CHAPTER EIGHT: THE HOUSE OF HARFANG

“GO on, Pole, do your stuff,” whispered Scrubb.

Jill found that her mouth was so dry that she couldn't speak a word. She nodded savagely at Scrubb.

Thinking to himself that he would never forgive her (or Puddleglum either), Scrubb licked his lips and shouted up to the King giant.

“If you please, Sire, the Lady of the Green Kirtle salutes you by us and said you'd like to have us for your Autumn Feast.”

The giant King and Queen looked at each other, nodded to each other, and smiled in a way that Jill didn't exactly like. She liked the King better than the Queen. He had a fine, curled beard and a straight eagle-like nose, and was really rather good-looking as giants go. The Queen was dreadfully fat and had a double chin and a fat, powdered face—which isn't a very nice thing at the best of times, and of course looks much worse when it is ten times too big. Then the King put out his tongue and licked his lips. Anyone might do that: but his tongue was so very large and red, and came out so unexpectedly, that it gave Jill quite a shock.

“Oh, what good children!” said the Queen. (“Perhaps she's the nice one after all,” thought Jill.)

“Yes indeed,” said the King. “Quite excellent children. We welcome you to our court. Give me your hands.”

He stretched down his great right hand—very clean and with any number of rings on the fingers, but also with terrible pointed nails. He was much too big to shake the hands which the children, in turn, held up to him; but he shook the arms.

“And what's that?” asked the King, pointing to Puddleglum.

“Reshpeckobiggle,” said Puddleglum.

“Oh!” screamed the Queen, gathering her skirts close about her ankles. “The horrid thing! It's alive.”

“He's quite all right, your Majesty, really, he is,” said Scrubb hastily. “You'll like him much better when you get to know him. I'm sure you will.”

I hope you won't lose all interest in Jill for the rest of the book if I tell you that at this moment she began to cry. There was a good deal of excuse for her. Her feet and hands and ears and nose were still only just beginning to thaw; melted snow was trickling off her clothes; she had had hardly anything to eat or drink that day; and her legs were aching so that she felt she could not go on standing much longer. Anyway, it did more good at the moment than anything else would have done, for the Queen said:

“Ah, the poor child! My lord, we do wrong to keep our guests standing. Quick, some of you! Take them away. Give them food and wine and baths. Comfort the little girl. Give her lollipops, give her dolls, give her physics, give her all you can think of-possets and comfits and caraways and lullabies and toys. Don't cry, little girl, or you won't be good for anything when the feast comes.”

Jill was just as indignant as you and I would have been at the mention of toys and dolls; and, though lollipops and comfits might be all very well in their way, she very much hoped that something more solid would be provided. The Queen's foolish speech, however, produced excellent results, for Puddleglum and Scrubb were at once picked up by gigantic gentlemen-in-waiting, and Jill by a gigantic maid of honour, and carried off to their rooms.

Jill's room was about the size of a church, and would have been rather grim if it had not had a roaring fire on the hearth and a very thick crimson carpet on the floor. And here delightful things began to happen to her. She was handed over to the Queen's old Nurse, who was, from the giants' point of view, a little old woman almost bent double with age, and, from the human point of view, a giantess small enough to go about an ordinary room without knocking her head on the ceiling. She was very capable, though Jill did wish she wouldn't keep on clicking her tongue and saying things like “Oh la, la! Ups-a-daisy” and “There's a duck” and “Now we'll be all right, my poppet”.

She filled a giant foot-bath with hot water and helped Jill into it. If you can swim (as Jill could) a giant bath is a lovely thing. And giant towels, though a bit rough and coarse, are lovely too, because there are acres of them. In fact you don't need to dry at all, you just roll about on them in front of the fire and enjoy yourself. And when that was over, clean, fresh, warmed clothes were put on Jill: very splendid clothes and a little too big for her, but clearly made for humans not giantesses. “I suppose if that woman in the green kirtle comes here, they must be used to guests of our size,” thought Jill.

