12 There Are Three

hearing the workers below or Sam Gribley, who was creeping along the girder to her. "Frightful," he said, disbelief in his voice. "Now they're going to paint the bridge!" IN WHICH There Are Three At dawn the next day Leon Longbridge wedged the wooden scrape into a fork in the sycamore tree and wired it in place. He climbed down and hurried to his car to watch what came next.

她没听见下方工人的动静，也没察觉山姆·格里布利正沿着大梁悄悄爬向她。 “狂福，”他开口道，声音里满是难以置信。 “他们现在居然要给这座桥刷漆！” 本章节讲述 次日黎明，里昂·朗布里奇把木制刮巢卡进悬铃木的树杈，用铁丝固定妥当。 他爬下树，匆匆赶回车上，等待接下来的发展。

Frightful was too broody to notice what was going on below her, but not 426. He sat on the bridge top in the cold dawn, watching Leon climb down from the tree and Jon Wood grab the iron bow and climb toward him. When Jon was too close, 426 took off with a loud snap of his wings, climbed high, and dove at the man. Jon ducked and climbed on. Sam in his lean-to was also watching. "That ought to work," he said to himself. "The eggs are so close to hatching, she won't abandon them." Frightful snapped out of her trance when Jon Wood swung down to the horizontal girder. She got to her feet. "Hello, Destiny," he whispered. "I'd know you anywhere." Frightful recognized him. "Psee," she called, and stepped back over her eggs. He inched slowly toward her. screamed the alarm of the peregrine. The penetrating call touched Frightful's survival

狂福一心孵蛋，没察觉到身下的动静，但426察觉到了。 寒冷的黎明里，它蹲在桥顶，看着里昂爬下树，又看着乔恩·伍德抓起铁弓朝自己爬来。 乔恩靠得太近时，426猛地振翅起飞，翅膀拍出响亮的噼啪声，它升上高空，朝着男人俯冲而下。 乔恩低下头，继续向上爬。 躲在小窝棚里的山姆也在观察着这一切。 “这招应该能行，”他暗自想道。 “蛋马上就要孵出来了，它肯定不会丢下蛋的。” 乔恩·伍德荡到水平大梁上时，狂福一下子从孵蛋的恍惚中惊醒。 它站起了身子。 “你好呀，命运女神，”他轻声说。 “我在哪都能认出你来。” 狂福认出了他。 “普西，”它叫了一声，向后退了一步护住自己的蛋。 他一点一点慢慢朝它靠近。 游隼发出了刺耳的警报声。 这尖锐的叫声触动了狂福的生存

instinct, and she flew off the eggs. The air was cold. Jon carefully wrapped the warm eggs in bubble plastic and lowered them onto a hot-water bottle in his backpack. He shouldered the pack, grabbed the bow, swung up onto it, and backed down its curved slope to the bridge. Frightful flew back to her scrape. Her eggs were gone. "Kek, kek, kek," she cried. 426 answered her distress call and dropped down beside her. The empty nest stunned and confused them. Movement at the foot of the sycamore caught Frightful's eye, and she saw Jon Wood. She screamed and dove. He was the one who had taken her eggs. He saw her coming and covered his head with his hands. A talon scraped him. Quickly he scaled the tree to the artificial scrape and, fending off Frightful with one arm, he gently lay the eggs in the box. He climbed down, ran across the bridge, and joined Leon Longbridge in his car. Frightful circled and swooped to a limb in the sycamore tree. 426 joined her. Sam watched. Leon and Jon watched.

本能，它连忙飞离了鸟蛋。 空气凉飕飕的。 乔恩小心地把温热的蛋用泡棉塑料包好，放进背包里的热水袋上。 他背上背包，抓着弓，荡到大梁上，顺着弧形桥背慢慢退回到桥面。 狂福飞回了自己的刮巢。 它的蛋不见了。 “喀克，喀克，喀克，”它哀鸣着。 426回应了它的求救，落在了它身边。 空空的巢穴让它们又震惊又困惑。 悬铃木树下的动静吸引了狂福的注意，它看到了乔恩·伍德。 它尖叫着俯冲下去。 就是这个男人偷走了它的蛋。 他看到狂福冲过来，连忙用手抱住头。 一只利爪划伤了他。 他很快爬上树，来到人造刮巢旁，一只胳膊挡开狂福，轻轻把蛋放进了巢箱里。 他爬下树，跑过大桥，和里昂·朗布里奇一起躲进了车里。 狂福盘旋了一圈，落在了悬铃木的一根树枝上。 426也落到了它身边。 山姆静静看着这一切。 里昂和乔恩也静静看着。

Minutes passed. The air was cool. Frightful flew from the tree back to the bridge. She circled once and flew back to the tree. She cried her worried call. answered. Agitated, he flew over the town. Frightful followed him. An hour passed. The pair did not come back. "Okay," said Jon Wood. "This isn't working. The eggs have been uncovered for sixty minutes, and at forty-five degrees Fahrenheit, that's not good. I'm going to put them back." He climbed to the box, wrapped up the eggs once more, and returned them to the scrape on the bridge. He was backing away when Frightful lit on the girder and, putting one foot in front of the other, ran to the eggs. She sat down and pressed her brood patch against them. She stood up. The eggs were cold. She sat down again. An hour later she got up and walked away. The chicks in the shells had not moved. She walked back, turned, and snuggled them against her brood patch. She called wistfully.

