7 SCAMPER FINDS A CLUE

CHAPTER SEVEN SCAMPER FINDS A CLUE IT WAS really Scamper the spaniel who found the biggest clue of all. He was with them, of course, sniffing round eagerly, very interested in the curious round marks. Then he suddenly began to bark loudly. Everyone looked at him. 'What's up, Scamper?' said Peter. Scamper went on barking. The Seven felt a bit scared, and looked hastily round, half afraid that there might be somebody hidden in the bushes! Scamper had his head up, and was barking quite madly. 'Stop it,' said Peter, exasperated.

第七章斯坎普找到了一条线索实际上是斯坎普发现了最大的线索。 他当然和他们在一起，急切地四处嗅着，对那些奇怪的圆形记号很感兴趣。 然后他突然开始大声吠叫。 大家都看着他。“怎么了，斯坎普？”彼得说。 斯坎普继续叫着。七王子有点害怕，急忙环顾四周，有点担心有人藏在灌木丛里！斯坎普抬起头，疯狂地叫着。 “别说了。”彼得生气地说。

'Tell us what you're barking at, Scamper! Stop it, I say.' Scamper stopped. He gave Peter a reproachful look and then gazed up above the children's heads. He began to bark again. Everyone looked up, to see what in the world the spaniel was barking at. And there, caught neatly on the twig of a tree, was a cap! 'Look at that!' said Peter, astonished. 'A cap! Could it belong to the thief?' 'Well, if it does, why in the world did he throw his cap up there?' said Janet. 'It's not a thing that thieves usually do– throw their caps up into trees and leave them!' The cap was far too high to reach. It was almost as high up as the top of the wall! John the gardener went to get a stick to knock it down. 'It could only have got up there by being thrown,' said George. 'So it doesn't really seem as if it could have belonged to the thief.

“告诉我们你在叫什么，斯坎普！”住手，我说。”奔跑停止。 他责备地看了彼得一眼，然后望着孩子们的头顶。 他又开始叫了起来。每个人都抬起头来，想看看那只西班牙猎犬到底在叫什么。 在那儿，整整齐齐地挂在一根树枝上的是一顶帽子！“看那个！”彼得吃惊地说。 “一顶帽子!会是小偷的吗？“好吧，如果是的话，他究竟为什么要把帽子扔到那儿去呢？”珍妮特说。 “小偷通常不会干这种事——把帽子扔到树上就丢了！”帽子太高了，够不着。 它几乎和墙顶一样高！园丁约翰去找了根棍子把它敲倒。 “它只能被扔到那儿去。”乔治说。 “所以它看起来不像是真的属于那个小偷。

He really wouldn't go throwing his cap about like that, leaving such a great clue!' No. You're right, I'm afraid,' said Peter. 'It can't be his cap. It must be one that some tramp threw over the wall some time or other.' John came back with a bamboo stick. He jerked the cap off the twig and Scamper pounced on it at once. 'Drop it, Scamper; drop it!' ordered Peter, and Scamper dropped it, looking hurt. Hadn't he spotted the cap himself? Then at least he might be allowed to throw it up into the air and catch it! The Seven looked at the dirty old cap. It was made of tweed, and at one time must have showed a rather startling check pattern– but now it was so faded that it was difficult even to see the pattern. Janet looked at it in disgust. 'Ugh! What a tatty old cap! I'm sure that some tramp had finished with it and threw it

他真不会那样乱扔帽子，留下这么大的线索！”否。 “恐怕你是对的。”彼得说。 “那不可能是他的帽子，一定是某个流浪汉什么时候从墙上扔出去的。”约翰拿着一根竹竿回来了。 他猛地把帽子从树枝上扯下来，斯坎普立刻扑了上去。 “放下它，斯坎普；把它!彼得命令道，斯坎普放下了它，看上去很受伤。 不是他自己发现了那顶帽子吗？ 这样至少他可以把它抛向空中并接住它！七王子看着那顶肮脏的旧帽子。 它是用粗花呢做的，一定有一段时间呈现出相当惊人的格子图案——但现在它已经褪色了，甚至很难看到图案。 珍妮特厌恶地看着它。 “啊!多么破旧的一顶帽子！肯定是某个流浪汉用完扔了

