13 Sam Takes Charge

"I thought he would know. The Feds must have told him they were coming." The kids looked at each other. Their eyes widened. "You see Leon Longbridge?" Jose asked Joe Cassini. "Not this morning," he said. "He'll sure be glad to know someone finally moved those birds," said Dan Martin. "Wanna bet?" said Jose as he started running for Leon Longbridge's office. The school bell rang. "Cree, cree, cree, kak, kak, kak." High above the Delhi Bridge, Frightful screamed and spiraled, her pointed wings cutting frantic patterns in the sky. IN WHICH Sam Takes Charge

“我本来以为他会知道的。 联邦探员肯定告诉他他们要来了。” 孩子们对视了一眼。 他们一下子睁大了眼睛。 “你看见利昂·朗布里奇了吗？” 何塞问乔·卡西尼。 “今天早上没看见，”他说。 “听说终于有人把那些鸟挪走了，他肯定会开心的，”丹·马丁说。 “要不要赌一把？”何塞说着就往利昂·朗布里奇的办公室跑去。 上课铃响了。 “克里，克里，克里，咔，咔，咔。” 在德里大桥高高的上空，惊侠尖叫着盘旋，尖尖的翅膀在天空划出慌乱的轨迹。 本章：山姆接管局面

Sam was at his lean-to, his elbows propped on his knees, his binocs pinned on the green pickup. He had watched the two U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service men rescue the peregrine eyases of the Delhi Bridge. He was grateful to them. The bridge painting was becoming intolerable. Sam studied them closely. The dark-haired man seemed familiar, but he didn't know any Fish and Wildlife Service people. He turned his glasses on Frightful. She zoomed out of nowhere and landed on the scrape. Why wasn't she following the Feds and her eyases? She was not even looking in their direction. And then he saw why. An eyas appeared and nestled into her warm breast feathers. "What the heck!" Sam said aloud. "She's feeding!"

山姆待在自己的小棚屋里，胳膊肘撑着膝盖，望远镜牢牢对准那辆绿色皮卡。 他刚看着那两个美国鱼类和野生动物管理局的人，救走了德里大桥上的游隼雏鸟。 他挺感激他们的。 大桥刷漆这件事，已经越来越让人忍无可忍了。 山姆仔细打量着他们俩。 那个黑发男人看着有点眼熟，但他并不认识任何渔猎局的人。 他把望远镜转向了惊侠。 它不知从哪儿猛地冲出来，落在了巢台上。 它为什么不跟着联邦探员和自己的宝宝走呢？ 它甚至都没往他们那个方向看。 接着山姆就明白原因了。 一只雏鸟钻出来，依偎在它温暖的胸羽里。 “搞什么名堂！” 山姆大声说。 “它在喂宝宝！”

He put down his glasses and whistled his "come here" notes to Frightful. Frightful turned her head but did not answer. She was mothering Oksi and calling a worried "kak, kak" to 426. He came down from a height where no human eye could see him, landed on the girder, and took off again. The man in the cherry picker had so terrified him, he could not force himself to sit on the bridge. He caught a wind and was sped up the mountain. He came to rest on a large maple near Sam's lean-to and flattened his feathers to his body. His eye pupils were pinpoints of fear. "Kak, kak, kak." 426 yelled the distress cry over and over. Sam lowered his glasses to the bridge span. The men on the paint crew were swinging the work platforms under the fifth web, getting ready to paint the seemingly empty aerie. Down on Elm Street, Molly, Jose, and Leon Longbridge came on the run. They joined Joe Cassini and Dan Martin at the cherry picker. "Good news," Joe said. "The Feds moved the little birds."

他放下望远镜，吹起了叫惊侠“过来”的哨音。 惊侠转过头，却没有回应。 它正照顾着奥克西，还焦急地对着426发出“咔，咔”的叫声。 426从人类看不到的高空飞下来，落在钢梁上，随即又立刻飞走了。 升降车里的人把它吓坏了，它根本不敢待在大桥上。 它借着一阵风，飞快往山上飞去。 最后它落在山姆小棚屋附近的一棵大枫树上，把羽毛紧紧贴在了身上。 它的瞳孔缩成小点，满是恐惧。 “咔，咔，咔。” 426一遍又一遍发出求救的叫声。 山姆把望远镜往下移，对准了桥跨。 刷漆队的工人把作业平台移到第五拱的下方，准备给这个看起来空了的鹰巢刷漆。 在下方的榆树街上，莫莉、何塞和利昂·朗布里奇正拼命跑来。 他们来到升降车旁，和乔·卡西尼、丹·马丁会合了。 “好消息，”乔说。 联邦探员把小鸟挪走了。”

"No, they didn't," Leon said. "They stole them. Those men were not from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. I checked on them when Hughie called me. And they weren't from the state, either." "Who were they, then?" "Poachers—a special kind of poacher," said Leon. "They'll raise the eyases and sell them for tens of thousands of dollars." "Did you get their license plate number?" Molly asked Joe hopefully. "No," he answered. "Never occurred to me they weren't legit. But they should be easy to find. They were in an old green Chevy pickup with an official insignia on the door." "What'll we do?" Jose asked, tugging Leon Long- bridge's sleeve. "I've already called the police," he said. "Also Jon Wood. He suspects some poachers are hiding out in a cabin on White Man Mountain. Maybe we should begin there." "Can we come?" Molly asked, clapping her hands.

