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儿童英语读物 灯塔之谜 The Lighthouse Mystery Chapter 5 小房子里的秘密

时间:2017-06-13 03:12来源:互联网 提供网友:qing   字体: [ ]
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CHAPTER 5
Little House with a Secret

The Aldens went right back to their lighthouse with the new suits. They put them on at once and went out to their own little white beach.

“Be careful now,” said Mr. Alden. “You don’t know this beach, and you must find out how deep the water is.”

“Mr. Hall says it is very deep on the other side of the lighthouse,” said Henry. “But it is not over your head on this side. I asked him.”

“I like it deep,” said Benny, swimming away.

Every one of the Aldens could swim very well. Henry and Jessie could dive. But this was no place to dive. It was too rocky.

The water was cool, but the day was hot. Mr. Alden sat in his own rock chair and watched the swimmers. They threw water and swam under water. Even Watch swam around, barking for fun.

“You bark all you want to now, Watch,” said Violet1, laughing. “Just keep still at midnight tonight.” She really had no idea that Watch would bark every single night.

That night the family sat up late. It was dark when Benny went climbing up to his top floor. He put on light blue pajamas2 and went out on his little lookout3. He sat down in a beach chair.

Benny did not know that he showed up plainly in the moonlight in his light pajamas.

He was looking at the stars. They looked very bright here because there were no street lights. Then one star moved. Soon Benny knew that it was not a star but a light on a boat. The boat was coming in. Suddenly the boat stopped and turned around and went out to sea again.

“Well, well,” thought Benny. “Whoever he is, he changed his mind.”

Ideas began to spin around in Benny’s head. He remembered what Mrs. Ross in the hat shop had said. He thought about seeing the Sea Cook at the dock4.

Then next he thought, “I wonder if he saw me from his boat. I bet5 he did. I bet it’s our Cook boy with his father’s boat. That boat is certainly a beauty.”

Benny jumped up to turn out his light. He put on a dark coat and watched at the window. Very soon the boat turned around again and came in to the dock not far from the lighthouse. It looked like a man who jumped out. But Benny knew that the Cook boy was as big as a man. Benny watched him as he bent6 over his boat. He took out a pail7.

“A pail this time,” thought Benny. “I do wonder what is in it.”

But he didn’t find out. The boy looked all around. The whole town had gone to bed. The boy took the pail and disappeared up the street. Benny went to bed. If he had watched a little longer he would have seen more. But he was soon asleep.

At midnight Watch began to bark.

“Oh, my, Watch!” cried Jessie. “I guess you are going to bark every night. But you’ll stop in about ten minutes. So bark away.”

That is just what the dog did. He barked and howled for ten minutes and then he went back to sleep.

Violet said, “You’re just like a baby, Watch! You wake us up every night crying.”

Several hours later Watch growled8 softly9 but nobody heard.

For the next few days no one was surprised to hear Watch bark during the night. No one got up. They knew Watch would bark for about ten minutes and then he would stop.

But one morning Henry said, “I don’t like it, just the same.” He frowned10. “The dog must hear something.”

The girls said they had seen the woman again going away very quietly. She had a bag in her hand.

Henry said, “I am going to find out why that woman comes here. I’m going to hunt all over this point of land.”

“We’ll help you,” said Jessie.

On the other side of the lighthouse, behind the little summer kitchen, there were enormous11 rocks. The land went downhill to the water. The young Aldens hunted over every inch of land to find some way to get into the house. They found nothing.

Then Henry said, “Let’s look at those boards nailed over the windows. There must be a crack somewhere. Maybe we can see in.”

They all looked up at the windows. “Do you see that board high up?” asked Jessie, pointing. “There’s a big crack there, but it’s too high to see through.”

“Good for you, Jess,” said Henry. “I see what you mean. I am not tall enough, but Benny will be.”

“What do you mean?” asked Violet, laughing a little. “You are much taller than Benny.”

“Well, Ben,” said Henry, laughing, too, “I’ll bend over and you stand on my back and look through the crack.”

“Oh, boy!” said Benny. He climbed up on Henry’s back like a monkey and stood up. He put his hands around his eyes and peeked12 in the crack.