She soon saw that she was right about this, for a table and chair of the right height for an ordinary grown-up human were placed for her, and the knives and forks and spoons were the proper size too. It was delightful to sit down, feeling warm and clean at last. Her feet were still bare and it was lovely to tread on the giant carpet. She sank in it well over her ankles and it was just the thing for sore feet. The meal—which I suppose we must call dinner, though it was nearer tea time—was cock-a-leekie soup, and hot roast turkey, and a steamed pudding, and roast chestnuts, and as much fruit as you could eat.

The only annoying thing was that the Nurse kept coming in and out, and every time she came in, she brought a gigantic toy with her—a huge doll, bigger than Jill herself, a wooden horse on wheels, about the size of an elephant, a drum that looked like a young gasometer, and a woolly lamb. They were crude, badly made things, painted in very bright colours, and Jill hated the sight of them. She kept on telling the Nurse she didn't want them, but the Nurse said:

“Tut-tut-tut-tut. You'll want 'em all right when you've had a bit of a rest, I know! Te-he-he! Beddy bye, now. A precious poppet!”

The bed was not a giant bed but only a big four-poster, like what you might see in an oldfashioned hotel; and very small it looked in that enormous room. She was very glad to tumble into it.

“Is it still snowing, Nurse?” she asked sleepily.

“No. Raining now, ducky!” said the giantess. “Rain'll wash away all the nasty snow. Precious poppet will be able to go out and play tomorrow!” And she tucked Jill up and said good night.

I know nothing so disagreeable as being kissed by a giantess. Jill thought the same, but was asleep in five minutes.

The rain fell steadily all the evening and all the night, dashing against the windows of the castle, and Jill never heard it but slept deeply, past supper time and past midnight. And then came the deadest hour of the night and nothing stirred but mice in the house of the giants. At that hour there came to Jill a dream. It seemed to her that she awoke in the same room and saw the fire, sunk low and red, and in the firelight the great wooden horse. And the horse came of its own will, rolling on its wheels across the carpet, and stood at her head. And now it was no longer a horse, but a lion as big as the horse. And then it was not a toy lion, but a real lion, The Real Lion, just as she had seen him on the mountain beyond the world's end. And a smell of all sweet-smelling things there arefilled the room. But there was some trouble in Jill's mind, though she c ould not think what it was, and the tears streamed down her face and wet the pillow. The Lion told her to repeat the signs, and she found that she had forgotten them all. At that, a great horror came over her. And Aslan took her up in his jaws (she could feel his lips and his breath but not his teeth) and carried her to the window and made her look out. The moon shone bright; and written in great letters across the world or the sky (she did not know which) were the words UNDER ME. After that, the dream faded away, and when she woke, very late next morning, she did not remember that she had dreamed at all.

She was up and dressed and had finished breakfast in front of the fire when the Nurse opened the door and said: “Here's pretty poppet's little friends come to play with her.”

In came Scrubb and the Marsh-wiggle.

“Hullo! Good morning,” said Jill. “Isn't this fun? I've slept about fifteen hours, I believe. I do feel better, don't you?”

“I do,” said Scrubb, “but Puddleglum says he has a headache. Hullo!—your window has a window seat. If we got up on that, we could see out.” And at once they all did so: and at the first glance Jill said, “Oh, how perfectly dreadful!”

The sun was shining and, except for a few drifts, the snow had been almost completely washed away by the rain. Down below them, spread out like a map, lay the flat hill-top which they had struggled over yesterday afternoon; seen from the castle, it could not be mistaken for anything but the ruins of a gigantic city. It had been flat, as Jill now saw, because it was still, on the whole, paved, though in places the pavement was broken. The criss-cross banks were what was left of the walls of huge buildings which might once have been giants' palaces and temples. One bit of wall, about five hundred feet high, was still standing; it was that which she had thought was a cliff. The things that had looked like factory chimneys were enormous pillars, broken off at unequal heights; their fragments lay at their bases like felled trees of monstrous stone. The ledges which they had climbed down on the north side of the hill—and also, no doubt the other ledges which they had climbed up on the south side—were the remaining steps of giant stairs. To crown all, in large, dark lettering across the centre of the pavement, ran the words UNDER ME.

The three travellers looked at each other in dismay, and, after a short whistle, Scrubb said what they were all thinking, “The second and third signs muffed.” And at that moment Jill's dream rushed back into her mind.

