Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4 By the time Charlie made it back to the coach, some of the chaos had died down. 'Here he is!' Miss Fyre called into the coach when she caught sight of Charlie tramping across the car park. 'Where on earth have you been?' Miss Fyre snapped. 'You're lucky we didn't leave you here! We were due to set off ages ago.'

当查理回到马车时，一些混乱已经平息了。 “他在这儿！”弗尔小姐看见查理穿过停车场，便朝马车里喊道。 “你到底到哪儿去了？”费尔小姐厉声说。 “你该庆幸我们没有把你留在这儿！”我们早就该出发了。”

AUTHOR'S NOTE II I apologize for interrupting this story once again. According to the publisher of this book, my pictures 'lack any artistic merit' and are 'frankly more than a little disturbing'. If you recall, this is exactly what they said about the famous artist Van Gogh. The 'publisher' continued by insisting I apologize publicly to the 'illustrator' Sarah Horne and give the job back to her – together with a pay rise – or they will not publish this book. So: Dear Sarah, I'm soooooo sorry I was rude about your pictures. You are sooooooo super-talented. Honestly. I hope you enjoy your pay-rise to three pounds fifty a day. Yours, Sam Copeland The Writer (the one with the actual talent)

我为再次打断这个故事而道歉。 根据这本书的出版商的说法，我的照片“缺乏任何艺术价值”，而且“坦率地说，有一点令人不安”。 如果你还记得的话，这正是人们对著名艺术家梵高的评价。 “出版商”继续坚持要我向“插画家”莎拉·霍恩公开道歉，并把工作还给她——同时加薪——否则他们就不出版这本书。 所以：亲爱的莎拉，我很抱歉我对你的照片很粗鲁。 你真是超级有天赋。 诚实。我希望你喜欢加薪到每天3.50英镑。 你的，萨姆·科普兰，作家（真正有天赋的那个）

P.S. Don't think you'll be getting any more free bananas. Anyway. Back to the story.

附言：我想你不会再有免费香蕉了。 无论如何。回到故事。

CHAPTER 4 (again) By the time Charlie made it back to the coach, some of the chaos had died down. 'Here he is!' Miss Fyre called into the coach when she caught sight of Charlie tramping across the car park. 'Where on earth have you been?' Miss Fyre snapped. 'You're lucky we didn't leave you here! We were due to set off ages ago.' Charlie grimaced. In no way did he think he was lucky. Mr Wind was sitting on the front passenger seat, wrapped in a silver foil blanket. Miss Fyre was massaging his temples to help him with the shock. Charlie walked down the now-moving coach and saw Dylan. He was staring out the window, pale-

第四章（再次）查理回到马车时，一些混乱已经平息了。 “他在这儿！”弗尔小姐看见查理穿过停车场，便朝马车里喊道。 “你到底到哪儿去了？”费尔小姐厉声说。 “你该庆幸我们没有把你留在这儿！”我们早就该出发了。”查理扮了个鬼脸。 他决不认为自己是幸运的。 风先生坐在副驾驶座位上，身上裹着银箔毯子。 弗尔小姐正在按摩他的太阳穴，以帮助他缓解震惊。 查理走下正在行驶的马车，看到了迪伦。 他盯着窗外，脸色苍白

faced and trembling ever so slightly, but when he caught sight of Charlie, he glared at him. 'I know it was you!' Dylan whispered, in a voice dripping with fury. 'What?' said Charlie innocently. 'Oh, don't even try to pretend! YOU were the crocodile! It was YOU who tried to eat me.' 'I don't know what you're talking about,' said Charlie. 'Fine! Play it that way. But don't think you've got the better of me, McGuffin. I've already started a plan to destroy you and there's nothing you can do about it. You'll regret the day we ever crossed paths.' 'Dylan, I already regret the day we crossed paths,' sighed Charlie. 'Very funny. Well, you won't be laughing for long.' 'I'm sure I– hang on. What's that you're wearing?' 'It's a skirt, McGuffin, OK? My trousers got ripped, as you know full well, and there were no spare trousers. So I'm wearing a skirt. And mark my words, this skirt isn't going to improve relations between us. On the contrary. I'm going to ruin you because of this skirt. Destroy you. I'm every nightmare you've ever had. I'm your worst dream come true. I'm everything you've ever been afraid of.'

他的脸微微颤抖着，但当他看到查理时，他怒视着他。 “我知道是你！”迪伦低声说，声音里充满了愤怒。 “什么?查理天真地说。 “哦，别装了！”你是鳄鱼！是你要吃我的。“我不知道你在说什么，”查理说。 “好!这样做。但别以为你赢了我，麦高芬。 我已经开始了摧毁你的计划而你对此无能为力。 你会后悔我们相遇的那一天。“迪伦，我已经后悔我们相遇的那天了，”查理叹了口气。 “非常有趣。你笑不了多久的。“我肯定——等一下。” 你穿的是什么？“这是条裙子，麦高芬，好吗？” 我的裤子破了，你很清楚，而且没有备用的裤子。 所以我穿了一条裙子。记住我的话，这条裙子不会改善我们之间的关系。 恰恰相反。我要因为这条裙子毁了你。 毁了你。我是你的噩梦。 我是你最糟糕的梦想成真。 我就是你所害怕的一切。”

'Dylan, have you been watching horror movies again? Seriously, you should stop.' 'Get out of my sight.' Charlie left Dylan stewing in his skirt, and saw Mohsen waving to him from the back seat. As he bounced down the coach, all he could hear was excitable chatter about the escaped crocodile. Charlie flumped down in between Wogan and Mohsen, who listened in wide-eyed silence as Charlie told them of his escape from the crocodile compound. 'Holy rollers, that is AWESOME,' said Mohsen. 'That really is awesome, Charlie. That is nearly as awesome as when Mohsen got the whistle stuck up his nose.' 'That actually really wasn't that awesome,' replied Mohsen. 'My left nostril whistled for days and I had

“迪伦，你又看恐怖电影了吗？” 说真的，你应该停下来。“从我眼前消失。”查理离开了穿着裙子的迪伦，看到莫森在后座向他招手。 当他从马车上跳下来时，他所能听到的都是关于那只逃跑的鳄鱼的兴奋的议论。 查理突然落在沃根和莫森之间，他们睁大眼睛静静地听着查理讲述自己从鳄鱼大院逃脱的经历。 “天哪，太棒了，”莫森说。 “真是太棒了，查理。 这几乎和莫森被哨子卡在鼻子里一样可怕。莫森回答说：“那其实并没有那么棒。” “我的左鼻孔响了好几天