Chapter 14 MR. GRINGLE IS ANNOYED

Chapter 14 MR. GRINGLE IS ANNOYED
The military police went off down the hill to the Butterfly Farm, and the five children stooddisconsolately watching them, with Timmy staring, too, tail well down. He didn't quite know whathad happened, but he was sure it was something dreadful.
'Well - it's no good waiting about here, I suppose,' said Julian. 'I bet the police won't get anythinguseful out of the Butterfly Men - they wouldn't have noticed anything when they were out last night,except their precious moths²!'
They were just turning away when they heard someone screaming in a high voice, and they stoppedto listen in surprise. 'It must be old Mrs. Janes,' said Dick. 'What's up with her?'
'We'd better see,' said Julian, and he and the others, with Timmy at their heels, went quickly down tothe cottage. They heard the voices of the two policemen as they came near.
'Now, now, old lady - don't take on so!' one was saying in a kindly³ voice. 'We've only come to ask afew questions.'
'Go away, go away!' screamed the old woman, and actually battered⁴ at the men with her little bonyhands. 'Why are you here? Go away, I tell you!'
'Now listen, Ma - don't take on so,' said the other man patiently. 'We want to talk to Mr. Gringle andMr. Brent - are they here?'
'Who? Who did you say? Oh, them! They're out with their nets,' mumbled⁵ the old woman. 'I'm allalone here, and I'm scared of strangers. You go away.'
'Listen,' said one policeman. 'Were Mr. Gringle and Mr. Brent out on the hills last night?'
'I'm in my bed at nights,' she answered. 'How would I know? You go away and leave me in peace.'
The policemen looked at one another, and shook their heads. It was clearly quite useless to find outanything from this frightened old woman.
'Well, we'll go, Ma,' said one, patting her shoulder gently. 'Sorry we've scared you - there's nothing tobe afraid of.'
They turned away and came back up the slope of the hill, seeing the children standing⁶ silently there.
'We heard old Mrs. Janes screaming,' said Julian. 'So we came to see what was happening.'
'The Butterfly Men, as you call them, are out with their nets,' said one policeman. 'A funny life, I 56must say - catching⁷ insects and looking after their eggs and caterpillars⁸. Well - I don't suppose theyknow anything about last night's job. Not that there's anything to know! Two pilots flew off with theplanes, we know who they were - and that's that!'
'Well, one was NOT my Cousin Jeff,' said Toby, fiercely. The men shrugged⁹ their shoulders and wentoff together.
The five children went off up the hill again, very silent. 'I think we'd better have something to eat,'
said Julian at last. 'We've had no lunch - and it's long past our usual time. Toby, stay and have somewith us.'
'I couldn't eat a thing,' said Toby. 'Not a thing!'
'Get out what we've got, Anne and George,' said Julian, and the girls and Timmy went to the little'larder'. Nobody really felt like eating - but when the food was there, in front of them, they found thatthey were quite hungry - except poor Toby, who sat forlorn and pale-faced, trying to chew through asandwich made for him by Anne, but not making a very good job of it!
Timmy began to bark in the middle of the meal, and everyone looked to see who was coming now.
Julian thought he saw a movement some way down the hill, and took his field-glasses and put them tohis eyes.
'I think it's Mr. Gringle,' he said. 'I can see his net, too. He's out butterflying, I suppose.'
'Let's shout to him,' said Dick. 'We can tell him why the police went to call at his cottage thismorning, when he wasn't there. He'll never get any sense out of old Mrs. Janes.'
Julian cooeed, and there came an answering call. 'He's coming up,' said Dick. Timmy ran to meethim, and soon the man was just below them, panting as he made his way up the steep slope.
'I hoped I'd see you,' he said. 'I want you to look out for some special moths for me - another day-flying one like the Six-Spot Burnet you saw the other day. It's the Cinnabar Moth¹ - it's got richcrimson underwings, and - '
'Yes - I know that one,' said Julian. 'We'll look out for it. We just wanted to tell you that two militarypolicemen went to your cottage a little while ago to ask you some questions about last night - and aswe're sure old Mrs. Janes won't be able to explain anything to you, we thought we'd better tell youourselves.'
Mr. Gringle looked absolutely blank and bewildered. 'But - but why on earth should militarypolicemen come to our cottage?' he said at last.
'For nothing much,' said Julian. 'Only to ask you if you saw anything suspicious when you were 57out looking at your moth-traps last night - you see, two aero-planes were - '
Mr. Gringle interrupted in a most surprised voice, 'But - but, dear boy, I wasn't out at all last night! Itwouldn't have been a bit of good looking for moths anywhere, on our moth-traps or anywhere else ona night like that.'
'Well,' said Julian, also surprised, 'we saw your friend Mr. Brent, and he said you were both outlooking at your moth-traps.'
Mr. Gringle stared at Julian as if he were mad, and his mouth fell open in amazement¹⁰. 'Mr.
Brent!' he said at last. 'But Peter - that's Mr. Brent - was at home with me! We were busy writing upour notes together.'
There was a silence after this surprising statement. Julian frowned. What was all this? Was Mr.
Gringle trying to hide the fact that he and his friend had been out on the hills the night before?
'Well - I certainly saw Mr. Brent,' said Julian at last. 'It was very dark, I admit - but I'm sure I saw hisbutterfly net - and his dark glasses.'
'He doesn't wear dark glasses,' said Mr. Gringle, still more astonished. 'What is this tale? Is it a jokeof some sort. If you can't talk better sense than this, I'm going.'
'Wait!' said Dick, something else occurring to him. 'You say that Mr. Brent doesn't wear dark glasses- then who was the man that took the moth from us yesterday evening about six o'clock and gave usfive shillings? He said he was Mr. Brent, your friend!'
'This is all nonsense!' said Mr. Gringle, getting up angrily. 'Wasting my time on a poor joke of thiskind! Brent doesn't wear dark glasses, I tell you - and he wasn't at home at six o'clock yesterday -we'd been to buy some tackle in the next town. He was with me, not at the cottage.
You couldn't possibly have seen him! What do you mean by all this nonsense - dark glasses, fiveshillings for a moth - and seeing Brent on the hillside last night when he didn't stir out of the house!'
He was now standing up, looking very fierce, his brilliant eyes flashing behind his thick glasses.
'Well,' said Julian, 'All this is extremely puzzling, and ...'
'Puzzling! You're nothing but a pack of nitwitted, ill-mannered children!' suddenly roared Mr.
Gringle, quite losing his temper. Tirnmy gave a warning growl¹¹, and stood up - he didn't allow anyoneto rave¹² at his friends!
Mr. Gringle went off angrily, trampling¹³ down the heather as if he were trampling down the children.
They heard him muttering to himself as he went off. They looked at one another in 58really great surprise.
'Well - I simply don't know what to make of all this!' said Julian helplessly. 'Was I dreaming lastnight? No - I did see that fellow - half-see him, anyway - and he did say he was Mr. Brent, and thatGringle was somewhere near. But - if he wasn't Brent, who was he? And what was he doing on astormy night, hunting moths!'
Nobody could make even a guess. Toby spoke¹⁴ first.
'Perhaps the man you saw was mixed up in the stealing of those aeroplanes - you never know!'
'Impossible, Toby!' said Julian. 'That's too farfetched. I can't say that I understand it at all - buthonestly, he didn't seem like a man who could steal an aeroplane!'
'Who was the man that gave us the five shillings then, if it wasn't Brent?' said Dick, puzzled.
'Could it have been Mrs. Janes' son, pretending he was Brent - just for a silly joke?' said George.
'What was he like?' asked Toby at once. 'I know Will Janes - I told you he's often been to our farm.
We don't have him now because he drinks so much and he isn't reliable any more. What was this manBrent like - I'd soon know if he was Will Janes pretending to be someone else!'
'He was small and thin, with dark glasses,' began Dick - and Toby interrupted him at once.
'Then it wasn't Will Janes! He's tall and burly - with a thick neck and, anyway, he doesn't wear darkglasses - or any glasses at all!'
'Then who in the world was it? And WHY did he pretend to be Brent, Gringle's friend?'
wondered Dick. Everyone frowned and puzzled over the whole thing - but nobody could think of asensible reason for anyone wanting to pretend to be Mr. Brent!
'Well - for goodness' sake, let's get on with our meal,' said George at last. 'We stopped in the middleof it - and the rest is still waiting for us. Have another ham sandwich, Julian?'
They all munched¹⁵ in silence, thinking hard. Toby sighed. 'I don't really feel that this mix-up with theButterfly Men and somebody else, whoever he is, has anything to do with the stealing of theaeroplanes. I wish it had!'
'All the same - it wants looking into,' said Dick seriously. 'And what's more - I vote we keep our eyesand ears open. Something's going on at Butterfly Farm!'