“It's my fault,” she said in despairing tones. “I—I'd given up repeating the signs every night. If I'd been thinking about them I could have seen it was the city, even in all that snow.”

“I'm worse,” said Puddleglum. “I did see, or nearly. I thought it looked uncommonly like a ruined city.”

“You're the only one who isn't to blame,” said Scrubb. “You did try to make us stop.”

“Didn't try hard enough, though,” said the Marshwiggle. “And I'd no call to be trying. I ought to have done it. As if I couldn't have stopped you two with one hand each!”

“The truth is,” said Scrubb, “we were so jolly keen on getting to this place that we weren't bothering about anything else. At least I know I was. Ever since we met that woman with the knight who didn't talk, we've been thinking of nothing else. We'd nearly forgotten about Prince Rilian.”

“I shouldn't wonder,” said Puddleglum, “if that wasn't exactly what she intended.”

“What I don't quite understand,” said Jill, “is how we didn't see the lettering? Or could it have come there since last night. Could he—Aslan—have put it there in the night? I had such a queer dream.” And she told them all about it.

“Why, you chump!” said Scrubb. “We did see it. We got into the lettering. Don't you see? We got into the letter E in ME. That was your sunk lane. We walked along the bottom stroke of the E, due north—turned to our right along the upright—came to another turn to the right—that's the middle stroke—and then went on to the top left-hand corner, or (if you like) the north-eastern corner of the letter, and came back. Like the bally idiots we are.” He kicked the window seat savagely, and went on, “So it's no good, Pole. I know what you were thinking because I was thinking the same. You were thinking how nice it would have been if Aslan hadn't put the instructions on the stones of the ruined city till after we'd passed it. And then it would have been his fault, not ours. So likely, isn't it? No. We must just own up. We've only four signs to go by, and we've muffed the first three.”

“You mean I have,” said Jill. “It's quite true. I've spoiled everything ever since you brought me here. All the same—I'm frightfully sorry and all that—all the same, what are the instructions? UNDER ME doesn't seem to make much sense.”

“Yes it does, though,” said Puddleglum. “It means we've got to look for the Prince under that city.”

“But how can we?” asked Jill.

“That's the question,” said Puddleglum, rubbing his big, frog-like hands together. “How can we now? No doubt, if we'd had our minds on our job when we were at the Ruinous City, we'd have been shown how—found a little door, or a cave, or a tunnel, met someone to help us. Might have been (you never know) Aslan himself. We'd have got down under those paving-stones somehow or other. Aslan's instructions always work: there are no exceptions. But how to do it now—that's another matter.”

“Well, we shall just have to go back, I suppose,” said Jill.

“Easy, isn't it?” said Puddleglum. “We might try opening that door to begin with.” And they all looked at the door and saw that none of them could reach the handle, and that almost certainly no one could turn it if they did.

“Do you think they won't let us out if we ask?” said Jill. And nobody said, but everyone thought, “Supposing they don't.”

It was not a pleasant idea. Puddleglum was dead against any idea of telling the giants their real business and simply asking to be let out; and of course the children couldn't tell without his permission, because they had promised. And all three felt pretty sure that there would be no chance of escaping from the castle by night. Once they were in their rooms with the doors shut, they would be prisoners till morning. They might, of course, ask to have their doors left open, but that would rouse suspicions.

“Our only chance,” said Scrubb, “is to try to sneak away by daylight. Mightn't there be an hour in the afternoon when most of the giants are asleep?—and if we could steal down into the kitchen, mightn't there be a back door open?”

“It's hardly what I call a Chance,” said the Marshwiggle. “But it's all the chance we're likely to get.” As a matter of fact, Scrubb's plan was not quite so hopeless as you might think. If you want to get out of a house without being seen, the middle of the afternoon is in some ways a better time to try it than the middle of the night. Doors and windows are more likely to be open; and if you are caught, you can always pretend you weren't meaning to go far and had no particular plans. (It is very hard to make either giants or grown-ups believe this if you're found climbing out of a bedroom window at one o'clock in the morning.)

“We must put them off their guard, though,” said Scrubb. “We must pretend we love being here and are longing for this Autumn Feast.”

“That's tomorrow night,” said Puddleglum. “I heard one of them say so.”

