Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24 "YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHGH!" The voices caromed through the clearing, bloodthirsty and loud. Amy was shrieking behind him. The singing had stopped. And then, nothing. No sound at all. Dan could feel his arms shaking. His fingertips were numb around the box. But he was still holding it. Around the clearing, Professor Bardsley's students had gathered, all of them staring downward. The Tomas were… gone. There are traps. Dan was shaking. "I— I don't believe it worked…" he murmured. Where the grassy field had been was now a

第二十四章“啊啊啊啊啊啊啊！”声音在空地上回荡，血腥而响亮。 艾米在他身后尖叫。 歌声停止了。然后，什么都没有。 一点声音也没有。丹能感觉到他的手臂在颤抖。 他的指尖在盒子周围麻木了。 但他仍然拿着它。 在空地周围，巴德斯利教授的学生们都聚集在一起，全都盯着下面。 托马斯一家……走了。这里有陷阱。 丹在颤抖。“我——我不相信它起作用了……”他喃喃地说。 原来的草地现在变成了一片荒地

huge hole, at least ten feet deep and nearly the entire circumference of the clearing. From the bottom, among the throng of bruised and groaning Tomas heroes, Mr. Malusi lay dazed. "Dan, what did you just do?" Amy was pulling him from behind, shrieking. Numbly, Dan pulled out the rolled-up map. "Mr. Mondli gave us this. It's a topographical map. It shows this humongous trap. I don't know what they catch in here. Maybe rhinos." Professor Bardsley was wiping his brow with a handkerchief. "Brilliant, my boy. I don't know if we'd have made it without you!" "Without Shaka," Dan corrected. Move the body forward, then let the horns form outward to the side. Squeeze your enemy. "The buffalo horn formation worked in battle," Dan went on. "People still use the technique in wars. These guys weren't going where we wanted them to. We needed to get them to move. I just thought we could… learn from history, I guess." "Wait," Nellie said. "Is that Dan Cahill talking?" The Tomas were lying below him in a vast pit,

一个巨大的洞，至少有十英尺深，几乎覆盖了整个空地。 马鲁西昏昏沉沉的躺在一群伤痕累累、呻吟着的托马斯英雄中间。 “丹，你刚刚做了什么？”艾米尖叫着从后面拉着他。 丹麻木地拿出卷起来的地图。 “蒙德里先生给了我们这个。这是一张地形图。 它显示了这个巨大的陷阱。 我不知道他们在这里抓什么。 也许犀牛。”巴德斯利教授正在用手帕擦额头。 “太棒了，孩子。要是没有你，我真不知道我们能不能成功！”“没有沙卡。”丹纠正道。 将身体向前移动，然后让角向外形成。 挤压你的敌人。“水牛角的队形在战斗中发挥了作用，”丹接着说。 “人们仍然在战争中使用这种技术。 这些家伙不会去我们想让他们去的地方。 我们得让他们行动起来。 我只是觉得我们可以……从历史中吸取教训，我想。” “等等，”内莉说。“是丹·卡希尔在说话吗？”托马斯一家躺在他下面的一个大坑里，

moaning, arguing, trying to scrabble up the nearly vertical sides. The students stood at the edge, singing another song in a foreign language with flowing harmonies. Professor Bardsley smiled. "French," he said." 'Mon coeur se recommande à vous.' Orlando di Lasso. One of your grandmother's favorites. And mine." "The box, Dan," Amy hissed. "Open the box!" Dan tried to yank the top off, but pieces of the cactuslike plant were still jammed into the crack. "Let me try," Amy said, smacking the top. She pulled it open and broken plant roots spilled out. But even more had grown into the box through the crack. The insides seemed like one solid- packed tin of plant root. "Whoa," said Dan, "it's like tuna." Kurt produced a pocketknife. "You may need this," he said. Amy stabbed the knife into the roots, chipping them away. "There's something in here," she murmured. "Yeah, pressed cactus," Dan said. "Not cactus." Kurt smiled. "That is umhlaba,

呻吟，争吵，试图爬上几乎垂直的边缘。 学生们站在墙边，又用外语唱了一首歌，乐声悠扬。 巴德斯利教授笑了。 “法国人，”他说。“Mon coeur，我建议你吃点牛肉。”奥兰多·迪·拉索。 这是你祖母的最爱之一。 和我的。”“盒子，丹，”艾米嘶嘶地说。 “打开盒子！”丹试图把顶部扯下来，但仙人掌状植物的碎片仍然卡在裂缝里。 “让我试试，”艾米说着，拍了拍陀螺。 她把它拉开，折断的植物根撒了出来。 但更多的东西从裂缝里钻进了盒子。 里面看起来就像一罐结实的植物根。 “哇，”丹说，“就像金枪鱼。” 库尔特拿出一把小刀。 “你可能需要这个，”他说。 艾米用刀刺进树根，把它们削掉了。 “这里有东西，”她喃喃地说。 “是的，压过的仙人掌，”丹说。 “不是仙人掌。”库尔特笑了。 “那是umhlaba，

also known as inhlaba, a medicinal plant. You'd call it aloe. It helps with many ailments. It's fairly unique to this part of the world." "Dan, look!" Amy was pulling out a delicate piece of jewelry, a bracelet with gems that caught the sunlight, reflecting it in sharp pinpoints of light. She dropped the box and let the piece hang so it could be fully seen. A glittering arrangement spelled out SHAKA. "May I?" Professor Bardsley held the bracelet up to the light. He pulled out a small knife from his pocket and scratched one of the stones. "Dear God, those are diamonds. Do you know how much this is worth?" Dan reached out, running his fingers over the clear, cool stones. He recalled the words of the old man at the Shaka Museum in Durban: Churchill was obsessed with Shaka. That is why he traveled to South Africa. Not to report. Not to fight. To find out about the isipho. "Um, guys?" Dan said. "Do any of you know the word isipho?" "A Zulu word," Professor Bardsley said. "It

