6 Finding out a few things

CHAPTER SIX Finding out a few things ALL THE Secret Seven set off at once, feeling extremely important. Scamper went with Peter, Colin and Jack, his tail well up, and he also felt very important. He was mixed up in a Mystery with the Society! No wonder he turned up his nose at every dog he met. They left Pam and George at the corner, looking rather worried. The two looked at one another. 'How are we going to find out who owns the house?' said Pam. 'Ask at the post office!' said George, feeling that he really had got a very bright idea. 'Surely if the house is owned by someone who has put in a caretaker, there must be letters going there.'

秘密七人立刻出发了，觉得自己非常重要。 斯坎普和彼得、科林和杰克一起去了，他的尾巴翘得高高的，他也觉得自己很重要。 他被卷入了一个神秘的社团！难怪他对遇到的每条狗都嗤之以鼻。 他们把帕姆和乔治留在拐角处，看上去相当担心。 两人面面相觑。 “我们怎么知道房子的主人是谁？”潘说。 “去邮局问吧！”乔治说，他觉得自己真的想出了一个好主意。 “当然，如果这所房子的主人雇了一个看门人，一定会有信件送到那里。”

'Good idea!' said Pam, and they went off to the post office. They were lucky enough to see a postman emptying the letters from the letterbox outside. George nudged Pam. 'Come on. We must start somewhere. We'll ask him!' They went up to the man. 'Excuse me,' said George. 'Could you tell us who lives at the old house down by the stream– you know, the empty house there?' 'How can anyone live in an empty house?' said the postman. 'Don't ask silly questions and waste my time! You children– you think you're so funny, don't you?' 'We didn't mean to be funny, or cheeky either,' said Pam in a hurry. 'What George means is– who owns the house? There's a caretaker there, we know. We just wondered who the house belongs to.' 'Why? Thinking of buying it?' said the postman, and laughed at his own joke. The

“好主意!”潘说，然后他们去了邮局。 他们很幸运地看到一个邮递员正在把外面信箱里的信倒空。 乔治轻推帕姆。“来吧。 我们必须从某个地方开始。我们去问他！”他们走向那个人。 “对不起，”乔治说。“你能告诉我们谁住在河边的老房子里吗——你知道，就是那边的空房子？”“人怎能住在空房子里呢？”邮差说。 “别问傻问题，浪费我的时间！”你们这些孩子，你们觉得自己很有趣，是吗？“我们不是故意要搞笑，也不是故意要厚脸皮，”帕姆匆忙地说。 “乔治的意思是——这房子是谁的？” 我们知道那里有个管理员。 我们只是想知道这房子是谁的。“为什么? 想买吗？邮差说着，为自己开的玩笑笑了起来。 的

children laughed too, wishing the man would answer their question. 'How would I know who owns the place?' he said, emptying the last of the letters into his sack. 'I never take letters there except to old Dan the caretaker, and he only gets one once in a month– his wages, maybe. Better ask at the estate agent's over there. They deal with houses, and they might know the owner– seeing as you're so anxious to find him!' 'Oh, thank you,' said Pam, joyfully, and the two of them hurried across to the estate agent's. 'We might have thought of this ourselves,' said Pam. 'But hold on– what shall we say if the man here asks why we want to know? You only go to an estate agent's if you want to buy or sell a house, don't you?' They peeped in at the door. A boy of about sixteen sat at a table there, addressing some envelopes. He didn't look very frightening. Perhaps he would know– and wouldn't ask

