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"friends," said the prince, "when once a man is launched on such an adventure as this, he must bid farewell to hopes and fears, otherwise death or deliverance will both come too late to save his honour and his reason. ho, my beauties" (he was now opening the stable door). "hey cousins! steady, coalblack! softly now, snowflake! you are not forgotten.”
the horses were both frightened by the strange lights and the noises. jill, who had been so cowardly about going through a black hole betweeen one cave and another, went in without fear between the stamping and snorting beasts, and she and the prince had them saddled and bridled in a few minutes. very fine they looked as they came out into the courtyard, tossing their heads. jill mounted snowflake, and puddleglum got up behind her. eustace got up behind the prince on coalblack. then with a great echo of hoofs, they rode out of the main gateway into the street.
"not much danger of being burnt. thats the bright side of it," observed puddleglum, pointing to their right. there, hardly a hundred yards away, lapping against the walls of the houses, was water.
"courage!" said the prince. "the road there goes down steeply. that water has climbed only half up the greatest hill in the city. it might come so near in the first half-hour and come no nearer in the next two. my fear is more of that -" and he pointed with his sword to a great tall earthman with boars tusks, followed by six others of assorted shapes and sizes who had just dashed out of a side street and stepped into the shadow of the houses where no one could see them.
the prince led them, aiming always in the direction of the glowing red light but a little to the left of it. his plan was to get round the fire (if it was a fire) on to high ground, in hope that they might find their way to the new diggings. unlike the other three, he seemed to be almost enjoying himself. he whistled as he rode, and sang snatches of an old song about corin thunder-fist of archenland. the truth is, he was so glad at being free from his long enchantment that all dangers seemed a game in comparison. but the rest found it an eerie journey.
behind them was the sound of clashing and entangled ships, and the rumble of collapsing buildings. overhead was the great patch of lurid light on the roof of the underworld.
ahead was the mysterious glow, which did not seem to grow any bigger. from the same direction came a continual hubbub of shouts, screams, cat-calls, laughter, squeals, and bellowings; and fireworks of all sorts rose in the dark air. no one could guess what they meant. nearer to them, the city was partly lit up by the red glow, and partly by the very different light of the dreary gnome lamps. but there were many places where neither of these lights fell, and those places were jet-black. and in and out of those places the shapes of earthmen were darting and slipping all the time, always with their eyes fixed
on the travellers, always trying to keep out of sight themselves. there were big faces and little faces, huge eyes like fishes eyes and little eyes like bears. there were feathers and bristles, horns and tusks, noses like whipcord, and chins so long that they looked like beards. every now and then a group of them would get too big or come too near. then the prince would brandish his sword and make a show of charging them. and the creatures, with all manner of hootings, squeakings, and cluckings, would dive away into the darkness.
but when they had climbed many steep streets and were far away from the flood, and almost out of the town on the inland side, it began to be more serious. they were now close to the red glow and nearly on a level with it, though they still could not see what it really was. but by its light they could see their enemies more clearly. hundreds - perhaps a few thousands - of gnomes were all moving towards it. but they were doing so in short rushes, and whenever they stopped, they turned and faced the travellers.
"if your highness asked me," said puddleglum, "id say those fellows were meaning to cut us off in front.”
"that was my thought too, puddleglum," said the prince. "and we can never fight our way through so many. hark you! let us ride forth close by the edge of yonder house.
and even as we reach it, do you slip off into its shadow. the lady and i will go forward a few paces. some of these devils will follow us, i doubt not; they are thick behind us. do you, who have long arms, take one alive if you may, as it passes your ambush. we may get a true tale of it or learn what is their quarrel against us.”
"but wont the others all come rushing at us to rescue the one we catch," said jill in a voice not so steady as she tried to make it.
