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儿童英语读物 The Poison Frog Mystery CHAPTER 5 “Unlocking” the Mystery

时间:2017-09-25 08:44来源:互联网 提供网友:qing   字体: [ ]
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The children returned home late that afternoon. After dinner they went into the living room with their grandfather to talk about everything that had been happening.

“I’ll bet Lindsey’s very upset,” Grandfather said.

“She is, I can tell,” Jessie replied. She and Violet were sitting together on one of the couches. Violet was drawing something in her sketch1 pad.

“And what about that Jordan Patterson fellow you’ve been telling me about?” Grandfather added. “How’s he doing?”

“I think he’s upset, too,” Henry answered. “The investigation2 is keeping him from spending more time with the animals, and I’m sure he doesn’t like that very much.”

“It’s so unfair,” Jessie added. “Whoever the thief is, I’m sure there’s no good reason for what he or she has done. And to do it to people like Jordan and Lindsey is just terrible.”

“Any new pieces to add to the puzzle?” Grandfather asked.

“Violet and I discovered a new piece to the puzzle,” Benny piped up, “but we don’t know how it fits in.”

“And what’s that?” Grandfather asked.

Benny and Violet went on to tell the others all about the suspicious young man they’d seen taking notes at the Bird Barn window.

“Hmmm,” said Henry. “Taking notes. ...You’re right, Benny. We’ve definitely got another piece to the puzzle. Let’s all keep a lookout3 for him at the zoo. Maybe it’s more innocent than it appears. Or maybe he’s the thief and he’s planning another theft.”

“If I were a thief,” Violet said quietly, “I wouldn’t wear such colorful shirts. They’re not good for sneaking4 around.”

“Have Lindsey and Jordan come up with any more information?” Grandfather asked.

Henry shook his head. “No, but we’ve discovered a few things.” He went over the bit about the window possibly being too narrow for a normal-sized person to pass through, the missing bag of food from the mammal house, and the mysterious little dents5 on the floor. “But who knows if any of that stuff is important?”

“Well, I’m sure Jordan and Lindsey are very happy you kids are trying to help out in the first place. And I’m happy, too. I’m very proud of all of you.”

“Mr. Colby is hiring a night guard,” Jessie put in. “That should help, I guess.”

Pausing between pencil strokes, Violet added, “Jordan wasn’t too happy about it.

He said it made the zoo seem more like a prison.”

“Maybe so,” Grandfather told her, “but as Jessie said, it should help. If I were a thief, I’d think twice before breaking into a place that had a security guard.”

“Mr. Colby doesn’t really like the idea that much, though,” Henry said, “because it’s going to cost the zoo more money. He wasn’t too thrilled about that.”

“He’s very money-minded,” Jessie added. “That’s what Lindsey said.”

Grandfather nodded. “Well, every business needs someone like that. Without him, the zoo might not even exist.” Grandfather laughed. “He’s going to go broke buying new locks for the cages before anything else.”

Benny, who had been playing on the carpet with Watch, looked up. “Why’s that, Grandfather?”

“Because the thief is breaking them all, right?”

Benny said, “But they still work.”

Grandfather, Henry, Jessie, and even Violet, who had been concentrating on her artwork, looked at Benny at the same time.

“What do you mean, Benny?” Henry asked.

Benny shrugged6. “They still work.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I closed them again,” Benny replied. “Both of them. They clicked shut, and I couldn’t open them.”

His grandfather stopped rocking and leaned forward. “Are you sure about that?”

Benny nodded. “Uh-huh. I was just playing with them. I didn’t think anyone would care because they were going to be thrown out anyway.”

“I’m sure they ended up in the garbage,” Jessie told her grandfather.

“Well, I think you should get them back and take a good look at them,” Grandfather said. “If what Benny says is true, then something very strange is happening.”

“I don’t understand, Grandfather,” Jessie said. “The locks were all banged up, as if someone had hit them with a hammer or something.”

“Right, I remember when we were in the mammal house. But if the thief really did break them open with force, then—”

“They shouldn’t work anymore!” Henry said excitedly.

“And Benny’s saying both locks still work,” said Grandfather.

Benny nodded. “They both do, I’m sure of it.”