“不对，他们没有，”利昂说。 他们是偷小鸟。 那两个人根本不是美国鱼类和野生动物管理局的。 休给我打电话之后我就查过他们了。 他们也不是州政府派来的。” “那他们到底是谁？” “偷猎者——一种特别的偷猎者，”利昂说。 “他们会把雏鸟养大，卖出几万美元的高价。” “你记下他们的车牌号码了吗？” 莫莉满怀希望地问乔。 “没有，”他回答。 我从来没觉得他们不是正规人员。 不过他们应该不难找。 他们开着一辆旧的绿色雪佛兰皮卡，车门上还有官方徽章。” “那我们该怎么办？” 何塞拽着利昂·朗布里奇的袖子问道。 “我已经报警了，”他说。 还通知了乔恩·伍德。 他怀疑有偷猎者藏在白人山的一间小屋里。 我们或许可以先去那里找找。” “我们能一起去吗？” 莫莉拍着手问道。

"No," Leon said forcefully. "Those guys are dangerous. Now, run along to school. You're late." When Leon went back to his office, Joe Cassini and Dan Martin looked up at the intricately webbed bridge that had been a home for the peregrines. Its crisscrossed grid was a huge silver tapestry in the gray spring light. "Well, Dan," Joe said, "the falcons are gone. We'll sandblast the aerie. Nothing to stop us from painting now." "Except that thunderstorm hanging over the mountain," Dan Martin answered. "I'm going to sit this one out. I don't want to be caught in a thunderstorm on an iron bridge." He closed his paint bucket and returned it to the supply truck. Joe Cassini was checking the sanding job on the bridge railing when the first peal of thunder rumbled. He called the men down from the work platforms and sent them to the safety of their cars. In his own car he took out a thermos of coffee, drank several gulps, then leaned back and closed his eyes. "How was I to know wildlife officials from poachers?" he asked himself. "Well, I hope they

“不行，”利昂语气强硬地说。 那些家伙很危险。 现在快去上学吧。 你们已经迟到了。” 利昂回办公室之后，乔·卡西尼和丹·马丁抬头望着这座结构复杂的桥，这里曾经是游隼的家。 交错的钢梁网格在春天灰蒙蒙的天光下，像一块巨大的银色织锦。 “好吧，丹，”乔说，“游隼都走了。 我们把鹰巢喷砂清理一下。 现在没什么能阻挡我们刷漆了。” “除了山上那场就要来的雷雨，”丹·马丁回答。 这次我就不上去了。 我可不想在铁桥上被雷雨困住。” 他关上油漆桶，把它送回了补给卡车。 第一声雷轰隆隆响起的时候，乔·卡西尼正在检查桥栏杆的打磨情况。 他叫工人们从作业平台下来，让他们躲到自己车里保证安全。 他在自己车里拿出一杯保温咖啡，喝了好几大口，然后靠住椅背闭上了眼睛。 “我怎么分得清谁是真的野生动物官员谁是偷猎者啊？”他暗自想道。 “唉，只希望他们

get caught. I got real fond of those birds." Lightning flashed like fireworks. Oksi pressed up against Frightful and crawled deeper into her feathers. Both sat still and waited. The falling air pressure foretold a severe storm. Sam felt the warning, too, but he planned to take advantage of it. He walked down the mountainside to the road and sat under a large rhododendron bush. The clouds rolled over Delhi in blue-black boils, their bottoms illuminated by white flashes. A few large raindrops splattered down onto the rhododendron leaves, then many. A fork of lightning opened a cloud. It closed with a thunderous boom. Water spilled down in sheets. When he could no longer see Joe Cassini's car for the rain, Sam crawled out from under the bush and ran to the bowed arch. Barefoot, using his hands and feet, he went up it. The rain poured off his hair and down his face. Lightning danced over the bridge and town. The thunder became a continuous boom. When he got to where the bow met the fifth vertical web, Sam whistled three notes. There was no response.

被抓住了。 "我真的越来越喜欢这些鸟儿了。" 闪电像烟花一样划破天空。 奥克西贴紧芙拉芙，往她的羽毛深处钻了钻。 他俩一动不动，静静等待着。 气压下降预示着一场大风暴即将来临。 萨姆也察觉到了预兆，可他打算好好利用这次机会。 他走下山坡来到路边，坐在一大丛杜鹃树下。 蓝黑云团翻滚着压过德里上空，云底被一道道白闪闪亮。 先是几滴大雨点吧嗒砸在杜鹃叶上，很快雨就密集起来。 一道叉状闪电撕开了乌云。 一声炸雷响起，乌云重又合拢。 大雨像水帘一样倾盆而下。 等大雨浓得看不见乔·卡西尼的车了，萨姆才从灌木下爬出来，朝拱桥跑去。 他光着脚，手脚并用地往上爬。 雨水从他头发上淌下，顺着脸颊往下流。 闪电在大桥和小镇上空跳跃。 雷声变成了不间断的轰鸣。 爬到拱梁和第五根纵梁交汇处，萨姆吹了三声口哨。 没有得到任何回应。