6 Frightful Finds The Enemy

Her wings spread in glorious flight, she looked down on the vast landscape. And there it was. The one mountain among thousands of mountains, the one tree among millions of trees, and somewhere there, the one boy. Frightful turned abruptly west and in minutes was over the mountain. Snow lay on its highest levels. Food would be scarce here. She flew back to Woodchuck Lodge. There the last weak messages from the environment pointed her southward again. But she had seen the mountain. Confused, she kakak-ed in distress and flew into the spruce tree for the night. IN WHICH Frightful finds the Enemy The next day was cold. Sleet and rain fell on the Catskill Mountains. The air currents dropped

她舒展翅膀畅快飞翔，低头望向广阔的大地。 就在那里。 万山中的那座山，万木中的那棵树，而在那某处，就是那个男孩。 芙莱福猛地转向西边，几分钟就飞到了那座山的上空。 最高的山顶覆盖着积雪。 这里的食物会十分稀少。 她飞回到土拨鼠小屋。 在这里，大自然传来的最后微弱信号指引她再次往南方去。 可她已经看见了那座山。 她困惑又痛苦地叫了几声，飞到云杉树上过夜。 本章 芙莱福找到了敌人 第二天天气很冷。 卡茨基尔山脉上下起了雨夹雪。 气流向下沉去

steeply earthward, making it difficult for Frightful to fly. She flew above the trees but could not get high enough to see her mountain again. Chilled and tired, she came back down to the spruce tree near the lodge to wait for the ice storm to pass. Mole holed up under the house. The sleet had driven the game birds and animals into retirement, and he knew it;was useless to hunt. However, unlike Frightful, Mole had another option. Around noon he trotted off to the town dump. At dusk he returned refreshed. For the next few mornings Frightful watched Mole leave the lodge and return in the evening. His tracks were soon covered by snow and icy rain, erasing all signs of the is hound's travels. One evening Mole did not return from the dump. Frightful spent several days hunting without him. She caught a mouse running over the snow and a squirrel that had ventured from its leaf nest. When Mole finally came back, he was limping. His left ear was torn and bleeding. He had lost a fight for a female Labrador on a farm down the mountain. He squeezed under the porch and did

直直沉向地面，让芙莱福飞起来十分吃力。 她飞到树顶上方，却没法飞得足够高，再看一眼她的那座山。 又冷又累的她回到小屋旁的云杉树上，等着冰暴过去。 鼹鼠躲在了屋子底下。 雨夹雪把鸟兽都逼得躲了起来，鼹鼠知道，现在打猎根本没用。 不过，和芙莱福不同，鼹鼠还有别的选择。 中午左右，他小跑着去了镇上的垃圾场。 黄昏的时候，他舒舒服服地回来了。 接下来好几个早晨，芙莱福都看着鼹鼠离开小屋，傍晚再回来。 他的脚印很快就被雪和冻雨盖住，抹掉了这只猎犬出行的所有痕迹。 一天傍晚，鼹鼠从垃圾场出去后就没回来。 芙莱福没有他陪伴，独自打猎过了好几天。 她抓到一只跑过雪面的老鼠，还有一只钻出叶巢冒险的松鼠。 等鼹鼠终于回来的时候，他一瘸一拐的。 他的左耳被撕破了，正在流血。 他在山脚下的农场，为了一只拉布拉多母犬打架输了。 他挤进门廊底下，连着好几天都

not make an appearance for several more days. When he did emerge, he eagerly hunted the Burroughs fields, and Frightful joined him. The sleet, snow, and cold kept Frightful confined to the mountaintop at Woodchuck Lodge. Finally the air currents stopped dragging her down, and she flew high enough to locate her mountain, but the entire western horizon was swathed in clouds. She went back to the spruce tree. At last a high-pressure bubble brought sunshine to the icy Catskills. Frightful shook out her feathers and preened and oiled them. She lifted her head. Her large, round eyes searched for the indicators that would guide her on her way. She found none. The window of migration had closed for Frightful. She was a winter bird, one who cannot go south. Like all winter birds, Frightful's life was threatened. But the day was clear. The sun sparkled on the ice and snow, and the wind blew the last clouds away. Frightful left the spruce tree and climbed up and up. When she reached two thousand feet high, she saw at last the one mountain in thousands. She flew straight for it.

没有再露面。 等他终于出来，就急切地去巴勒斯田野打猎，芙莱福也跟着他一起去。 雨夹雪、降雪和严寒把芙莱福困在了土拨鼠小屋所在的山顶。 终于，气流不再往下拽她，她飞得足够高，找到了她的那座山，可整个西边地平线都被乌云笼罩着。 她回到了云杉树上。 终于，一股高气压给冰封的卡茨基尔带来了晴天艳阳。 芙莱福抖了抖羽毛，梳理干净还涂了油脂。 她抬起头。 她圆圆的大眼睛搜寻着能指引她上路的信号。 她什么也没找到。 迁徙的窗口对芙莱福来说已经关上了。 她成了一只留冬的鸟，一只没法去南方的鸟。 和所有留冬的鸟一样，芙莱福的生命受到了威胁。 不过这天天气晴朗。 阳光在冰雪上闪闪发光，风吹走了最后一片云。 芙莱福离开云杉树，越飞越高。 当她飞到两千英尺高空，终于在万座山峦中看见了那一座。 她直直地朝它飞去。

