Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4 Natalie Kabra had been having nightmares for more than a week. The same dream every night, in perfect clarity and detail: Amy Cahill— her hair looking like it had never been styled in her entire life— and her brother, Dan, (ditto) in an airplane hangar, tied to chairs, helpless as the propeller of a plane came closer and closer. But there was no noise. Their mouths were wide open, screaming, and the propeller was whirling at top speed. Yet the silence was complete, as if someone had hit the MUTE button on a TV remote. In the dream, Natalie was standing right next to them. She wasn't tied to a chair, but she couldn't move, either; she was frozen where she stood. She could see Ian beside her mother, his face ashen with dread. The propeller would hit Dan first,

娜塔莉·卡布拉一个多星期来一直做噩梦。 每天晚上都做同样的梦，非常清晰和详细：艾米·卡希尔——她的头发看起来像是她一生中从未做过的——和她的哥哥丹（同上）在一个飞机库里，被绑在椅子上，无助地看着飞机的螺旋桨越来越近。 但是没有声音。他们的嘴张得大大的，尖叫着，螺旋桨以最快的速度旋转着。 然而，全场一片寂静，就好像有人按下了电视遥控器上的静音键。 在梦里，娜塔莉就站在他们旁边。 她没有被绑在椅子上，但她也不能动；她站在那里僵住了。 她可以看到伊恩站在母亲身边，他的脸因恐惧而变得苍白。 螺旋桨会先撞到丹，

then Amy, and then— The volume came back on again, full blast. But still no propeller noise, no screaming. Just one sound. Laughter. That sound always jerked Natalie out of sleep. Instantly, she was heart–thumpingly, sweat– drenchingly awake. She would turn on her bedside lamp immediately. She had to reassure herself that she was in her own room, every inch of it designed by the same decorator who worked for the British royal family. The familiar paintings on the walls (originals, of course), her custom– made desk and chair in their usual positions, her perfect couture outfit for the next day hanging on the closet door. Despite these reassurances, it always took her a long time to fall asleep again. And every morning, the dream seemed foolish, as bad dreams so often do. The horror faded, and Natalie imagined that she had remembered it wrong, that she wasn't standing next to Dan and Amy but in her proper place, alongside her mother and brother.

然后是艾米，然后——音量又开了，开到最大。 但还是没有螺旋桨声，没有尖叫声。 就一个声音。笑声。那声音总是把娜塔莉从睡梦中惊醒。 她立刻心怦怦直跳，汗流浃背地醒了过来。 她会立刻打开床头的灯。 她必须让自己放心，她是在自己的房间里，房间的每一寸都是由为英国王室工作的同一位设计师设计的。 墙上挂着熟悉的画（当然是原作），她定制的桌子和椅子摆放在平常的位置，她第二天穿的完美的高级定制服装挂在壁橱门上。 尽管有这些安慰，她还是要过很长时间才能再次入睡。 每天早上，这个梦都显得很愚蠢，就像噩梦经常做的那样。 恐惧消退了，娜塔莉觉得自己记错了，她不是站在丹和艾米旁边，而是站在合适的位置上，站在她母亲和哥哥旁边。

Yes. She was, after all, a Kabra. The very best kind of Cahill. None of the others even came close, most especially Dan and Amy. The thought would have been laughable if it weren't so pathetic. EAST END OF ISLAND. CAVE. Amy and Dan stared at the decoded message scrawled in the sand. "Not again," Amy said in alarm. Dan snapped his fingers. "Maybe there are cats living in the cave!" "Well, if there are, I bet they aren't nice fuzzy house pets," Amy pointed out. "Tigers and— and panthers, those are the kinds of cats that live in caves." "Tigers don't live in the Caribbean," Dan said. "And stray cats might live in caves." Amy glanced around quickly. "Stamp it out," she said. Dan complied, and the water did its part by washing away some of the letters.

是。她毕竟是卡布拉家族的一员。 最好的卡荷尔。 其他人都差得远，尤其是丹和艾米。 如果不是这么可悲的话，这个想法本来是可笑的。 岛的东端。洞穴。艾米和丹盯着潦草地写在沙子上的解码信息。 “别再来了，”艾米惊慌地说。 丹打了个响指。“也许有猫住在洞里！”“好吧，如果有的话，我敢打赌它们不会是毛茸茸的家养宠物，”艾米指出。 “老虎和——还有黑豹，这些都是住在山洞里的猫。” “老虎不生活在加勒比海，”丹说。 “流浪猫可能住在山洞里。” 艾米迅速环顾四周。 “把它扑灭，”她说。丹照做了，水冲走了一些字母。

