Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17 The snake slithered across the small room. Dan didn't think it looked happy about falling forty feet onto the floor. "Don't panic. Just let it go about its business," Shep said in a whisper. "I wouldn't dream of interfering," Nellie said, backing away. "In its venom is a neurotoxin that can cause paralysis," Dan said. "But it also contains a myotoxin. Which means it can break down your muscle tissue…" "We really don't need the details," Nellie said. "Can't we condense it to— don't let it bite ya?" The orange-brown snake made its way slowly toward the exit to the main tunnel. Its tongue flicked out and in. It must have been seven feet long. They held their breath as its head rose. But it just curled up and rested on the mine floor.

第十七章蛇从小房间里滑过。 丹觉得它从四十英尺高的地方掉到地上看起来并不开心。 “不要恐慌。让它去做自己的事吧，”谢普低声说。 “我做梦也不想干涉，"内莉说，一面往后退。 “它的毒液中含有一种神经毒素，可以导致瘫痪，”丹说。 但它也含有一种肌毒素。 这意味着它可以分解你的肌肉组织……”“我们真的不需要细节，”内利说。 “我们能不能把它浓缩成——别让它咬了你？”那条橙褐色的蛇慢慢地向主隧道的出口走去。 它的舌头一伸一缩。 它一定有七英尺长。 当它的头升起时，他们屏住了呼吸。 但它只是蜷缩起来，停在了矿井的地板上。

They'd have to step over it in order to get out. Shep reached out and picked up a hammer. "It'll move eventually. We can wait." Dan felt the familiar squeezing in his chest. His breath came out in a wheeze. He coughed, and Amy shot him a concerned look. "You okay?" "Okay." He could barely get the word out. "Dan! Your inhaler!" Nellie's voice was urgent. "It's in your pocket." He reached into his pocket. Stuffed in there was the packaging from a candy bar, a cool rock he'd found in Shep's garden, and a chunk of granola bar he was saving for later. He tugged, and the inhaler popped out, flew in the air, and landed on the mine floor. It rolled toward the snake. Everyone's heart seemed to stop. The only sound was Dan's labored breath. The inhaler stopped rolling just inches from the taipan. Dan's wheezing got worse, and his hands flew to his chest. "I'll get it," Nellie said.

他们必须跨过它才能出去。 谢普伸手拿起一把锤子。 “它最终会移动。我们可以等。” 丹感到胸口有种熟悉的挤压感。 他呼哧呼哧地喘了口气。 他咳嗽了一下，艾美关切地看了他一眼。 “你没事吧?”“好吧。”他几乎没能把消息传出去。 “丹!你的吸入器!”耐莉的声音很急切。 “它在你的口袋里。”他把手伸进口袋。 里面塞着一块糖果棒的包装，一块他在谢普家花园里找到的很酷的石头，还有一大块他留着以后吃的格兰诺拉麦片棒。 他用力一拉，吸入器弹了出来，飞向空中，落在了矿井的地板上。 它向蛇滚去。 每个人的心跳似乎都停止了。 唯一的声音是丹吃力的呼吸声。 吸入器在离太班几英寸的地方停止滚动。 丹的喘息变得更严重了，他的手飞到胸前。 “我去拿，”内莉说。

"No." Shep's voice was quiet but rang with authority, and he was already moving. He kept the hammer cocked into position in case the snake struck. Shep walked closer. The snake's tongue flickered. Swiftly, Shep kicked the inhaler back toward Nellie. Then he jumped back as the snake moved. It slithered another inch or two, then stopped. Amy let out a shaky breath. Nellie knocked a spider off the inhaler with her shoe. Quickly, she handed it to Dan. He felt his lungs open. The rattling breathing eased. But his chest still felt tight. He still struggled. This was a bad one. There was so much dust in the air, and it wasn't helping his nerves to be in a cave full of poisonous creatures. He leaned over as black spots swarmed in his vision. Panic makes it worse, he told himself. "Just keep breathing, nice and slow, Dan-o," Nellie said. She turned to Shep. "We've got to get Dan out of here. He needs medical attention." Dan was scared that he didn't have the breath to say I'm okay.

“没有。”谢普的声音很平静，但却充满了权威，他已经开始行动了。 他一直把锤子翘好，以防蛇来袭。 谢普走近了。蛇的舌头抖动着。 谢普迅速把吸入器踢回给奈莉。 然后，当蛇移动时，他跳了回去。 它又滑了一两英寸，然后停了下来。 艾米颤抖地呼了口气。 内莉用鞋子把一只蜘蛛从吸入器上踢了下来。 她迅速地把它递给了丹。 他感到自己的肺张开了。急促的呼吸声缓和了。 但他的胸口还是觉得很紧。 他仍在挣扎。这是个坏消息。 空气中有那么多的灰尘，在一个充满有毒生物的洞穴里，这对他的神经没有帮助。 他俯下身去，黑点在他的视野中蜂拥而至。 恐慌只会让事情变得更糟，他告诉自己。 “保持呼吸，慢慢地，丹欧，”内莉说。 她转向谢普。“我们得把丹弄出去。 他需要治疗。” 丹很害怕，因为他不敢说我没事。

A spider crawled up Amy's sneaker, and she yelped and jumped away. "It's all right, it's not poisonous," Shep told her. He called over to Nellie. "Get the toolbox. Careful, make sure there's nothing crawling in there." Gingerly, Nellie picked up the toolbox. She handed it to Shep. "Let's pay Ken a surprise visit," Shep said. "We just have to make a new door. Hang in there, Dan." He swung at the wall with the hammer. A chunk fell off onto the floor. "Hand me a hammer," Nellie said. "I'll help." "You two, keep your eyes on the taipan and the spiders," Shep said. "If they move this way, tell me." He bashed on the wall and it splintered into chunks. Nellie swung with powerful strokes. Within a few minutes, they had cleared a hole in the wall big enough to step through. Dan went first, and then one by one, they climbed into Ken's closet. Dan sat on the floor, struggling to breathe.