Gliding over densely wooded White Man Mountain, her eyes pinned on Sam's mountain, her position fixed, she heard a familiar cry. "Cree, creeee, creee." She dove down and skimmed the tops of the trees. Duchess was somewhere below. "Cree, creeee, creee." The call directed Frightful's eyes to a perch on the ground. On it sat Duchess. "Cree, cree, cree," Frightful answered from a leafless maple. Duchess wore a falconer's hood. She was jessed and leashed. Her juvenile feathers were rich brown in color. She was fat. Duchess was living well. "Kak, kak, kak." Two goshawks sat on perches not far from Duchess. Beyond the birds was a small hunting cabin set back in a grove of young hemlocks. Near it stood a pigeon cote and a duck house. The cabin door opened and a man stepped out. "I thought I heard a wild peregrine," he said, lifting his binoculars. He wore camouflage pants and a sheepskin vest filled with pockets. Around his neck hung a falconer's whistle. Frightful knew

她滑翔在林木茂密的白人山上，眼睛紧紧盯着山姆的山，认准了方向，这时她听到一声熟悉的鸣叫。 “克里，克里——，克里。” 她向下俯冲，擦着树顶飞过。 女公爵就在下方的某处。 “克里，克里，克里。” 叫声指引芙莱福看向地面的一个栖架。 女公爵就站在栖架上。 “克里，克里，克里，”芙莱福站在落光叶子的枫树上回应。 女公爵戴着训鹰人的头罩。 她脚上系着脚绊，还拴着牵绳。 她的幼羽是浓郁的棕色。 她养得胖胖的。 女公爵过得很不错。 “咔克，咔克，咔克。” 两只苍鹰站在离女公爵不远的栖架上。 鸟儿身后，一片幼铁杉林深处藏着一间小小的猎屋。 猎屋旁边立着鸽笼和鸭舍。 猎屋的门开了，一个男人走了出来。 “我就觉得我听到了野生游隼的声音，”他说着举起望远镜。 他穿着迷彩裤，带很多口袋的羊皮背心。 他脖子上挂着训鹰人的哨子。 芙莱福认出

the man. One eye was brown and the other eye was blue. He had a condor face. This was the man who had taken her from her perch beside Sam's hemlock tree. This was Bate. "Spud," he called. "Come here." The door opened, and Spud came out. He was portly and wore a dirty ski jacket. "What's up, Bate?" he asked. "We just got real lucky," said Bate. "There sits twenty-five thousand dollars." He pointed to Frightful. "Twenty-five and twenty-five makes fifty thousand. Let's get her." "Come on, Bate," Spud said. "We ain't got time. Skri's waiting for us. Let's sell these birds before the bird cop finds us and we go back to jail." "Leon Longbridge is never gonna find us here," said Bate. "Could," said Spud, peering around. "I saw that falcon guy from Roxbury driving along the lumber road down below." "Who's he?" "The guy who came to the sheriff's office and took the prairie falcon and the sharp-shinned to

这个男人。 他一只眼睛是棕色，另一只眼睛是蓝色。 他长着一张神鹰一样的脸。 就是这个男人，把她从山姆铁杉树旁的栖架抓走了。 他就是贝特。 “斯帕德，”他喊道。 “过来。” 门开了，斯帕德走了出来。 他胖乎乎的，穿一件脏乎乎的滑雪夹克。 “怎么了，贝特？”他问道。 “咱们今天运气太好啦，”贝特说。 “那家伙就值两万五千美元。” 他指向芙莱福。 “两万五加两万五就是五万， 咱们抓住她。” “得了吧，贝特，”斯帕德说。 “咱们没时间了。 斯克里在等着咱们呢。 咱们得在护鸟警察找到我们、把我们抓回监狱前卖掉这些鸟。” “里昂·朗布里奇永远不可能在这里找到我们，”贝特说。 “难说，”斯帕德一边说一边四处张望。 “我看见罗克斯伯里来的那个训鹰人，开车沿着下面的伐木路走了。” “他是谁？” “就是那个去警长办公室，把草原隼和雀鹰带去”

the falconer in New Paltz. He was lookin" hard up-mountain." "That don't mean nothin'," said Bate. "You can't see this place when you're ten feet from it." "Well, let's get out of here anyway. He knows we were in jail for selling falcons and hawks to wealthy Saudi Arabian falconers. That's a federal offense. Remember?" "They let us off light." "Yeah," said Spud, running a thick hand through thinning hair, "but a second offense is federal prison, and that's a long stay. Let's go." "We can catch this bird in minutes," Bate said. "Her crop is empty. She's hungry. Probably lost on migration. "Twenty-five thousand is a lot of dough." He focused his binoculars on Frightful again. "Go get the mist net," he said. "I'll get a duck for our pretty duck hawk. That'll get her in the net in two seconds." Spud hesitated. "Get goin" if you want to get out of here so bad," Bate said.

就是住在新帕尔茨的驯鹰人。 他正使劲往山上看。 “那说明不了什么，”贝特说。 “就算离这个地方只有十英尺，你也找不到它。” “好吧，不管怎样我们先离开这儿。 他知道我们因为给沙特阿拉伯有钱的驯鹰人卖猎鹰坐过牢。 那可是联邦定下的罪行。 还记得吗？” “他们已经从轻发落我们了。” “是啊，”斯帕德一边说，一边用肥厚的手捋了捋稀疏的头发，“但再犯就要进联邦监狱，要蹲很久的。 我们走吧。” “我们几分钟就能抓到这只鸟，”贝特说。 “它的嗉囊是空的。 它饿坏了。 大概是迁徙的时候迷路了。 “两万五千块可是好大一笔钱呢。” 他再次把望远镜对准了芙莱特。 “去拿雾网，”他说。 “我去给我们漂亮的鸭鹰准备一只鸭子。 它两秒钟就会钻进网里了。” 斯帕德犹豫了。 “你要是这么急着走，就快动身啊，”贝特说。