6 SOME PECULIAR FINDS

CHAPTER SIX SOME PECULIAR FINDS THE SEVEN made their way to Little Thicket, where they had played their game of American Indians the day before. 'Now, where exactly did you say that the man climbed over?' Peter asked Colin. Colin considered. Then he pointed to a holly tree. 'See that holly? Well– he came over the wall between that tree and the little oak. I'm pretty certain that was exactly the place.' 'Come on, then– we'll go and see,' said Peter. Feeling really rather important, the Seven walked across Little Thicket and came to the place between the holly tree and the

第六章一些奇特的发现七个人来到了小灌木林，就是他们前一天玩印第安人游戏的地方。 “那么，你说那人到底是从哪儿爬上来的？”彼得问科林。 科林。然后他指着一棵冬青树。 “看到那棵冬青了吗？”他翻过那棵树和小橡树之间的墙。 我很确定就是那个地方。“那就来吧——我们去看看。”彼得说。 七个小矮人觉得自己很重要，就穿过小灌木林，来到冬青树和树之间的地方

little oak. They stood and gazed up at the wall. It was at least two metres high. How could anyone climb a sheer wall like that without even a ladder? 'Look– here's where he leapt down,' said Pam, suddenly, and she pointed to a deep mark in the ground near the holly tree. They all looked. 'Yes– that must have been where his feet landed,' said George. 'Pity we can't tell anything from the mark– I mean, if it had been footprints, for instance, it would have helped a lot. But it's only just a deep mark– probably made by his heels.' 'I wish we could go to the other side of the wall,' said Peter, suddenly. 'We might perhaps find a footprint or two there. Let's go and ask the gardener if we can go into the grounds. He's a friend of the cow-man who works on our farm, and he knows me.' 'Good idea,' said George, so off they all

小橡树。他们站着抬头望着墙。 它至少有两米高。 没有梯子怎么能爬上那样陡峭的墙呢？ “看——这就是他跳下去的地方，”潘突然说，她指着冬青树附近地面上的一个很深的记号。 他们都看了看。“是的——那一定是他的脚落地的地方。”乔治说。 “遗憾的是，我们不能从这个痕迹上判断出任何东西——我的意思是，如果是脚印的话，就会有很大帮助。 但这只是一个很深的印记——可能是他的脚跟留下的。“我希望我们能到墙的另一边去。”彼得突然说。 “我们也许能在那儿找到一两个脚印。 我们去问问园丁能不能到院子里去。 他是在我们农场工作的牧牛人的朋友，他认识我。“好主意，”乔治说，于是他们都走了

went again. The gardener was working inside the front garden, beyond the great iron gates. The children called to him, and he looked up. 'Hey John!' shouted Peter. 'Could we come in and look round? About that thief, you know. We saw him climb over the wall, and the inspector of police has asked us to keep our eyes open. So we're looking round.' John grinned. He opened the gates. 'Well, if I come with you, I don't reckon you can do much harm,' he said. 'Beats me how that thief climbed those walls. I was working here in the front garden all yesterday afternoon, and if he'd come in at the gates I'd have seen him. But he didn't.' The seven children went round the walls with John. Colin saw the top of the holly tree and the top of the little nearby oak jutting above the wall. He stopped. 'This is where he climbed up,' he said. 'Now let's look for footprints.'

又去了。园丁正在大铁门后面的前花园里干活。 孩子们叫他，他抬起头来。 “嘿,约翰!彼得喊道。 “我们能进去看看吗？” 关于那个小偷，你知道的。 我们看见他翻过墙去了，巡警叫我们睁大眼睛。 所以我们四处看看。”约翰笑了。 他打开了大门。“好吧，如果我跟你一起去，我看你不会有什么害处，”他说。 “我真搞不懂那个小偷是怎么爬上那些墙的。 我昨天整个下午都在前面的花园里干活，如果他从大门口进来的话，我就会看见他的。 但他没有。”七个孩子和约翰一起绕着墙走。 科林看见冬青树的树梢和附近那棵小橡树的树梢突出在墙边。 他停住了。他说，这就是他爬上去的地方。 “现在我们来找脚印吧。”

