably to one of his parents, "Yeah, saw the tomb. Even got a drawing of it from Dan. And I've got a report ready to send you." If Jonah Wizard decided to dig up Shakespeare's grave, he'd probably buy the

这太可怕了！艾米想，盯着丹的墓碑摩擦。 我们不能挖莎士比亚的坟墓！我们不能!这并不是说线索搜寻之前没有迫使他们成为掘墓人。 这是威廉·莎士比亚.... “艾米，”丹轻轻地说，这样别人就听不见了。 “如果我们不这么做，其他人会这么做。 最终，他们会找到诗的其余部分，或者只是开始挖掘，因为他们想不出其他可以尝试的东西。” 艾米环顾四周。就在他们前面，约拿对着手机说，可能是对他的父母说的，“是的，我看到坟墓了。 丹还给我画了张图。 我有一份报告准备发给你。” 如果巫师约拿决定挖莎士比亚的坟墓，他可能会买

church first, have it torn down, hire a bunch of bulldozers and backhoes to do the digging… and then just throw away Shakespeare's body when he was done. If the Holts dug up Shakespeare's grave, they'd probably use his skull for football practice. Oh, they wouldn't plan to. But with the Holts, everything ended up being about sports. If… Amy couldn't go on imagining dire possibilities. "Why do so many things in the clue hunt come down to deciding between bad choices?" she asked Dan. "I knew you'd agree to do this!" Dan said, beaming. "We'll be respectful about it," Amy said. "We won't disturb anything we don't have to. We'll put everything back the way we found it—" "Except the next clue," Dan said. Fiske Cahill and William McIntyre sat in a private room in a restaurant on the banks of the river Avon. The view was lovely— the trees, the sky,

先把教堂拆掉，雇一堆推土机和挖土机来挖，然后等莎士比亚的尸体挖完就把他扔了。 如果霍尔特夫妇挖了莎士比亚的坟墓，他们可能会用他的头骨来练足球。 哦，他们不打算这么做。 但在霍尔特家，一切都与体育有关。 如果艾米不能继续想象可怕的可能性 她问丹：“为什么在寻找线索的过程中，这么多事情都归结为在错误的选择中做出决定？” “我就知道你会同意的！”丹笑着说。 “我们会尊重你的，”艾米说。 “我们不会打扰任何不必要的事情。 我们会把东西放回原来的样子——”“除了下一条线索，”丹说。 菲斯克·卡希尔和威廉·麦金太尔坐在埃文河岸边一家餐馆的一间包间里。 景色很美——树木，天空，

the boats bobbing gently in the water— but neither man was paying attention. Mr. McIntyre was talking on his cell phone. Fiske Cahill was wishing that his bold, decisive sister Grace were still alive. This was not a new wish for Fiske— he'd missed his sister desperately ever since she died. But the Clue hunt was winding toward its most dangerous moments. Fiske himself would have to make judgments that could help save or ruin everything. "You were always better than me at that kind of thing, sis," he whispered. He reminded himself that so much more depended on Dan and Amy than on him. But how was that fair? Mr. McIntyre said, "Yes, thank you. Good-bye," and shut his phone. "Our friend at the church says everyone has departed now," Mr. McIntyre reported. "He believes that master Dan was the only one who found the lead. But someone from each of the other teams was there. And no one was fighting." Fiske nodded once, curtly, accepting this.

船在水里轻轻摆动，但两人都没有注意。 麦金太尔先生正在打电话。 菲斯克·卡希尔希望他勇敢果断的妹妹格蕾丝还活着。 对菲斯克来说，这并不是一个新的愿望——自从姐姐去世以来，他一直非常想念她。 但是，寻找线索的行动正走向最危险的时刻。 菲斯克自己必须做出判断，这可能有助于挽救或毁掉一切。 “姐姐，你在这方面总是比我强。”他低声说。 他提醒自己，更多的是依靠丹和艾米，而不是他。 但这怎么公平呢？麦金太尔先生说：“是的，谢谢。 说着，他关掉了手机。 “我们在教堂的朋友说现在大家都走了，”麦金太尔说。 “他相信丹大师是唯一找到线索的人。 但其他两队的人都去了。 没有人打架。”菲斯克简短地点了点头，接受了这一点。

"So it was not too risky tipping off each team to go to the church," Mr. McIntyre added, almost sounding cheerful. Fiske stood and went over to stand by the window. He wished he could have seen how Amy and Dan had looked, coming out of the church. Were they happy? Confident? Excited? Or was the Clue hunt wearing on them? Could their bright young lives be destroyed as their parents' had been destroyed? "This round isn't over yet," Fiske said. "Look what happened when we handed out all those tickets to the Globe." "You know we have to keep forcing the branches together," Mr. McIntyre said. "There's no other choice. What's the Shakespeare quote? 'There is a tide in the affairs of men/Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.' We had to memorize that whole speech in school. This clue hunt— it's like that tide for the Madrigals. This is our best shot in five hundred years for reuniting the Cahills. And, as you know, it's more important than ever that we succeed." His