“In that case,” Grandfather said, “you should all take a look at them first thing in the morning. If Benny’s right, then you’ve got a whole new mystery on your hands.”

Jessie got up quickly. “I’ll call Lindsey right now.”

Early the next morning they returned to the little room in the mammal house where the black-footed ferrets had been stolen. Lindsey was so intrigued7 by what Jessie had told her on the phone that she and the Aldens got there a full hour before the zoo opened. Jordan Patterson, who received a call from Lindsey right after Jessie made her call, showed up, too.

Wearing a pair of yellow rubber gloves, Jordan dug through the large plastic garbage can. The lock was at the bottom.

“We’re very lucky,” he said as he pulled it out. “The garbage is emptied every three days, and the janitor8 is very good at keeping on schedule. If we’d waited even a few more hours, this can would have a new bag in it, and this lock would be gone forever.”

He brushed it off and handed it to Lindsey, who had brought a set of master keys from her office. The lock was, as Benny had said, closed. Lindsey tried to pull it open, but it held tight. Jessie patted her little brother on the shoulder. That part of his story had now been proven true.

Lindsey slipped the key into the hole and turned it. Sure enough, the lock, in spite of looking like it had been run over by a large truck, popped open. Lindsey tested it a few more times, and each time it worked fine.

“Incredible,” Jordan said, scratching his head. “I just don’t get it.”

“We’re not through yet, though,” Lindsey said.

They all went over to the back room in the Bird Barn. The cage lock there was still sitting on a table near the sink, waiting to be thrown out. Lindsey tested it, and the same thing happened.

“Yeah, it works fine,” she said. “It’s pretty banged up, but it works.”

Henry said, “Wow.”

“Now I’m really confused,” Violet said.

“So am I,” Benny added.

Jessie, on the other hand, was standing9 by herself near the condor10 cage, arms folded, deep in thought. She had a weird11 feeling that a big piece of the puzzle was close now—but she couldn’t quite get hold of it. How frustrating12!

It suddenly became clear when she looked one more time at the door to the condors’ cage, in particular at the two little rings where the lock attached. One ring was on the door. The other was on the door frame. When the door was closed, the two rings were side-by-side, and the arm of the lock was slipped through both of them.

In a flash, everything made sense.

“Oh, my goodness!” she said, putting her hands to her mouth. The others, who had been talking quietly among themselves, turned.

“What’s the matter?” Lindsey asked.

Jessie smiled. “The locks! I think I know what happened!”

“Well, tell us,” Jordan instructed.

She pointed13 to the rings on the cage. “See these?”

Henry nodded. “Yeah.”

“They should be bent14. If the thief really broke the locks off by force, like with a hammer or something, these little steel rings should be bent downward. If the thief hit the locks hard enough to break them open, there’s no way these rings could’ve remained straight. They’d be all beaten up, too.”

Jordan came over and examined the rings. “I think you’re right, Jessie,” he said slowly. “There isn’t even a scratch on them.”

“And I’ll bet there isn’t a scratch on the ones on the black-footed ferrets’ cage, either.” Jessie was really smiling big now. “That means the thief never broke the locks open. He or she had a key!”

Everyone froze. “A key?” Jordan asked. “That’s impossible! Only the people who work here have keys, and I’m sure none of them would steal any animals.”

“Are you positive?” Henry asked, but Lindsey was already nodding.

“Positive,” Jordan said firmly.

“Yeah, I agree,” Lindsey added quickly. “We’ve got a dynamite15 staff here. I’m just as sure as Jordan is.”

“I had thought about that before,” Violet mentioned, “about someone using a key, but I didn’t think it was possible, either.”

“And besides,” Jordan went on, “the zookeepers only have keys to the buildings in which they work. At least, usually. The young woman who runs the mammal house can’t get into the Bird Barn. Although sometimes if one keeper is out sick, another will fill in for them.”

Jessie nodded. “Whoever did it must have had a key. It’s the only way to explain all this. The thief opened the ...”

Her voice trailed off as her eyes went to the little cluster of nicks and dents in the floor.

“Of course!” she said loudly. Benny, whose attention had wandered toward a pair of parakeets, jumped.

“What now?” Henry asked.

“The little dents in the floor! Jordan, may I see that lock, please?”

