18 Now for Windy Pass!

　　18 Now for Windy Pass!
　　Next morning the children peeped cautiously through the fern fronds¹ to see if by any chance Pepiwas on guard again. But there was no sign of him.
　　‘I do wonder what Juan and Luis thought when they got back to their hut, unlocked it – andfound the prisoner flown,’ said Jack² with a grin. ‘They’ll be astonished to find he went through alocked door.’
　　‘Oh, they’ll guess one of us rescued him,’ said Dinah. ‘Won’t they be wild? I do hope theydon’t find him in that cowshed. He might tell tales of us.’
　　‘He wouldn’t,’ said Jack at once. ‘He’s got a nice trustable face – rather like Bill’s but not sostrong.’
　　‘I wish Bill would suddenly arrive here,’ said Lucy-Ann with a sigh. ‘I do really. I know wehave managed things awfully⁴ well, but somehow when Bill comes along I feel really safe.’
　　‘Well, you’re safe enough now, aren’t you?’ demanded Jack. ‘Didn’t I find you a jolly goodhiding place?’
　　‘Yes, fine,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘Oh, look, Philip – Kiki’s after Lizzie!’
　　Lizzie had appeared down Philip’s leg, and Kiki, who happened to be sitting near, had given adelighted squawk and pecked at her – but the lizard⁵ was a little too quick. She ran into Philip’sshoe.
　　‘Stop it, Kiki!’ said Philip. ‘Well – now we’d better get busy.’
　　‘Busy Dizzy Lizzie,’ said Kiki at once, and the children laughed.
　　‘Really, Kiki’s awfully clever at putting the same-sounding words together,’ said Lucy-Ann.
　　‘Busy Dizzy Lizzie – I’d never have thought of that. Clever Kiki!’
　　Kiki squawked and raised her crest⁶ high. She rocked herself from side to side, as she often didwhen she felt pleased with herself.
　　‘Vain bird! Conceited⁷ bird!’ said Jack, and scratched her poll. ‘You leave Lizzie alone. She’sabout the most harmless pet Philip’s ever had.’
　　‘Well, she’s better than those awful rats and mice and spiders and beetles⁸ and hedgehogs he’shad running about him,’ said Dinah with a shudder⁹. ‘I really quite like Lizzie, compared withthem.’
　　‘Gracious!’ said Lucy-Ann, astonished. ‘You are improving, Dinah!’
　　Lizzie and Kiki both joined in the breakfast the children had, though Kiki kept a sharp eye tosee that Lizzie didn’t take anything she wanted. When they had all finished they made their plansfor the day.
　　‘We’ll fetch Otto first,’ said Jack. ‘Philip and I, I mean. No need for us all to go. Perhaps youtwo could pack up a few tins for us all to take with us when we go to look for the pass through themountains. We shall want a meal on the way.’
　　‘Right,’ said Dinah. ‘I hope you’ll find Otto better. Then when you bring him here, we’ll have asnack before we set out. Then over the pass we’ll go, and find Julius – and somehow manage tosend off a message to Mother and Bill. Maybe Bill will fly over in his plane . . .’
　　‘And join the treasure hunt and let us help,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘What a nice plan!’
　　It did seem a very nice one indeed. The boys set off, leaving Kiki behind with the girls. Theywent quickly over the mountain slope, keeping a good lookout¹⁰, however, for Pepi and the others.
　　But they saw nobody. They made their way carefully to the cowshed. Jack left Philip on guardnear by to give warning if anyone came near. Then he tiptoed to the shed and peeped in. Therewas no sound in there at all.
　　He could not see the last cowstall from where he stood. He walked softly in, stepping over thefallen rubble¹¹. He spoke¹² softly.
　　‘Otto! I’m back! Are you better?’
　　There was no reply. Jack wondered if the man was asleep. He made his way to the last stall.
　　It was empty. Otto was not there. Jack glanced round quickly. What could have happened?
　　The boy saw that the opened tins of meat and fruit that he had left for Otto were untouched.
　　Otto had not eaten anything left for him. Why?
　　‘Blow! Those men must have come looking for him when they found that he was gone from thehut,’ thought Jack. ‘And they found him here. Gosh! – what have they done with him? We’d betterlook out for ourselves, in case the men are on the watch for us. They’ll know someone must haveset Otto free, even if he has held his tongue about me.’
　　He went back to Philip. ‘Otto’s gone,’ he said. ‘Dare we have a squint¹³ at the hut? We might findout something then – what they’ve done with Otto, for instance.’
　　‘Let’s shin up that big tree we’ve climbed before,’ said Philip. ‘The one that we can see theplane from. If we saw all the men round about the plane, we’d know it was safe to go to the hut;but I don’t feel inclined to run into danger if we think the men are by the hut. They might bewatching for us to come again. If we’re captured, the girls wouldn’t know what to do.’
　　‘All right. I’ll climb the tree,’ said Jack, and up he went, with Philip close behind him. He puthis field glasses to his eyes to focus them on the plane – and then he gave a loud exclamation¹⁴.
　　‘Gosh! The plane’s gone again! It isn’t there!’
　　‘No – it isn’t,’ said Philip in surprise. ‘Well – I never heard it go this time, did you, Jack?’
　　‘Well, I did think I heard a throbbing¹⁵ noise last night when I was half asleep,’ said Jack. ‘Yes,now I come to think of it, it must have been the plane I heard. Well, we’ve probably frightened themen away. They got the wind up when they knew other people were here – in a hiding place theycouldn’t find – people who rescued their prisoner.’