几分钟过去了。 空气凉丝丝的。 狂福从树上飞回到大桥上。 它盘旋了一圈，又飞回了树上。 它发出焦急的叫声。 得到了回应。 它焦躁不安，飞过小镇上空。 狂福跟在了它身后。 一个小时过去了。 两只游隼都没有回来。 “好吧，”乔恩·伍德说道。 “这办法行不通。 蛋已经暴露六十分钟了，现在气温只有华氏四十五度，这可不太好。 我得把它们放回去。” 他爬进巢箱，再次把蛋包好，送回了大桥上的刮巢。 他正往后退，狂福落在了大梁上，一步一步朝鸟蛋跑过来。 它坐下身子，把孵卵斑紧紧贴在蛋上。 它又站了起来。 蛋已经凉了。 它再次坐下。 一个小时后，它站起来走开了。 蛋壳里的小雏鸟没有一点动静。 它走回来，转了个身，把蛋紧紧贴在自己的孵卵斑上。 它满心渴望地叫了一声。

Dan Martin arrived early for work. He looked up at the gray-blue sky and put on his rain gear. Seeing Leon Long-bridge and Jon Wood, he asked about the falcons. Jon told him they had tried unsuccessfully to move the eggs. "We've got to somehow postpone the bridge painting," Jon said. "I guess there is nothing you can do. I'll try calling Albany again." The rain was beginning to fall when Joe Cassini arrived. Dan Martin greeted him as he got out of his car. "We can't paint today," he said. "Bad rainstorm coming." "We can sandblast," Joe Cassini said. "Is there any reason why we can't start cleaning up rust spots in the rain?" "No," said Dan Martin. "Rain shouldn't make any difference." Then Joe Cassini turned to Dan and put his hand on his shoulder. "When we get to the webs," he said, "I want you to paint the ones near the nest. You seem to know something about peregrine falcons."

丹·马丁一早就来上班了。 他抬头看着灰蓝色的天空，穿上了雨衣。 看到里昂·朗布里奇和乔恩·伍德，他问起了游隼的情况。 乔恩告诉他，他们尝试移蛋，但没有成功。 “我们总得想办法推迟大桥刷漆工程，”乔恩说。 “我看现在也没别的办法了。 我再试试给奥尔巴尼打电话。” 乔·卡西尼赶到的时候，天开始下起雨来。 丹·马丁在他下车时跟他打了招呼。 “我们今天没法刷漆，”他说。 “一场大雨就要来了。” “我们可以喷砂除锈呀，”乔·卡西尼说。 “下雨天清理锈斑，有什么不行的吗？” “没有，”丹·马丁说。 “下雨应该没什么影响。” 接着乔·卡西尼转向丹，把手放在他的肩膀上。 “等我们到桥腹那里的时候，”他说，“我要你去刷鸟巢附近的梁。 你好像对游隼挺了解的。”

"Enough to ask this: Do we still have to go ahead with the work? The bridge won't fall down now." "We still have to go ahead," Joe Cassini said. "I checked with Albany myself. The governor is relentless. Said the tourists were beginning to come to the Catskills, and he wants the work done on time." "I've just been talking to Leon Longbridge and Jon Wood," Dan Martin said. "They tried to move the eggs to another site this morning." "Yeah?" "It didn't work. They had to put them back before they froze." Joe Cassini glanced at the aerie. "Funny," he said, "but I like those birds. They're real spunky." Two hours later, when Frightful again turned the eggs, there was still no movement. 426 arrived with a pigeon. He pulled off a morsel to feed Frightful. The sandblasting machine started up. 426 dove onto his wings and sped away. Sam left his lean-to and walked partway down the mountain. Frightful had not eaten for eleven

“我只敢问一句：我们还一定要继续施工吗？ 大桥现在又不会塌。” “我们还是得继续干，”乔·卡西尼说。 “我亲自跟奥尔巴尼确认过了。 州长态度很强硬。 说游客都开始来卡茨基尔玩了，要求工程按时完工。” “我刚刚才和里昂·朗布里奇、乔恩·伍德聊过，”丹·马丁说。 “他们今天早上试过把蛋移去别的地方。” “是吗？” “没成功。 蛋差点冻住，他们只好又放回去了。” 乔·卡西尼朝鹰巢看了一眼。 “说起来好笑，”他说，“可我挺喜欢这些鸟儿的。 它们真的很有勇气。” 两个小时后，狂福再次给蛋翻身，蛋还是没有一点动静。 426叼着一只鸽子回来了。 它撕下一小块肉喂给狂福。 喷砂机启动运作起来。 426猛地振翅，飞快逃走了。 山姆离开小窝棚，往山下走了一段路。 狂福已经十一个小时没吃