She took it from him and turned it upside down. One edge was discolored by some chalky white powder. She knelt down and ran her finger over the dents on the cement floor. Sure enough, she found the exact same chalky powder.

“Okay,” Jessie explained. “First the thief opened the locks with a key! Then, to make it look like he didn’t have a key, he placed the locks on the floor”—she pointed to the dents—“and kept hitting them until they looked as though they’d been broken open. But the thief forgot to bend the little silver rings on the cage where the lock hangs.”

“But now we’ve got an even bigger problem on our hands,” Lindsey cut in. “We’ve got to figure out who has a key to all the cage door locks and who also happens to be an animal thief.”

Jordan got to his feet again. “Well, there are only four people who have keys to all the cages,” he said matter-of-factly. “Lindsey, myself, Mr. Colby, and Alan Parker, the head keeper. But again, I would stake everything I own that none of us is the thief.”

“But ... does anyone else have access to your keys?” Henry asked. “Anyone who can get a hold of them?”

“It’s possible,” Lindsey said. “I’ll have to think about that.”

“Hey,” Henry said excitedly, “I’ll bet the thief had keys to all the door locks, too.”

“That’s right!” Jessie agreed. “You thought that the window was probably too small! I’ll bet the thief came right through the door!”

Violet added, “That’s why the window was left: open. The thief wanted us to think he or she came through there, too.”

“But wasn’t the window lock twisted and broken?” Benny asked.

“Only in here,” Henry said. “In the mammal house it wasn’t.”

“A very inconsistent and absentminded thief,” Jordan pointed out.

“Jordan, how old are these locks?” Jessie asked.

“Which ones?”

“All of them. The locks on the cages, the door locks ...”

“Hmmm. I think they’re all pretty old. We haven’t bought new locks in a long time. No reason to, not as long as the ones we’ve already got are working okay. Why do you ask?”

“I had this idea—maybe the person who has the keys isn’t someone who works here now, but did before.”

Jordan’s eyebrows16 rose. “I hadn’t considered that.”

Lindsey patted Jessie on the shoulder. “You’re really batting a thousand today, kid.”

Jordan said, “Jessie’s right. Anyone who worked here in the past could’ve gotten copies made of all the keys. We’ve been open for nearly six years, and in that time we’ve had a total of almost a hundred employees. Everyone from head keepers to janitors17. Any of them could, if they were careful, get a copy made of each key.”

Lindsey held hers up. There were about fifty keys on one large silver hoop18. “They’re too heavy to carry around all the time.”

“Exactly,” Jordan agreed.

“Someone could’ve sneaked19 into our offices while we were taking care of business in the zoo somewhere, and taken off a few keys at a time. We’ve got so many, we probably wouldn’t even notice.”

“Well, I’m going to get out a list of all our past employees and go over the names one by one,” Jordan said. “Maybe someone will stick out.”

Just as he got to the door, he turned back to the Aldens and said, “Lunch is on me today, kids. Who needs the police? You’re the best detectives around.”

“Thanks, but the mystery is far from solved,” Henry pointed out. “There’s still a lot of work to do.”

“Yep,” Jordan agreed.

“All this thinking is making me hungry,” said Benny. “Can we go to lunch early?”

Everyone laughed. “Sure,” said Jessie.

“You three go on ahead,” Henry told them. “I’ll meet you at the food court. I just want to look around a little more.”

As Henry was getting ready to head over to the food court about half an hour later, he spotted20 Beth, the intern21, in the bushes along the outside of the Bird Barn. She was pushing against each window, apparently22 to see if they would open or not.

I wonder what she’s up to, Henry thought.

He turned and headed in her direction, not really sure what he would say when he got to her. It didn’t matter, though, because before he reached her, she turned and hurried off. Henry was sure she hadn’t noticed him, but now he was more confused than ever. Was Beth trying to solve the mystery, too? Or was she part of it?


