儿童英语读物 The Spy in the Bleachers CHAPTER 7 Who Is the Spy?

The children had the inn’s game room all to themselves. They sat at one of the tables and Jessie pulled out her notebook.

“Do we all agree that Simon Brock isn’t a suspect any more?” she asked.

Henry, Violet, and Benny nodded their heads. “He’s just enjoying the baseball games,” said Henry. “And thinking about movies.”

“So,” said Jessie, “let’s begin with Carlos Garcia.” She wrote his name in her notebook.

Then they discussed all the things that made it seem as if Carlos might be stealing signs. Jessie listed them.

Carlos Garcia

? Carlos dislikes Reese Dawkins, the Cogs catcher, and wants to replace him.

? Carlos hands Winn envelopes during the ballgame—maybe he and Winn are working together to steal signs.

? Carlos put an envelope into Emma’s straw bag.

? Carlos and Emma talk about Reese Dawkins. They both want to see Reese Dawkins fail. Maybe Carlos and Emma are working together to steal signs.

? Carlos wears a pennant¹ on his cap: he can be seen all the way across the ballpark.

? Every time Cody Howard comes to bat, Carlos bangs the lid of his vendor’s box up and down. Could this be a signal to Cody?

“This looks bad,” said Henry. “Carlos does a lot of suspicious² things.”

“We can’t prove that Carlos is stealing signs,” said Jessie. “And we can’t prove that he’s not stealing them.”

“What about Emma Larke?” asked Benny.

Jessie made a new list.

Emma Larke

? She dislikes Reese Dawkins, the Cogs catcher, and wants to see him fail.

? She wears things that make it easy for the batter³ to see her.

? Whenever Cody Howard comes to bat, Emma stands up and shouts and waves her hat. This could be a signal to Cody.

? She was talking to Carlos Garcia about Reese Dawkins, the catcher.

? She received an envelope from Carlos Garcia.

“Emma is doing a lot of suspicious-looking things,” said Violet.

“Maybe the things she’s doing are too suspicious,” said Henry.

“What do you mean?” asked Benny.

“Well,” said Henry to his younger brother, “if you were stealing signs, wouldn’t you try to hide it?”

Benny thought about this. “I would never steal,” he said. “But a person who steals tries to hide it.”

“Emma doesn’t seem to hide what she’s doing,” said Violet.

“Let’s go to our last suspect,” said Henry.

“Winn Winchell,” said Jessie as she wrote the name. “The team mascot⁴.”

“Also known as Wheelie,” Benny said.

The others laughed.

The children spent a long time discussing Wheelie. Jessie wrote the list.

Wheelie

? Wheelie receives envelopes from Carlos during the game. Maybe Wheelie and Carlos are working together to steal signs.

? Wheelie has a very clear view of the catcher’s signals.

? Wheelie makes motions each time Cody Howard is at bat. Sometimes he holds his nose, sometimes he holds both hands out to the side.

? Wheelie seems to want money. He seems to want fans to pay for autographs.

? Benny and Henry saw an envelope with money in it fall out of Wheelie’s pocket.

“This is a tough mystery to solve,” Violet said. “All three people look guilty.”

Henry stood up and paced around. “I wish we had been able to figure out who the spy was today.”

“Me, too,” said Benny. “But all three of them did the same things they always do.”

“I am very sad,” said Violet. “We don’t have a name to give Mr. Tanaka tomorrow morning. That means the spy will continue spying. And that means the Cogs will lose tomorrow’s game.”

“But,” said Henry, still walking back and forth⁵, “I think we can tell who’s not guilty.”

Jessie nodded. “Yes. Who do you think is innocent, Benny?”

“Emma.” said Benny. “Because she doesn’t hide what she’s doing.”

“Very good,” said Jessie with a smile.

“I think Emma is innocent, too” said Violet. “And I think I know why she wears different clothes. We can ask her tomorrow.”

“Then we will have two suspects,” said Jessie. “Carlos and Wheelie.”

“We will i-so-late one of them,” said Benny. “Like when I had the measles⁶.”

Henry sat back down. “This will be the most important decision we make,” he said. “If we isolate⁷ the right person, nobody will be there to give stolen signs to Cody Howard.”

“That means the Cogs will have a fair chance to win the game,” said Jessie.

“We can think about this while we sleep,” said Violet. “In the morning we can decide who to isolate.”

The others agreed.

“There’s one more thing we can do,” said Jessie.

“What’s that?” asked Henry.

“We can get two autographs. I’ll get one, and Benny can get the other one.”

“Good thinking,” said Henry. “The autographs will help us.”

1 pennant   

n.三角旗；锦标旗

参考例句：

• The second car was flying the Ghanaian pennant.第二辆车插着加纳的三角旗。
• The revitalized team came from the cellar to win the pennant.该队重整旗鼓，从最后一名一跃而赢得冠军奖旗。

2 suspicious   

adj.可疑的，容易引起怀疑的，猜疑的，疑心的

参考例句：

• A man was hanging about the house in a suspicious manner.一个男人在房子周围可疑地荡来荡去。
• He's so suspicious he would distrust his own mother.他这个人疑心太重，连自己的母亲也不相信。

3 batter   

v.接连重击；磨损；n.牛奶面糊；击球员

参考例句：

• The batter skied to the center fielder.击球手打出一个高飞球到中外野手。
• Put a small quantity of sugar into the batter.在面糊里放少量的糖。

4 mascot   

n.福神，吉祥的东西

参考例句：

• The football team's mascot is a goat.足球队的吉祥物是山羊。
• We had a panda as our mascot.我们把熊猫作为吉详物。

5 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

6 measles   

n.麻疹，风疹，包虫病，痧子

参考例句：

• The doctor is quite definite about Tom having measles.医生十分肯定汤姆得了麻疹。
• The doctor told her to watch out for symptoms of measles.医生叫她注意麻疹出现的症状。

7 isolate   

vt.使孤立，隔离

参考例句：

• Do not isolate yourself from others.不要把自己孤立起来。
• We should never isolate ourselves from the masses.我们永远不能脱离群众。