"then, madam," said the prince, "you shall see us die fighting around you, and you must commend yourself to the lion. now, good puddleglum.”
the marsh-wiggle slipped off into the shadow as quickly as a cat. the others, for a sickening minute or so, went forward at a walk. then suddenly from behind them there broke out a series of blood-curdling screams, mixed with the familiar voice of puddleglum, saying, "now then! dont cry out before youre hurt, or you will be hurt, see? anyone would think it was a pig being killed.”
"that was good hunting," exclaimed the prince, immediately turning coalblack and coming back to the corner of the house. "eustace," he said, "of your courtesy, take coalblacks head." then he di【创建和谐家园】ounted, and all three gazed in silence while puddleglum pulled his catch out into the light. it was a most miserable little gnome, only about three feet long. it had a sort of ridge, like a cocks comb (only hard), on the top of its head, little pink eyes, and a mouth and chin so large and round that its face looked like that of a pigmy hippopotamus. if they had not been in such a tight place, they would have burst into laughter at the sight of it.
"now, earthman," said the prince, standing over it and holding his sword point very near the prisoners neck, "speak, up, like an honest gnome, and you shall go free. play the knave with us, and you are but a dead earthman. good puddleglum, how can it speak while you hold its mouth tight shut?”
"no, and it cant bite either," said puddleglum. "if i had the silly soft hands that you humans have (saving your highnesss reverence) id have been all over blood by now.
yet even a marsh-wiggle gets tired of being chewed. "sirrah," said the prince to the gnome, "one bite and you die. let its mouth open, puddleglum.”
"oo-ee-ee," squealed the earthman, "let me go, let me go. it isnt me. i didnt do it.”
"didnt do what?" asked puddleglum.
"whatever your honours say i did do," answered the creature.
"tell me your name," said the prince, "and what you earthmen are all about today.”
"oh please, your honours, please, kind gentlemen," whimpered the gnome. "promise you will not tell the queens grace anything i say.”
"the queens grace, as you call her," said the prince sternly, "is dead. i killed her myself.”
"what!" cried the gnome, opening its ridiculous mouth wider and wider in astonishment.
"dead? the witch dead? and by your honours hand?" it gave a huge sigh of relief and added, "why then your honour is a friend!”
the prince withdrew his sword an inch or so. puddleglum let the creature sit up. it looked round on the four travellers with its twinkling, red eyes, chuckled once or twice, and began.
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CHAPTER FOURTEEN
小 说 t xt 天 堂
the bottom of the world "my name is golg," said the gnome. "and ill tell your honours all i know. about an hour ago we were all going about our work - her work, i should say - sad and silent, same as weve done any other day for years and years. then there came a great crash and bang.
as soon as they heard it, everyone says to himself, i havent had a song or a dance or let off a squib for a long time; whys that? and everyone thinks to himself, why, i must have been enchanted. and then everyone says to himself, im blessed if i know why im carrying this load, and im not going to carry it any farther: thats that. and down we all throw our sacks and bundles and tools. then everyone turns and sees the great red glow over yonder. and everyone says to himself, whats that? and everyone answers himself and says, theres a crack or cha【创建和谐家园】 split open and a nice warm glow coming up through it from the really deep land, a thousand fathom under us.”
"great scott," exclaimed eustace, "are there other lands still lower down?”
"oh yes, your honour," said golg. "lovely places; what we call the land of bi【创建和谐家园】. this country where we are now, the witchs country, is what we call the shallow lands. its a good deal too near the surface to suit us. ugh! you might almost as well be living outside, on the surface itself. you see, were all poor gnomes from bi【创建和谐家园】 whom the witch has called up here by magic to work for her. but wed forgotten all about it till that crash came and the spell broke. we didnt know who we were or where we belonged. we couldnt do anything, or think anything, except what she put into our heads. and it was glum and gloomy things she put there all those years. ive nearly forgotten how to make a joke or dance a jig. but the moment the bang came and the cha【创建和谐家园】 opened and the sea began rising, it all came back. and of course we all set off as quick as we could to get down the crack and home to our own place. and you can see them over there all letting off rockets and standing on their heads for joy. and ill be very obliged to your honours if youll soon let me go and join in.”
