Chapter 14 THE SECRET PASSAGE

Chapter 14 THE SECRET PASSAGE
　　Julian paused on the last step of the spiral staircase and listened. Not a sound came from the near-byroom. 'Who's there?' said Julian, sharply. 'I know you're there! I heard you!'
　　Still not a sound! The kitchen, overgrown with weeds and dark with ivy¹ and the white rambling² rose,seemed to be listening to him, but there was no answer!
　　Julian stepped right into the room and looked round. Nothing was there - nobody was there! Theplace was absolutely empty and quiet. Julian went through a doorway³ into another room. That wasempty, too. The old house only had four rooms altogether, two of them very tiny, and every one ofthem was empty. Timmy didn't seem disturbed at all, either, nor did he bark as he certainly wouldhave done if there had been any intruder there.
　　'Well, Timmy, it's a false alarm,' said Julian, relieved. 'Must have been a rabbit, or even a bit of wallcrumbling and falling. What are you sniffing⁴ at there?'
　　70
　　Timmy was sniffing with interest at a corner near the doorway. He stood and looked at Julian as if hewould like to tell him something. Julian went over to see what it was.
　　There was nothing there except for some rather flattened⁶ weeds, growing through the floor.
　　Julian couldn't think why Timmy should be interested. However, Timmy soon wandered away andwent all round the place, wondering why they had come to such a peculiar⁷ house.
　　'Dick! Bring the girls down!' shouted Julian up the stone stairway. 'There doesn't seem to be anyonehere, after all. It must have been some small animal that Anne heard.'
　　The others clattered⁸ down in relief. 'I'm sorry I gave you all a shock,' said Anne. 'But it did sound likesomebody down there! However, I'm sure Timmy would have barked if so! He didn't seem at alldisturbed.'
　　'No. I think we can safely say that it was a false alarm,' said Dick. 'What do we do next? Have ourlunch? Or hunt about to see if we can find the entrance to the passage that leads from here down tothe coves¹⁰?'
　　Julian looked at his watch. 'It's not really time for lunch yet, unless you're all frightfully hungry,'
　　he said.
　　'Well, I'm beginning to feel jolly hungry,' said Dick. 'But, on the other hand, I feel I can't wait to findthat passage! Where on earth is the entrance?'
　　'I've been in all four rooms,' said Julian. 'None of them seems to have anything but weeds in, no olddoor leading out of the walls, no trapdoor. It's a puzzle.'
　　'Well, we'll all have a jolly good hunt,' said George. 'This is the sort of thing I like. Timmy, you hunt,too!'
　　They began to explore the four rooms of the old house. As weeds grew more or less all over the floorthey felt that there could be no trapdoor. If there had been, and the man with the lamp used it, theweeds would surely have shown signs of it. But they grew quite undisturbed.
　　'Listen,' said Julian at last. 'I've got an idea. We'll make Timmy find the entrance.'
　　'How?' said George at once.
　　'Well, we'll make him smell the oil drips on the steps, and follow with his nose any others that havedripped in the weeds,' said Julian. 'I don't suppose the lamp dripped only on the steps. It must havedripped all the way from the passage entrance, wherever it is, to the top of the tower.
　　Couldn't Timmy sniff⁵ them out? They would lead us to the entrance we're trying to find!'
　　71
　　'All right. But I'm beginning to believe there is no entrance,' said George, getting hold of Timmy'scollar. 'We've looked over every single inch of this house. Come on, Tim, you've got to perform amiracle!'
　　Timmy's nose was firmly placed over the oil-drip on the bottom stair. 'Sniff it, Timmy, and follow,'
　　said George.
　　Timmy knew perfectly¹¹ well what she meant. George had trained him well! He sniffed¹² hard at the oiland then started up the stone steps for the next oil patch. But George pulled him back.
　　'No, Tim. Not that way. This way. There must be other oil drips on the floor of the house.'
　　Timmy amiably¹³ turned the other way. He found an oil drip at once, on a patch of weeds growing onthe floor. He sniffed it and went on to another and another.
　　'Good old Timmy,' said George, delighted. 'Isn't he clever, Ju? He's following where the man walkedwhen he carried that lamp! Go on, Timmy, where's the next drip?'
　　It was an easy, strong-smelling trail for Timmy to follow! He followed it, sniffing, out of one roominto another, smaller one. Then into a third, bigger one, which must have been the main room, for ithad a very big fire-place. Timmy went straight to the fireplace, his nose to the ground. In fact, hewent right into the hearth¹⁴, and there came to a stop. He looked round at George and barked.
　　'He says the trail ends here,' said George, in excitement. 'So the entrance to the secret passage mustbe in this big fire-place!'
　　The others crowded to the hearth. Julian produced his torch and shone it up the chimney. It was anenormous one, though part of the top of it had now fallen away. 'Nothing there,' said Julian.
　　'But - hallo - what's this?'
　　He now shone his torch to the side of the big fireplace and saw a small, dark cavity there, barely bigenough for a man to get into. 'Look!' he said, excited. 'I believe we've found it. See that small hole?
　　Well, I bet if we crawl through that we'll find it's the way to the secret passage! Good old Timmy!'
　　'We shall get absolutely filthy,' said Anne.
　　'You would say that!' said George, scornfully. 'Who cares? This may be very important, mayn't it,Ju?'
　　'Rather!' said Julian. 'If we're on to what we think we are, and that's Smuggling¹⁵ with a big S, it isimportant. Well, what about it? Lunch first, or exploring that hole?'
　　72
　　'Exploring, of course,' said Dick. 'What about letting old Tim go first? I'll give him a leg-up.'
　　Timmy was hoisted¹⁶ up to the black hole, and disappeared into it with delight. Rabbits? Rats?