“I see,” said Jill. “We must pretend to be awfully excited about it, and keep on asking questions. They think we're absolute infants anyway, which will make it easier.”

“Gay,” said Puddleglum with a deep sigh. “That's what we've got to be. Gay. As if we hadn't a care in the world. Frolicsome. You two youngsters haven't always got very high spirits, I've noticed. You must watch me, and do as I do. I'll be gay. Like this”—and he assumed a ghastly grin. “And frolicsome”—here he cut a most mournful caper. “You'll soon get into it, if you keep your eyes on me. They think I'm a funny fellow already, you see. I dare say you two thought I was a trifle tipsy last night, but I do assure you it was—well, most of it was—put on. I had an idea it would come in useful, somehow.”

The children, when they talked over their adventures afterwards, could never feel sure whether this last statement was quite strictly true; but they were sure that Puddleglum thought it was true when he made it.

“All right. Gay's the word,” said Scrubb. “Now, if we could only get someone to open this door. While we're fooling about and being gay, we've got to find out all we can about this castle.”

Luckily, at that very moment the door opened, and the giant Nurse bustled in saying, “Now, my poppets. Like to come and see the King and all the court setting out on the hunting? Such a pretty sight!”

They lost no time in rushing out past her and climbing down the first staircase they came to. The noise of hounds and horns and giant voices guided them, so that in a few minutes they reached the courtyard. The giants were all on foot, for there are no giant horses in that part of the world, and the giants' hunting is done on foot; like beagling in England. The hounds were also of normal size.

When Jill saw that there were no horses she was at first dreadfully disappointed, for she felt sure that the great fat Queen would never go after hounds on foot; and it would never do to have her about the house all day. But then she saw the Queen in a kind of litter supported on the shoulders of six young giants. The silly old creature was all got up in green and had a horn at her side.

Twenty or thirty giants, including the King, were assembled, ready for the sport, all talking and laughing fit to deafen you: and down below, nearer Jill's level, there were wagging tails, and barking, and loose, slobbery mouths and noses of dogs thrust into your hand. Puddleglum was just beginning to strike what he thought a gay and gamesome attitude (which might have spoiled everything if it had been noticed) when Jill put on her most attractively childish smile, rushed across to the Queen's litter and shouted up to the Queen.

“Oh, please! You're not going away, are you? You will come back?”

“Yes, my dear,” said the Queen. “I'll be back tonight.”

“Oh, good. How lovely!” said Jill. “And we may come to the feast tomorrow night, mayn't we? We're so longing for tomorrow night! And we do love being here. And while you're out, we may run over the whole castle and see everything, mayn't we? Do say yes.”

The Queen did say yes, but the laughter of all the courtiers nearly drowned her voice.

第八章 哈方王庭

“赶紧上，波尔，该你表现了。”斯克罗布压低声音说。

吉尔感觉嘴唇干涩，一个字也说不出来。她拼命地向斯克罗布示意。

斯克罗布心想，他永远都不会原谅她（也不会原谅普登格伦姆），他舔了舔嘴唇，向巨人国王喊道：“陛下，请听我说，绿裙女士让我们向你问好，她还说你会让我们加入你的秋日盛宴。”

巨人国王和王后对视一眼，彼此点了点头，然后微微一笑，吉尔真不喜欢他们笑的模样。相比来说，她更喜欢国王一些。国王长着精致拳曲的胡子，直挺的鹰钩鼻，真的比一般的巨人好看很多。王后胖得要命，双下巴，大胖脸上涂了厚厚的粉——她的脸即便在最好的比例下也不怎么漂亮，更何况还放大了十倍，当然看起来就更糟糕了。然后国王探出舌头，舔了舔嘴唇。虽然任何人都有可能做这样的动作，但是他的舌头又大又红，而且是出人意料地探出来的，真的把吉尔吓了一大跳。

“哦，多好的孩子啊！”王后说。（“可能她才是和气的那个。”吉尔心想。）

“的确是。”国王说，“真是很棒的孩子。我们欢迎你们来到我们的王庭。把你们的手给我。”

他伸出硕大的右手——非常干净，手指上还戴了不知道多少戒指，不过他的指甲都尖尖的，十分吓人。而且他的手也太大了，根本没办法和孩子们伸过来的手相握，于是，他握了握孩子们的胳膊。