　　‘Yes – and when they found they couldn’t get at the treasure because a rock-fall had apparentlyblocked the entrance to it, I suppose they thought it wasn’t much use staying,’ said Philip. ‘Sothey’ve gone. Thank goodness! Now we can go back to the girls, and shoot off to the pass quickly.
　　To tell you the truth, I was a bit worried about taking Otto with us, because from what you said itdidn’t sound as if we’d be able to go very fast with him. And if he’d had a heart attack by the waywe wouldn’t have known what to do.’
　　‘I wonder where they’ve taken him to,’ said Jack. ‘Let’s hope that now they find they can’t getany more out of him they’ve taken him back to where he belongs, and will get a doctor to him.’
　　They climbed down the tree, and set off back to the girls as fast as they could. Now for the pass.
　　The girls were most surprised to see the two boys back so soon – but they were even moresurprised to see they were alone.
　　‘Where’s Otto?’ asked Dinah.
　　‘Down the well,’ said Kiki. Nobody took any notice of her and she screeched¹⁷.
　　Jack explained. ‘The plane’s gone – and Otto’s gone – so I suppose they’ve all gone off,disgusted at not being able to get at the treasure. Good riddance to them!’
　　‘Hear! hear!’ said Dinah, very much relieved to know that their enemies were safely out of theway. ‘Well, what are we going to do now?’
　　‘Go and look for the pass,’ said Jack. ‘I’ve got the map Otto drew. What a mercy he gave it tome! We’d never find the pass by ourselves without a map, I’m sure of that. I mean, the pass out ofthese mountains might be anywhere. Apparently¹⁶ there is only one pass, and that’s this one – theWindy Pass. Come on, let’s go. Packed up a few tins, Dinah?’
　　‘Yes,’ said Dinah. ‘Now, where do we go from here? Up or down?’
　　‘Up,’ said Philip, poring over the map that Jack took from his pocket. ‘Up – to where thewaterfall begins – here, look. Then we go along a rocky ledge¹⁸ – see, Otto’s drawn¹⁹ it – then wecome to a thick wood, look – and then up a steep bit to another ledge. Then we come to a properroad – the pass road that I suppose all the people of the valley used when they wanted to leave thisdistrict and visit another. Once we’re on that road I shall feel better.’
　　‘So shall I,’ said Dinah fervently²⁰. ‘It will be nice to see a road. We might even see somebodywalking on it.’
　　‘Shouldn’t think so, as we haven’t seen anyone in this valley at all except ourselves and themen,’ said Jack. ‘It strikes me as a bit queer, I must say, to think that although there’s a perfectlygood pass in and out of this lovely valley, it appears to be quite deserted²¹. I wonder why.’
　　‘Oh, I expect there’s a good reason,’ said Dinah. ‘Come on, do let’s go. The first part will beeasy, because we’ve only got to keep near the waterfall.’
　　But it wasn’t quite so easy as she thought, for the mountain cliff was exceedingly steep there,and the children had to do a lot of stiff climbing. Still, they managed it, for their legs were wellused to walking and climbing by now.
　　The waterfall roared by them all the way. It made a terrific noise as it fell, and Lucy-Annthought how nice it would be when they reached the top and didn’t have to listen to quite such acolossal din³.
　　After some time they came to where the waterfall began. It gushed²² out of a great hole in themountainside and fell sheerly down, tumbling against huge rocks on the way. It was really amarvellous sight to see.
　　‘Goodness, it does give me a funny feeling to see that great mass of water coming out of themountain,’ said Lucy-Ann, sitting down. ‘It’s so sudden, somehow.’
　　‘I suppose when the snows melt, and the rain pours down, there is a terrific amount of watersoaking down into the mountaintop,’ said Jack. ‘And it all collects and has to get out somehow.
　　This is one way it gets out – through this hole – making a tremendous waterfall.’
　　‘Where do we go now?’ asked Dinah, who was very impatient to get out of the valley.
　　‘We go up on that rocky ledge,’ said Jack. ‘Golly, it looks a bit narrow – it runs right over thewaterfall! Lucy-Ann, don’t you dare look down, in case you feel giddy.’
　　‘I don’t much feel as if I want to walk along there,’ said poor Lucy-Ann.
　　‘I’ll help you,’ said Jack. ‘You’ll be all right as long as you don’t look down.’
　　They went along the rocky ledge quite safely, Lucy-Ann holding tightly to Jack’s hand. Kikiflew above their heads, squawking encouragement.
　　‘See how they run, see how they run!’ she called, having apparently remembered the secondline of ‘Three Blind Mice.’
　　Lucy-Ann gave a giggle²³. ‘We’re not exactly running, Kiki,’ she said. ‘Oh, thank goodness theledge has come to an end. Now we go through that wood, don’t we?’
　　Jack looked at his map. ‘Yes – apparently we go straight through. Where’s my compass? I’ll setit so that we walk in a straight line in the direction Otto has put on his map.’
　　They entered the wood. It was a pine wood, rather dark and silent. Nothing grew under the tallpine-trees. The wind blew them and they made a loud whispering noise, which upset Kiki.
　　‘Sh!’ she called. ‘Shhhhhhhhhh!’
　　‘Here’s the end of the wood!’ called Jack. ‘Now for another steep bit to another ledge – andwe’ll look down on the road. Come on, everybody!’

