Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11 Hamilton Holt, it turned out, was a flagpole– climbing champ. Part of his dad's training regimen for the family, he explained to Dan, was climbing all manner of obstacles. Dan received detailed instructions in exchange for a promise to tell Hamilton what, if anything, was inside the horn. "I don't know—" Amy said doubtfully. "It's worth the risk," Dan argued. "There might be nothing inside. And even if there is something, I didn't promise to give it to him, only to tell him what it is." He reviewed Hamilton's instructions. "Ham said that if the pole's metal, clothes make you slip." He pulled off his T–shirt. Nellie's eyes widened. "So you're supposed to take off all your clothes?" "Are you out of your mind?" Dan said. "I'm not climbing this thing naked!"

原来，汉密尔顿·霍尔特是个爬旗杆冠军。 他向丹解释说，他父亲的家庭训练计划的一部分是攀登各种各样的障碍。 丹得到了详细的指示，作为交换，他答应告诉汉密尔顿喇叭里有什么，如果有的话。 “我不知道——”艾米疑惑地说。 “值得冒这个险，”丹说。 “里面可能什么也没有。 即使有什么东西，我也没有答应给他，只是告诉他那是什么。” 他回顾了汉密尔顿的指示。 “哈姆说如果杆子是金属的，衣服会让你滑倒。” 他脱下t恤。 内莉睁大了眼睛。“所以你应该脱掉所有的衣服？”“你疯了吗？”丹说。 “我才不要光着身子爬这个东西！”

"I didn't say that— you said—" "He said to wear sneakers and strip down as much as possible," Dan said. "I don't think I have to be completely naked." Nellie covered her mouth with her hand and turned away; Amy cleared her throat several times. Both of them were clearly hiding giggles. So immature. He decided to ignore them for the moment. "I'm supposed to keep my body as close to the pole as I can by wrapping my legs around it." Dan said. "Then I reach up with my hands, reposition my feet, and hike myself higher." "Be careful," Amy said. She and Nellie stood on opposite sides of the base of the sculpture. Dan took one last look at the horn. Then he grabbed the pole, wrapped his legs around it, and began pulling himself up a little at a time. The ridges of the twisted pole dug into his sunburned legs, making him wince. After about six inches of progress, he let go and dropped back down to the ground. "Okay," he said, flexing his fingers and hands. It

“我可没那么说，是你说的——”“他说穿运动鞋，尽量脱掉衣服，”丹说。 “我不认为我必须全裸。” 内莉用手捂住嘴，转过身去；艾米清了几次嗓子。 两人显然都在掩饰自己的笑声。 所以不成熟。他决定暂时不去管他们。 “我应该把腿绕在杆子上，让身体尽可能靠近杆子。” 丹说。“然后我伸出我的手，重新调整我的脚，把自己爬得更高。” “小心，”艾米说。她和内莉分别站在雕塑基座的两侧。 丹最后看了一眼喇叭。 然后他抓住杆子，把腿绕在杆子上，开始一点点往上爬。 那根扭曲的杆子刺进了他被太阳晒黑的腿，让他畏缩了一下。 在爬了大约6英寸后，他松手了，又掉到了地上。 “好吧，”他说着，伸出手指和双手。 它

hurt to grip so hard. "I've got the feel of it." He gazed again at the top of the pole; the horn suddenly looked much farther away. "It's harder than I thought." "Want me to try?" Nellie asked. "No, thanks, I'll give it another shot." He felt almost insulted by the offer. "If we gave you a boost, you could start up higher," Amy suggested. With some maneuvering, several grunts, and more than one "ouch," they managed to get Dan standing with one foot on Nellie's shoulder and the other on Amy's, holding on to the pole. "Way better," he said. He was now already almost halfway to the top. Cautiously, he took his right foot off Amy's shoulder and wrapped his leg around the pole. "Here I go," he said, and took his left foot off Nellie. Hands— feet— hands— feet… Hamilton had said to keep an even rhythm. It was almost like Dan's hands started looking forward to the tiny rest they got when he let go to move them up

疼得抓得这么紧。“我已经有了这种感觉。” 他又盯着杆子的顶端；喇叭突然看起来远多了。 “这比我想象的要难。” “要我试试吗？”内莉问道。 “不，谢谢，我再试一次。” 这个提议几乎侮辱了他。 “如果我们帮你一把，你可以从更高的位置开始，”艾米建议道。 他们做了一些动作，哼哼了几声，还有不止一声“哎哟”，他们成功地让丹站起来，一只脚站在内莉的肩膀上，另一只脚站在艾米的肩膀上，抓住杆子。 “好多了，”他说。他现在已经快爬到半山腰了。 他小心翼翼地把右脚从艾米的肩膀上挪开，把腿绕在柱子上。 “我走了，”他说着，把左脚从耐莉身上挪开。 手-脚-手-脚……汉密尔顿说过要保持均匀的节奏。 几乎就像丹的手开始期待着当他放手让它们向上移动时得到的小小的休息