"i think this is simply splendid," said jill. "im so glad we freed the gnomes as well as ourselves when we cut off the witchs head! and im so glad they arent really horrid and gloomy any more than the prince really was well, what he seemed like.”
"thats all very well, pole," said puddleglum cautiously. "but those gnomes didnt look to me like chaps who were just running away. it looked more like military formations, if you ask me. do you look me in the face, mr golg, and tell me you werent preparing for battle?”
"of course we were, your honour," said golg. "you see, we didnt know the witch was dead. we thought shed be watching from the castle. we were trying to slip away without being seen. and then when you three came out with swords and horses, of course everyone says to himself, here it comes: not knowing that his honour wasnt on the witchs side. and we were determined to fight like anything rather than give up the hope of going back to bi【创建和谐家园】.”
"ill be sworn tis an honest gnome," said the prince. "let go of it, friend puddleglum. as for me, good golg, i have been enchanted like you and your fellows, and have but newly remembered myself. and now, one question more. do you know the way to those new diggings, by which the sorceress meant to lead out an army against overland?”
"ee-ee-ee!" squeaked golg. "yes, i know that terrible road. i will show you where it begins. but it is no manner of use your honour asking me to go with you on it. ill die rather.”
"why?" asked eustace anxiously. "whats so dreadful about it?”
"too near the top, the outside," said golg, shuddering. "that was the worst thing the witch did to us. we were going to be led out into the open - on to the outside of the world. they say theres no roof at all there; only a horrible great emptiness called the sky.
and the diggings have gone so far that a few strokes of the pick would bring you out to it.
i wouldnt dare go near them.”
"hurrah! now youre talking!" cried eustace, and jill said, "but its not horrid at all up there. we like it. we live there.”
"i know you overlanders live there," said golg. "but i thought it was because you couldnt find your way down inside. you cant really like it - crawling about like flies on the top of the world!”
"what about showing us the road at once?" said puddleglum.
"in a good hour," cried the prince. the whole party set out. the prince remounted his charger, puddleglum climbed up behind jill, and golg led the way. as he went, he kept shouting out the good news that the witch was dead and that the four overlanders were not dangerous. and those who heard him shouted it on to others, so that in a few minutes the whole of underland was ringing with shouts and cheers, and gnomes by hundreds and thousands, leaping, turning cart-wheels, standing on their heads, playing leap-frog, and letting off huge crackers, came pressing round coalblack and snowflake. and the prince had to tell the story of his own enchantment and deliverance at least ten times.
in this way they came to the edge of the cha【创建和谐家园】. it was about a thousand feet long and perhaps two hundred wide. they di【创建和谐家园】ounted from their horses and came to the edge, and looked down into it. a strong heat 【创建和谐家园】ote up into their faces, mixed with a 【创建和谐家园】ell which was quite unlike any they had ever 【创建和谐家园】elled. it was rich, sharp, exciting, and made you sneeze. the depth of the cha【创建和谐家园】 was so bright that at first it dazzled their eyes and they could see nothing. when they got used to it they thought they could make out a river of fire, and, on the banks of that river, what seemed to be fields and groves of an unbearable, hot brilliance - though they were dim compared with the river. there were blues, reds, greens, and whites all jumbled together: a very good stained- glass window with the tropical sun staring straight through it at midday might have something the same effect. down the rugged sides of the cha【创建和谐家园】, looking black like flies against all that fiery light, hundreds of earthmen were climbing.
