Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3 The scent of Dylan on the wind was irresistible. Charlie the crocodile charged down the path, past his gobsmacked friends, following the smell. Whenever a member of the public strayed into his path, they turned tail and fled, usually screaming. Which is entirely understandable and exactly what you should do if you are unfortunate enough to come across a crocodile, or an alligator for that matter. Charlie wasn't bothered though. He had one target on his mind. There was Dylan, now so busy taunting some monkeys that he didn't notice the screams of terror from the people around him… Or the six-metre crocodile sneaking up behind him. It was only when the monkeys started whooping that Dylan began to suspect that there was something unusual going on.

迪伦的气味在风中是不可抗拒的。 鳄鱼查理沿着小路向前冲，经过他目瞪口呆的朋友们，顺着气味前进。 每当有公众误入他的道路时，他们就会转身逃跑，通常是尖叫。 这是完全可以理解的，如果你不幸遇到鳄鱼或短吻鳄，你就应该这样做。 但查理并不在意。 他心里只有一个目标。 迪伦现在正忙着戏弄猴子，没有注意到周围人发出的恐怖的尖叫声，也没有注意到一条6米长的鳄鱼在他身后悄悄逼近。 直到猴子们开始叫的时候，迪伦才开始怀疑有什么不寻常的事情发生了。

'Are those monkeys… laughing?' Dylan asked the woman standing next to him, frozen in terror as she stared at the crocodile. 'Look at them. They're finding something funny. That one's rolling on the floor!' The woman made a terrified little honking noise. 'Hang about… now they're pointing,' said Dylan. 'What's that about?' Slowly, Dylan turned round. And there behind him, jaws slavering and teeth glistening, ready to pounce, was Charlie the crocodile. Dylan let out a small mew of terror. And then ran. Charlie gave chase. When he had started the hunt, Charlie's plan had just been to terrify Dylan, but now all the anger he felt for the misery Dylan had caused him and his friends came together as one thought: bite him. Chomp him. Crunch his bones and tear his flesh. Despite Dylan's head start, Charlie was gaining on him. He snapped his jaws – but caught only thin air. He realized what he was doing was wrong and knew deep down he shouldn't eat Dylan, but the instinct was impossible to resist. Dylan deserved it. SNAP! Again, Charlie's great jaws slammed shut, and this time he caught the back of Dylan's hastily-stapled trousers, and ripped them open again. Dylan kept running in sheer panic, trying to hold up what was

“那些猴子……在笑吗？”迪伦问站在他旁边的女人，她盯着鳄鱼吓呆了。 “看看他们。他们发现了一些有趣的事情。 那只在地上打滚！”那女人发出一声惊恐的小喇叭声。 迪伦说：“等一下……现在他们在指指点点。” “这是怎么回事？”迪伦慢慢地转过身来。 就在他身后，鳄鱼查理，嘴流着口水，牙齿闪闪发光，准备扑过来。 迪伦惊恐地叫了一声。 然后就跑了。查理追了上去。 当查理开始狩猎时，他的计划只是吓唬迪伦，但现在他对迪伦给他和他的朋友们带来的痛苦感到愤怒，他的想法集中在一起：咬他。 Chomp他。咬碎他的骨头，撕碎他的肉。 尽管迪伦领先，查理还是追上了他。 他咬住了下巴，但只抓到了稀薄的空气。 他意识到自己做错了，内心深处知道他不应该吃迪伦，但本能无法抗拒。 迪伦活该。中计了!查理的大嘴又一次合上了，这次他抓住了迪伦匆忙缝好的裤子的后面，又把裤子撕开了。 迪伦在极度恐慌中不停地跑着，试图抓住

left of his trousers and underpants AND hide his bum at the same time. That was impossible though and, as Dylan ran, his trousers dropped completely down, got tangled up in his feet and he fell forward onto his face, displaying his bare bum to the world. But worse than that, the crocodile was upon him. Charlie gave a hiss of victory, and shook his head to get rid of the shredded Incredible Hulk underpants which hung off his front teeth. He crawled forward and placed a heavy claw on Dylan's back, rolling him over like a rag doll. No, Charlie thought. I can't do this! Yes, you can, the crocodile part of him thought. The world is a cruel place and people just need to realize that. Dylan whimpered with dread as the crocodile crawled forward until its head was level with his. It eyed him, and the cold black slit in the green orb narrowed as it got closer and closer. Dylan felt hot, foul breath on his face as the crocodile opened its vast jaws. He closed his eyes and waited for the bite that would end his young life.

