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儿童英语读物 The Mystery of the Star Ruby CHAPTER 5 The Figure in White

时间:2017-10-20 02:05来源:互联网 提供网友:qing   字体: [ ]
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The next morning, the kids met outside Violet and Jessie’s cabin to discuss the mystery.

“My backpack is the same as Jessie’s,” Violet said. “Suppose the person took Jessie’s accidentally?”

Henry nodded. “That makes sense. The person could have been after yours. What was in your backpack that wasn’t in Jessie’s?”

“The ruby1!” Benny said instantly.

Violet’s eyes widened. “They must have been after the Mama Bear ruby I found. But why? It’s not that big—Donald Hodge has a Papa Bear ruby that’s much bigger than mine.”

“We don’t know why yet,” said Jessie. “But we might be able to figure out who.Let’s look for footprints.”

Although the ground around the girls’ cabin was muddy, it had rained again early that morning. If there had been footprints, they had washed away.

“Oh, well,” Henry said practically. “We’ve never solved a mystery before breakfast.”

The kids found Grandfather in the lobby of the main building, talking to Donald. They all went into the dining room.

Jonathan and Sybil were already seated and had the local newspaper spread out on their table.

“What’s in the news?” Grandfather asked, sitting down.

“Last night’s storm did a lot of damage to the town near here,” Jonathan replied. “High winds blew a tree over on the public library.”

Henry was reading over Jonathan’s shoulder. “The tree hit the roof of the children’s room. The rain soaked all the books.”

“That’s terrible,” said Jessie, who loved to read. If the books in the library back home in Greenfield were ruined, she would feel awful.

Everyone discussed the storm over a breakfast of French toast, sausage, and scrambled2 eggs.

Rolling up the sleeves of her men’s work shirt, Sybil declared, “It’s going to be hot today. We’d better hit the flume early.”

“How about if we go creekin’, instead?” Jonathan suggested.

“What’s that?” Benny asked.

“Instead of buying buckets of pre-spaded dirt, you can dig at a special place right in the stream,” Jonathan explained. “It’s fun. Want to come?”

“Yeah!” the Alden kids chorused.

“I think I’ll stay on the flume line,” Grandfather decided4.

“Me, too,” said Donald. “I stand a better chance of finding good stones by panning. Though so far nobody has challenged my Papa Bear ruby. If no one does, I’ll be driving that new convertible5 sports car, after all.”

“You’re selling your ruby to buy a sports car?” asked Henry.

Donald nodded.

“The contest prize money will be the down payment.” He stood, jamming his hands in his pockets. “Coming, Sybil?”

“I believe I’ll go with Jonathan and the kids,” said Sybil. “Maybe I’ll find a star ruby in the creek3. It’ll be cooler there, anyway.”

After paying their entry fees, the Alden children, Sybil, and Jonathan took the trail down to the stream where digging was allowed.

Jonathan opened a small shed and brought out spades, buckets, and mesh6 trays.

Sybil put on her straw hat and waved her spade. “I’m going over there,” she said. “Bet I find the biggest stone!”

“We’ll go below those boulders,” Jonathan told the Aldens. “Rubies7 and sapphires8 are heavy stones. They are more likely to collect behind big rocks than wash downstream.”

They sat down on the grassy9 bank and removed their shoes and socks. Then, with squeals10 and shrieks11, they waded12 into the rushing stream.

“This water is cold,”Jonathan exclaimed.

“We found that out yesterday,” said Jessie. She almost added that when they went wading13 yesterday, someone stole her backpack.

But then she recalled the scrap14 of cloth. Suppose Jonathan had taken her pack. He did mention at dinner that he had changed his shirt.

“Don’t dig big holes,” Jonathan instructed. “Fill your buckets about half full, then rinse15 in the trays just like you do on the flume line. Remember, rubies and sapphires are dense16 and will settle in the bottom of your tray.”

“Maybe one of us will find a star ruby,” said Violet.

Jonathan nodded. “Maybe, Violet. You never know.”

Cecil Knight17 came halfway18 down the trail. “I forgot to give you the key to the shed,” he called to Jonathan.

