Chapter 18 SPIKY IS VERY HELPFUL

Chapter 18 SPIKY¹ IS VERY HELPFUL
The two boys and Jo, with Timmy at their heels, wandered round the Fair to find somewhere to buy aball. There seemed to be none for sale, so they had a go at a Hoopla stall, and Julian managed to get aring round a small red ball. Just the thing!
It was a big and noisy Fair, and hundreds of people from the near-by towns had come on this shops'
closing day to enjoy the fun. The roundabout played its loud, raucous² music all the time, swings wentto and fro, the dodgem cars banged and bumped one another as usual, and men went round shoutingtheir wares³.
'Balloons! Giant balloons! Three pence each!'
'Ice-cream! All flavours.'
'Tell your fortune, lady? I'll tell it true as can be!'
Jo was very much at home in the Fair. She had been brought up in one, and knew all the tricks of thetrade. Timmy was rather amazed at the noise, and kept close to the boys, his tail still down becausehe could not forget that George was missing.
'Now let's play our little game of ball,' said Julian. 'Come on, Tim - and if we get into any trouble,just growl⁴ and show your teeth, see?'
The three of them, with Timmy, went to the clear space of field that separated the magnificentcaravan from the rest of the Camp. A man at a near-by stall called to them.
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'Hey! You'll get into trouble if you play there!' But they took no notice and he shrugged⁶ his shouldersand began to shout his wares.
They threw the ball to one another, and then Julian flung it so wildly that it ran right up to the wheelsof the front caravan⁵ of the pair. In a trice Dick and Jo were after it. Jo leapt up on a wheel and lookedin at the big window, while Dick ran to the small van that was attached behind the big one.
A quick glance assured Jo that the big caravan was empty. The interior was furnished in a mostluxurious way and looked like a very fine bed-sitting-room. She leapt down.
Dick peered into the window of the smaller van. At first he thought there was no one there - and thenhe saw a pair of very fierce, angry eyes looking at him - the eyes of a small, bent⁷ old woman withuntidy hair. She looked rather like a witch, Dick thought. She was sitting sewing in a bunk⁸, and, as helooked in, she shook her fist at him and called out something he couldn't hear.
He jumped down and joined the others. 'No one at all in the big van,' said Jo.
'Only a witch-like old woman in the other,' reported Dick, in deep disappointment. 'Unless George ispushed under a bunk or squashed into a cupboard, she's certainly not there!'
'Timmy doesn't seem interested in the caravans⁹ at all, does he?' said Julian. 'I'm sure if George reallywas in one of those caravans, he'd bark and try to get inside.'
'Yes - I think he would,' said Dick. 'Hallo, there's somebody coming out of the second van. It's the oldlady! She's in a fine old temper!'
So she was! She came down the steps to the van, shouting and shaking her fist at them. 'Tim - go andfind, go and find - in that van!' said Julian, suddenly, as the old woman came towards them.
The three of them stood their ground as the old woman came right up. They couldn't understand aword she said, partly because she had no teeth, and partly because she spoke¹⁰ a mixture of manylanguages. Anyway, it was quite obvious that she was ticking them off for daring to play near the twovans.
Timmy had understood what Julian had said, and had slipped inside the second van. He was there forhalf a minute, and then he barked. The boys jumped, and Dick made a move towards the van.
Then Timmy appeared, dragging something behind him with his teeth. He tried to bark at the sametime, but he couldn't. He dragged the coat-like thing right down to the ground before the old womanwas on him, screaming in a high voice, and hitting him. She pulled the garment away 81and went up the steps, kicking out at the surprised Timmy as he tried to pull it away. The doorslammed.
'If that old woman hadn't been old, Timmy would have soon shown her he was top dog!' said Dick.
'Whatever was he pulling out of the van?'
'Come over here, out of sight of the van,' said Julian, urgently. 'Didn't you recognise it, Dick? It wasGeorge's dressing-gown!'
'My word!' said Dick, stopping in surprise. 'Yes, you're right - it was. Whew! What does that meanexactly? George certainly isn't in those vans, or Timmy would have found her.'
'I sent him in to see if he could smell that George had been hidden there,' said Julian. 'I thought hewould bark excitedly if he smelt¹¹ her scent¹² anywhere - on the bunk, perhaps. I never guessed he'd findher dressing-gown and drag it out to show us!'
'Good old Timmy! Clever old Timmy!' said Dick, patting the dog, whose tail was now at half-mastinstead of right down. He had at least found George's dressing-gown - but how surprising to find it inthat caravan!
'Why on earth didn't they take the dressing-gown with them, when they took George off?'
wondered Julian. 'There's no doubt that she has been in that caravan - she was taken straight there thenight before last, I expect. Where is she now?'
