Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16 A short while later, Amy sat back on her heels. "Ken's right. There's nothing here. It was all too long ago." They'd searched the simply furnished room thoroughly, including the small closet. Nothing remained from the home that Bob Troppo had made there. "I hate dead ends," Dan muttered. "I thought for sure we'd lucked out." They got up wearily and went back out into the crazily patterned hallway. Amy turned back for a last look and stopped dead. She pointed to the wall on top of the doorway. "Dan, look!" Amid old postcards from all over the world, crazy drawings, and loopy scrawled messages there was a silly drawing.

过了一会儿，艾美又坐了起来。 “肯是正确的。这里什么都没有。 那都是很久以前的事了。”他们彻底搜查了这个陈设简单的房间，包括那个小壁橱。 鲍勃·特罗波在那里建的家什么也没留下。 “我讨厌死胡同。”丹喃喃地说。 “我以为我们很幸运。” 他们疲惫地站起来，回到外面那条图案古怪的走廊。 艾米回头看了最后一眼，突然停了下来。 她指着门口的墙。 “丹,看!”在来自世界各地的旧明信片、疯狂的图画和潦草的留言中，有一幅傻乎乎的画。

"Mom drew this," Amy said breathlessly, pointing to the heart. "I know it. It's drawn with a purple pen! And look, the eyes are red and the smile is blue. She used to make us heart-shaped waffles with strawberries for eyes and a blueberry smile." "Everybody's mom does that," Dan said. "But do they do zucchini curls for hair? Look! Green!" Dan gave her a pained look. "I liked to dip the zucchini in syrup." "HA," Dan said. "Okay, I know it's gross, but—" "No, HA. It could stand for Hope and Arthur. They were here!" Dan shivered with a sudden chill, as though the ghosts of their parents were right there underground with them. "Do you think they knew we'd come here?"

“这是妈妈画的，”艾米指着那颗心上气不接下气地说。 “我知道。它是用紫色的笔画的！看，眼睛是红色的，笑容是蓝色的。 她以前经常给我们做心形的华夫饼，眼睛是草莓，还有蓝莓的微笑。” “每个人的妈妈都这么做，”丹说。 “但是他们会做西葫芦卷吗？” 看！绿色!”丹痛苦地看了她一眼。 “我喜欢把西葫芦浸在糖浆里。” “哈，”丹说。“好吧，我知道这很恶心，但是——”“不，哈。 它可以代表霍普和亚瑟。 他们在这里！”丹突然打了个寒颤，仿佛他们父母的鬼魂就在地下和他们在一起。 “你觉得他们知道我们会来这里吗？”

Amy whispered. Dan shook his head. "They'd never think we'd be going on the clue hunt. Did Grace know about the waffle zucchini thing?" Amy nodded. "Sure. She made them for me, too." "It must be a message for Grace, then," Dan said. "They were telling her where to go." "Where?" Dan pointed to the last word. "The old mine." It was late afternoon, but it was still brutally hot. The heat shimmered and bounced. Dan had to squint to see the map that Ken had made for them. They stood on the hill behind Ken's house. Or, Dan corrected in his mind, on top of Ken's house. "It's an old minefield back there, see," Ken had said, "so watch out for mine shafts— they're not all marked. The old ventilation shaft for Fossie's room is still there— you'll see it near the circle of orange flags. Take the first mine shaft past the flags and head down. Then head back the way you

艾米低声说。丹摇了摇头。 “他们绝不会想到我们会去寻找线索。 格蕾丝知道华夫饼西葫芦的事吗？”艾米点点头。 “当然。她也是为我做的。” “那么，这一定是给格蕾丝的信了。”丹说。 “他们告诉她该去哪里。” “在哪里?”丹指着最后一个字。 “老矿。”已经是下午晚些时候了，但还是热得要命。 热气闪烁着，弹跳着。 丹不得不眯着眼睛看肯恩给他们做的地图。 他们站在肯屋后的小山上。 或者，丹在心里纠正，在肯的房子顶上。 “那边是个老雷区，你看，”肯恩说过，“所以小心矿井——它们不是都有标记的。 化石房间的旧通风井还在那里——你会在橙色旗帜圈附近看到它。 从第一个矿井穿过旗子，往下走。 然后按原路返回

came. Easy as pie, not that pie is easy to make, heh!" They left their bags and Saladin with Ken, who had rooms to rent for the night. Jeff had to get back to work, meeting a busload of tourists, but Shep, Nellie, Amy, and Dan carefully made their way through the field. They saw the orange warning flags, brilliant against the blue sky. "There's the ventilation shaft right there," Shep said, pointing. "So we take the next mine shaft over." "This isn't exactly what I had in mind when I agreed to bring you here," Shep added, avoiding a mine shaft. "A little sightseeing, a little relaxation, sure. But climbing into an old mine isn't my idea of recreation." "You don't have to come," Dan said. "You can wait for us at the pub." "I'm not letting you go down alone," Shep said. "I haven't been there for you in the past, but I can do it now." He grinned. "I'm here to protect you against the ghost of Amelia Earhart. Or the principal without a face."