脱掉裤子和内裤，同时把屁股藏起来。 然而，这是不可能的，迪伦跑着跑着，他的裤子完全掉了下来，缠在他的脚上，他向前摔倒了，脸朝下，向全世界展示了他赤裸的屁股。 但更糟糕的是，鳄鱼向他扑来。 查理发出胜利的嘶嘶声，摇了摇头，把挂在门牙上的绿巨人碎内裤弄掉了。 他爬上前，把一只沉重的爪子放在迪伦的背上，把他像布娃娃一样滚了过来。 不，查理想。我做不到！“是的，你可以，”他那鳄鱼的一面想。 世界是个残酷的地方，人们需要意识到这一点。 迪伦害怕地呜咽着，鳄鱼向前爬行，直到它的头和他的头齐平。 它盯着他，随着它越来越近，绿色球体上冰冷的黑色缝隙越来越窄。 当鳄鱼张开它的大嘴巴时，迪伦感到脸上有一股热气和恶臭。 他闭上眼睛，等着被咬一口，结束他年轻的生命。

'Stop!' Charlie turned his great head to see who had interrupted his dinner. It was Mr Wind, and he was charging towards Charlie, brandishing a broom high above his head like a sword, with Miss Fyre in quick pursuit. 'Stop!' cried Mr Wind again. 'Get away from that bare-bummed boy!' Charlie snapped out of his trance and realized what he was about to do. He had been about to eat Dylan! Mr Wind reached Charlie and started hitting him with the broom. Charlie tried hissing a warning but Mr Wind, emboldened by Miss Fyre's shouts of encouragement, kept whacking him again and again. Charlie began backing away, and Dylan took his chance, scrabbling off on all fours and not caring who could see his bum. At the same moment, something landed round Charlie's neck. It was some sort of lasso attached to a

“停!”查理转过头来，想看看是谁打断了他的晚餐。 那是风先生，他正朝查理冲过来，把扫帚像剑一样举过头顶挥舞着，费尔小姐在后面紧追不舍。 “停!风先生又叫了起来。 “离那个光着屁股的男孩远点！”查理突然从恍惚中清醒过来，意识到自己要做什么。 他差点要吃了迪伦！风先生走到查理身边，开始用扫帚打他。 查理试着用嘶嘶声警告他，但风先生在弗尔小姐的鼓励下壮了胆，一次又一次地打他。 查理开始往后退，迪伦抓住机会，四肢着地爬起来，不在乎谁能看到他的屁股。 与此同时，有什么东西落在了查理的脖子上。 好像是套在一个

stick, held by a beefy-looking zookeeper with a huge moustache. The more Charlie tried to free himself, the tighter the lasso became. 'Come on, you!' the zookeeper said, tugging Charlie forward. 'Let's get you back where you belong! Lord alone knows how you escaped.' Charlie was stuck. He had no choice but to be led along the path like a dog on a leash. They soon reached a small door in a wall, like a giant cat flap, which the zookeeper opened. 'Back in there with you!' The zookeeper manoeuvred Charlie skilfully through the flap and into a tunnel. When he was in, the leash round his neck was released and the flap snapped shut behind him. Charlie couldn't help laughing – the memory of Dylan running away in terror, with his pants hanging off him and his bum poking out, was just too funny. And as the laughter rippled through Charlie, he began to change. His tail was already disappearing, his skin becoming smoother, his body shrinking. A moment later, Charlie the crocodile was no more. He was back to plain old Charlie. Still chortling to himself, he looked at his new predicament. He was stuck in the short tunnel, and the flap behind him had been locked by the zookeeper. He had to keep on going forward. In front of him was another flap and Charlie stopped chortling as he began to get a sneaking feeling he knew what lay on the other side.

