兒童英語讀物《神奇樹屋》 第六冊 Afternoon on the Amazon 08

8 Vampire Bats?

“Wait—” said Jack， panting. “I think we got away.”

Jack and Annie stopped running and caught their breath.

“Where are we?” said Jack.

“Where’s the monkey?” said Annie， looking back at the forest. “Do you think the jaguar caught him?”

“No，monkeys are fast，”said Jack.

Of course， jaguars are fast， too， Jack thought. But he didn’t want to tell Annie that.

“I hope he’s okay，” said Annie.

Squeak. Peanut peeked out of Annie’s pocket.

“Peanut! I almost forgot you!” said Annie. “Are you okay?”

The mouse just stared at Annie with her big eyes.

“She looks scared，” said Jack. “Poor Peanut.”

“Poor monkey，” said Annie. She looked around at the forest.

“We’d better check the book，” Jack said.

He pulled out the book. He turned the pages， searching for help.

He stopped at a picture of a scary creature.

“Oh， man. What’s this?” he said.

Jack read the writing below the picture. It said：

Vampire bats live in the Amazon rain forest. At night， they quietly bite their victims and suck their blood.

“Vampire bats?” said Jack. He felt faint.

“Vampire bats?” said Annie.

Jack nodded. “After dark.”

Annie and Jack looked around. The rain forest seemed to be getting even darker.

“Yikes，” said Annie. She looked at Jack. “Maybe we should go home.”

Jack nodded. For once he agreed with her.

“But what about our mission?” said Annie. “What about Morgan?”

“We’ll come back，” said Jack. “We’ll have to be prepared.”

“So we’ll come back tomorrow?” Annie asked.

“Right. Now which way is the tree house?” said Jack.

“This way，” said Annie， pointing.

“That way，” said Jack， pointing in the opposite direction.

They looked at each other. “We’re lost，” they said together.

Squeak.

“Don’t worry， Peanut.” Annie started to pat the mouse again. But then she stopped.

Squeak. Squeak. Squeak.

“Jack， I think Peanut wants to help us，” said Annie.

“How?”

“The way she helped us in the time of ninjas—”

Annie placed the mouse on the leafy forest floor. “Take us to the tree house， Peanut.”

The mouse took off.

“Where’d she go?” said Annie. “I don’t see her!”

“There!” said Jack. He pointed to leaves rustling on the ground.

A streak of white passed over the leaves.

“Yes， there!” said Annie.

Jack and Annie followed the moving leaves. The streak of white appeared. And disappeared.

Suddenly Jack stopped.

The forest floor was still. There was no sign of Peanut.

“Where is she?” asked Jack.

He kept staring at the ground.

“Jack!”

Jack glanced around. Annie was standing on the other side of a nearby tree. She was point-ing up.

Jack looked up.

The tree house.

“Oh， whew，” Jack said softly.

“She saved us again，” said Annie. “She’s running up the ladder. All by herself. Look.”

Annie pointed at the rope ladder.

Peanut was climbing up one of the ropes.

“Let’s go，” Jack said.

Annie started up the ladder. Then Jack.

They followed Peanut all the way up to the canopy of the rain forest.

8吸血蝙蝠?

“等等——”杰克喘著粗氣說道，“我想我們已經(jīng)逃脫了。”

杰克和安妮停下來都大口喘著氣。

“我們現(xiàn)在在哪兒呢?”杰克說。

“那猴子呢?”安妮邊說邊回頭看著森林，“你覺得那只美洲豹抓住它了嗎?”

“不會的，猴子跑得很快。”杰克說。

當然啦，美洲豹跑得也很快…… 杰克想，可是他不想把這個告訴安妮。

“希望它沒事。”安妮說。

吱吱。吱吱。

花生把腦袋從安妮口袋里伸出來四處瞄著。

“花生!我差點把你給忘了!”安妮說，“你還好吧?”

那只小老鼠用她的大眼睛盯著安妮。

“她看起來好像受到驚嚇了。”杰克說，“可憐的花生。”

“可憐的猴子。”安妮說，四下不停地看著。

“我們最好再看看書。”杰克說。他抽出書不停地翻著，在里面尋找?guī)椭?/p>

他在一張可怕的生物圖片面前停了下來。

“噢，我的老天，這是什么啊?”他說。

杰克讀到底下寫的一段文字，上面寫著：

吸血蝙蝠生活在亞馬孫熱帶雨林中。每到晚上，吸血蝙蝠會悄無聲息地叮咬它們的目標然后吸食血液。

“吸血蝙蝠?”杰克說，他腦袋一暈。

“吸血蝙蝠?”安妮說。

杰克點點頭說，“等天黑了它們就出來了。”

安妮和杰克環(huán)顧四周，雨林現(xiàn)在看起來越發(fā)黑了。

“我的媽呀!”安妮看著杰克說，“也許我們該回家了。”

杰克點了點頭，這是他第一次同意安妮的意見。

“可是我們的任務(wù)怎么辦?”安妮說，“摩根怎么辦?”

“我們會回來的。”杰克說，“我們必須有所準備。”

“那我們明天再來?”安妮問道。

“沒錯!哪條是回樹屋的路?”杰克說。

“這邊兒。”安妮指著一邊說。

“那邊兒。”杰克指著另一邊。

他們看著對方，“我們迷路了!”他們同時說。

吱吱。吱吱。

“別擔心，花生。”安妮又開始拍小老鼠的腦袋了，可是然后就停住了。

吱吱。吱吱。吱吱。

“杰克，我想花生是要幫助我們。”安妮說。

“怎么幫?”

“就像上次在日本她幫助我們一樣!”

安妮把小老鼠放到了滿是落葉的地上說，“帶我們?nèi)湮?，花?”

小老鼠出發(fā)了。

“她去哪兒了?”安妮說，“我看不到她。”

“那兒!”杰克指著地上一些跳動的樹葉說。

一條白色的線在葉子上面跑過。

“對，就在那兒!”安妮說。

杰克和安妮跟著那些顫動的葉子，那白色出現(xiàn)又消失了。

突然杰克停了下來，地上安靜下來了，沒有花生的痕跡。

“她在哪兒?”杰克問道，他不停地看著地面。

“杰克!”

杰克回頭一瞥，安妮正站在附近一棵樹的另一邊，指著上面。杰克向上一看，樹屋!

“喔，真棒!”杰克輕聲說。

“她又救了我們一次。”安妮說，“她已經(jīng)跑上梯子了，她自己爬上去的，你看呀。”安妮指著繩梯。

花生正順著繩梯的一邊往上爬呢。

“走吧!”杰克說。

安妮開始往上爬，杰克跟在她的后面。他們跟著花生一路爬到了雨林的樹冠層上面。