来了。Easy as pie，不是说馅饼容易做，呵呵！”他们把行李和萨拉丁留给肯，肯有房间出租过夜。 杰夫不得不回去工作，迎接一车的游客，但谢普、内莉、艾米和丹小心翼翼地穿过田野。 他们看到了橙色的警旗，在蓝天的映衬下熠熠生辉。 “那边就是通风井，”谢普指着说。 “那我们就挖下一个矿井。” “当我同意带你来这里时，这可不是我想要的，”谢普补充道，避开了矿井。 “去观光，放松一下，当然。 但爬进一个老矿可不是我的娱乐。” “你不必来，”丹说。 “你可以在酒吧等我们。” “我不会让你一个人下去的，”谢普说。 “过去我没有陪在你身边，但现在我可以了。” 他咧嘴一笑。"我是来保护你不受阿米莉亚·埃尔哈特鬼魂的伤害的。 或者校长没有脸。”

"Assistant principal," Dan corrected. "Here we are," Nellie said. She stopped at a shaft. An iron ladder led straight down to a bottom they couldn't see. "Well, let's get to it," Shep said. "If we don't come up in an hour, Jeff will come looking for us. Unless he forgets." Shep balanced carefully and started to climb down. Dan went after him. His fingers slipped on the metal, and he gripped it harder, his heart pounding. Why did they always end up underground? Caves, train tunnels, catacombs… Were the Cahills vampires? Did they hate the sun? Nellie swung down, and Amy brought up the rear. It was a long way to the bottom. Darkness crept over them, but there was enough light from the top to barely make out the rungs. Finally, Dan heard Shep's voice. "I'm there. It's about forty feet, I'm guessing." A light switched on. When his feet finally hit the ground, Dan let out a shaky breath of relief. Not that he'd tell anyone how he felt. But he was creeped out by being so far below, down a little hole.

“副校长，”丹纠正道。 “我们到了，”内莉说。 她在一个竖井前停了下来。一架铁梯直通到他们看不见的底部。 “好吧，我们开始吧，”谢普说。 “如果我们一小时内不上来，杰夫就会来找我们。 除非他忘了。”谢普小心地保持平衡，开始往下爬。 丹跟在他后面。他的手指在金属上滑了一下，他抓得更紧了，心怦怦直跳。 为什么他们最后都躲在地下？ 洞穴，火车隧道，地下墓穴…卡希尔家族是吸血鬼吗？ 他们讨厌太阳吗？内莉荡了下来，艾美在后面。 通往底部的路很长。 黑暗笼罩着他们，但顶部的光线足以勉强看清梯级。 最后，丹听到了谢普的声音。 “我在那里。我猜大概有四十英尺。” 一盏灯开了。当他的脚终于着地时，丹颤抖地松了一口气。 但他不会告诉任何人他的感受。 但他被下面这么远的一个小洞吓了一跳。

They had all bought powerful lights in town, and Dan turned his on. The glow illuminated the shaft. A forgotten lantern lay caked with dust in a corner. The walls themselves looked as though they'd been hacked and gouged out by hand. "All right. If we follow the main tunnel and turn left, we should find Bob's mine," Shep said. Dan felt his lungs begin to constrict. With every step they disturbed more dust, and he felt the familiar tightness in his chest. "Are you okay?" Amy whispered. "Fine," he answered. He never liked to admit when he had trouble with his breathing. Nellie slipped the inhaler into his hand and he took a quick hit. He shot her a grateful look. The tunnel grew narrower. Every few feet they came to another spot that had been worked by a miner. Dan had expected the walls to glitter in many colors like opals, but they were a dull, chalky beige. The tunnel narrowed further and then twisted sharply right. A pile of rubble lay in front of an opening.

他们都在城里买了大功率的灯，丹打开了他的灯。 灯光照亮了矿井。 一盏被遗忘的灯笼落满了灰尘，放在角落里。 这些墙本身看起来就像是被人用手砍过凿出来的。 “好吧。如果我们沿着主隧道往左拐，就能找到鲍勃的矿井。”谢普说。 丹感到他的肺开始收缩。 他们每走一步，就会掀翻更多的灰尘，他感到胸口有一种熟悉的紧绷感。 “你还好吗？”艾米低声说。 “很好，”他回答。当他呼吸困难时，他从不愿意承认。 内莉把吸入器塞到他手里，他迅速吸了一口。 他感激地看了她一眼。 隧道越来越窄了。每隔几英尺，他们就来到一个被矿工挖过的地方。 丹原以为墙壁会像蛋白石一样闪烁着多种颜色，但它们却是暗淡的、白垩色的米色。 隧道进一步变窄，然后向右急转弯。 一堆碎石躺在一个洞口的前面。