1 fronds   

n.蕨类或棕榈类植物的叶子( frond的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You can pleat palm fronds to make huts, umbrellas and baskets. 人们可以把棕榈叶折叠起来盖棚屋，制伞，编篮子。 来自百科语句
• When these breezes reached the platform the palm-fronds would whisper. 微风吹到平台时，棕榈叶片发出簌簌的低吟。 来自辞典例句

2 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。

3 din   

n.喧闹声，嘈杂声

参考例句：

• The bustle and din gradually faded to silence as night advanced.随着夜越来越深，喧闹声逐渐沉寂。
• They tried to make themselves heard over the din of the crowd.他们力图让自己的声音盖过人群的喧闹声。

4 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。

5 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。

6 crest   

n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖

参考例句：

• The rooster bristled his crest.公鸡竖起了鸡冠。
• He reached the crest of the hill before dawn.他于黎明前到达山顶。

7 conceited   

adj.自负的，骄傲自满的

参考例句：

• He could not bear that they should be so conceited.他们这样自高自大他受不了。
• I'm not as conceited as so many people seem to think.我不像很多人认为的那么自负。

8 beetles   

n.甲虫( beetle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Beetles bury pellets of dung and lay their eggs within them. 甲壳虫把粪粒埋起来，然后在里面产卵。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This kind of beetles have hard shell. 这类甲虫有坚硬的外壳。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 shudder   

v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动

参考例句：

• The sight of the coffin sent a shudder through him.看到那副棺材，他浑身一阵战栗。
• We all shudder at the thought of the dreadful dirty place.我们一想到那可怕的肮脏地方就浑身战惊。

10 lookout   

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。

11 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

12 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

13 squint   

v. 使变斜视眼, 斜视, 眯眼看, 偏移, 窥视; n. 斜视, 斜孔小窗; adj. 斜视的, 斜的

参考例句：

• A squint can sometimes be corrected by an eyepatch. 斜视有时候可以通过戴眼罩来纠正。
• The sun was shinning straight in her eyes which made her squint. 太阳直射着她的眼睛,使她眯起了眼睛。

14 exclamation   

n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词

参考例句：

• He could not restrain an exclamation of approval.他禁不住喝一声采。
• The author used three exclamation marks at the end of the last sentence to wake up the readers.作者在文章的最后一句连用了三个惊叹号，以引起读者的注意。

15 throbbing   

a. 跳动的,悸动的

参考例句：

• My heart is throbbing and I'm shaking. 我的心在猛烈跳动，身子在不住颤抖。
• There was a throbbing in her temples. 她的太阳穴直跳。

16 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。

17 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》

18 ledge   

n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁

参考例句：

• They paid out the line to lower him to the ledge.他们放出绳子使他降到那块岩石的突出部分。
• Suddenly he struck his toe on a rocky ledge and fell.突然他的脚趾绊在一块突出的岩石上，摔倒了。

19 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

20 fervently   

adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地

参考例句：

• "Oh, I am glad!'she said fervently. “哦，我真高兴！”她热烈地说道。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• O my dear, my dear, will you bless me as fervently to-morrow?' 啊，我亲爱的，亲爱的，你明天也愿这样热烈地为我祝福么？” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

21 deserted   

adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的

参考例句：

• The deserted village was filled with a deathly silence.这个荒废的村庄死一般的寂静。
• The enemy chieftain was opposed and deserted by his followers.敌人头目众叛亲离。

22 gushed   

v.喷，涌( gush的过去式和过去分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话

参考例句：

• Oil gushed from the well. 石油从井口喷了出来。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Clear water gushed into the irrigational channel. 清澈的水涌进了灌溉渠道。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

23 giggle   

n.痴笑，咯咯地笑；v.咯咯地笑着说

参考例句：

• Both girls began to giggle.两个女孩都咯咯地笑了起来。
• All that giggle and whisper is too much for me.我受不了那些咯咯的笑声和交头接耳的样子。