也称为inhlaba，一种药用植物。 你会叫它芦荟。它对许多疾病都有帮助。 这在这个地区是相当独特的。” “丹,看!”艾米拿出一件精致的首饰，那是一个镶嵌着宝石的手镯，可以捕捉阳光，反射出尖锐的光点。 她放下盒子，把那件作品挂起来，这样就能看清楚了。 一个闪闪发光的字拼成了SHAKA。 “我可以吗?”巴德斯利教授把手镯举到灯光下。 他从口袋里掏出一把小刀，在其中一块石头上划了一下。 “亲爱的上帝，那些是钻石。 你知道这东西值多少钱吗？”丹伸出手，用手指抚摸着清澈凉爽的石头。 他回忆起德班沙卡博物馆一位老人的话：丘吉尔痴迷于沙卡。 这就是他前往南非的原因。 不报告。不要打架。 去了解伊西弗。 “嗯,伙计们?”丹说。“你们有人知道isipho这个词吗？”“一个祖鲁语单词。”巴德斯利教授说。 “这

means gift." Dan's brain was swirling. Churchill had been on a mission. He was obsessed with the Tomas Clue. He had been jailed, had hidden in a mine— and none of that had stopped him. As the men walked ahead, Dan murmured to Amy and Nellie, "In his note, Churchill said he wanted the thing that was in the ground with Shaka— and remember what the guy at the museum said? He was after the isipho! This is the Tomas clue, Amy!" Diamond. The most magical of substances. Organic matter—plants, trees, animal remains— compressed by time and the earth's weight into the hardest, most brilliant substance known. He held the bracelet to the sun, through the dappled cover of the trees. The diamonds had been hidden for who knew how long, and yet they shot back the sun's light with a radiance that was nearly blinding. "We should have guessed," Amy said, taking back the bracelet. "Wars, apartheid— all of it happened because of the diamonds in the soil." "Everyone wanted it, and people were willing to

意思是礼物。”丹的脑子一片混乱。 丘吉尔当时正在执行一项任务。 他痴迷于托马斯的线索。 他被关进监狱，藏在矿井里——这一切都没能阻止他。 当他们走在前面时，丹低声对艾米和内莉说：“丘吉尔在纸条上说，他想要和沙卡一起埋在地下的东西——还记得博物馆的那个人说的话吗？” 他在追伊西弗！这是托马斯的线索，艾米！”钻石。 最神奇的物质。 有机物质——植物、树木、动物的遗体——被时间和地球的重量压缩成最坚硬、最明亮的物质。 透过斑驳的树荫，他把手链拿向太阳。 这些钻石不知道藏了多久，但它们反射了太阳的光芒，几乎令人目眩。 “我们应该猜到的，”艾米说着拿回了手镯。 “战争、种族隔离——这一切的发生都是因为土壤里的钻石。” “每个人都想要它，人们也愿意

kill to get it…" Dan said. "Sounds like the secret to the thirty-nine clues." "You will pay for this," Mr. Malusi's voice called out from inside the pit. "You are thieves of identity and thieves of our property!" Amy wanted to throw something at him. She counted to ten and unclenched her teeth, holding tight to the bracelet. Taking it from Malusi would be the perfect revenge. But she realized something: She wasn't sure if it rightfully belonged to the Tomas, but it sure wasn't hers, either. Amy took a step forward. Kurt started to follow, but she motioned for him to stay and walked to the edge of the hole and looked down. "Um, about that shield you stole from the museum in Durban?" Mr. Malusi glared at her silently. "Maybe the Tomas still believe that one good turn deserves another," she continued softly. The bracelet was beautiful, and valuable. But the hunt was about knowledge, not possession. She gave the bracelet a look, then tossed it down

为了得到它不惜杀人……”丹说。 “听起来像是39条线索的秘密。” “你会为此付出代价的，”马鲁西的声音从坑里传来。 “你们是盗用我们身份的窃贼，也是盗用我们财产的窃贼！”艾米想朝他扔东西。 她数到十，松开牙齿，紧紧地抓着手镯。 把它从马鲁西手里夺走就是完美的报复。 但她意识到一件事：她不确定它是否属于托马斯一家，但肯定也不是她的。 艾米向前迈了一步。库尔特开始跟着，但她示意他留下来，走到洞的边缘，往下看。 “嗯，关于你从德班博物馆偷的那面盾牌吗？”马鲁西先生默默地瞪着她。 “也许托马斯一家仍然相信善有善报，”她温柔地接着说。 手镯很漂亮，很值钱。 但狩猎是为了获取知识，而不是占有。 她看了一眼手镯，然后把它扔了下去