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 sketch UEyyG     
n.草图;梗概;素描;v.素描;概述
参考例句:
  • My sister often goes into the country to sketch. 我姐姐常到乡间去写生。
  • I will send you a slight sketch of the house.我将给你寄去房屋的草图。
2 investigation MRKzq     
n.调查,调查研究
参考例句:
  • In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
  • He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。
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 sneaking iibzMu     
a.秘密的,不公开的
参考例句:
  • She had always had a sneaking affection for him. 以前她一直暗暗倾心于他。
  • She ducked the interviewers by sneaking out the back door. 她从后门偷偷溜走,躲开采访者。
5 dents dents     
n.花边边饰;凹痕( dent的名词复数 );凹部;减少;削弱v.使产生凹痕( dent的第三人称单数 );损害;伤害;挫伤(信心、名誉等)
参考例句:
  • He hammered out the dents in the metal sheet. 他把金属板上的一些凹痕敲掉了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Tin dents more easily than steel. 锡比钢容易变瘪。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
6 shrugged 497904474a48f991a3d1961b0476ebce     
vt.耸肩(shrug的过去式与过去分词形式)
参考例句:
  • Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀,什么也没说。
  • She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩,装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
7 intrigued 7acc2a75074482e2b408c60187e27c73     
adj.好奇的,被迷住了的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的过去式);激起…的兴趣或好奇心;“intrigue”的过去式和过去分词
参考例句:
  • You've really intrigued me—tell me more! 你说的真有意思—再给我讲一些吧!
  • He was intrigued by her story. 他被她的故事迷住了。
8 janitor iaFz7     
n.看门人,管门人
参考例句:
  • The janitor wiped on the windows with his rags.看门人用褴褛的衣服擦着窗户。
  • The janitor swept the floors and locked up the building every night.那个看门人每天晚上负责打扫大楼的地板和锁门。
9 standing 2hCzgo     
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的
参考例句:
  • After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
  • They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
10 condor ip1zl     
n.秃鹰;秃鹰金币
参考例句:
  • The condor soars above the mountain heights.禿鹰翱翔于高山之上。
  • A condor prepares to fly in Colombia.一只兀鹰在哥伦比亚准备振翅高飞。
11 weird bghw8     
adj.古怪的,离奇的;怪诞的,神秘而可怕的
参考例句:
  • From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来,他好像有点怪。
  • His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。
12 frustrating is9z54     
adj.产生挫折的,使人沮丧的,令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 );挫败;使受挫折;令人沮丧
参考例句:
  • It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间,真令人懊恼。
  • It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》
13 pointed Il8zB4     
adj.尖的,直截了当的
参考例句:
  • He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
  • She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。
14 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。
15 dynamite rrPxB     
n./vt.(用)炸药(爆破)
参考例句:
  • The workmen detonated the dynamite.工人们把炸药引爆了。
  • The philosopher was still political dynamite.那位哲学家仍旧是政治上的爆炸性人物。
16 eyebrows a0e6fb1330e9cfecfd1c7a4d00030ed5     
眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Eyebrows stop sweat from coming down into the eyes. 眉毛挡住汗水使其不能流进眼睛。
  • His eyebrows project noticeably. 他的眉毛特别突出。
17 janitors 57ca206edb2855b724941b4089bf8ca7     
n.看门人( janitor的名词复数 );看管房屋的人;锅炉工
参考例句:
  • The janitors were always kicking us out. 守卫总是将~踢出去。 来自互联网
  • My aim is to be one of the best janitors in the world. 我的目标是要成为全世界最好的守门人。 来自互联网
18 hoop wcFx9     
n.(篮球)篮圈,篮
参考例句:
  • The child was rolling a hoop.那个孩子在滚铁环。
  • The wooden tub is fitted with the iron hoop.木盆都用铁箍箍紧。
19 sneaked fcb2f62c486b1c2ed19664da4b5204be     
v.潜行( sneak的过去式和过去分词 );偷偷溜走;(儿童向成人)打小报告;告状
参考例句:
  • I sneaked up the stairs. 我蹑手蹑脚地上了楼。
  • She sneaked a surreptitious glance at her watch. 她偷偷看了一眼手表。
20 spotted 7FEyj     
adj.有斑点的,斑纹的,弄污了的
参考例句:
  • The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
  • Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。
21 intern 25BxJ     
v.拘禁,软禁;n.实习生
参考例句:
  • I worked as an intern in that firm last summer.去年夏天我在那家商行实习。
  • The intern bandaged the cut as the nurse looked on.这位实习生在护士的照看下给病人包扎伤口。
22 apparently tMmyQ     
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎
参考例句:
  • An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽,豁然开朗。
  • He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。
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