“那是什么？”国王指着普登格伦姆问。

“尊金鬼。”普登格伦姆说。

“啊！”王后尖叫道，她收拢裙子，围住脚踝，“好可怕！是活的。”

“他很好的，陛下，真的，他很好。”斯克罗布急忙解释说，“等你们了解了他，就会非常喜欢他的。我肯定你们会的。”

要是我告诉你就在这时吉尔哭了起来，希望你们看到下文不要对吉尔失去兴趣。她之所以哭是有充足理由的。她的双脚、双手、耳朵和鼻子才刚刚开始解冻，融化的雪水滴滴答答地从她衣服上滴落，那天她几乎没有吃过东西，也没有喝过什么，她的双腿酸疼，感觉快站不住了。不管怎么说，在这个时候，她哭起来这个举动，比任何其他举动都要好，因为王后说：“啊，可怜的孩子！陛下，我们让我们的客人一直这么站着，真是不对。快点儿，快来人！带他们走。给他们食物和酒水，让他们洗个热水澡。哄哄那个小姑娘。给她棒棒糖，给她娃娃，给她吃药，想到什么统统给她——牛乳酒、酒心糖、香菜、摇篮曲，还有玩具。别哭了，小姑娘，不然盛宴开始时你就不好了。”

吉尔就如同你我可能有的反应一样，一听到玩具和娃娃，就大为光火，尽管棒棒糖和酒心糖应该挺好的，但她真希望可以得到一些实在的东西。不过，王后的一席蠢话产生了极佳的效果，因为普登格伦姆和斯克罗布立刻就被身形巨大的侍从抱起来，抱起吉尔的是一个身形巨大的女侍从，他们就这样被送去了各自的房间。吉尔的房间有一间教堂那么大，如果壁炉里面没有熊熊燃烧的火，地上没铺着厚厚的猩红色地毯，整个房间就会显得相当阴森。而到了这里，令她愉快的事情开始发生了。她被转交给王后的老保姆，以巨人的角度来看，老保姆是个小个子老妇人，因为上了年纪背驼得很厉害，身体几乎像是对折了一般，而从人类的角度来看，她依然是个女巨人，只是身形较小，进入一个普通房间不会把头撞在屋顶上。她很能干，不过吉尔真希望她不要老是喋喋不休，说些“哦啦啦！起来没事啦”，“这是只鸭子”，“现在我们没事啦，我的小乖乖”之类的话。

她将热水倒入巨人的洗脚盆中，然后帮吉尔爬进去。如果你会游泳的话（吉尔就可以），就会觉得巨人的浴盆是个非常好的东西。而巨人的毛巾呢，虽然有点儿粗糙，也非常好，因为足有几英亩大小。实际上，你根本不需要擦干，只需要在炉火前摊开毛巾，然后在上面滚来滚去滚着玩就可以了。等这一切搞定后，吉尔穿上了干净、清爽又已经被烘暖了的衣服。这些衣服非常漂亮，只是对她来说大了一点儿，但看得出来这些衣服是做给人类的，而不是做给女巨人的。“我猜，如果那个穿着绿裙子的女人常来这里，他们肯定已经习惯了招待我们这种体型的客人了。”吉尔想。

她很快就发现，她猜对了，因为他们给她安排了一套高度刚好合适，普通的成年人类用的桌椅，刀、叉、勺子的大小也正合适。终于可以暖暖和和的，干干净净的，坐下来了，这感觉真是太让人开心了。她的脚还光着，不过踩在巨人的地毯上非常舒服。她踩下去，脚在里面一直能陷到足踝，这正是酸痛的脚所需要的。而那餐饭——我觉得我们该称其为晚餐，尽管现在是接近下午茶的时间——包括韭菜鸡汤、热腾腾的烤火鸡、蒸布丁、烤板栗，还有想吃多少就吃多少的水果。

