13 A NASTY SHOCK

CHAPTER THIRTEEN A NASTY SHOCK DADDY WAS in for tea. Peter broke the news to him while he was spreading slices of bread and butter with honey. 'Daddy! The Secret Seven are in the middle of something again!' Daddy and Mummy both looked up at once. 'You and your Secret Seven! What's up this time?' said Daddy. 'Nothing serious, I hope.' 'We don't know,' said Peter. 'But as two of the people in it are supposed to be really bad– and I think they are– then it might be serious. But although we know quite a lot, it's all so silly and muddled and difficult that we can't

第十三章可怕的震惊爸爸来喝茶了。 彼得把这个消息告诉了他，当时他正往面包片上撒蜂蜜。 “爸爸!”秘密七人又在闹事了！”爸爸和妈妈同时抬起头来。 “你和你的秘密七人！”这次怎么了？爸爸说。 “我希望没什么大不了的。“我们不知道。”彼得说。 “但既然电影里的两个人应该是非常坏的——我认为他们确实是——那么事情可能会很严重。” 但是，尽管我们知道很多，但这一切都是如此愚蠢、混乱和困难，我们无法做到

make head or tail of it. So we thought we'd better tell you!' 'Fire ahead,' said Daddy. 'I can hardly wait to hear!' 'You're not to laugh, Daddy,' said Janet. 'The Secret Seven is a proper Society, and you know it's already done quite a lot of things.' 'I'm not really laughing,' said Daddy. 'Nor is Mummy. Tell us all about it.' So Peter and Janet told the tale of their tree- house and Jeff and the kitten, and his wicked uncle and Mr Tizer, and all the curious collection of things that Jeff had remembered. Daddy ate his tea all the time. He listened, asking a few questions now and again. Mummy listened too, exclaiming once or twice that she thought the tree-house sounded very dangerous. At last the tale came to an end. 'It certainly wants looking into,' said Daddy. 'But if you want my opinion, I think that boy Jeff has made most of it up. He's feeling

弄清楚它的头或尾。所以我们想我们最好告诉你！“说吧，”爸爸说。 “我等不及要听了！”“你不许笑，爸爸，”珍妮特说。 “秘密七人组是一个真正的社团，你知道它已经做了不少事情。“我不是真的在笑，”爸爸说。 “妈妈也不是。把一切都告诉我们吧。”于是彼得和珍妮特讲了他们的树屋、杰夫和小猫的故事，还有他邪恶的叔叔和蒂泽先生的故事，以及杰夫记得的所有稀奇古怪的事情。 爸爸一直在喝茶。 他听着，不时地问几个问题。 妈妈也听着，有一两次惊呼，她觉得树屋听起来很危险。 故事终于结束了。 “确实需要调查一下，”爸爸说。 “但如果你想听我的意见，我认为大部分都是杰夫这个男孩编造的。 他的感觉

miserable because his mother has gone into hospital, he doesn't like his uncle and aunt, he got into trouble with them, and ran away. And you were very kind to him, so he's made up a nice little tale!' 'Oh no, Daddy,' said Janet at once. 'He didn't make it up. He really didn't. And the kitten was hurt. Somebody had kicked it!' 'Well, look here, go and fetch that boy Jeff and bring him here to me,' said Daddy. 'If there's anything in his story I'll soon find out, and if there is any funny business going on we'll find that out too. He can tell us the address of his uncle, and the police can go and see if there's anything in his tale.' 'He doesn't want the police to be told,' said Peter. 'Of course he doesn't, if he's made up the tale!' said Daddy. 'Now you go and fetch him. Tell him I shan't bite his head off. As for all the things he says he remembers hearing when

因为他的母亲住院了，他很痛苦，他不喜欢他的叔叔和婶婶，他和他们发生了冲突，然后逃跑了。 你对他很好，所以他编了一个漂亮的小故事！“哦，不，爸爸，”珍妮特马上说。 “这不是他编造的。他真的没有。 小猫受伤了。有人踢了它！“好吧，听着，去把那个男孩杰夫带来给我，”爸爸说。 “如果他的故事里有什么，我很快就会发现的，如果有什么有趣的事情发生，我们也会发现的。 他可以告诉我们他叔叔的地址，警察就可以去看看他说的是不是真的。“他不想告诉警察，”彼得说。 “他当然不知道，如果这个故事是他编的！”爸爸说。 “现在你去把他叫来。 告诉他我不会咬掉他的头。 至于他说他记得听到的那些话

he was half-asleep, well, I think he dreamt them! Don't look so upset, both of you. When you get a bit older you'll learn not to believe all the tales people tell you!' 'But Daddy, he was speaking the truth, I'm sure he was,' said Janet, almost in tears. 'Right. Then we'll certainly do something to help him,' said Daddy. 'Go and get him now. I'll finish what I'm working on and be ready as soon as you get back.' Peter and Janet set off rather gloomily to the tree-house. It was very, very damping to have Daddy and Mummy so certain that Jeff was a fraud. They didn't think he was. Well, now Jeff would have to go with them and tell Daddy everything. He would probably be so scared that he wouldn't say a word! 'I hope Jeff will come back with us,' said Peter, suddenly thinking that it might be very, very difficult to get him to climb down the tree if he didn't want to. They said no more till