一只蜘蛛爬上了艾米的运动鞋，她尖叫着跳开了。 “没关系，它没有毒，”谢普告诉她。 他朝内利喊道。“去拿工具箱。 小心点，确保没有东西爬进去。” 内莉小心翼翼地拿起工具箱。 她把它递给了谢普。“我们给肯来个突然拜访吧，”谢普说。 “我们只需要做一扇新门。 坚持住，丹。”他用锤子朝墙上挥去。 一大块东西掉到了地板上。 “递给我一把锤子，”内莉说。 “我会帮助。”“你们两个，盯着大班和蜘蛛，”谢普说。 “如果他们朝这边走，告诉我。” 他猛击墙壁，墙壁裂成了大块。 内莉挥杆有力。 几分钟之内，他们就在墙上挖出了一个大到可以走过去的洞。 丹先去了，然后他们一个接一个地爬进了肯的衣柜。 丹坐在地板上，挣扎着呼吸。

"He needs a doctor," Nellie said anxiously. "Call Jeff and tell him it's an emergency," Shep said. "And then tell him to call the police." By the time they reached the doctor, Dan was already feeling better. He was given a checkup and a warning to stay out of the opal mines. Dan agreed immediately. "That's the first time I've ever heard you say 'yes, sir' to an authority figure and mean it," Nellie said with a grin as they got back into Ken's car. She slung an arm around his shoulders and even kissed the top of his head, but Dan didn't mind. "Don't scare me like that again, dude," she said. "Or else." "Yeah," Amy added. "Maybe we should leave mines off our itinerary for awhile." She said the words lightly, but she still felt shaky from seeing her brother look so pale and sick. Ken wasn't happy when he took a peek in his spare room and found out he'd lost a wall in the closet. Not to mention that a number of deadly creatures lay on the other side. With the help of

“他需要看医生，”内莉焦急地说。 “打电话给杰夫，告诉他有紧急情况，”谢普说。 “然后让他报警。” 他们去看医生的时候，丹已经感觉好多了。 他接受了体检，并被警告远离蛋白石矿。 丹立刻同意了。“这是我第一次听到你对一位权威人士说‘是的，先生’，而且是认真的。”当他们回到肯恩的车里时，内莉笑着说。 她伸出一只胳膊搂住他的肩膀，甚至亲吻了他的头顶，但丹并不介意。 “老兄，别再那样吓唬我了，”她说。 “否则”。“是的，”艾米补充道。 “也许我们应该暂时把地雷从我们的行程中去掉。” 她说得很轻，但看到哥哥脸色苍白，她还是觉得浑身发抖。 肯很不高兴，他瞥了一眼他的空房间，发现他失去了一面墙的壁橱。 更不用说还有许多致命的生物躺在另一边。 在…的帮助下

some experts in Coober Pedy, the snake and the spiders were trapped and taken away. The police asked questions, but Dan and Amy had no answers. Shep couldn't seem to lose his worried frown. Finally, Jeff and Shep volunteered to take Ken down to the pub in order to calm him down. It had been one long day. But Amy was itching to research the initials they'd found on the leather envelope. After a quick dinner, she fired up Dan's laptop. "Okay," she said, her fingers poised over the keys. "What do we search for? Plugging in the letters RCH is going to get us exactly nowhere." "I think we should figure that the C maybe stands for Cahill?" Dan suggested. Amy nodded. "I was thinking the same thing. And if we can place him in Sydney in 1896, let's say he was at least in his twenties? So that means he was born somewhere around…" "The 1870s," Dan said. Amy opened a search engine. "Okay. Let's start with Robert Cahill something… just in case Bob was his real name. I'll try… Robert Cahill with

库伯佩迪的一些专家把蛇和蜘蛛困住带走了。 警察问了一些问题，但丹和艾米没有答案。 谢普似乎无法摆脱他那忧虑的皱眉。 最后，杰夫和谢普自愿带肯去酒吧，让他冷静下来。 这是漫长的一天。但艾米迫不及待地想研究一下他们在皮信封上发现的首字母。 匆匆吃过晚饭后，她打开了丹的笔记本电脑。 “好吧，”她说，手指在琴键上摆好姿势。 “我们要找什么？”输入RCH这两个字母对我们毫无帮助。” “我想我们应该考虑一下，C可能代表卡希尔？”丹建议。 艾米点点头。我也在想同样的事情。 如果我们把他放在1896年的悉尼，假设他至少20多岁吧？ 也就是说他出生在……”“19世纪70年代，”丹说。 艾米打开了一个搜索引擎。 “好吧。我们先从罗伯特·卡希尔开始吧，以防鲍勃是他的真名。 我试试，罗伯特·卡荷尔