35 The Bridge

35 The Bridge Rockwell looked up. The clouds were a long way above them now and, although it was still raining, It was more drizzle than stair rods. Little-Bit leaped from the bobsleigh. "That," she shouted, "was the best ride I've ever been on! I can't believe you managed to surf around that snow bowl, Peanut. A genius move! It was totally radical!" "I can't believe I forgot the brakes." Peanut was furious

35 桥 罗克韦尔抬起了头。 现在云飘在他们头顶很远的地方，虽然还在下雨，但这会儿只是毛毛雨，不再是倾盆大雨了。 小点点从雪橇上跳了下来。 “那趟，”她大喊道，“是我坐过最棒的滑行！ 花生，我真不敢相信你居然能绕着那个雪碗滑下来。 简直是神操作！ 太酷啦！” “我居然忘了刹车，连我自己都不敢信。” 花生气坏了

with herself. "So irresponsible. I'm sorry, guys. They had come to rest halfway down the mountain, in a huge bowl-shaped dip. "So now what?" Rockwell said. "Well, I reckon we've put a fair distance between ourselves and the screaming fish," replied Peanut, "but, even so, we'd better get a shift on." She looked towards the edge of the bowl. "Wait. Is that a bridge?" Sure enough, there was a narrow and very rickety-looking rope bridge stretching out over a gorge. It sloped down, at a slightly terrifying angle, to a ridge thirty metres below them on the other side. A further thirty metres beneath that was

生自己的气。 “我太不负责了。 伙计们，对不起。 他们停在了半山腰，落在一块巨大的碗状凹地里。 “那我们现在怎么办？”罗克韦尔说。 “嗯，我觉得咱们已经把那些尖叫的鱼甩得老远了，”花生回答，“不过就算这样，咱们最好还是抓紧赶路。” 她朝凹地的边缘望去。 “等等。 那是不是一座桥？” 果不其然，峡谷上方架着一座窄窄的、看起来晃悠悠的绳桥。 它以有点吓人的坡度向下倾斜，通向对面三十米下方的山脊。 山脊再往下三十米就是

a huge expanse of dark water that looked like it had been painted with very thin poster paints. "That must be Inky Lake," said Peanut. "Come on. There's no time to waste. They walked to the edge of the bowl where the bridge was anchored. Peanut noticed that several of the painted planks of wood that made up the decking were either rotting away or missing entirely, and at least one of the pencil ropes that the bridge was suspended from looked very straggly and worn. Peanut took a deep breath. "OK, I'll go first. Doodle and Little-Bit can follow, and Rockwell, you bring up the rear. Gingerly she put her right foot on the first plank. It moved much more than she thought it would, dropping several inches as she put the tiniest bit of weight on it. She grasped the waist- height ropes that acted as both handrails and main source of suspension, and held tight. She carefully took another step. Again, the bridge moved more than she would have liked, but this time sideways. She felt like she was standing on a hammock. "It-it's fine. We've just got to take it slowly. Five terrifying, wobbly steps later she realised that the others hadn't moved an inch. Doodle was now lying on his belly and looking like he wasn't going anywhere. "Well? What are you waiting for?" she shouted. At that exact moment, a loud, snapping sound came

一大片漆黑的开阔水域，看起来就像是用稀释的海报颜料画出来的。 “那一定是墨湖，”花生说。 “走吧。 没时间浪费了。 他们走到凹地边缘，桥就固定在这里。 花生注意到，构成桥面的好几块木板要么已经腐烂，要么完全不见了，悬吊桥身的绳索里至少有一根看起来松松垮垮，磨损得厉害。 花生深吸了一口气。 “好，我先走。 杜德尔和小点点跟在我后面，罗克韦尔，你走最后。 她小心翼翼地把右脚踩在第一块木板上。 木板晃得比她预想的厉害得多，她刚搭上一点点重量，木板就往下陷了好几英寸。 她抓住齐腰高的绳索——这些绳子既是扶手，也是桥的主要承重，她抓得紧紧的。 她又小心地迈出一步。 这次桥还是晃得超出了她的预期，不过这次是往侧面晃。 她感觉自己像是站在吊床上。 “没、没事的。 我们只要慢慢走就好。 可怕地晃悠了五步之后，她发现其他人一步都没动。 杜德尔正趴在地上，看样子哪儿都不打算去。 “喂？ 你们还在等什么？”她喊道。 就在这时，一声响亮的断裂声传来

from somewhere in the middle of the gorge and one of the handrail ropes instantly lost all of its tension. It came flying back towards the group like a jet-propelled snake. The entire stretch of decking rotated ninety degrees and disappeared from under Peanut's feet. She grabbed the one remaining handrail. Little-Bit screamed. I'm OK, I'm OK!" shouted Peanut unconvincingly as her feet dangled over the void beneath her. "Quick! Pull me back up!" Then there was a second snap.

从峡谷中间的某个地方传来，一根扶手绳瞬间彻底松了劲。 它像喷气驱动的蛇一样猛地朝众人甩了过来。 整段桥面旋转了九十度，一下子从花生脚底下消失了。 她一把抓住仅剩下的那根扶手。 小点点尖叫起来。 我没事，我没事！”花生喊道，语气却没什么说服力，她的双脚正悬在下方的虚空中。 “快！ 拉我上去！” 紧接着，又传来了第二声断裂声。