8 Cruising Indiana

Chapter 8 CRUSING INDIANA As it turned out, Pep didn't have to work on the cipher the next day after all. While she was sleeping, her unconscious mind was working feverishly on the problem. The brain has a funny way of doing that. It never sleeps. And when Pep woke up in the morning, the solution was waiting for her. "It's in Pigpen!" she whispered to her brother, who was still sleeping peacefully. "Huh?" he muttered. "What?" "That cipher we saw on the video screen at Wrigley Field yesterday," she whispered. "It's written in a code called Pigpen. I learned about it in Girl Scouts when I was little. They used it back in the eighteenth century to keep messages private." "Whatever you say," Coke said, wiping his eyes. Their parents were still asleep. Pep got out her

事实证明，佩普第二天根本不用研究密码了。 在她睡觉的时候，她的潜意识正狂热地思考着这个问题。 大脑有一种有趣的方式来做到这一点。 它从不睡觉。当佩普早上醒来时，解决办法已经在等着她了。 “在猪圈里！”她小声对还在安然入睡的哥哥说。 “嗯？”他喃喃地说。“什么?”“我们昨天在瑞格利球场的大屏幕上看到的那个密码，”她低声说。 “它是用一种叫做猪圈的代码写的。 我小时候在女童子军里学的。 早在18世纪，人们就用它来保密信息。” “随你怎么说，”可口可乐擦着眼睛说。 他们的父母还在睡觉。 佩普把她弄出来了

notebook and explained to Coke how the code worked. "Each of those symbols represents one letter, but we have to make a Pigpen grid to find out what the letters are. Let me see if I still remember how to make the grid." She turned to the page with the cipher. Then, directly below it, she wrote out a Pigpen grid as she remembered it. "Look, the first symbol represents the letter T," Pep whispered. "See?" Coke scanned the grid and saw that the little box with the T inside it matched the first symbol of the cipher. "So that would mean that the second letter has to be… W," he whispered. "Right," replied Pep. "And the third letter is O.

并向科克解释代码是如何工作的。 “每个符号代表一个字母，但我们必须做一个猪圈网格来找出这些字母是什么。 让我看看我是否还记得如何制作网格。” 她翻到有密码的那一页。 然后，在它的正下方，她根据自己的记忆写下了一个猪圈网格。 “看，第一个符号代表字母T，”佩普低声说。 “看到了吗?”科克扫描了一下网格，发现里面有个T的小盒子与密码的第一个符号相匹配。 “那就意味着第二个字母必须是……W。”他小声说。 “对，”佩普回答。第三个字母是O。

So that's probably the first word of the message— TWO." After that, they were easily able to figure out the rest of the letters one by one—PMJULYTHIRD. "Two o'clock in the afternoon on July third!" Pep whispered excitedly. "That's the message!" Coke looked at his cell phone to check the date —June 27. "July third is… six days from now," he said, counting them off. "Something is going to happen at two o'clock on July third," said Pep. "But that just tells us when," Coke whispered, "it doesn't tell us what's going to happen, or where." "Aunt Judy's wedding will be the next day, on July Fourth," Pep said. "We'll have to be in Washington by then, and Dad said he wants to get there early. So we're sure to be in Washington on July third." "That doesn't help us much," said Coke. "Washington is a big city." "What are you two whispering about?" Dr.

所以这可能是这个信息的第一个词——TWO。” 在那之后，他们很容易就能一个接一个地辨认出剩下的字母。 “七月三号下午两点！”佩普兴奋地小声说。 “这就是我要传达的信息！”可乐看了看手机，查了一下日期——6月27日。 “7月3日是……离现在还有六天，”他一边数着，一边说。 佩普说：“7月3日下午两点，会发生一些事情。” “但这只是告诉我们什么时候，”科克低声说，“它并没有告诉我们会发生什么，或者在哪里发生。” “朱迪阿姨的婚礼就在第二天，7月4日，”佩普说。 “到那时我们必须到华盛顿，爸爸说他想早点到。 所以我们7月3日一定会在华盛顿。” “这对我们没有多大帮助，”可口可乐说。 “华盛顿是个大城市。” “你们两个在嘀咕什么呢？”博士。