“所以通知每个团队去教堂并不是太冒险，”麦金太尔补充说，听起来几乎很高兴。 菲斯克站起来，走过去站在窗边。 他真希望自己能看到艾米和丹从教堂出来时的样子。 他们快乐吗？有信心吗? 兴奋?还是线索搜寻让他们厌倦了？ 他们年轻有为的生活是否会像他们的父母一样被毁掉呢？ “这一轮还没有结束，”菲斯克说。 “看看我们把环球剧院的票分发出去后发生了什么。” 麦金太尔说，“你知道，我们必须不断把这些分支机构挤在一起。” “没有别的选择。莎士比亚的名言是什么？ “人生总有潮汐，在大浪尖上抓住潮水，就会走向好运。”在学校的时候，我们不得不背下整篇演讲稿。 寻找线索，就像牧歌里的潮水。 这是五百年来让卡希尔家族重聚的最好机会。 正如你们所知，我们的成功比以往任何时候都重要。” 他的

expression turned grim again. "It's our last chance." Fiske had never done well in school. He'd been too shy and awkward to feel comfortable sitting in class, or even just with a private tutor. But he was pretty sure that Shakespeare's next line after 'leads on to fortune' was something about miserable failure. "You do know the play that that line's from —Julius Caesar—you do know that it all ends in tragedy," Fiske said. "Don't you?" "We've got to tell Nellie," Amy whispered. "And get some supplies back at the hotel," Dan whispered back. "And by then it will be dark and we can sneak back into the church," Amy said, finishing their plans. They waited for the others to get far ahead of them and then they took a circuitous route back to the hotel. The whole village of Stratford seemed to be closing up for the night. A block from their hotel, they rounded a corner

表情又变得阴沉起来。 “这是我们最后的机会。”菲斯克在学校一直表现不好。 他太害羞，太笨拙，坐在教室里感觉不舒服，甚至连和私人教师在一起都不舒服。 但他很确定，莎士比亚在“lead on to fortune”之后的下一句话是关于悲惨的失败的。 菲斯克说：“你知道这句台词出自《凯撒大帝》，你知道一切都以悲剧告终。” “你不要?”“我们得告诉内莉，”艾美低声说。 “去旅馆拿些补给品。”丹小声回答。 “到那时天就黑了，我们就可以溜回教堂了。”艾米说完他们的计划。 他们等着其他人走在他们前面很远的地方，然后绕道回到旅馆。 整个斯特拉特福德村似乎都要关门歇业了。 在离旅馆一个街区的地方，他们拐了个弯

—and saw Nellie on the sidewalk, talking to Alistair. "Well, that's very kind of you to invite us to join you for bangers and mash for dinner tonight," Nellie was saying. Amy and Dan began frantically shaking their heads at Nellie, behind Alistair's back. "But we're all really tired," Nellie said, without changing her expression. "I think we'll just order room service and go to bed early." Amy and Dan nodded and darted back around the corner. They walked all the way around the block to get to the hotel. At each corner they flattened themselves against the wall and looked first, just in case. In the room, Saladin let out an angry Mrrp! that clearly meant, What? You left me alone all day and now you're going to abandon me again? Dan grabbed a flashlight. Amy grabbed the best tool she could find in a rush: a metal nail file. As they started to leave the hotel, she pulled out her phone to call Nellie. "Didn't you see how close Alistair was standing

看见奈莉在人行道上和阿利斯泰尔说话。 “嗯，你真是太好了，邀请我们今晚和你一起吃香肠和土豆泥，”内莉说。 艾米和丹开始在阿利斯泰尔背后疯狂地向内莉摇头。 “可我们都真的累了，”内莉说，脸上没有改变表情。 “我想我们还是叫客房服务，早点睡觉吧。” 艾米和丹点了点头，跑回拐角。 他们绕了一个街区才到旅馆。 在每个角落，他们都靠在墙上，先看一看，以防万一。 在房间里，萨拉丁发出一声愤怒的“Mrrp!”这句话的意思很明显，什么？ 你让我一个人待了一整天现在又要抛弃我？ 丹抓起手电筒。艾米匆忙抓起她能找到的最好的工具：一把金属指甲锉。 当他们开始离开酒店时，她拿出手机给内莉打电话。 “你没看见阿利斯泰尔站得有多近吗