孩子们也笑了，希望老人能回答他们的问题。 “我怎么知道这地方是谁的？”他说着，把最后一封信倒进口袋里。 “我从来不把信送到那儿去，只寄给看门人老丹，他一个月才收到一封信——也许是他的工资吧。 最好去那边的房产中介那里问问。 他们经营房子，他们可能认识房主——既然你这么急着找他！“哦，谢谢你，”帕姆高兴地说，两人匆匆赶往房产中介那里。 “我们自己可能也想到了，”帕姆说。 “但是等一等——如果这个人问我们为什么想知道，我们该怎么说呢？” 你只有在想买房子或卖房子的时候才会去房地产中介，不是吗？”他们从门口往里偷看。 一个大约十六岁的男孩坐在那里的一张桌子旁，写着一些信封的地址。 他看起来并不可怕。 也许他会知道——但不会问

them why they wanted the name of the owner. They went boldly in. The boy looked up. 'What do you want?' he said. 'We've been told to ask who owns the old house down by the stream,' said George, hoping the boy might think that some grown- up had sent him to find out. Actually it was only Peter, of course, but he didn't see why he should say so. 'I don't think the house is on the market,' said the boy, turning over the pages of a big book. 'Do your parents want to buy it, or something? I didn't know it was to be sold.'

他们为什么要知道房主的名字。 他们大胆地走了进去。男孩抬起头来。 “你想干什么？”他说。 “人家叫我们去问问小溪边那座老房子的主人是谁，”乔治说，希望孩子会认为是某个大人派他来打听的。 事实上，当然是彼得，但他不明白自己为什么要这么说。 “我想这房子不会出售，”男孩一边说，一边翻着一本大书。 “你父母想买吗？” 我不知道它会被卖掉。”

The two children said nothing, because they didn't really know what to say. The boy went on turning over the pages. 'Ah– here we are,' he said. 'No– it's not for sale– it was sold to a Mr J. Holikoff some time ago. Don't know why he doesn't live in it, I'm sure!' 'Does Mr Holikoff live anywhere here?' asked Pam. 'No– his address is 64, Heycom Street, Covelty,' said the boy, reading it out. ''Course, I don't know if he lives there now. Do your people want to get in touch with him? I can find out if this is his address now, if you like– he's on the telephone at this address.' 'Oh, no, thank you,' said George hastily. 'We don't want to know anything more, as the house is– er– not for sale. Thank you very much. Good morning.' They went out, rather red in the face, but very pleased with themselves. 'Mr Holikoff,'

两个孩子什么也没说，因为他们真的不知道该说什么。 男孩继续翻着书。 “啊——我们到了，”他说。 “不——它不是拿来卖的——它卖给了J先生。 霍利科夫。真不知道他为什么不住在里面，我敢肯定！“霍利科夫先生住在这儿吗？”潘问。 “不——他的地址是科维尔蒂海科姆街64号。”男孩念着信说。 “当然，我不知道他现在是否住在那里。 你的人想和他联系吗？ 如果你愿意的话，我现在可以查一下这是不是他的地址——他正在这个地址打电话。“哦，不用了，谢谢你。”乔治急忙说。 “我们不想知道更多的事情，因为房子是——嗯——非卖品。 非常感谢。早上好。”他们出去了，脸涨得通红，但很高兴。 “Holikoff先生”,

said Pam to George. 'It's a peculiar name, isn't it? Do you remember his address, George?' 'Yes,' said George. He took out his notebook and wrote in it: 'Mr J. Holikoff, 64, Heycom Street, Covelty. Well, we've done our part of the job! I wonder how the others are getting on.' They were getting on quite well. Janet and Barbara were busy examining the tracks down the lane that led to the stream. They felt quite like detectives. 'See– the car with the van behind, or whatever it was, turned into the lane from the direction of Templeton; it didn't come from our village,' said Janet. 'You can see quite clearly where the wheels almost went into the ditch.'

帕姆对乔治说。“这名字真奇怪，是不是？” 乔治，你还记得他的地址吗？“是的，”乔治说。 他拿出笔记本，在上面写道：“J先生。 Holikoff, 64， Heycom街，Covelty。 好了，我们已经完成了我们的任务！不知道其他人过得怎么样。”他们相处得很好。 珍妮特和芭芭拉正忙着检查通往小溪的小路上的痕迹。 他们感觉很像侦探。 “你看——那辆后面跟着货车的汽车，不管它是什么，从坦普尔曼的方向拐进了车道；“不是我们村里的，”珍妮特说。 “你可以很清楚地看到车轮差点掉进沟里的地方。”