“I can see quite well,” Benny said, “because there is another big crack in the front door we didn’t find. Oh, somebody does cook here!” he shouted. “There is a stove and a frying pan13 on it. There are pails14 of water on the floor with something brown in the water. There’s a little microscope on the table. It’s no good. It’s too small. I bet it cost about three dollars. Then there are a lot of papers with little squares like the one we found. Books and other stuff15, too.”

“Good!” said Jessie in excitement. “See if you can tell what is in the pails.”

“It’s seaweed,” cried Benny. “It’s all over the floor, and some is hanging over the edge of the kettle near the stove.”

“What a queer16 thing,” said Violet. “I wonder what it all means.”

“Certainly it means that somebody comes here at night and makes the dog bark,” said Henry.

“That woman?” asked Jessie.

“You sound funny, Henry, upside down,” said Benny. “There are plates and cups on the shelf and it looks like a bag of flour.”

“Better get down now, Ben,” said Henry. “You are getting heavy.”

Benny jumped down lightly.

“There was one pail under the window I couldn’t see very well,” said Benny. “But it looked as if there’s something glowing17 in it.”

“Glowing?” asked Henry. “What can that be? Wait a minute. Do you remember how we saw something glowing in the water near Blue Bay? It was plankton18, I think.”

“I bet it is,” said Benny. “We saw that under the microscope going to Blue Bay. All tiny fishes and eggs and things you can’t see.”

“That’s what the microscope here is for,” said Henry slowly. “To study the plankton and seaweed.”

“We don’t know much more than we did,” said Jessie. “We just know someone—a woman—comes to work here every night. I suppose it could be some kind of hobby.”

“But the woman comes at midnight and goes away in ten minutes,” put in Benny. “How does that fit in? Nobody can do much in ten minutes.”

Henry said, “It seems to me there is no danger from someone who studies seaweed. Maybe the person’s afraid of something.”

“Isn’t it strange, Henry?” asked Violet. “You said there’s a stove there, and we’ve smelled something cooking at night.”

“Well, I don’t know,” said Henry, thinking. “I have heard that seaweed could be food for cows and horses and pigs. But they won’t eat it. It tastes awful.”

“Wait!” said Benny. “I saw something else. I saw some bags on the shelf. They looked like bags of flour and sugar. There were others with no labels.”

“Now what do you think those are for?” asked Violet.

“Maybe someone is trying to make seaweed taste good,” said Jessie, half joking about the thought. “Well, let’s go. Grandfather may have some ideas.”

Mr. Alden heard the strange story. And he did have a small idea. “I was talking to Mr. Hall about the Cook boy, and he says he often sleeps all the morning.”

“Well,” said Jessie, “you remember Mrs. Ross told us the Cook boy takes his father’s boat out at night. That’s why he sleeps days.”

Suddenly Benny said, “Am I dumb19! I had a clue and I didn’t fit it with the others. I was thinking about a woman in the summer kitchen because that’s all we have seen.”

He stopped, but Henry said, “Go on.”

Benny asked, “You remember when I thought I saw the Cook boy get out of his father’s boat and carry a pail away? I thought he went off up the street. I bet if I had watched I would have seen him come back into the summer kitchen. That Cook boy and the woman have something to do with our mystery.”

Henry said, “That paper with the squares that looked like a college experiment could belong to the Cook boy. If he is coming around here at night, that explains how we found it here.”

“Maybe we ought to put that paper back through the window, Henry,” said Benny. “The Cook boy may need it.”

“No, Ben,” said Henry. “If we put it back, he will know that someone has been there. And it isn’t time yet to tell him that. We have to make friends with him first. Then we can tell him we’d like to know more about what he is doing.”

“And how in the world are we going to make friends with that cross boy? I should like to know,” said Benny. “He doesn’t want friends. He said so.”

“Maybe he did say so,” agreed Henry. “But I think he does want friends, even if he doesn’t know it himself.”