There were certainly marks in the earth– but no footprints. The Seven bent over the marks. 'Funny, aren't they?' said Peter, puzzled. 'Quite round and regular– and about ten centimetres across– as if someone had been pounding about with a large-sized broom handle– hammering the end of it into the ground. What could have made these marks, John?' 'Beats me,' said John, also puzzled. 'Maybe the police will make something of them, now they know you saw the thief climb over the wall just here.' Everyone studied the round, regular marks again. There seemed no rhyme or reason for them at all. They looked for all the world as if someone had been stabbing the ground with the tip of a broom handle or something– and why should anyone do that? And anyway, if they did, how would it help them to climb

地上肯定有痕迹，但没有脚印。 七子俯身看着标记。 “真有趣，是不是？”彼得迷惑不解地说。 “很圆，很有规则——大约十厘米宽——好像有人拿着一把大扫帚柄到处乱敲——把扫帚头敲进了地里。 约翰，这些痕迹是什么造成的？“我不知道，”约翰说，也很困惑。 “也许警察会把他们抓起来的，因为他们知道你看见小偷就在这里翻墙了。”大家又研究了一遍圆形的、规则的标记。 似乎根本没有什么道理可言。 他们四处张望，好像有人在用扫帚柄之类的东西捅地面——为什么要这么做呢？ 不管怎么说，如果他们有，它对他们攀爬有什么帮助呢

over a wall? 'There's been no ladder used, that I can say,' said John. 'All mine are locked up in a shed– and there they all are still– and the key's in my pocket. How that fellow climbed this steep wall, I can't think.' 'He must have been an acrobat's all,' said Janet, looking up to the top of the wall. Then she spotted something, and pointed to it in excitement. 'Look– what's that– caught on that sharp bit of brick there– half-way up?' Everybody stared. 'It looks like a bit of wool,' said Pam at last. 'Perhaps, when the thief climbed up, that sharp bit caught his clothes, and a bit of wool was pulled out.' 'Help me up, George,' ordered Peter. 'I'll get it. It might be a very valuable clue.' George hoisted him up, and Peter made a wild grab at the piece of wool. He got it, and George let him down to the ground again.

翻过一堵墙？“我敢说，没有梯子被用过。”约翰说。 “我所有的东西都锁在一个小屋里——它们现在还在那儿——钥匙在我口袋里。 我想不出那家伙是怎样爬上这堵陡峭的墙的。“他一定是个杂技演员，”珍妮特抬头看着墙顶说。 然后她发现了什么东西，兴奋地指着它。 “看——那是什么——被一块尖尖的砖头绊住了——半山腰？”每个人都盯着。 “它看起来像一小块羊毛，”潘最后说。 “也许，小偷爬上去的时候，那锋利的咬钩住了他的衣服，掉了一点羊毛。“扶我起来，乔治。”彼得命令道。 “我去拿。这可能是一条非常有价值的线索。”乔治把他举起来，彼得疯狂地抓住那块羊毛。 他抓住了，乔治又把他放回到地上。

They all gathered round to look at it. It was really rather ordinary– just a bit of blue wool thread with a tiny red strand in it. Everyone looked at it earnestly. 'Well– it might have been pulled out of the thief's jumper,' said Janet at last. 'We can all look out for somebody wearing a blue wool pullover with a tiny thread of red in it!' And then they found something else– something much more exciting!

他们都围过来看它。 它真的很普通——只是一根蓝色的羊毛线，里面有一小股红色的线。 每个人都认真地看着它。 “嗯——它可能是从小偷的套衫里拔出来的。”珍妮特最后说。 “我们都能注意到有人穿着一件蓝色羊毛套头衫，里面有一根小红线！”然后他们发现了别的东西——更令人兴奋的东西！