　　What were the children after? This was a fine game!
　　'Now I'll go,' said Julian, and clambered up. 'It's a bit difficult to squeeze into. Dick, you help Anneand George up next, and then you come.'
　　He disappeared, and one by one the others also hoisted themselves to the hole and crawled in, too.
　　Anne wished she had shorts on, like George. Even a short skirt was a nuisance in performances ofthis kind!
　　The hole was merely an entrance to a narrow standing-place at the side of the chimney. Julian gotdown from the hole, and stood still for a moment, wondering if this was just an old hiding-place, andnot an entrance to anywhere, after all. But then, just to the right of his feet, he saw another hole thatdropped sharply downwards¹⁷.
　　He flashed his torch down, and saw iron hand-grips at one side. He called back and told the others.
　　Then he descended¹⁸ into the hole, at first using the grips for his feet and then for his hands as well.
　　The hole went down as straight as a well. It came to a sudden end, and Julian found himself standingon solid ground. He turned round, flashing his torch.
　　There was the passage, in front of him! It must be the one that led down to the coves, the one that theman with the lamp must have used long ago, when he went to gloat over the groaning¹⁹ ships on therocks.
　　Julian could hear the others coming down the shaft²⁰. He suddenly thought of Timmy. Where was he?
　　He must have fallen headlong down the hole and found himself suddenly at the bottom. Poor Tim!
　　Julian hoped he hadn't hurt himself, but as he hadn't yelped²¹, perhaps he had fallen like a cat, on hisfeet!
　　He called up to the others. 'I've found the passage. It starts at the bottom of the shaft. I'll go along it alittle way and wait for you all to come. Then we can keep together in a line.'
　　Soon everyone was safely down the shaft. George began to worry about Timmy. 'He must have hurthimself, Ju! Falling all that way; Oh, dear, where is he?'
　　'We'll soon come across him, I expect,' said Julian. 'Now, keep close together, everybody. The pathgoes downwards pretty steeply, as you might expect.'
　　73
　　It certainly did. In places the four children almost slithered along. Then Julian discovered iron staplesfixed here and there in the steepest places, and after that they held on to them in the most slipperyspots.
　　'These iron staples²² would be jolly useful to anyone coming up,' said Julian. 'It would be almostimpossible to climb up this passage without something to help the climber to pull himself up. Ah,here's a more level stretch.'
　　The level part soon became much wider. And then, quite suddenly, it became a cave! The four cameout into it in surprise. It was rather low-roofed, and the walls were made of black rock, that glistenedin the light of the torch.
　　'I wish I could find Timmy,' said George, uneasily. 'I can't even hear him anywhere!'
　　'We'll go on till we come to the cove⁹,' said Julian. 'This must lead us right down to the shore,probably to the very cove where the ships were wrecked²³. Look, there's a kind of rocky arch leadingout of this cave.'
　　They went through the archway and into yet another passage that wound between jutting²⁴ rocks,which made it rather dificult to get through at times. Then suddenly the passage divided into two.
　　One fork went meandering²⁵ off towards the seaward side, the other into the cliff.
　　'Better take the seaward side,' said Julian. They were just going to take the right-hand passage whenGeorge stopped and clutched at Julian. 'Listen!' she said. 'I can hear Timmy!'
　　They all stopped and listened. George had the sharpest ears of the lot, and she could hear himbarking. So could the others after a few moments. Bark-bark-bark! Bark-bark-bark! Yes, it wasTimmy all right!
　　'Timmy!' yelled George, making the others jump almost out of their skins. 'TIMMY!'
　　'He can't hear you all this way away,' said Dick. 'Gosh, you made me jump. Come on, we'll have totake the cliff passage. Timmy's barking comes from that direction, not this.'
　　'Yes, I agree,' said Julian. 'We'll go and collect him, and then come back and take the other passage.
　　I'm sure it leads down to the sea.'
　　They made their way along the left-hand passage. It was not difficult, because it was much wider thanthe one they had already come down. Timmy's barking became louder and louder as they went down.
　　George whistled piercingly, hoping that Timmy would come rushing up. But he didn't.
　　'It's funny that he doesn't come,' said George, worried. 'I think he must be hurt. TIMMY!'
　　74
　　The passage wound round a corner, and then once more divided into two. To the children's surprisethey saw a rough door set into the rocky wall of the passage on the left-hand side. A door! How veryextraordinary!
　　'Look, a door!' said Dick, amazed. 'And a jolly stout one, too.'
　　'Timmy's behind it!' said George. 'He must have gone through it and it shut behind him. Timmy!
　　We're here! We're coming!'
　　She pushed at the door, but it didn't open. She saw that it was lightly latched²⁶, and lifted the old ironlatch. The door opened easily and all the four went through into a curious cave beyond. It was morelike a low-roofed room!
　　Timmy flung himself at them as soon as they came through the door. He wasn't hurt. He was sopleased to see them that he barked the place down! 'Woof! WOOOOOF!'
　　'Oh, Timmy, how did you get here?' said George, hugging him. 'Did the door click behind you?
　　My word, what a queer place this is! It's a storeroom - look at all the boxes and crates²⁷ and things!'
　　They looked round the strange cave, and at that moment there was a soft click. Then something slidsmoothly into place. Julian leapt to the door and tried to open it.
　　'It's locked! Somebody's locked it, and bolted it! I heard them. Let us out, let us out, I say!'

