| 糖 的个人资料My Little Candy Fairy 照片日志网络 |  工具  帮助 |
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<The Spiderwick Chronicles> Tony Diterlizzi & Holly BlackTHE FIELD GUIDE
Book One Of Five
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Chapter Three
 IN WHICH There Are Many Riddles
Jared looked around the room. It was a smallish library, with one huge desk in the center. On it was an open book and a pair of old-fashioned, round glasses that caught the candlelight. Jared walked closer. The dim glow illuminated one title at a time as he scanned the shelves. They were all strange: A Historie of Scottish Dwarves, A Compendium of Brownie Visitations from Around the World, and Anatomy of Insects and Other Flying Creatures.
A collection of glass jars containing berries,dired plants, and one filled with dull river stones sat at the edge of the desk. Nearly, a watercolor sketch showed a little girl and a man playing on the lawn. Jared's eyes fell on a note tossed on top of an open book, both coated in a thin layer of dust. The paper was yellowed with age, but handwritten on it was a strange little poem:
In a man's torso you will find
My secret to all mankind
If false and true can be the same
You will soon know of my fame
Up and up and up again
Good luck dear friend
He picked it up and read it through carefully. It was as though a message had been left here just for him. But by whom? What did the poem mean?
He heard a shout from downstairs. "Mallory! Simon! What are you doing up?"
Jared groaned. It just figured that Mom would get back from the store now.
"There was a squirrel in the wall," Jared could hear Mallory say.
Their mother cut her off. "Where's Jared?"
Neither of his siblings said anything.
"You bring that dumbwaiter down. If your brother is in there..."
Jared ran over in time to watch the box disappear down into the wall. His candle chocked on wax and sputtered from his sudden movement, but it didn't go out.
"See?" Simon said weakly.
The dumbwaiter must have showed up, empty.
"Well, where is he then?"
"I don't know," Mallory said. "In bed, asleep?"
Their mother sighed. "Well, go on, both of you, and join him. Now!"
Jared listened to their retreating steps. They'd have to wait a while before they snuck back down to get him. That is, if they didn't just figure that the dumbwaiter had taken him all the way upstairs. They'd probable be surprised not to find him in bed. How could they know he was trapped in a room without a door?
There was a rustling behind him. Jared spun around. It came from the desk.
As he held up the makeshift lamp, Jared saw that something had been scrawled in the dust of the desk.
Click clack, watch your back.
Jared jumped, causing his candle to tilt. Running wax snuffed the flame. He stood in the darkness, so scared he could barely move. Something was here, in the room, and it could write!
He backed toward the empty chute, biting the inside of his lip to keep from screaming. He could hear the rustling of bags downstairs as his mother unpacked groceries.
"What's there?" he whispered into the darkness. "What are you?"
Only silence answered him.
"I know you're there," Jared said.
But there was no reply and no more rustling.
Then he heard his mother on the stairs, a door, and nothing. Nothing but a silence so thick and heavy that it choked him. He felt that even breathing too loudly would give him away. Any moment the thing would be upon him.
There was a creak from inside the wall. Startled, Jared dropped the jar, then realized it was only the dumbwaiter. He felt his way through the darkness.
'Get in," his sister whispered up the shaft.
Jared squeezed into the metal box. He was so filled with relief that he barely noticed the ride down to the kitchen.
As soon as he got out, he started speaking.
"There was a library! A secret library with weird books. And something was in there--it wrote in the dust."
"Shhhh, Jared," Simon said. "Mom's going to hear us."
Jared held up the piece of paper with the poem on it. "Look at this. It has some kind of directions on it."
"Did you actually see anything?" Mallory asked.
"I saw the message in the dust. iIt said 'watch your back,'"Jared replied hotly.
Mallory shook her head. "That could have been written there ages ago."
"It wasn't," Jared insisted. "I saw the desk and there was nothing written there before."
"Calm down," Mallory said.
"Mallory, I saw it!"
Mallory grabbed his shirt in her fist. "Be quiet!"
'Mallory! Let go of your brother!" Their mother was standing at the top of the narrow kitchen stairs wearing a less-than-pleased expression. "I thought we already went through this. If I see any of you out of your beds, I am going to lock you in your rooms."
Mallory let go of Jared's shirt with a long glare.
"What if we need to go to the bathroom?" Simon asked.
"Just go to bed," their mother said.
When they got upstairs, Jared and Simon went off to their room. Jared pulled the covers over his head and scrunched his eyes shut.
"I believe you... about the note and all," Simon whispered, but Jared didn't reply. He was just glad to be in bed. He though he could probably stay there for a whole week. 引用通告引用此项的网络日志
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