"your honours," said golg (and when they turned to look at him they could see nothing but blackness for a few minutes, their eyes were so dazzled). "your honours, why dont
you come down to bi【创建和谐家园】? youd be happier there than in that cold, unprotected, naked country out on top. or at least come down for a short visit.”
jill took it for granted that none of the others would listen to such an idea for a moment.
to her horror she heard the prince saying: "truly, friend golg, i have half a mind to come down with you. for this is a marvellous adventure, and it may be no mortal man has ever looked into bi【创建和谐家园】 before or will ever have the chance again. and i know not how, as the years pass, i shall bear to remember that it was once in my power to have probed the uttermost pit of earth and that i forbore.
but could a man live there? you do not swim in the fire-river itself?”
"oh no, your honour. not we. its only salamanders live in the fire itself.”
"what kind of beast is your salamander?" asked the prince.
"it is hard to tell their kind, your honour," said golg. "for they are too white-hot to look at. but they are most like 【创建和谐家园】all dragons. they speak to us out of the fire. they are wonderfully clever with their tongues: very witty and eloquent.”
jill glanced hastily at eustace. she had felt sure that he would like the idea of sliding down that cha【创建和谐家园】 even less than she did. her heart sank as she saw that his face was quite changed. he looked much more like the prince than like the old scrubb at experiment house. for all his adventures, and the days when he had sailed with king caspian, were coming back to him.
"your highness," he said. "if my old friend reepicheep the mouse were here, he would say we could not now refuse the adventures of bi【创建和谐家园】 without a great impeachment to our honour.”
"down there," said golg, "i could show you real gold, real silver, real diamonds.”
"bosh!" said jill rudely. "as if we didnt know that were below the deepest mines even here.”
"yes," said golg. "i have heard of those little scratches in the crust that you topdwellers call mines. but thats where you get dead gold, dead silver, dead gems. down in bi【创建和谐家园】 we have them alive and growing. there ill pick you bunches of rubies that you can eat and squeeze you a cup full of diamond-juice. you wont care much about fingering the cold, dead treasures of your shallow mines after you have tasted the live ones of bi【创建和谐家园】.”
"my father went to the worlds end," said rilian thoughtfully. "it would be a marvellous thing if his son went to the bottom of the world.”
"if your highness wants to see your father while hes still alive, which i think hed prefer," said puddleglum, "its about time we were getting on to that road to the diggings.”
"and i wont go down that hole, whatever anyone says," added jill.
"why, if your honours are really set to go back to overworld," said golg, "there is one bit of the road thats rather lower than this. and perhaps, if that floods still rising -”
"oh, do, do, do come on!" begged jill.
"i fear it must be so," said the prince with a deep sigh. "but i have left half of my heart in the land of bi【创建和谐家园】.”
"please!" begged jill.
"where is the road?" asked puddleglum.
"there are lamps all the way," said golg. "your honour can see the beginning of the road on the far side of the cha【创建和谐家园】.”
"how long will the lamps burn for?" asked puddleglum.
at that moment a hissing, scorching voice like the voice of fire itself (they wondered afterwards if it could have been a salamanders) came whistling up out of the very depths of bi【创建和谐家园】.
"quick! quick! quick! to the cliffs, to the cliffs, to the cliffs!" it said. "the rift closes. it closes. it closes. quick! quick!" and at the same time, with ear-shattering cracks and creaks, the rocks moved. already, while they looked, the cha【创建和谐家园】 was narrower. from every side belated gnomes were rushing into it. they would not wait to climb down the rocks. they flung themselves headlong and, either because so strong a blast of hot air was beating up from the bottom, or for some other reason, they could be seen floating downwards like leaves. thicker and thicker they floated, till their blackness almost blotted out the fiery river and the groves of live gems. "good-bye to your honours. im off," shouted golg, and dived. only a few were left to follow him. the cha【创建和谐家园】 was now no broader than a stream. now it was narrow as the slit in a pillarbox. now it was only an intensely bright thread. then, with a shock like a thousand goods trains crashing into a thousand pairs of buffers, the lips of rock closed. the hot, maddening 【创建和谐家园】ell vanished.
the travellers were alone in an underworld which now looked far blacker than before.
pale, dim, and dreary, the lamps marked the direction of the road.