“It’s okay,” Jonathan called back. “The shed was unlocked.”

Henry wondered if Cecil Knight normally left the equipment shed unlocked overnight. But he forgot his concern as he got to work.

Benny liked digging in the creek. He filled his bucket quickly, then began rinsing19 and sorting.

“I have lots of pretty rocks,” he said to Jonathan. “But I don’t know if anything is good.”

Jonathan pulled a dark red stone from his shirt pocket. “I brought this old garnet to test with.” He picked a pinkish stone from Benny’s tray and rubbed it across the surface of the garnet.

“It didn’t leave a mark,” Benny said, watching closely.

Henry came over. “That’s because the garnet is harder than your stone, Benny. If you had found a ruby, it would have scratched the garnet.”

“Henry’s right,” said Jonathan. “Gem-stones are rated by hardness. A diamond is at the top of the scale since it is the hardest stone. The softest stone, talc, is at the bottom. Any stone scratches talc, but only another diamond can scratch a diamond.”

“I read about that in the museum,” Henry said. “Rubies and sapphires are just below diamonds on the hardness scale.”

Benny was confused with all this discussion. “So what did I find?”

“Rose quartz,” Jonathan said.

“That’s a nice stone,” Jessie told her little brother.

“Yeah, but we can’t win the contest with it,” Benny said, disappointed.

Jonathan scooped21 ore into his tray. “I was hoping to find something really unusual for my fiancée’s ring. So far, I haven’t had much luck, either.”

Henry straightened up from digging. He thought he saw a shadow among the pine trees along the trail. Something flashed in the bright sun. A mirror? Who would be shining a mirror up there? Had Cecil come back?

Just then Benny cried, “Hey! I found something really good this time!”

Jonathan examined Benny’s find. “Hmmm. This does look interesting.”

The others stopped working and came over.

“What is it?” asked Violet. “Let’s check the hardness.”

Jonathan rubbed Benny’s stone against his garnet. “Oops!”

He dropped Benny’s stone, which fell with a plop into the creek.

“My rock!” Benny fished around in the water.

Everyone searched along the bottom, but Benny’s stone was gone.

“I’m sorry, Benny,” Jonathan apologized. “My fingers were wet. Your rock just slipped.”

“It’s okay,” said Benny.

The kids all went back to digging and rinsing. Soon their collection bucket had several small sapphires and pinkish garnets Jonathan said were rhodolite garnets.

“I think it’s time to break for lunch,” Jonathan said. He called to Sybil, “Time to eat!”

Sybil waded over. “I hope you kids had better luck than I did.” She rattled22 her plastic container. “I found a few sapphires, but nothing bigger than a grain of rice.”

“We found sapphires, too,” said Jessie.

Just as Jessie stooped to pick up their collection bucket, Sybil’s foot flew out and knocked it over.

“Our rocks!” Benny plunged23 his hands to the creek bottom, but the stones were swirling24 downstream.

“I’m so sorry!” Sybil said. “I just lost my balance. I can’t believe how clumsy I am.”

Jessie couldn’t believe it, either. Sybil hadn’t lost her balance. She had kicked the bucket over. It was definitely no accident.

Sybil and Jonathan walked ahead of the Alden children on the way to the restaurant.

“Something funny is going on here,” Jessie said. “Sybil deliberately25 made us lose our stones. But why?”

“Maybe she was jealous because she didn’t find anything good,” Benny said. Then he had a thought. “What about Jonathan? Do you think he dropped my rock accidently on purpose, too?”

“I don’t know what is going on around here,” said Henry. “But something is weird26. While we were digging, I saw somebody in the trees.” He described the flashing in the sun.

“It could have been a mirror,” said Violet. “But it may have been binoculars27. Or a camera. Those are both shiny.”

Jessie nodded. “If the flash was a mirror, somebody could be signaling. If it was binoculars, somebody was spying on us. And if it was a camera, somebody took our picture.”

“No matter what it was,” Henry concluded, “someone is up to no good.”

That night after dinner, the kids got together in Benny and Henry’s cabin to discuss the mystery.