唯一烦人的事情是保姆一直进进出出的，每次进来，都会拿进来一个巨大的玩具——一个比吉尔还大的大娃娃，一个足有大象那么大的带轮子的木马，一个仿佛小煤气罐一样的鼓，还有一个羊毛制的小羊。这些东西都是粗制滥造的，涂着非常刺眼的颜色，吉尔一看就觉得讨厌。她不断地跟保姆说她不想要，但保姆说：“嘘嘘嘘嘘！等你休息一会儿，你就会想要了，我知道的！嘻嘻嘻！宝宝得睡觉啦。宝贝小乖乖！”

这不是巨人的床，只是一张有四个柱子的大床，和你在老式旅馆中可能会见到的差不多，放在这间大房间里显得格外小。她很开心能摊在床上。

“现在还在下雪吗，保姆？”她困恹恹地问。

“不下了。现在在下雨，宝贝儿！”女巨人说，“雨会把讨厌的雪都冲走。宝贝小乖乖明天就可以出去玩了！”她给吉尔裹好被子，说了声晚安。

我真不知道还有什么事会比被女巨人亲吻更让人不舒服的了。吉尔也是这么想的，不过她没用五分钟就睡着了。

那天傍晚的雨一直不停地下了整整一夜，雨水冲刷着城堡的窗户，不过吉尔完全没听到，她睡得非常沉，睡过了整个晚饭时间，一直睡到后半夜。到了夜里最沉寂的时刻，在这座巨人的房子里面，除了老鼠就没有其他醒着的东西了。在这个时候，吉尔做了一个梦。在她看来，她似乎就在这个房间里醒了过来，看到那堆火，火苗低低的，红红的，借着火光，她看到了那个巨大的木马。那木马似乎有了自己的意识，轮子自己滚动起来，滚过地毯，在她头边停住。现在，它的样子不再是一匹马了，而是一头像马一样大的狮子。而且，不是一个玩具狮子，而是一头真正的狮子。真正的狮子，就像她在世界尽头之外的山上见到的一样。一股混合了所有甜美气息的味道充斥整个房间。吉尔的思绪有点儿混乱，尽管她想不明白是怎么回事，眼泪还是从她脸上滑落，打湿了枕头。狮子让她重复一下那些提示，而她发现自己已经全部忘掉了。想到这里，她感到恐慌至极。阿斯兰将她叼了起来（她能感觉到他的双唇，他的呼吸，但没有感觉到他的牙齿），叼着她到了窗户边，让她透过窗户向外看。月光明亮皎洁，整个大地，也可能是整个天空（她不知道到底是哪儿）上写着大大的字母，拼出来的词语是：在我之下。之后，这个梦就渐渐消失了，第二天早上她很晚才醒来，这时她已经完全不记得自己做过的梦了。

她起床穿好衣服，在炉火边吃了早饭，这时保姆打开门，说：“漂亮小乖乖的小朋友来找她玩啦。”

斯克罗布和沼泽怪进了门。

“嘿！早上好。”吉尔说，“奇不奇怪？我相信我睡了大约有十五个钟头。我感觉好多了，你们呢？”

“我也是。”斯克罗布说，“不过普登格伦姆说他头疼。嘿！——你的窗户有靠窗座。如果我们能够上去，就可以看看外面了。”他们立刻就这样做了，只看了一眼，吉尔就说：“啊，真是糟透了啊！”

外面阳光普照，雪基本上已经彻底被雨水冲没了，只剩下几堆残雪。在他们的下方，像地图一样摊开着的是他们昨天下午跋涉过的平顶山丘的山顶，从城堡中望过去，那分明就是巨人城市的遗迹，不可能被错当成别的。吉尔现在才看出来，那里那么平，是因为那儿铺着砖石，只是有些地方的路面裂开了。而那纵横交错的堤坝，则是这片巨大建筑留下的残垣断壁，那里可能一度是巨人的宫殿或庙宇。有一面墙，大约有五百英尺高，依然矗立在那里，之前她本以为那是一道悬崖。而那些像工厂烟囱的东西，则是巨大的支柱，都已经断裂成了高高低低错落不等的残桩，断裂下来的碎片就在柱子的底座旁边，仿佛是被砍倒的大石头树。而他们从山的北坡爬下的岩壁，是巨人楼梯残留下来的台阶——毫无疑问，他们从南坡爬上的那些岩壁也是如此。而更糟的是，在路的正中，有大大的黑色字母，写着单词：“在我之下。”