McDonald suddenly called out. "Nothing, Dad!" Coke said. "Go back to sleep." After everyone was awake, bathed, and breakfasted, the grown-ups huddled at the picnic table, poring over the laptop screen and road atlas. "Family meeting!" Dr. McDonald announced, gathering everyone around him. "We have a big day ahead of us. My goal is to get across the great state of Indiana." Dr. Ben McDonald was the kind of person who liked to set goals and achieve them. It gave him a feeling of satisfaction to cross things off his to-do list, and he tried to communicate the importance of setting goals to his children. The plan for the day was to drive about a hundred fifty miles across northern Indiana, hitting five or six sites along the way that Mrs. McDonald could use in Amazing but True. They would start out on Route 80, which almost touches the Michigan border. At a certain point, they would veer off to visit some of the interesting sites south of the

麦克唐纳突然喊道。 “没什么,爸爸!”可口可乐表示。 “回去睡吧。”每个人都醒了，洗了澡，吃了早饭后，大人们挤在野餐桌旁，盯着笔记本电脑屏幕和道路地图。 “家庭会议!”麦克唐纳博士宣布，把所有人召集到他周围。 “我们还有很重要的一天要做。 我的目标是穿过伟大的印第安纳州。” 本·麦克唐纳博士是那种喜欢设定目标并实现目标的人。 把待办事项从清单上划掉给了他一种满足感，他试图向孩子们传达设定目标的重要性。 这一天的计划是在印第安纳州北部开车大约150英里，沿途去五、六个麦克唐纳夫人可以在《神奇但真实》中使用的地方。 他们将从80号公路出发，这条公路几乎与密歇根州的边界相连。 在某一时刻，他们会转向去参观一些有趣的景点南部

highway. He and Mrs. McDonald had mapped out the route carefully so they would stop at some historical sites for him, some offbeat sites for her, and also some sites that would keep the kids interested. "Okay," Mrs. McDonald said, "first, let's go over the places we are not going to visit today. We are not going to see the world's largest toilet bowl in Columbus, Indiana." "Oh, man!" Coke complained. "I really wanted to go there. In more ways than one." "Very funny," Pep said. "It's two hundred miles south of here, and we're heading east," Dr. McDonald explained. "There's a twenty-foot statue of a woman made out of hubcaps in Jeffersonville," Mrs. McDonald continued, "but that's even farther south. And as much as I would love to see the world's largest ball of paint, it would be a three-hour drive to Alexandria."

高速公路。他和麦克唐纳太太仔细地规划了路线，他们会为他在一些历史景点停留，为她在一些不寻常的景点停留，也会在一些让孩子们感兴趣的地方停留。 “好吧，”麦克唐纳太太说，“首先，让我们看看今天不去的地方。 我们不会在印第安纳州哥伦布市看到世界上最大的马桶。” “哦,男人!”可口可乐抱怨。 “我真的很想去那里。 不止一种方式。”“很有趣，”佩普说。 “从这里往南两百英里，我们正在往东走。” 麦当劳解释道。“杰斐逊维尔有一座20英尺高的轮毂盖女性雕像，”麦克唐纳太太继续说，“但那在更南边。 尽管我很想看到世界上最大的油漆球，但要开车三个小时才能到亚历山大港。”

"How big is the ball of paint?" Pep asked. "It's over three thousand pounds," Mrs. McDonald said, consulting her guidebook. "Oh, and the world's largest hairball is not far from here. It's bigger than a basketball." "Let's go!" Coke shouted. "It's not on display anymore," Mrs. McDonald said. "Bummer!" "How was it possible for a cat to cough up a hairball bigger than a basketball, Mom?" Pep asked. "It must have been a very large cat," Coke guessed. "It was a cow," Mrs. McDonald said. "Oh." "The Santa Claus Museum in Santa Claus, Indiana, would be a five-hour drive," Dr. McDonald informed everyone, "and I refuse to go to Jones, Michigan, where your mother tells me there is a fake

“这个油漆球有多大？”Pep问道。 “三千多英镑，”麦克唐纳太太边说边查阅她的旅游指南。 “哦，世界上最大的毛球离这儿不远。 它比篮球还大。” “我们走吧!”可口可乐喊道。“它不再展出了，”麦克唐纳太太说。 “游手好闲的人!”“妈妈，猫怎么可能咳出一个比篮球还大的毛球呢？”Pep问道。 “那一定是一只非常大的猫，”科克猜测。 “那是一头牛，”麦克唐纳太太说。 “哦。”印第安纳州圣诞老人的圣诞老人博物馆需要五个小时的车程。 麦克唐纳告诉大家，“我拒绝去密歇根州的琼斯，你妈妈告诉我那里有假货