'She must have been dressed differently,' said Dick. 'They must have had to dress her properly, whenthey took her somewhere else. After all, she was only in pyjamas¹³ and dressing-gown.'
Jo was listening to all this, puzzled and worried. She nudged Dick. 'Spiky's beckoning¹⁴ to us,' she said.
They went over to the roundabout boy, whose father was now in charge of the noisy machine.
Spiky took them into his caravan, a small and rather dirty one, in which he lived with his father.
'I saw Gringo's old Ma chasing you!' he said with his lop-sided grin. 'What was your dog draggingout of the van?'
They told him. He nodded. 'I've been asking round a bit, cautious-like,' he said. 'Just to see if anyonehad heard anything from Gringo's caravan - and the fellow whose caravan is nearest told me he heardshouts and yells two nights ago. He reckoned it was someone in Gringo's van - but he's too scared ofGringo to go and interfere¹⁵, of course.'
'That would be George yelling,' said Dick.
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'Well, then Gringo's vans were moved the next day right away from the other vans,' said Spiky.
'And this afternoon, before the Fair opened, Gringo got his car and towed the little van - the secondone - out of the field, and set off with it. We all wondered why, but he told somebody it neededrepairing.'
'Whew! And George was inside!' said Dick. 'What a cunning way of moving her off to anotherhiding-place.'
'When did the van come back?' asked Julian.
'Just before you came,' said Spiky. 'I don't know where it went. It was gone an hour, I should think.'
'An hour,' said Dick. 'Well, suppose it goes at an average of 25 miles an hour - you can't go very fastif you are towing something - that would mean he had gone somewhere about 12 miles or so away,and come back the same distance - making about an hour's drive, allowing for a stop when theyarrived at the place they had to leave her at.'
'Yes,' said Julian. 'But there are lots of places within the radius¹⁶ of 12 miles!'
'Where's Gringo's car?' said Dick suddenly.
'Over there, under that big tarpaulin¹⁷,' said Spiky. 'It's a silver-grey one - American and very striking,He thinks the world of it, Gringo does.'
'I'm going to have a peep at it,' said Julian, and strode off. He came to the tarpaulin, which coveredthe car right to the ground. He lifted it and was just about to look under it when a man ran up,shouting.
'Here, you! Leave that alone! You'll be turned out of the Fair if you mess about with things that don'tconcern you!'
But Timmy was with Julian, and he turned and growled¹⁸ so fiercely that the man stopped in a hurry.
Julian had plenty of time to take a good look under the tarpaulin!
Yes - the car was silver-grey, a big American one - and the wings were bright blue! Julian took aquick look at the two left-hand ones and saw a deep scratch on one of them. Before he dropped thetarpaulin he had time to glance at the tyres. He was sure they had the same pattern as those shown inthe wheel-tracks he had sketched¹⁹! He had checked the sketch²⁰ with Jim, at Kirrin Garage, who hadtold him they were an American design.
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Yes - this was the car that had hidden in the clearing the night before last - the car that had turnedwith difficulty and made those deep ruts - the car that had taken George away, and this afternoon hadtowed away the caravan with her inside, to hide her somewhere else.
He dropped the tarpaulin and walked back to the others, excited, taking no notice of the rude thingsthat the near-by man called out to him.
'It's the car, all right,' said Julian. 'Now - WHERE did it go this afternoon? If only we could find out!'
'It's such a very striking car that anyone would notice it - especially as it was towing a rather nicelittle caravan,' said Dick.
'Yes - but we can't go round the countryside asking everyone we meet if they've noticed a silver-greycar with blue wings,' said Julian.
'Let's go back home and get a map and see the lie of the country round about,' said Dick. 'Spiky,which way did the car turn when it went out of the field-gate?'
'Towards the east,' said Spiky. 'On the road to Big Twillingham.'
'Well, that's something to know,' said Dick. 'Come on, let's get our bikes. Thanks most awfully,Spiky. You've been a terrific help. We'll let you know what happens.'
'Call on me if ever you want more help,' said Spiky, proudly, and gave them a smart little salute,bobbing his head so that his spikes²¹ of hair shook comically.
The three of them rode off, with Timmy running beside them again. As soon as they got home theytold Anne and Joan all they had found out. Joan was for ringing up the police at once again, butJulian stopped her.
'I think perhaps we can do this next bit of work better than they can,' he said. 'We're going to try andfind out where the car went, Joan. Now - where are the maps of the district?'
They found them and began to pore over them. Jo was quite lost when it came to map-reading.
She could find her way anywhere, day or night - but not with a map!
'Now - here's the road to Big Twillingham and Little Twillingham,' he said. 'Let's list carefully all theroads the car could take from there. My word - it's a job!'