over the wall– and it just stuck up there on that tree branch. I'm sure it isn't a clue at all.' 'I think you're right,' said Colin, turning the cap over and over in his hands. 'We might as well chuck it over into Little Thicket. It's no use to us. Bad luck, Scamper– you thought you'd found a thumping big clue!' He made as if to throw the cap up over the wall, but Peter stopped him. 'No, don't! We'd better keep it. You never know. We'd kick ourselves if we threw away something that might prove to be a clue of some kind– though I do agree with you, it probably isn't.' 'Well, you can carry the smelly thing then,' said Colin, giving it to Peter. 'No wonder somebody threw it away. It smells like anything!' Peter stuffed it into his pocket. Then he took the tiny piece of blue wool thread, and put that carefully into the pages of his notebook. He looked down at the ground

越过墙——它就挂在那根树枝上。 我敢肯定这根本不是什么线索。“我想你是对的，”科林说，把帽子在手里翻来覆去地翻。 “我们还不如把它扔到小灌木林去。 这对我们没用。真倒霉，斯坎普——你以为你找到了一条大线索！”他想把帽子扔到墙上去，但彼得阻止了他。 “不,不要!我们最好留着它。 谁知道呢。如果我们扔掉一些可能被证明是某种线索的东西，我们会自责的——尽管我同意你的观点，但它可能不是。“好吧，那你可以拿着这个臭东西。”科林说着，把它递给了彼得。 “难怪有人把它扔掉了。 什么味道都有！”彼得把它塞进口袋里。 然后，他拿起那一小段蓝色羊毛线，小心翼翼地把它放在笔记本上。 他低头看着地面

where the curious marks were. 'I almost think we'd better make a note of these too,' he said. 'Got a measure, Janet?' She hadn't, of course. But George had some string, and he carefully measured across the round marks, and then snipped the string to the right size. 'That's the size of the marks,' he said, and gave his bit of string to Peter. It went carefully into his notebook too. 'I can't help thinking those funny marks all over the place are some kind of clue,' he said, putting his notebook away. 'But what, I simply can't imagine!' They said goodbye to John, and made their way home across the fields. Nobody could make much of the clues. Peter did hope the adventure wasn't going to fizzle out, after all! 'I still say that only an acrobat could have scaled that high wall,' said Janet. 'I don't see how any ordinary person could have done it!' Just as she said this, they came out into the

奇怪的痕迹在哪里。 “我几乎认为我们最好把这些也记下来，”他说。 “有尺寸吗，珍妮特？”当然，她没有。 但是乔治有一些绳子，他仔细地测量了圆痕，然后把绳子剪成合适的大小。 “这就是记号的大小。”他说着，把他的绳子给了彼得。 它也小心翼翼地放进了他的笔记本里。 “我忍不住认为那些到处都是奇怪的记号是某种线索，”他说着把笔记本收了起来。 “可是什么，我简直无法想象！”他们向约翰告别，穿过田野回家。 谁也看不懂这些线索。 彼得真希望这次冒险不会失败！“我还是要说，只有杂技演员才能爬上那堵高墙，”珍妮特说。 “我看不出一个普通人是怎么做到的！”就在她说这话的时候，他们走了出来

lane. A big poster had been put up on a wall nearby. The children glanced at it idly. And then Colin gave a shout that made them all jump! 'Look at that– it's a poster advertising a circus! And see what it says– Lion-tamers, Daring Horseriders, Performing Bears– Clowns– and Acrobats! Acrobats! Look at that! Supposing– just supposing…' They all stared at one another in excitement. Janet might be right. This must be looked into at once!

车道。附近的一面墙上贴着一张很大的海报。 孩子们懒洋洋地看了一眼。 然后科林大喊一声，把他们都吓了一跳！“看那个——这是一张马戏团的广告海报！”看看上面写着什么——驯狮者，勇敢的骑手，表演的熊——小丑——和杂技演员！杂技演员!快看！假设——只是假设……”他们都兴奋地面面相觑。 珍妮特可能是对的。这件事必须马上调查！