9 New plans

　　9 New plans
　　Kiki was glad to see the two men go. ‘Shut the door!’ she shouted after them. ‘Shut the door!’
　　The men ran off, and only stopped when they were well away from the shed. Juan mopped hisforehead.
　　‘What do you make of that?’ he said. ‘A voice – and nothing else!’
　　The other man was rapidly recovering.
　　‘Where there’s a voice there’s a body,’ he said. ‘There’s somebody here – somebody playingtricks on us. I thought when I saw that flattened¹ piece this morning that we were not alone here.
　　Who’s here? Do you think anybody’s got wind of the treasure?’
　　The four children, hidden well in the leaves of the tree, just above the heads of the two men,pricked up their ears at once. Treasure! Oho! So that was what the men were after in this lonely,deserted valley. Treasure!
　　‘How could anyone know what we know?’ said Juan scornfully. ‘Don’t get nerves just becauseyou heard a voice, Pepi. Why, maybe it was just a parrot.’
　　Pepi laughed loudly. It was his turn to be scornful now. ‘A parrot! What will you say next,Juan?’ he said with a sneer².
　　‘Have you ever known parrots to live here before? And talking ones too? If that’s a parrot, I’lleat my hat and yours as well!’
　　The listening children grinned at one another. Lucy-Ann thought she would like to see Pepi,whoever he was, eating his hat. He would have to eat Juan’s too, for Kiki was most certainly aparrot.
　　‘It’s somebody hiding about here,’ said Pepi. ‘Though how they got here goodness knows. Juan,maybe there is a cellar beneath that cowshed. We will go and find out if anyone is hiding there. Hewill be very – very – sorry for himself.’
　　The children didn’t like the tone of his voice at all. Lucy-Ann shivered. What horrid³ men!
　　They went cautiously to the cowshed. Juan stood at the broken- down doorway⁴. He calledloudly: ‘Come out of the cellar, whoever you are! We give you this one chance!’
　　No one came out, of course. For one thing there was no one to come out, and for another therewas no cellar to come from. Juan held a revolver in his hand. Kiki, rather alarmed at the shoutingvoice, said nothing at all, which was fortunate for her.
　　The silence was too much for Juan. He took aim at where he supposed a cellar might be and ashot rang out. BANG !
　　Kiki almost tumbled off the beam in fright and the four children nearly fell out of their tree.
　　Jack⁵ just clutched Lucy-Ann in time and held her tightly.
　　BANG ! Another shot. The children imagined that Juan must be firing blindly, merely to frightenthe person he thought he had heard talking. What a pity Kiki had been in the shed, sulking. Jackfelt most alarmed. He was afraid she might have been shot.
　　The men came out again. They stood looking about for some moments and then walked near tothe chestnut⁶ tree, talking.
　　‘No one there now. Must have slipped off. I tell you, Pepi, there has been someone here –maybe spying on us!’
　　‘Well, he surely wouldn’t give himself away by telling us to wipe our feet and shut the door,’
　　said Pepi scornfully.
　　‘We’ll come back tomorrow and search this place completely,’ said Juan. ‘I’m certain there’ssomebody here. Talking English too! What does it mean? I feel very alarmed about it. We didn’twant anyone to get wind of our mission.’
　　‘Certainly we must search this place well,’ said Pepi. ‘We must find out who is the owner ofthat voice. No doubt about that. I’d start a good hunt now, but it’s getting dark and I’m hungry.
　　Come on – let’s get back.’
　　To the children’s huge relief the men disappeared. Jack, who by climbing to the very top of thetree could see the aeroplane, waited till he could see the two men passing by it on their way totheir own hut.
　　Then he called down to the others, ‘All clear now. They’re by the plane. My word – what ashock I had when those shots went off! Lucy-Ann nearly fell off her branch.’
　　‘Lizzie shot out of my pocket and disappeared,’ said Philip. ‘I say, I hope Kiki’s all right, Jack.
　　She must have been scared out of her life when the shots rang out in that little shed.’
　　Kiki was sitting petrified⁷ on the beam when the children went into the cowshed. She croucheddown, trembling. Jack called to her softly.
　　‘It’s all right, Kiki. Come on down. I’m here to fetch you.’
　　Kiki flew down at once and landed on Jack’s shoulder. She made a great fuss of him. ‘Mmm-mm-mm!’ she kept saying. ‘Mmm-mm-mm!’
　　It was dark in the shed. The children didn’t like it. Lucy-Ann kept feeling there might besomeone hiding in the corners. ‘Let’s go out,’ she said. ‘What are we going to do tonight? Is it safeto sleep where we did last night?’
　　‘No. We’d better take our rugs and things somewhere else,’ said Jack. ‘There’s a patch ofbushes higher up where we’d be sheltered from the wind and hidden from view too. We could takethem there.’
　　‘I say – do you know what we left in the shed?’ said Philip suddenly. ‘We left our sacks of tins.
　　Look, there they are in that corner.’
　　‘What a mercy the men didn’t notice they were full of something!’ said Jack. ‘Still, I’m notsurprised they took no notice of them really. They just look like heaps of rubbish. We’ll drag themup to the bushes, though. Our store of food is too precious to be left behind.’
　　They dragged the sacks to the patch of bushes and left them there. Then they debated what to doabout the things up the tree.