"now," said puddleglum, "its ten to one weve already stayed too long, but we may as well make a try. those lamps will give out in five minutes, i shouldnt wonder.”
they urged the horses to a canter and thundered along the dusky road in fine style. but almost at once it began going downhill. they would have thought golg had sent them the wrong way if they had not seen, on the other side of the valley, the lamps going on and upwards as far as the eye could reach. but at the bottom of the valley the lamps shone on moving water.
"haste," cried the prince. they galloped down the slope. it would have been nasty enough at the bottom even five minutes later for the tide was running up the valley like a mill-race, and if it had come to swimming, the horses could hardly have won over. but it was still only a foot or two deep, and though it swished terribly round the horses legs, they reached the far side in safety.
then began the slow, weary march uphill with nothing ahead to look at but the pale lamps which went up and up as far as the eye could reach. when they looked back they could see the water spreading. all the hills of underland were now islands, and it was only on those islands that the lamps remained. every moment some distant light vanished. soon there would be total darkness everywhere except on the road they were following; and even on the lower part of it behind them, though no lamps had yet gone out, the lamplight shone on water.
although they had good reason for hurrying, the horses could not go on for ever without a rest. they halted: and in silence they could hear the lapping of water.
"i wonder is whats his name - father time - flooded out now," said jill. "and all those queer sleeping animals.”
"i dont think were as high as that," said eustace. "dont you remember how we had to go downhill to reach the sunless sea? i shouldnt think the water has reached father times cave yet.”
"thats as may be," said puddleglum. "im more interested in the lamps on this road.
look a bit sickly, dont they?”
"they always did," said jill.
"aye," said puddleglum. "but theyre greener now.”
"you dont mean to say you think theyre going out?" cried eustace.
"well, however they work, you cant expect them to last for ever, you know," replied the marsh-wiggle. "but dont let your spirits down, scrubb. ive got my eye on the water too, and i dont think its rising so fast as it did.”
"【创建和谐家园】all comfort, friend," said the prince. "if we cannot find our way out. i cry you mercy, all. i am to blame for my pride and fantasy which delayed us by the mouth of the land of bi【创建和谐家园】. now, let us ride on.”
during the hour or so that followed jill sometimes thought that puddleglum was right about the lamps, and sometimes thought it was only her imagination. meanwhile the land was changing. the roof of underland was so near that even by that dull light they could now see it quite distinctly. and the great, rugged walls of underland could be seen drawing closer on each side. the road, in fact, was leading them up into a steep tunnel.
they began to pass picks and shovels and barrows and other signs that the diggers had recently been at work. if only one could be sure of getting out, all this was very cheering.
but the thought of going on into a hole that would get narrower and narrower, and harder to turn back in, was very unpleasant.
at last the roof was so low that puddleglum and the prince knocked their heads against it.
the party di【创建和谐家园】ounted and led the horses. the road was uneven here and one had to pick ones steps with some care. that was how jill noticed the growing darkness. there was no doubt about it now. the faces of the others looked strange and ghastly in the green glow. then all at once (she couldnt help it) jill gave a little scream. one light, the next one ahead, went out altogether. the one behind them did the same. then they were in absolute darkness.
"courage, friends," came prince rilians voice. "whether we live or die aslan will be our good lord.”
"thats right, sir," said puddleglums voice. "and you must always remember theres one good thing about being trapped down here: itll save funeral expenses.”
jill held her tongue. (if you dont want other people to know how frightened you are, this is always a wise thing to do; its your voice that gives you away.)
"we might as well go on as stand here," said eustace; and when she heard the tremble in his voice, jill knew how wise shed been not to trust her own.
puddleglum and eustace went first with their arms stretched out in front of them, for fear of blundering into anything; jill and the prince followed, leading the horses.
"i say," came eustaces voice much later, "are my eyes going queer or is there a patch of light up there?”