1 moth   

n.蛾，蛀虫

参考例句：

• A moth was fluttering round the lamp.有一只蛾子扑打着翅膀绕着灯飞。
• The sweater is moth-eaten.毛衣让蛀虫咬坏了。

2 moths   

n.蛾( moth的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The moths have eaten holes in my wool coat. 蛀虫将我的羊毛衫蛀蚀了几个小洞。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The moths tapped and blurred at the window screen. 飞蛾在窗帘上跳来跳去，弄上了许多污点。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

3 kindly   

adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地

参考例句：

• Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
• A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。

4 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

5 mumbled   

含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He mumbled something to me which I did not quite catch. 他对我叽咕了几句话，可我没太听清楚。
• George mumbled incoherently to himself. 乔治语无伦次地喃喃自语。

6 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

7 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

8 caterpillars   

n.毛虫( caterpillar的名词复数 )；履带

参考例句：

• Caterpillars eat the young leaves of this plant. 毛毛虫吃这种植物的嫩叶。
• Caterpillars change into butterflies or moths. 毛虫能变成蝴蝶或蛾子。 来自辞典例句

9 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》

10 amazement   

n.惊奇，惊讶

参考例句：

• All those around him looked at him with amazement.周围的人都对他投射出惊异的眼光。
• He looked at me in blank amazement.他带着迷茫惊诧的神情望着我。

11 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。

12 rave   

vi.胡言乱语；热衷谈论；n.热情赞扬

参考例句：

• The drunkard began to rave again.这酒鬼又开始胡言乱语了。
• Now I understand why readers rave about this book.我现明白读者为何对这本书赞不绝口了。

13 trampling   

踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯

参考例句：

• Diplomats denounced the leaders for trampling their citizens' civil rights. 外交官谴责这些领导人践踏其公民的公民权。
• They don't want people trampling the grass, pitching tents or building fires. 他们不希望人们踩踏草坪、支帐篷或生火。

14 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。

15 munched   

v.用力咀嚼（某物），大嚼( munch的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She munched on an apple. 她在大口啃苹果。
• The rabbit munched on the fresh carrots. 兔子咯吱咯吱地嚼着新鲜胡萝卜。 来自辞典例句