　　‘Let’s just bring down the rugs and our macks,’ said Jack. ‘The clothes we used for pillows arewrapped in the rugs. We could leave the suitcases up there. We don’t want to drag them aboutwith us.’
　　It was now getting so dark that it was quite difficult to get the rugs and macks down, but theymanaged it somehow. Then they made their way again to the bushes. Dinah and Lucy-Ann spreadout the ‘bed,’ as they called it.
　　‘It won’t be so warm here,’ said Dinah. ‘The wind creeps round rather. Where are we going tohide tomorrow? Those men will look behind these bushes, that’s certain.’
　　‘Do you remember that waterful?’ asked Philip. ‘There seemed to be a nice lot of rocks andhiding places down towards the foot. I believe we could climb down there and find quite a goodplace.’
　　‘Yes, let’s,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘I’d like to see that waterfall again.’
　　They all lay down on the rug. They pressed close together, for it was certainly cold. Dinah tooka pullover from her ‘pillow’ and put it on.
　　Suddenly she gave a scream, making the others jump. ‘Oh! Oh! There’s something running overme! It must be a rat!’
　　‘Well, it isn’t,’ came Philip’s delighted voice. ‘It’s Lizzie! She’s found me. Good old Lizzie!’
　　So it was. How the little lizard⁸ had discovered where Philip was nobody could imagine. It waspart of the spell that Philip always seemed to exercise on wild creatures.
　　‘Don’t worry, Dinah,’ said Philip. ‘Lizzie is safe in my pocket now. Poor thing. I bet she feltdizzy falling down the tree.’
　　‘Dizzy Lizzie,’ said Kiki at once, delighted with the two words. ‘Dizzy Lizzie.’
　　Everyone laughed. Kiki was really funny at times. ‘Doesn’t she love to put words together thathave the same sounds?’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘Do you remember last hols she kept saying “Fusty-musty-dusty” till we nearly screamed at her?’
　　‘Fusty-musty-dusty, dizzy Lizzie,’ said Kiki at once, and screeched⁹.
　　‘Don’t,’ said Jack. ‘You’re only showing off now, Kiki. Go to sleep. And if you dig your clawsinto my tummy like you did this morning, I’ll smack¹⁰ you.’
　　‘God save the Queen,’ said Kiki devoutly¹¹, and said no more.
　　The children talked for a little while longer. Then the girls and Philip fell asleep. Jack lay on hisback, with Kiki on one of his ankles. He looked up at the stars. What was the good of promisingAunt Allie they wouldn’t have any more adventures? The very night they had promised her, theyhad whizzed off in a strange aeroplane to an unknown valley, where, apparently¹², some sort of‘treasure’ was hidden. Most extraordinary. Most – extra – And then Jack was asleep too, and thestars shone down on the four children, moving across the sky till dawn slid into the east and putout all the stars one by one.
　　Philip awoke early. He had meant to, for he did not know how early the men might start huntingfor the owner of the ‘voice’. He awoke the others and would not listen to their protests.
　　‘No, you’ve really got to wake up, Dinah,’ he said. ‘We must start early today. Go on – wakeup! – or I’ll put Dizzy Lizzie down your neck.’
　　That woke poor Dinah up properly. She sat up and tried to slap Philip, but he dodged¹³ away. Shehit Kiki instead. The parrot gave a surprised and aggrieved¹⁴ squawk.
　　‘Oh, sorry, Kiki,’ said Dinah. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean that for you. Poor, poor Kiki!’
　　‘What a pity, what a pity!’ said Kiki, flying off in case Dinah sent out any more slaps.
　　‘We’ll have a quick breakfast,’ said Jack. ‘Sardines, biscuits and milk, I think. I saw a tin ofsardines at the top of one of our sacks. Yes, here it is.’
　　They saw smoke rising up from where the two men were, and knew that they too were up. Sothey finished their breakfast quickly, and Dinah once more pushed the tins down a convenientrabbit hole. Then they ruffled¹⁵ up the grass on which they had been lying, so that it didn’t lookquite so flat.
　　‘I think we’d better find a good hiding place for most of these tins,’ said Philip, ‘and take just afew of them with us to last us for today. We can’t possibly lug¹⁶ these heavy sacks along all theway.’
　　‘Couldn’t we drop them into the middle of these bushes?’ said Dinah. ‘They’re awfully¹⁷ thick.
　　Nobody would guess they were there. We could slip back and fetch any we wanted.’
　　So the sacks were dropped into the middle of the bushes, and certainly no one could see themunless they actually crawled into the very middle. Then the children gathered up their rugs, macksand odd clothes and set off. The boys carried the tins, and Jack had his camera and his glasses aswell. So they were heavily laden¹⁸ and could not go very fast.
　　They took the same way that they had taken before. When they came to the grassy¹⁹, flower-strewn hillside they sat down for a rest. After all, the men would hardly be following them! Theywould be hunting all round and about the cowshed.
　　Suddenly, from far off, Jack caught sight of a brilliant, twinkling flash. He lay down flat at once,telling the others to do the same. ‘There’s someone using field-glasses down there,’ he said. ‘Wemay not be seen if we lie flat. I just caught the flash of the sun on the eye-lenses. Dash! I forgot themen might sweep the mountainside with glasses. They’ll be after us if they’ve seen us.’
　　‘Let’s crawl to that rock and get behind it,’ said Philip. ‘Come on. Once we’re behind there wecan get on and find the waterfall.’

