6 The puppet master

Chapter 6 The puppet master "There's only one thing to do," Jackson said. "We have to chase after him!" He jumped through the hole in the paper window, followed by Tempo. Sarah gave herself a shake. We can't give up now, she thought. She jumped through the hole too. They crossed the garden to a side gate that led out onto a street. As they ran, the Time Freeze was broken. Birds sang, the stream gurgled, and a breathless Kojima caught up with them, just as Jackson was swinging up the gate.

“只有一件事要做，”杰克逊说。 “我们得去追他！”他从纸窗的洞里跳了进去，后面跟着泰普。 萨拉抖了抖自己。 我们现在不能放弃，她想。 她也从洞里跳了出去。 他们穿过花园来到一扇通向街道的侧门。 随着他们的奔跑，时间冻结被打破了。 鸟儿歌唱，溪流潺潺，气喘吁吁的小岛赶上了他们，就在杰克逊摇摇晃晃地走上大门的时候。

"You moved so fast I didn't even see you!" Kojima said. "You have skills worthy of a great samurai." "Cuckoo! Cuckoo-koo-koo!" Sarah looked up to see Tempo flying along the street, following a crowd of people. "She must know DeLay is heading that way too," Sarah said. "Come on!" "He's dragging us all around Edo," grumbled Jackson. "At least we're seeing the sights, I suppose." They wove through the throng of people. Everyone was heading into a park. "Did you notice," said Sarah, as they passed under some plum trees, "that DeLay didn't run away the instant we found him in the Silver Moon Teahouse? He couldn't resist showing off first." "That's true," said Jackson. Kojima nodded. "He's too confident," he said. "That's how you make mistakes. Every samurai warrior knows that." "I hope you're right," said Jackson.

“你走得太快了，我都没看见你！”小岛说。 “你的技能配得上伟大的武士。” “杜鹃!Cuckoo-koo-koo !”萨拉抬头一看，只见天宝跟着一群人在街上飞奔。 “她一定知道迪莱也往那边去了，”萨拉说。 “来吧!”“他把我们都拖到江户去了。”杰克逊抱怨道。 “我想，至少我们在看风景。” 他们穿过人群。 所有人都朝公园走去。 “你注意到没有，”当他们从几棵梅树下走过时，萨拉说，“我们在银月茶馆找到迪莱的时候，他并没有逃跑。 他忍不住要先炫耀一下。” “没错，”杰克逊说。 小岛点了点头。“他太自信了，”他说。 “这就是你犯错误的原因。 每个武士都知道这一点。” “我希望你是对的，”杰克逊说。

Sarah stood on tiptoes, craning to see over the people. "Tempo is perched on top of something that looks like the bandstands we have in parks," she said. With Kojima leading, they headed for the bandstand. As they got closer, Sarah saw that it wasn't a bandstand at all. It was an open-air puppet theater. "Cuckoo! Cuckoo!" squawked Tempo, from the pointed roof. "I think she's telling us, 'Down there!'" said Jackson. As Sarah edged to the front of the crowd, she noticed a figure behind the stage, clad in a black kimono and hood. Only his top half was visible behind his puppets. "This sort of show is called bunraku," said Kojima, "and the man in black is the puppet master. He wears dark clothes so we look at his puppets and not at him."

萨拉踮起脚尖，伸长脖子往人群上方看。 她说：“Tempo的底座看起来就像我们在公园里的演奏台。” 在小岛的带领下，他们走向了舞台。 当他们走近时，萨拉发现那根本不是一个演奏台。 那是一个露天木偶剧院。 “杜鹃!杜鹃！”泰普在尖顶上尖声叫道。 “我想她是在告诉我们，‘在下面！’”杰克逊说。 当莎拉慢慢走到人群前面时，她注意到舞台后面有一个人，穿着黑色和服，戴着兜帽。 木偶后面只露出他的上半身。 “这种表演叫做文乐，”小岛说，“黑衣人就是木偶大师。 他穿着深色衣服，所以我们看的是他的木偶，而不是他本人。”

The puppet master seemed to move his puppets by using some sort of control inside their backs. The crowd was loving the show, and Sarah would have loved to know what the story was about. But she knew they couldn't watch. DeLay was around somewhere, maybe hiding in the audience.

木偶大师似乎是通过操纵木偶背部的某种控制来操纵木偶的。 观众们都很喜欢这个节目，莎拉也很想知道这个故事是关于什么的。 但她知道他们看不下去。 迪莱就在附近，也许藏在观众席里。

As the Timekeepers and Kojima searched the crowd, the puppet master jumped up onto the stage. "I am brilliant with puppets, am I not?" he asked the audience. His black kimono swirled as he moved. "You are!" they roared back. "Am I a genius?" "You are!" "And yet I am always being chased by two silly children and a foolish bird," he told them. "Am I right to be annoyed?" "You are!" The people cheered and clapped. Sarah was furious. "DeLay's the puppet master!" she said. "What nerve! He's so sure we won't see through his disguise. Come on, let's get him!" The happy, chatty audience was leaving, so the three friends had to push their way through. By the time they reached the stage, all they found were two puppets that had been flung aside. DeLay had disappeared. "Cuckoo!" Tempo wheeled around in circles, searching for DeLay. Sarah and Jackson jumped onto the stage to get a better view, but he had gone. They didn't have a clue where, so they set off in search again. Would DeLay be wearing his coat with the leaves on it, or his puppet master's outfit? Or something else? "I can't believe DeLay called us silly and foolish," Sarah said angrily. "He obviously thinks he's too clever for us," Jackson said. "Remember," said Kojima, "that means he'll stop being careful. And then he will make a mistake."

当计时员和小岛在人群中搜寻时，木偶大师跳上了舞台。 “我对木偶很拿手，不是吗？”他问观众。 他的黑色和服随着他的移动而旋转。 “你是！”他们吼道。 “我是天才吗？”“你!”“可是我总是被两个傻孩子和一只笨鸟追赶。”他告诉他们。 “我生气对吗？”“你!”人们欢呼鼓掌。 萨拉气坏了。“迪莱是木偶大师！”她说。 “神经!他很肯定我们不会识破他的伪装。 来吧，我们去抓他！”快乐的、健谈的观众都要离开了，所以这三个朋友不得不挤过去。 当他们到达舞台时，他们只发现了两个被扔到一边的木偶。 拖延消失了。“杜鹃!”“节奏”在原地打转，寻找“延迟”。 莎拉和杰克逊跳上舞台，想看得更清楚些，但他已经走了。 他们不知道在哪里，所以他们又去找了。 迪莱会穿着他那件带叶子的外套，还是他的木偶主人的衣服？ 还是别的什么？“我真不敢相信迪莱居然说我们又傻又蠢。”萨拉生气地说。 “他显然认为他对我们来说太聪明了，”杰克逊说。 “记住，”小岛说，“那意味着他会不再小心。 然后他就会犯错误。”

"Kojima's right," said Sarah. "I read a lot of books to help me become a better writer, and I've noticed that often the biggest mistake villains make is to believe they're smarter than the heroes. That's DeLay's way of thinking." "Well," said Jackson, "It's time these heroes proved that villain wrong!" Sarah grinned. "And I think I know how..."

“小岛说得对，”莎拉说。 “我读了很多书来帮助我成为一个更好的作家，我注意到坏人经常犯的最大错误是认为他们比英雄聪明。 这就是迪莱的思维方式。” “好吧，”杰克逊说，“是时候让这些英雄证明那个恶棍是错的了！”莎拉咧嘴一笑。 “我想我知道怎么……”