Jessie, who was very organized, wrote down the strange things that had happened.

“One,” she said, “somebody took my backpack and returned it to our cabin. Two, Sybil and Jonathan both made us lose our stones in the creek. Three, somebody may have been taking our picture or spying on us.”

“Why?” asked Violet. “None of this makes any sense.”

Henry went to the window. “Do you hear that?”

Over the chirping28 of crickets came a faint, steady chipping noise.

“It sounds like digging,” said Benny.

They all stared out into the darkness.

“There!” Henry pointed20 down the hill.

A figure in white flitted around the waterwheel.

“Is somebody down there digging?” Benny asked.

“Who would be working on the flume line after dark?” Jessie wondered aloud.

Violet answered. “Somebody who doesn’t want to be seen during the day.”


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 ruby iXixS     
n.红宝石,红宝石色
参考例句:
  • She is wearing a small ruby earring.她戴着一枚红宝石小耳环。
  • On the handle of his sword sat the biggest ruby in the world.他的剑柄上镶有一颗世上最大的红宝石。
2 scrambled 2e4a1c533c25a82f8e80e696225a73f2     
v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 );攀登;争夺;(军事飞机)紧急起飞
参考例句:
  • Each scrambled for the football at the football ground. 足球场上你争我夺。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • He scrambled awkwardly to his feet. 他笨拙地爬起身来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
3 creek 3orzL     
n.小溪,小河,小湾
参考例句:
  • He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
  • People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。
4 decided lvqzZd     
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
参考例句:
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
5 convertible aZUyK     
adj.可改变的,可交换,同意义的;n.有活动摺篷的汽车
参考例句:
  • The convertible sofa means that the apartment can sleep four.有了这张折叠沙发,公寓里可以睡下4个人。
  • That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了。
6 mesh cC1xJ     
n.网孔,网丝,陷阱;vt.以网捕捉,啮合,匹配;vi.适合; [计算机]网络
参考例句:
  • Their characters just don't mesh.他们的性格就是合不来。
  • This is the net having half inch mesh.这是有半英寸网眼的网。
7 rubies 534be3a5d4dab7c1e30149143213b88f     
红宝石( ruby的名词复数 ); 红宝石色,深红色
参考例句:
  • a necklace of rubies intertwined with pearls 缠着珍珠的红宝石项链
  • The crown was set with precious jewels—diamonds, rubies and emeralds. 王冠上镶嵌着稀世珍宝—有钻石、红宝石、绿宝石。
8 sapphires 1ef1ba0a30d3a449deb9835f6fd3c316     
n.蓝宝石,钢玉宝石( sapphire的名词复数 );蔚蓝色
参考例句:
  • Again there was that moment of splintered sapphires before the lids, dropping like scales, extinguished it. 她眼眶中又闪烁出蓝宝石的光彩,接着眼睑象鱼鳞般地垂落下来,双目又黯然失色了。 来自辞典例句
  • She also sported a somewhat gawdy gold watch set with diamonds and sapphires. 她还收到一块镶着钻石和蓝宝石的金表。 来自辞典例句
9 grassy DfBxH     
adj.盖满草的;长满草的
参考例句:
  • They sat and had their lunch on a grassy hillside.他们坐在长满草的山坡上吃午饭。
  • Cattle move freely across the grassy plain.牛群自由自在地走过草原。
10 squeals 4754a49a0816ef203d1dddc615bc7983     
n.长而尖锐的叫声( squeal的名词复数 )v.长声尖叫,用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的第三人称单数 )
参考例句:
  • There was an outburst of squeals from the cage. 铁笼子里传来一阵吱吱的叫声。 来自英汉文学
  • There were squeals of excitement from the children. 孩子们兴奋得大声尖叫。 来自辞典例句
11 shrieks e693aa502222a9efbbd76f900b6f5114     
n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 )
参考例句:
  • shrieks of fiendish laughter 恶魔般的尖笑声
  • For years, from newspapers, broadcasts, the stages and at meetings, we had heard nothing but grandiloquent rhetoric delivered with shouts and shrieks that deafened the ears. 多少年来, 报纸上, 广播里, 舞台上, 会场上的声嘶力竭,装腔做态的高调搞得我们震耳欲聋。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
