25 Le Cimetiere du Montparnasse

Chapter 25 Le Cimetiere du Montparnasse Quick, Rockwell! Over here," hissed Peanut, as her friend pulled himself clear of the manhole. He ran over to join the sisters, who were hiding behind a small, stone building hidden among trees. "D-did you see that?" he stammered. "He got my trainer!" "Be quiet!" snapped Peanut. "He's coming. Seconds later, they saw a dishevelled young gendarme with a black beard emerge from the opening, his police cap in one hand and Rockwell's shoe in the other. He dusted himself down and looked around, before running off in the opposite direction.

第25章 蒙帕纳斯公墓 快点，罗克韦尔！ "这边走，"皮娜特低声说，此时她的朋友刚从下水道井口爬出来。 他跑过去和姐妹们汇合，姐妹俩正躲在树林里的一座小石建筑后面。 "你、你看见了吗？"他结结巴巴地问。 "他叼走了我的运动鞋！" "安静！" 皮娜特厉声说。 "他过来了。 几秒之后，他们看见一个头发乱糟糟、留着黑胡子的年轻宪兵从井口走出来，一只手拿着警帽，另一只手攥着罗克韦尔的鞋子。 他拍掉身上的灰，环顾四周，接着朝着相反的方向跑走了。

Peanut exhaled. "That was close." "It was so FUN!" said Little-Bit. "Can we do it again?" "Er, I'd rather not! I'd like to retain at least one item of footwear, thank you very much. Now I know how Cinderella felt!" said Rockwell. He looked around. "Right, so where are we now?" The children were surrounded by avenues of stone buildings and monuments stretching away in all directions. "Wow. These houses are all very small," said Little-Bit. That's cos they're not houses," said Peanut. They're tombs." "TOMBS?" said Rockwell, backing away from the stone wall that they were leaning on. "Yes," said Peanut. "Look at what's on top of them all. Sure enough, the vast majority were topped with stone crosses or statues of angels, and many of the structures were far too low to house a person. At least, an upright person. Also, they all had names and dates carved into their walls, and were surrounded by freshly cut flowers. An entire city made of gravestones," whispered Rockwell. "It's actually le Cimetiére du Montparnasse," said Little-Bit, as she picked up a discarded leaflet from the ground and waved it at the others. "Which means the Montparnasse Cemetery. Look, here's a little map. Peanut took the leaflet and opened it. Sure enough, it

皮娜特长舒了一口气。 "刚才好险啊。" "太好玩啦！"小贝特说。 "我们能再玩一次吗？" "呃，我可不想再来了！ 我可不想再丢一只鞋，非常感谢，我想保住我剩下的这只鞋。 现在我可知道灰姑娘是什么感受了！"罗克韦尔说。 他环顾了一下四周。 "好了，我们现在在哪儿呢？" 孩子们四周全是石造建筑和纪念碑，步道向四面八方延伸开去。 "哇。 这些房子都好小呀，"小贝特说。 "这是因为它们不是房子啦，"皮娜特说。 它们是坟墓。" "坟墓？！"罗克韦尔边说边往后退，离开了他们刚才靠着的石墙。 "没错，"皮娜特说。 "你看看这些坟墓顶上都有什么。 果不其然，绝大多数坟墓顶上都有石十字架或者天使雕像，好多建筑都太矮了，根本住不了人。 至少，住不了站直的人。 另外，每座坟墓的墙上都刻着名字和日期，周围还放着刚采摘的鲜花。 "一整座都是墓碑堆成的城市，"罗克韦尔小声说。 "这里其实就是蒙帕纳斯公墓哦，"小贝特一边说，一边从地上捡起一张别人丢掉的传单，朝大家挥了挥。 "翻译过来就是蒙帕纳斯公墓。 看，这里还有小地图。 皮娜特接过传单打开。 果然，它

featured a detailed, illustrated plan of the entire cemetery with a long list of names, in alphabetical order, on the right- hand side. Are those some of the people buried here then?" said Rockwell. "Looks like it," replied Peanut. "The famous ones, I guess." "De Beauvoir, Beckett, Chirac, Conté, Gainsbourg, Man Ray, Sartre, Seurat..." Rockwell shook his head. "Never heard of any of them." "Er, are you sure about that?" said Peanut. "Yes!" said Rockwell, indignantly. "De Beauvoir... De Beau-who? Beckett... nope. Chirac... sorry. Conté... no idea. Gainsbourg... not a clue. OH!" He paused. "WAIT! CONTÉ? Is that our Conté? You know, the pencil bloke?" "It must be!" said Peanut excitedly. "It's too much of a coincidence otherwise!" "Er, guys. I've found something else," said Little-Bit. She was standing by a large wooden stick lying in the middle of the path. It had what looked like an old rag wrapped around the end of it which, strangely, was smoking. She picked it up (by the non-smoking end) and sniffed. "Sulphur! This is the torch we were following through the tunnels. Mr White must have come up the same ladder we did. Which means... "Which means, he's here in the graveyard too," said Peanut. "But where? And why would he come here?"

印着整个公墓的详细手绘平面图，右侧还有一长串按字母排序的名字。 这些就是埋在这里的人对吗？"罗克韦尔说。 "看起来是哦，"皮娜特回答。 "我猜，都是有名的人。" "德波伏瓦、贝克特、希拉克、孔泰、甘斯布、曼·雷、萨特、修拉……" 罗克韦尔摇了摇头。 "我一个都没听说过。" "呃，你确定吗？"皮娜特说。 "当然！"罗克韦尔愤愤地说。 "德波伏瓦…… 德波啥？ 贝克特……没听过。 希拉克……不知道。 孔泰……没概念。 甘斯布……一点印象都没有。 哦！" 他顿了一下。 "等等！ 孔泰？ 是我们认识的那个孔泰吗？ 就是那个做铅笔的家伙，你知道的呀？" "肯定就是他！"皮娜特兴奋地说。 "不然也太巧了吧！" "呃，各位。 我还发现了别的东西，"小贝特说。 她正站在路中间一根粗木棍旁边。 木棍一头裹着一块旧布，奇怪的是，那块布还在冒烟。 她抓起木棍（抓的是没冒烟的那头），闻了闻。 "是硫磺味！ 这就是我们在隧道里跟着的那个火把呀。 怀特先生肯定也走了我们走的这个梯子上来。 也就是说…… ","也就是说，他也在这片公墓里，"皮娜特说。 "可是他在哪儿呢？ 他为什么要来这里呀？"

A smile started to appear on Rockwell's face. "You know what, guys? I think I know the answers "to both of: those questions."

罗克韦尔的脸上渐渐露出了笑容。 "知道吗，伙计们？ 我觉得这两个问题我都知道答案啦。"