1 flattened   

[医]（水）平扁的，弄平的

参考例句：

• She flattened her nose and lips against the window. 她把鼻子和嘴唇紧贴着窗户。
• I flattened myself against the wall to let them pass. 我身体紧靠着墙让他们通过。

2 sneer   

v.轻蔑；嘲笑；n.嘲笑，讥讽的言语

参考例句：

• He said with a sneer.他的话中带有嘲笑之意。
• You may sneer,but a lot of people like this kind of music.你可以嗤之以鼻，但很多人喜欢这种音乐。

3 horrid   

adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的

参考例句：

• I'm not going to the horrid dinner party.我不打算去参加这次讨厌的宴会。
• The medicine is horrid and she couldn't get it down.这种药很难吃，她咽不下去。

4 doorway   

n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径

参考例句：

• They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
• Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。

5 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

6 chestnut   

n.栗树，栗子

参考例句：

• We have a chestnut tree in the bottom of our garden.我们的花园尽头有一棵栗树。
• In summer we had tea outdoors,under the chestnut tree.夏天我们在室外栗树下喝茶。

7 petrified   

adj.惊呆的；目瞪口呆的v.使吓呆，使惊呆；变僵硬；使石化(petrify的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• I'm petrified of snakes. 我特别怕蛇。
• The poor child was petrified with fear. 这可怜的孩子被吓呆了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 lizard   

n.蜥蜴，壁虎

参考例句：

• A chameleon is a kind of lizard.变色龙是一种蜥蜴。
• The lizard darted out its tongue at the insect.蜥蜴伸出舌头去吃小昆虫。

9 screeched   

v.发出尖叫声( screech的过去式和过去分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫

参考例句：

• She screeched her disapproval. 她尖叫着不同意。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The car screeched to a stop. 汽车嚓的一声停住了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

10 smack   

vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍

参考例句：

• She gave him a smack on the face.她打了他一个嘴巴。
• I gave the fly a smack with the magazine.我用杂志拍了一下苍蝇。

11 devoutly   

adv.虔诚地，虔敬地，衷心地

参考例句：

• She was a devoutly Catholic. 她是一个虔诚地天主教徒。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This was not a boast, but a hope, at once bold and devoutly humble. 这不是夸夸其谈，而是一个即大胆而又诚心、谦虚的希望。 来自辞典例句

12 apparently   

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。

13 dodged   

v.闪躲( dodge的过去式和过去分词 )；回避

参考例句：

• He dodged cleverly when she threw her sabot at him. 她用木底鞋砸向他时，他机敏地闪开了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He dodged the book that I threw at him. 他躲开了我扔向他的书。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 aggrieved   

adj.愤愤不平的，受委屈的；悲痛的；（在合法权利方面）受侵害的v.令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式)；令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• He felt aggrieved at not being chosen for the team. 他因没被选到队里感到愤愤不平。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She is the aggrieved person whose fiance&1& did not show up for their wedding. 她很委屈，她的未婚夫未出现在他们的婚礼上。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 ruffled   

adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• She ruffled his hair affectionately. 她情意绵绵地拨弄着他的头发。
• All this talk of a strike has clearly ruffled the management's feathers. 所有这些关于罢工的闲言碎语显然让管理层很不高兴。

16 lug   

n.柄，突出部，螺帽；(英）耳朵；（俚）笨蛋；vt.拖，拉，用力拖动

参考例句：

• Nobody wants to lug around huge suitcases full of clothes.谁都不想拖着个装满衣服的大箱子到处走。
• Do I have to lug those suitcases all the way to the station?难道非要我把那些手提箱一直拉到车站去吗？

17 awfully   

adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地

参考例句：

• Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
• I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。

18 laden   

adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的

参考例句：

• He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

19 grassy   

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。