他半睡半醒，嗯，我想他是在梦里梦到的！你们俩别这么不高兴。 当你长大一点的时候，你就会学会不要相信别人告诉你的所有故事！“但是爸爸，他说的是实话，我相信他说的是真话，”珍妮特说，几乎要哭了。 的权利。“那么我们一定会做点什么来帮助他的。”爸爸说。 “现在就去把他找来。我会把手头的工作做完，你一回来就准备好。”彼得和珍妮特闷闷不乐地向树屋走去。 爸爸妈妈如此确定杰夫是个骗子，这让我非常非常沮丧。 他们不这么认为。现在杰夫得跟他们一起去，把一切都告诉爸爸。 他可能会吓得一句话也说不出来！“我希望杰夫能和我们一起回来。”彼得说。他突然想到，如果杰夫不想从树上爬下来，要让他爬下来可能会非常、非常困难。 他们不再说了

they got to the tree. Peter called up. 'Jeff! Come on down! We've got something to tell you.' Nobody answered. Peter called again. 'JEFF! It's me, Peter. Come on down. There's nobody here but me and Janet. It's important.' There was no reply. But wait– yes, there was! A tiny little mew sounded from up above. The kitten! 'The kitten's there,' said Peter. 'So Jeff must be there too. I wonder if he's all right? I'll go up and see.' Up he went. He climbed up on to the platform which was still strewn with cushions. The kitten ran to him, mewing. There wasn't a sign of Jeff! Peter called again and peered upwards, thinking the boy might have climbed higher. No– he wasn't there either! Then he caught sight of a piece of paper stuck into a crevice of the tree-trunk. Peter took it and read it.

他们来到了那棵树下。彼得打电话来。 “杰夫!快下来！我们有事要告诉你。”没有人回答。 彼得又叫了一声。“杰夫!是我，彼得。 快下来。这里只有我和珍妮特。 是很重要的。”没有回答。 但是等等——是的，有！从上面传来一声小小的叫声。 小猫!“小猫在那儿，”彼得说。 “那么杰夫一定也在那儿了。 不知道他还好吗？ 我要上去看看。”他走了上去。 他爬上仍然铺满靠垫的平台。 小猫喵喵地跑向他。 没有杰夫的影子！彼得又叫了一声，向上看了看，以为男孩可能爬得更高了。 不——他也不在那儿！这时，他看见一张纸卡在树干的裂缝里。 彼得拿过来读。

'They've found me,' said the note. 'They say they'll come up and throw the kitten down the tree if I don't climb down to them. They would too. Take care of the kitten– and thanks for everything. Jeff.' Peter slithered down the tree so quickly that he grazed his hands and knees. He held out the paper to Janet. 'Look at that! They've found him. They must have come back again, guessing he might be up here, with Scamper barking round like that. Poor Jeff!' Janet looked upset and alarmed. 'Oh dear– now what are we to do? We don't even know where Jeff lives. We can't find out anything, or help him. Oh look, that poor little kitten is coming down the tree all by itself!' Peter lifted it down. It mewed. 'We'll look after you all right,' he said. 'Where has your master gone to? That's what we'd like to know!'

“他们找到我了。” “他们说如果我不爬下去，他们就上来把小猫扔到树上。 他们也会的。照顾好小猫——谢谢你所做的一切。 杰夫。”彼得飞快地从树上滑下，擦伤了双手和膝盖。 他把报纸递给珍妮特。 “看那个！”他们找到他了。 他们一定又回来了，猜想他可能在这儿，斯坎普在那儿汪汪叫。 可怜的杰夫!”珍妮特显得心烦意乱，惊慌失措。 “哦，天哪——现在我们该怎么办呢？” 我们都不知道杰夫住在哪里。 我们什么都找不到，也帮不了他。 哦，看，那只可怜的小猫自己从树上下来了！”彼得把它拿了下来。 它只能。“我们会好好照顾你的，”他说。 “你的主人到哪儿去了？” 这正是我们想知道的！”