12 waded e8d8bc55cdc9612ad0bc65820a4ceac6     
(从水、泥等)蹚,走过,跋( wade的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • She tucked up her skirt and waded into the river. 她撩起裙子蹚水走进河里。
  • He waded into the water to push the boat out. 他蹚进水里把船推出来。
13 wading 0fd83283f7380e84316a66c449c69658     
(从水、泥等)蹚,走过,跋( wade的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • The man tucked up his trousers for wading. 那人卷起裤子,准备涉水。
  • The children were wading in the sea. 孩子们在海水中走着。
14 scrap JDFzf     
n.碎片;废料;v.废弃,报废
参考例句:
  • A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
  • Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。
15 rinse BCozs     
v.用清水漂洗,用清水冲洗
参考例句:
  • Give the cup a rinse.冲洗一下杯子。
  • Don't just rinse the bottles. Wash them out carefully.别只涮涮瓶子,要仔细地洗洗里面。
16 dense aONzX     
a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的
参考例句:
  • The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
  • The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。
17 knight W2Hxk     
n.骑士,武士;爵士
参考例句:
  • He was made an honourary knight.他被授予荣誉爵士称号。
  • A knight rode on his richly caparisoned steed.一个骑士骑在装饰华丽的马上。
18 halfway Xrvzdq     
adj.中途的,不彻底的,部分的;adv.半路地,在中途,在半途
参考例句:
  • We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路,天就黑了。
  • In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上,最忌讳的是有始无终。
19 rinsing cc80e70477186de83e96464130c222ba     
n.清水,残渣v.漂洗( rinse的现在分词 );冲洗;用清水漂洗掉(肥皂泡等);(用清水)冲掉
参考例句:
  • Pablo made a swishing noise rinsing wine in his mouth. 巴勃罗用酒漱着口,发出咕噜噜噜的声音。 来自辞典例句
  • The absorption of many molecular layers could be reestablished by rinsing the foils with tap water. 多分子层的吸附作用可用自来水淋洗金属箔而重新实现。 来自辞典例句
20 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。
21 scooped a4cb36a9a46ab2830b09e95772d85c96     
v.抢先报道( scoop的过去式和过去分词 );(敏捷地)抱起;抢先获得;用铲[勺]等挖(洞等)
参考例句:
  • They scooped the other newspapers by revealing the matter. 他们抢先报道了这件事。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The wheels scooped up stones which hammered ominously under the car. 车轮搅起的石块,在车身下发出不吉祥的锤击声。 来自《简明英汉词典》
22 rattled b4606e4247aadf3467575ffedf66305b     
慌乱的,恼火的
参考例句:
  • The truck jolted and rattled over the rough ground. 卡车嘎吱嘎吱地在凹凸不平的地面上颠簸而行。
  • Every time a bus went past, the windows rattled. 每逢公共汽车经过这里,窗户都格格作响。
23 plunged 06a599a54b33c9d941718dccc7739582     
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降
参考例句:
  • The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
  • She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳,从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。
24 swirling Ngazzr     
v.旋转,打旋( swirl的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • Snowflakes were swirling in the air. 天空飘洒着雪花。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • She smiled, swirling the wine in her glass. 她微笑着,旋动着杯子里的葡萄酒。 来自辞典例句
25 deliberately Gulzvq     
adv.审慎地;蓄意地;故意地
参考例句:
  • The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
  • They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。
26 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。
27 binoculars IybzWh     
n.双筒望远镜
参考例句:
  • He watched the play through his binoculars.他用双筒望远镜看戏。
  • If I had binoculars,I could see that comet clearly.如果我有望远镜,我就可以清楚地看见那颗彗星。
28 chirping 9ea89833a9fe2c98371e55f169aa3044     
鸟叫,虫鸣( chirp的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • The birds,chirping relentlessly,woke us up at daybreak. 破晓时鸟儿不断吱吱地叫,把我们吵醒了。
  • The birds are chirping merrily. 鸟儿在欢快地鸣叫着。
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