The FBI was excited. [qh]
联邦调查局很兴奋
That much seemed evident from the affidavit the agency lodged on March 9, 2018, asking a court for permission to dig up a Pennsylvania hillside in search of Civil War gold.[qh]
2018年3月9日,联邦调查局提交了一份书面陈述,请求法院允许在宾夕法尼亚州的一个山坡上挖掘内战时期的黄金,从这份书面陈述中可以明显看出该机构很兴奋
The affidavit related a story from a document titled “The Lost Gold Ingot Treasure,” which had been found in the archives at the Military History Institute, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. [qh]
这份书面陈述讲述了一份名为“丢失的金锭财宝”的文件中的一个故事,这份文件是在宾夕法尼亚州卡莱尔的军事历史研究所的档案中发现的
The tale, in its barest bones, was this: In June 1863, a caravan of Union soldiers transporting a shipment of gold through the mountains became lost. [qh]
故事的梗概是这样的: 1863年6月,联邦军的一个车队在穿越山区运送一批黄金的途中迷路了
Three men were sent to get help and eventually one returned with a rescue party, which located the group’s abandoned wagons but no men, no gold. [qh]
三名男子被派去支援,最终其中一人带着救援队返回,救援队找到了这群人遗弃的货车,但没有找到人,也没有找到黄金
Teams from the Pinkerton detective agency scoured the hills.[qh]
平克顿侦探事务所的小队在山上搜寻了一番
In 1865, two and a half buried ingots were found, and, later, the bones of three to five human skeletons. [qh]
1865年,这个队伍发现了两个半埋在地下的金锭,后来又发现了三到五具人类骨骼
The rest of the gold remains missing.[qh]
其余的黄金仍然下落不明
The affidavit also laid out how this story had come to the FBI’s attention. [qh]
这份书面陈述还阐述了这个故事是如何引起联邦调查局的注意的
A treasure hunter named Dennis Parada had heard folklore alluding to the lost gold “since he was a child,” and had spent “over forty years” searching for it. [qh]
一个名叫丹尼斯·帕拉达的寻宝人“从小”就听到民间传说中提到丢失的金子,于是花了“40多年”寻找它
Now he and a team including his son, Kem, believed they had finally located it, in the inaccessible recesses of a “turtle-shaped cave” near the community of Dents Run.[qh]
现在,他和包括他儿子肯在内的一个队伍认为,他们终于找到了金子,地点在丹斯润社区附近一个难以进入的“乌龟形洞穴”的深处
FBI agents had visited the site twice and ordered geophysical surveys that had detected something underground—something “with a density of 19.5g/cm3 (the density of gold) and consistent with a mass having a weight of approximately 8.5 to 9 tons.”[qh]
美国联邦调查局探员曾两次到访现场,并下令进行地球物理调查,结果在地下发现了某种“密度为19.5克/立方厘米(黄金的密度),质量大约为8.5到9吨”的物质
In other words, the FBI believed it knew where an enormous hoard of gold was, and as soon as they could get their hands on a warrant, federal agents were coming to get it.[qh]
换句话说,联邦调查局认为他们知道大量黄金藏在哪里,一旦他们拿到搜查令,联邦探员就会来拿
Dennis and Kem Parada had been connected with the FBI several weeks earlier by a middleman. [qh]
几周前,丹尼斯和肯·帕拉达通过中间人与联邦调查局取得了联系
One day in November 2017, Warren Getler, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, was browsing TreasureNet.com, where people interested in buried treasure gather to share theories and discoveries, and to subject themselves to one another’s enthusiasm and scorn.[qh]
2017年11月的一天,《华尔街日报》前记者沃伦·盖特勒正在浏览TreasureNet.com,这个网站聚集了对埋藏宝藏感兴趣的人,他们会分享理论和发现,并接受彼此之间的热情和蔑视
That day something caught Getler’s eye: a post by Parada, who identified himself as the head of a small Pennsylvania-based treasure-hunting group called Finders Keepers.[qh]
那天,有件事引起了盖特勒的注意: 帕拉达的一篇帖子,他自称是宾夕法尼亚州一个名为“捡到归我”的小型寻宝组织的负责人
Getler was convinced that they needed to talk.[qh]
盖特勒确信他们需要谈谈