1 spiky   

adj.长而尖的，大钉似的

参考例句：

• Your hairbrush is too spiky for me.你的发刷，我觉得太尖了。
• The spiky handwriting on the airmail envelope from London was obviously hers.发自伦敦的航空信封上的尖长字迹分明是她的。

2 raucous   

adj.(声音)沙哑的，粗糙的

参考例句：

• I heard sounds of raucous laughter upstairs.我听见楼上传来沙哑的笑声。
• They heard a bottle being smashed,then more raucous laughter.他们听见酒瓶摔碎的声音，然后是一阵更喧闹的笑声。

3 wares   

n. 货物, 商品

参考例句：

• They sold their wares at half-price. 他们的货品是半价出售的。
• The peddler was crying up his wares. 小贩极力夸耀自己的货物。

4 growl   

v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣

参考例句：

• The dog was biting,growling and wagging its tail.那条狗在一边撕咬一边低声吼叫，尾巴也跟着摇摆。
• The car growls along rutted streets.汽车在车辙纵横的街上一路轰鸣。

5 caravan   

n.大蓬车；活动房屋

参考例句：

• The community adviser gave us a caravan to live in.社区顾问给了我们一间活动住房栖身。
• Geoff connected the caravan to the car.杰弗把旅行用的住屋拖车挂在汽车上。

6 shrugged   

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 bent   

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。

8 bunk   

n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话

参考例句：

• He left his bunk and went up on deck again.他离开自己的铺位再次走到甲板上。
• Most economists think his theories are sheer bunk.大多数经济学家认为他的理论纯属胡说。

9 caravans   

（可供居住的）拖车（通常由机动车拖行）( caravan的名词复数 )； 篷车； （穿过沙漠地带的）旅行队（如商队）

参考例句：

• Old-fashioned gypsy caravans are painted wooden vehicles that are pulled by horses. 旧式的吉卜赛大篷车是由马拉的涂了颜色的木质车辆。
• Old-fashioned gypsy caravans are painted wooden vehicles. 旧时的吉普赛大篷车是涂了颜色的木质车辆。

10 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。

11 smelt   

v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼

参考例句：

• Tin is a comparatively easy metal to smelt.锡是比较容易熔化的金属。
• Darby was looking for a way to improve iron when he hit upon the idea of smelting it with coke instead of charcoal.达比一直在寻找改善铁质的方法，他猛然想到可以不用木炭熔炼，而改用焦炭。

12 scent   

n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉

参考例句：

• The air was filled with the scent of lilac.空气中弥漫着丁香花的芬芳。
• The flowers give off a heady scent at night.这些花晚上散发出醉人的芳香。

13 pyjamas   

n.（宽大的）睡衣裤

参考例句：

• This pyjamas has many repairs.这件睡衣有许多修补过的地方。
• Martin was in his pyjamas.马丁穿着睡衣。

14 beckoning   

adj.引诱人的，令人心动的v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• An even more beautiful future is beckoning us on. 一个更加美好的未来在召唤我们继续前进。 来自辞典例句
• He saw a youth of great radiance beckoning to him. 他看见一个丰神飘逸的少年向他招手。 来自辞典例句

15 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

16 radius   

n.半径，半径范围；有效航程，范围，界限

参考例句：

• He has visited every shop within a radius of two miles.周围两英里以内的店铺他都去过。
• We are measuring the radius of the circle.我们正在测量圆的半径。

17 tarpaulin   

n.涂油防水布，防水衣，防水帽

参考例句：

• The pool furniture was folded,stacked,and covered with a tarpaulin.游泳池的设备都已经折叠起来，堆在那里，还盖上了防水布。
• The pool furniture was folded,stacked,and covered with a tarpaulin.游泳池的设备都已经折叠起来，堆在那里，还盖上了防水布。

18 growled   

v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说

参考例句：

• \"They ought to be birched, \" growled the old man. 老人咆哮道：“他们应受到鞭打。” 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He growled out an answer. 他低声威胁着回答。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 sketched   

v.草拟（sketch的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The historical article sketched the major events of the decade. 这篇有关历史的文章概述了这十年中的重大事件。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He sketched the situation in a few vivid words. 他用几句生动的语言简述了局势。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

20 sketch   

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。

21 spikes   

n.穗( spike的名词复数 )；跑鞋；（防滑）鞋钉；尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划

参考例句：

• a row of iron spikes on a wall 墙头的一排尖铁
• There is a row of spikes on top of the prison wall to prevent the prisoners escaping. 监狱墙头装有一排尖钉，以防犯人逃跑。 来自《简明英汉词典》