farther. In what seemed like almost no time, he reached the top. "I did it!" he called down to the girls. First mistake. He was much higher than he'd expected! It wasn't like being in a plane or on top of a building— there was nothing keeping him in the air but his own muscle power. Dan gulped. Okay, so don't look down again, he told himself firmly. "Look in the horn!" Amy was calling back. "Do you see anything?" Now things got tricky. He was right up against the side of the horn. The flared opening jutted out from the pole almost an arm's length. There was no way he could look into the opening. "I can't look into it," he said. "I'm just going to have to try to reach in." He held on with his left hand and stretched out his right. Gingerly, he put his hand inside. Nothing but the horn's metal interior. He adjusted his grip on the pole and reached in a little farther. Then he felt something else—

更远。在几乎没有时间的情况下，他到达了山顶。 “我成功了！”他朝下面的姑娘们喊道。 第一个错误。他比他想象的要高得多！这不像在飞机上，也不像在楼顶上——除了自己的肌肉力量，没有什么能让他在空中停留。 丹一饮而尽。好吧，那就别再往下看了，他坚定地告诉自己。 “看角里！”艾米回电话了。 “你看见什么了吗？”现在事情变得棘手了。 他就站在喇叭边上。 喇叭开口从柱子上伸出来，几乎有一臂长。 他不可能看到洞口。 “我不能调查，”他说。 “我只能试着伸手进去了。” 他左手紧握，右手伸出。 他小心翼翼地把手伸了进去。 除了角的金属内部什么也没有。 他调整了一下抓杆的姿势，把手伸得更远了一点。 接着，他又感到了另一种感觉——

prickly? No, crawly… "YIKES!" he shouted. With a panicked motion of his hand, he swept out whatever it was he had just touched and flung it toward the ground. Amy knew what it was as soon as she saw it falling. She knew because it was her secret nightmare: She would recognize it instantly, anywhere. Sharks, scary. Venomous snakes, scary. Huge spiders, scary. But for Amy, this particular creature was beyond scary. It wasn't just frightening. It was almost… evil. Amy knew this was irrational. Animals weren't evil. They were what they were, and maybe she should even admire this one. It had been in existence for millions of years, surviving when other species had been unable to adapt. But she couldn't help it. Her fear seemed to come from so deep inside it was part of her DNA— a complete and instinctive kind of fear. She could hardly have seen more than its color

多刺的?“哎呀！”他喊道。 他惊慌失措地挥了挥手，把刚才摸到的东西一扫而光，扔到地上。 艾米一看到它掉下来就知道是什么了。 她知道，因为这是她的秘密噩梦：无论在哪里，她都会立刻认出它。 鲨鱼,吓人。毒蛇，可怕。 巨大的蜘蛛，可怕。但对艾米来说，这只特殊的生物太可怕了。 这不仅仅是可怕。 这几乎是……邪恶。艾米知道这是不理智的。 动物并不邪恶。他们就是他们，也许她甚至应该钦佩这一个。 它已经存在了数百万年，在其他物种无法适应的时候存活了下来。 但她没办法。她的恐惧似乎来自内心深处，是她DNA的一部分——一种完全的、本能的恐惧。 除了它的颜色，她几乎什么也看不见

and size— dark and small— as it fell through the air when the word exploded in her mind. Scorpion! As Amy watched in utter horror, the scorpion fell onto Nellie's head, bounced once, and landed on her back, just below her shoulder. "Nellie," she whispered. It wasn't even really a whisper; she had barely moved her lips. Amy felt a familiar panic. The kind where she would end up frozen, unable to move or speak. NO! she yelled at herself. DON'T FREEZE— move something, anything! She clenched and unclenched her fists. Just once, but somehow it seemed to help. She could almost feel the blood moving through her hands and arms and up into her body. Now she forced her voice out of hiding. "Nellie," she said. "Do. Not. Move." Amy crouched down and picked up the T–shirt Dan had thrown on the ground. Then she tiptoed

尺寸——又黑又小——当这个词在她脑海中爆炸时，它在空中消失了。 蝎子!艾米惊恐地看着，蝎子落在奈莉的头上，弹了一下，落在她的背上，刚好在她的肩膀下面。 “耐莉，”她低声说。这甚至算不上真正的耳语；她的嘴唇几乎没有动。 艾米感到一种熟悉的恐慌。 她最终会被冻住，无法移动或说话。 不!她对自己大喊大叫。 不要冻结——移动任何东西，任何东西！她握紧拳头，又松开拳头。 就一次，但不知怎的，它似乎有所帮助。 她几乎能感觉到血液流过她的手和胳膊，流到她的身体里。 现在她强忍住自己的声音，不再躲藏。 “内莉，”她说。”做的。不是。 动。”艾米蹲下来捡起丹扔在地上的t恤。 然后她踮起脚尖