They walked back to where Nellie was sunbathing to pick up their backpacks. "Where are you going?" she asked, raising herself on one elbow. "To a c—" Dan started to say. "For a walk," Amy said loudly, cutting him off. "I'll go with you," Nellie said, sitting up. "No, thanks," Amy said. Nellie pushed her sunglasses onto the top of her head. "Amy, come on," she said. "Whatever you might think of me now, you gotta give me one thing: I've always done my best to keep you guys safe." Amy hesitated. Caves could be dangerous. If anything happened… Potential danger or potential traitor, which was worse? Once again, the hunt was forcing Amy to make choices she had never dreamed she'd face. "You can come with us," she said to Nellie. "We're going to a cave. But once we get there, we go in by ourselves, got it?" That way, if they found something there, they

他们走回内莉晒日光浴的地方，拿起他们的背包。 “你去哪儿？”她用一只胳膊肘撑着身子问道。 “到c——”丹开始说。 “去散步，”艾米大声说，打断了他的话。 “我和你一起去，”耐莉说着坐了起来。 “不，谢谢，”艾米说。内莉把太阳镜推到头顶上。 “艾米，来吧，”她说。“不管你现在怎么看我，你必须告诉我一件事：我一直在尽我所能保护你们的安全。” 艾米犹豫了一下。洞穴可能很危险。 如果发生了什么…潜在的危险还是潜在的叛徒，哪个更糟？ 狩猎再一次迫使艾米做出了她做梦都没想过会面对的选择。 “你可以和我们一起去，”她对耐莉说。 “我们要去一个山洞。但我们一到那里，就得自己进去，明白吗？”那样的话，如果他们发现了什么，他们

could keep it a secret from Nellie. Nellie looked hurt for just a moment, then lowered her sunglasses. "Got it," she said in a neutral voice. They began walking east. As they passed the first mate, Nellie asked if she could borrow a coil of rope. "No problem," the mate said. "What do you need it for?" "Uh, we thought we'd play tug–of–war," Dan said. The man laughed and handed Nellie the rope. She slung it over her shoulder. "Cave. Rope. Good idea," Amy muttered, not quite loud enough for Nellie to hear. The island was a tiny one; it took them only about ten minutes to reach the eastern end. They left the curve of golden sand behind and walked along rocky outcrops that jutted into the sea. The azturpealean sea, Amy thought. Very poetic. "The rocks end, so the cave must be around there somewhere," Dan said, pointing to the area in front of them. They walked back and forth for a

可以瞒着内莉。 内莉看上去受伤了一会儿，然后放下了太阳镜。 “明白了，”她用中立的声音说。 他们开始向东走。当他们经过大副身边时，内莉问她能否借一卷绳子。 “没问题，”大副说。 “你要它做什么？”“呃，我们想玩拔河游戏，”丹说。 那人笑了，把绳子递给了内利。 她把它挂在肩上。 “洞穴。绳子。好主意，”艾米喃喃地说，声音不够大，内利听不见。 这个岛很小；他们只花了大约十分钟就到达了东端。 他们把弯弯曲曲的金色沙滩抛在身后，沿着突入大海的露出地面的岩石走去。 蔚蓝的大海，艾米想。 很诗意。“岩石尽头，所以洞穴一定在附近的某个地方。”丹指着他们前面的地方说。 他们来回走了一段时间

while but found nothing that looked like a cave entrance. "We'll have to wade," Dan said. "The entrance must face the ocean." He pulled off his T–shirt and dropped it and his backpack on the sand. He took a flashlight out of the pack; experience had taught both Cahills that a flashlight often came in handy while Clue hunting. Then he picked his way through the rocks and sat down on the edge of one. After donning the mask and snorkel, he splashed into the water. Amy and Nellie followed more cautiously. The water was only hip deep and as warm as a nice bath, but there were rocks protruding from the sandy bottom. Their sole purpose in life seemed to be to cause sprained ankles. "Here!" Dan called out. He was standing in front of a group of larger rock formations that blocked their view of the beach they had seen earlier. The cave was in a natural depression. From the shore, the rocks looked no taller than Dan, but the seabed sloped lower here. The rocks were taller than Nellie, and

但却没有发现任何像洞穴入口的东西。 “我们必须涉水，”丹说。 “入口必须面向大海。” 他脱下t恤，把它和背包扔在沙滩上。 他从背包里拿出一个手电筒；卡希尔父子的经验告诉他们，在寻找线索时，手电筒常常会派上用场。 然后他小心翼翼地穿过岩石，坐在一块岩石的边上。 戴上面罩和呼吸管后，他跳入水中。 艾米和内莉更小心地跟在后面。 水只有齐臀部深，像洗个热水澡一样暖和，但沙质的水底有岩石突出来。 他们生活的唯一目的似乎就是扭伤脚踝。 “在这里!”丹喊道。他站在一群更大的岩层前面，挡住了他们之前看到的海滩的视线。 这个洞穴在一个天然的洼地里。 从岸上看，岩石并不比丹高，但海床在这里倾斜得更低。 岩石比内莉还高，而且