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 violet 8h3wm     
adj.紫色的;n.紫罗兰
参考例句:
  • She likes to wear violet dresses.他喜欢穿紫色的衣服。
  • Violet is the color of wisdom,peace and strength.紫色是智慧的,和平的和力量的颜色。
2 pajamas XmvzDN     
n.睡衣裤
参考例句:
  • At bedtime,I take off my clothes and put on my pajamas.睡觉时,我脱去衣服,换上睡衣。
  • He was wearing striped pajamas.他穿着带条纹的睡衣裤。
3 lookout w0sxT     
n.注意,前途,瞭望台
参考例句:
  • You can see everything around from the lookout.从了望台上你可以看清周围的一切。
  • It's a bad lookout for the company if interest rates don't come down.如果利率降不下来,公司的前景可就不妙了。
4 dock GsQx9     
n.码头;被告席;vt.使(船)进港;扣;vi.进港
参考例句:
  • We took the children to the dock to see the ships.我们带孩子们到码头去看轮船。
  • The corrupt official stood in the dock.那贪官站在被告席上。
5 bet ddZy8     
v.打赌,以(与)...打赌;n.赌注,赌金;打赌
参考例句:
  • I bet you can't do this puzzle.我敢说,你解决不了这个难题。
  • I offered to bet with him.我提出与他打赌。
6 bent QQ8yD     
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的
参考例句:
  • He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
  • We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。
7 pail 54Bz6     
n.桶,提桶
参考例句:
  • There was a pail of water on the ground.地上有一桶水。
  • She can lift a pail of water from the ground.她能把一桶水提起来。
8 growled 65a0c9cac661e85023a63631d6dab8a3     
v.(动物)发狺狺声, (雷)作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 );低声咆哮着说
参考例句:
  • \"They ought to be birched, \" growled the old man. 老人咆哮道:“他们应受到鞭打。” 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He growled out an answer. 他低声威胁着回答。 来自《简明英汉词典》
9 softly HiIzR4     
adv.柔和地,静静地,温柔地
参考例句:
  • He speaks too softly for her to hear.他讲话声音太轻,她听不见。
  • She breathed her advice softly.她低声劝告。
10 frowned fdfd04918425477a66e031069e013e79     
皱眉( frown的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • She frowned in puzzlement. 她迷惑地蹙着眉。
  • The mother frowned when her son failed in his exam. 儿子考试不及格时,母亲皱着眉。
11 enormous xoExz     
adj.巨大的;庞大的
参考例句:
  • An enormous sum of money is injected each year into teaching.每年都有大量资金投入到教学中。
  • They wield enormous political power.他们行使巨大的政治权力。
12 peeked c7b2fdc08abef3a4f4992d9023ed9bb8     
v.很快地看( peek的过去式和过去分词 );偷看;窥视;微露出
参考例句:
  • She peeked over the top of her menu. 她从菜单上往外偷看。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • On two occasions she had peeked at him through a crack in the wall. 她曾两次透过墙缝窥视他。 来自辞典例句
13 pan YKHxG     
n.平底锅;v.严厉批评
参考例句:
  • The water had all boiled away and the pan was burned.水煮干了,锅也烧坏了。
  • The eggs were frying in the pan.鸡蛋正在锅里煎。
14 pails 9617b2d54e71ff78cebac51a05bdb6a8     
n.桶,提桶( pail的名词复数 );一桶的量
参考例句:
  • Families upstairs have to carry pails to the hydrant downstairs for water. 住在楼上的人家得提着水桶去楼下的水龙头打水。 来自互联网
  • We brought some spades, pails and saplings with us. 同学们拿着铁锨、水桶和小树苗上路了。 来自互联网
15 stuff Itsw1     
n.原料,材料,东西;vt.填满;吃饱
参考例句:
  • We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
  • He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。
16 queer f0rzP     
adj.奇怪的,异常的,不舒服的,眩晕的
参考例句:
  • I heard some queer footsteps.我听到某种可疑的脚步声。
  • She has been queer lately.她最近身体不舒服。
17 glowing hsmzVA     
adj.白热的,通红的
参考例句:
  • She was positively glowing with happiness. 她满脸幸福。
  • Their new musical opened to glowing reviews. 他们的新音乐剧受到热烈好评。
18 plankton B2IzA     
n.浮游生物
参考例句:
  • Plankton is at the bottom of the marine food chain.浮游生物处于海洋食物链的最底层。
  • The plankton in the sea feeds many kinds of animals. 海的浮游生物成为很多种动物的食物。
19 dumb 4k1zE     
adj.哑的;不会说话的;笨的;愚蠢的
参考例句:
  • She is very kind to the dumb children.她对哑童非常好。
  • It was dumb of you to say that.你说这种话太愚蠢了。
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