1 ivy   

n.常青藤，常春藤

参考例句：

• Her wedding bouquet consisted of roses and ivy.她的婚礼花篮包括玫瑰和长春藤。
• The wall is covered all over with ivy.墙上爬满了常春藤。

2 rambling   

adj.[建]凌乱的，杂乱的

参考例句：

• We spent the summer rambling in Ireland. 我们花了一个夏天漫游爱尔兰。
• It was easy to get lost in the rambling house. 在布局凌乱的大房子里容易迷路。

3 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。

4 sniffing   

n.探查法v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的现在分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说

参考例句：

• We all had colds and couldn't stop sniffing and sneezing. 我们都感冒了，一个劲地抽鼻子，打喷嚏。
• They all had colds and were sniffing and sneezing. 他们都伤风了，呼呼喘气而且打喷嚏。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

5 sniff   

vi.嗅…味道；抽鼻涕；对嗤之以鼻，蔑视

参考例句：

• The police used dogs to sniff out the criminals in their hiding - place.警察使用警犬查出了罪犯的藏身地点。
• When Munchie meets a dog on the beach, they sniff each other for a while.当麦奇在海滩上碰到另一条狗的时候，他们会彼此嗅一会儿。

6 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。

7 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

8 clattered   

发出咔哒声（clatter的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He dropped the knife and it clattered on the stone floor. 他一失手，刀子当啷一声掉到石头地面上。
• His hand went limp and the knife clattered to the ground. 他的手一软，刀子当啷一声掉到地上。

9 cove   

n.小海湾，小峡谷

参考例句：

• The shore line is wooded,olive-green,a pristine cove.岸边一带林木蓊郁，嫩绿一片，好一个山外的小海湾。
• I saw two children were playing in a cove.我看到两个小孩正在一个小海湾里玩耍。