三个旅行者沮丧地面面相觑，斯克罗布吹了一声短促的口哨，然后说出了三个人都在想的事情。“第二条和第三条提示被错过了。”就在此时，吉尔的梦又回到了她的脑海。

“是我的错。”她绝望地说，“我——我没有坚持每天晚上背诵那些提示。如果我能时刻想着，应该可以看出来那就是城市的，即便是冒着那么大的雪。”

“我更不行。”普登格伦姆说，“我真看出来了，差不多看出来了。我想过它格外像一座城市遗迹。”

“最不该怪的就是你了。”斯克罗布说，“你试过让我们停下来。”

“不过却不够坚持。”沼泽怪说，“我不该只是试试，我应该做到的。我一手一个，难道拦不住你们俩吗！”

“实际上，”斯克罗布说，“我们都只想着快点儿到这里，全都没有费心思去理会别的事情。至少我知道自己是这样。自从遇到那个女人和那个不说话的骑士，我们就再也没有想过别的。我们几乎都忘了瑞利安王子了。”

“我一点儿都不觉得奇怪，”普登格伦姆说，“这正是她真正的目的。”

“我不明白的是，”吉尔说，“我们怎么会没看到那些字母呢？还是那是昨天晚上才出现的？是不是他——阿斯兰——在夜里留在那里的？我做了一个奇怪的梦。”她将梦都告诉了他们。

“啊呀，你个笨蛋！”斯克罗布说，“我们看到了。我们进到字母里面去了。你不明白吗？我们进入ME后一个字母E里面了。就是你掉下去的那个地道。我们沿着E底下的横走了一段，这段是向北的——右拐到了竖着的那一笔上——然后遇到了第一个右转的路口——这是中间那一横——我们继续走，到了左上角，也就是这个字母的东北角（如果你喜欢用方向表示），然后我们又走了回去。我们可真是大笨球。”他狠狠踢着靠窗座，又接着说，“这样没用，波尔。我知道你在想什么，因为我也在那么想。你在想，如果是阿斯兰在我们经过后才把那些提示留在了城市遗迹的石头上该有多好啊。那样，就是他的错，不是我们的错了。差不多是这样，对不对？不行。我们必须实事求是。我们现在只剩下第四条提示了，前三条都被我们错过了。”

“你是说被我错过了。”吉尔说，“千真万确。自从你把我带到这里，我把一切都搞砸了。不过——我真的感到非常非常抱歉——但不过，那些提示是什么意思？‘在我之下’，听起来说不通啊。”

“说得通的，”普登格伦姆说，“意思是我们要到那座城市的下面去寻找王子。”

“但我们怎么才能去呢？”吉尔问。

“的确是个问题。”普登格伦姆搓着像青蛙爪子一样的大手，“我们现在怎么才能去呢？毫无疑问，如果我们在遗迹里面一直都想着我们的任务，也许就会得知怎么走了——发现一道小门，或是一个山洞，或是一条隧道，然后碰到能帮助我们的人。也许是阿斯兰自己，这可说不好。我们肯定会找到办法去到这些大石头下面。阿斯兰的提示一向管用，毫无例外。但现在该怎么办呢——这就是另一回事了。”

“好吧，我们必须得回去，我估计。”吉尔说。

“很容易，是不是？”普登格伦姆说，“我们也许应该先打开那扇门。”他们全都望向门，没有一个可以够到把手，而且即便他们可以够到把手，也几乎可以肯定没有人能转动把手。

“你们觉得，如果我们自己提出来，他们会让我们出去吗？”吉尔说。没有人说话，不过大家都在想，“假如他们不肯呢。”

这真不是个让人开心的想法。普登格伦姆坚决反对向巨人透露他们真正要做的事情以及直接要求离开的想法，当然，孩子们没有他的许可不会去说，因为他们都承诺过。三个人都非常肯定，在夜里逃出城堡是万万不可能的。他们一进屋，门就会被关上，直到天亮前他们都得像囚犯一样待在里面。当然，他们可以要求让门开着，但那样会引来怀疑。

“我们唯一的机会，”斯克罗布说，“就是趁着天亮偷偷溜出去。中午时候，大多数巨人是不是都要睡上一个小时？——如果我们可以偷偷溜到厨房里去，会不会有一扇后门是开着的？”