一根棍子，由一个留着大胡子、看起来很健壮的动物园管理员拿着。 查理越想挣脱，套索就越紧。 “来吧，你！”动物园管理员一边说，一边把查理往前拉。 “让我们把你送回属于你的地方！”只有上帝知道你是怎么逃出来的。”查理被卡住了。 他别无选择，只能像一条拴着皮带的狗一样被牵着沿着小路走。 他们很快来到一堵墙上的一扇小门前，就像一个巨大的猫门，动物园管理员打开了门。 “跟你一起回去！”动物园管理员熟练地操纵查理穿过洞口，进入隧道。 当他进去的时候，他脖子上的皮带被解开了，门在他身后啪的一声关上了。 查理忍不住笑了起来——想起迪伦惊恐地跑开，裤子挂在身上，屁股露在外面，真是太有趣了。 随着笑声在查理体内荡漾，他开始改变了。 他的尾巴已经消失了，他的皮肤变得光滑，他的身体缩小了。 片刻之后，鳄鱼查理就不见了。 他又变回了普通的查理。 他看着自己的新处境，仍在暗自发笑。 他被困在短隧道里，他身后的门被动物园管理员锁上了。 他必须继续前进。 在他面前是另一扇门，查理停止了咯咯的笑声，因为他开始偷偷摸摸地感觉到他知道另一边是什么。

But Charlie had no choice. He pushed his way through and crawled out into a large grassy slope dotted with trees. At the bottom of the slope was a huge pond, fringed by tall reeds. And surrounding the pond, staring at Charlie, were half a dozen huge and very menacing reptiles. Charlie was in the crocodile enclosure. They turned as one and stared at the newcomer who had suddenly appeared in their territory. Then three of the crocodiles started lumbering towards him. Charlie had never, ever been so terrified in his life. The crocodiles lashed their tails eagerly. They knew exactly what to do with a small boy trapped in their enclosure. And it wasn't play table tennis with him. It was dinner time and their jaws were drooling at the sudden meal that had presented itself to them. Charlie knew he was finished if he did nothing and just waited for help – he had to get out. He saw only one hope, one sliver of a chance. Without a second's thought, he started running towards the crocodiles. The beasts' jaws were wide open in shock at the sight of their dinner hurtling towards them. Charlie ran as fast as he could and, at the last moment, he jumped over the snapping teeth on to the nearest crocodile's head. He bounced off, straight on to another croc's head. He trampolined off that one too, hop-scotching straight on to a third.

但查理别无选择。 他挤了进去，爬到了一个长满树木的大草坡上。 斜坡的底部是一个巨大的池塘，四周是高大的芦苇。 在池塘的四周，有六只巨大而凶险的爬行动物盯着查理。 查理在鳄鱼笼里。 他们一起转过身来，盯着突然出现在他们地盘上的新来者。 然后三条鳄鱼开始向他走来。 查理一生中从来没有这么害怕过。 鳄鱼急切地甩动着尾巴。 他们很清楚该怎么处理一个被困在围栏里的小男孩。 也不是跟他打乒乓球。 这是吃晚饭的时间，他们对眼前这顿突如其来的大餐垂涎三尺。 查理知道，如果他什么都不做，只是等待救援，他就完了——他必须出去。 他只看到了一线希望，一线希望。 他毫不犹豫地向鳄鱼跑去。 野兽们看到向他们飞来的大餐，吓得张大了嘴巴。 查理以最快的速度跑着，在最后一刻，他跳过了咬断的牙齿，跳到最近的鳄鱼头上。 他被弹开了，直接砸在了另一只鳄鱼的头上。 他又蹦蹦跳跳地跳上了第三个。