10 coves   

n.小海湾( cove的名词复数 )；家伙

参考例句：

• Grenada's unique layout includes many finger-like coves, making the island a popular destination. 格林纳达独特的地形布局包括许多手指状的洞穴，使得这个岛屿成为一个受人欢迎的航海地。 来自互联网

11 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

12 sniffed   

v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说

参考例句：

• When Jenney had stopped crying she sniffed and dried her eyes. 珍妮停止了哭泣，吸了吸鼻子，擦干了眼泪。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The dog sniffed suspiciously at the stranger. 狗疑惑地嗅着那个陌生人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 amiably   

adv.和蔼可亲地，亲切地

参考例句：

• She grinned amiably at us. 她咧着嘴向我们亲切地微笑。
• Atheists and theists live together peacefully and amiably in this country. 无神论者和有神论者在该国和睦相处。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 hearth   

n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面

参考例句：

• She came and sat in a chair before the hearth.她走过来，在炉子前面的椅子上坐下。
• She comes to the hearth,and switches on the electric light there.她走到壁炉那里，打开电灯。

15 smuggling   

n.走私

参考例句：

• Some claimed that the docker's union fronted for the smuggling ring.某些人声称码头工人工会是走私集团的掩护所。
• The evidence pointed to the existence of an international smuggling network.证据表明很可能有一个国际走私网络存在。

16 hoisted   

把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He hoisted himself onto a high stool. 他抬身坐上了一张高凳子。
• The sailors hoisted the cargo onto the deck. 水手们把货物吊到甲板上。

17 downwards   

adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地）

参考例句：

• He lay face downwards on his bed.他脸向下伏在床上。
• As the river flows downwards,it widens.这条河愈到下游愈宽。

18 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

19 groaning   

adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• She's always groaning on about how much she has to do. 她总抱怨自己干很多活儿。
• The wounded man lay there groaning, with no one to help him. 受伤者躺在那里呻吟着，无人救助。

20 shaft   

n.(工具的)柄，杆状物

参考例句：

• He was wounded by a shaft.他被箭击中受伤。
• This is the shaft of a steam engine.这是一个蒸汽机主轴。

21 yelped   

v.发出短而尖的叫声( yelp的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He yelped in pain when the horse stepped on his foot. 马踩了他的脚痛得他喊叫起来。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• A hound yelped briefly as a whip cracked. 鞭子一响，猎狗发出一阵嗥叫。 来自《简明英汉词典》

22 staples   

n.（某国的）主要产品( staple的名词复数 )；钉书钉；U 形钉；主要部份v.用钉书钉钉住( staple的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The anvil onto which the staples are pressed was not assemble correctly. 订书机上的铁砧安装错位。 来自辞典例句
• I'm trying to make an analysis of the staples of his talk. 我在试行分析他的谈话的要旨。 来自辞典例句

23 wrecked   

adj.失事的，遇难的

参考例句：

• the hulk of a wrecked ship 遇难轮船的残骸
• the salvage of the wrecked tanker 对失事油轮的打捞

24 jutting   

v.（使）突出( jut的现在分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出

参考例句：

• The climbers rested on a sheltered ledge jutting out from the cliff. 登山者在悬崖的岩棚上休息。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The soldier saw a gun jutting out of some bushes. 那士兵看见丛林中有一枝枪伸出来。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

25 meandering   

蜿蜒的河流，漫步，聊天

参考例句：

• The village seemed deserted except for small boys and a meandering donkey. 整个村子的人都像是逃光了，只留下了几个小男孩和一头正在游游荡荡的小毛驴。 来自教父部分
• We often took a walk along the meandering river after supper. 晚饭后我们常沿着那条弯弯曲曲的小河散步。

26 latched   

v.理解( latch的过去式和过去分词 )；纠缠；用碰锁锁上（门等）；附着（在某物上）

参考例句：

• The government have latched onto environmental issues to win votes. 政府已开始大谈环境问题以争取选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He latched onto us and we couldn't get rid of him. 他缠着我们，甩也甩不掉。 来自《简明英汉词典》

27 crates   

n. 板条箱, 篓子, 旧汽车 vt. 装进纸条箱

参考例句：

• We were using crates as seats. 我们用大木箱作为座位。
• Thousands of crates compacted in a warehouse. 数以千计的板条箱堆放在仓库里。