“在我看来，这真的很难算作机会。”沼泽怪说，“不过这似乎是我们仅有的机会了。”实际上，斯克罗布的计划并不像你们想象的那么希望渺茫。如果你们想偷偷溜出一座房子，从某些方面来讲，下午过半之时比午夜之时要好。门和窗都极有可能是开着的，如果你被抓住，你总是能假装你并不想走远，并没有什么特别的计划。（而如果在凌晨一点，你从卧室窗户往外爬时被抓住了，就很难让巨人或是大人相信你的话了。）

“不过，我们必须让他们放下戒备。”斯克罗布说，“我们必须假装我们喜欢留在这里，渴望参加那个秋日盛宴。”

“秋日盛宴就在明天晚上。”普登格伦姆说，“我听一个巨人这么说。”

“我明白了。”吉尔说，“我们必须假装对秋日盛宴非常期待非常兴奋，一直跟他们打听。反正他们完全把我们当成了小孩子，这样事情办起来会更容易些。”

“开开心心！”普登格伦姆深深叹了一口气，“我们就这么做。开开心心的，假装我们什么都不在乎，玩玩闹闹。我注意到了，你们两个小家伙的兴致并不总是很高，你们必须看着我，跟着我学。我要开开心心的，就像这样。”说着，他硬挤出了一个超级难看的笑容，“玩玩闹闹。”他凄凄切切地跳了一下。“你们只要盯着我看，很快就能学会的。他们已经觉得我是个好玩的家伙了。我敢说，你们两个昨天晚上肯定认为我喝得有点儿醉了，不过我跟你们保证那是——基本上是——假装的。我知道会有用的，就是知道。”

两个孩子后来谈论起他们的冒险经历时，从来都不敢肯定这最后一句话到底是真是假，不过他们都肯定普登格伦姆在说的时候自己真的认为是那么回事。

“好吧。开开心心，这是关键。”斯克罗布说，“好吧，但愿能有个人来把这扇门打开。我们四处闲逛假装开心的时候，得尽量摸清这座城堡的情况。”

很幸运，就在这个时候，门开了，巨人保姆急匆匆地说：“好啦，我的小乖乖们。想不想出来见见国王和整个王庭去打猎？可壮观啦！”

他们立即从保姆身边冲过去，爬下他们遇到的第一段阶梯。猎犬、号角，还有巨人们说话的声音，都是引路的信号，没一会儿，他们就到了庭院。巨人们全都步行，因为这片地区没有巨马，所以巨人们打猎都是徒步的，和英国人携比格犬步行追猎一样。猎犬们也都是普通体型的。

吉尔没有看到马，起初失望得要命，因为她肯定体型巨大肥胖的王后绝对不会徒步跟在猎犬后面，而让她全天都留在屋子里是万万不可能的。不过，这时，她看到王后坐在一个类似担架的东西上，由六个年轻的巨人抬在肩膀上。这个老蠢货穿了一身绿衣裳，身侧带着一个号角。

这里集合了二三十个巨人，包括国王在内，全都做好了狩猎的准备，一片欢声笑语的喧哗，声音大得可以把你的耳朵震聋，而在他们脚下，和吉尔差不多高的，是一条条摆来摆去的尾巴，汪汪叫着的松垮而又潮乎乎的狗嘴和狗鼻子硬往你手里挤。普登格伦姆正准备摆出他认为是开开心心、玩玩闹闹的姿态来（如果有人看到的话，肯定会把一切都搞砸的），这时吉尔露出了她最具吸引力的孩子气的微笑，冲到王后的担架边，大声对王后叫道：“噢，拜托了！你不是要出去吧，是不是？你会回来的吧？”

“是的，亲爱的。”王后说，“我今晚就回来。”

“啊，真好。太棒了！”吉尔说，“我们明天晚上可以参加盛宴，是不是？我们都特别期待明天晚上呢！我们真喜欢留在这里。你们不在的时候，我们在整个城堡里四处转着看看，可以吗？请一定要答应啊。”

王后真的答应了，不过所有侍从都哈哈大笑，几乎淹没了她说话的声音。