《能言馬與男孩》第29期:科林王子(5)
When the meal was over the Faun told Shasta to stay quietly where he was.
"And it wouldn't do you any harm to have a little sleep," he added. "I'll call you in plenty of time to get on board. And then, Home. Narnia and the North!"
Shasta had so enjoyed his dinner and all the things Tumnus had been telling him that when he was left alone his thoughts took a different turn. He only hoped now that the real Prince Corin would not turn up until it was too late and that he would be taken away to Narnia by ship. I am afraid he did not think at all of what might happen to the real Corin when he was left behind in Tashbaan. He was a little worried about Aravis and Bree waiting for him at the Tombs. But then he said to himself, "Well, how can I help it?" and, "Anyway, that Aravis thinks she's too good to go about with me, so she can jolly well go alone," and at the same time he couldn't help feeling that it would be much nicer going to Narnia by sea than toiling across the desert.
When he had thought all this he did what I expect you would have done if you had been up very early and had a long walk and a great deal of excitement and then a very good meal, and were lying on a sofa in a cool room with no noise in it except when a bee came buzzing in through the wide open windows. He fell asleep.
What woke him was a loud crash. He jumped up off the sofa, staring. He saw at once from the mere look of the room - the lights and shadows all looked different - that he must have slept for several hours. He saw also what had made the crash: a costly porcelain vase which had been standing on the window-sill lay on -the floor broken into about thirty pieces. But he hardly noticed all these things. What he did notice was two hands gripping the window-sill from outside. They gripped harder and harder (getting white at the knuckles) and then up came a head and a pair of shoulders. A moment later there was a boy of Shasta's own age sitting astride the sill with one leg hanging down inside the room.
Shasta had never seen his own face in a looking-glass. Even if he had, he might not have realized that the other boy was (at ordinary times) almost exactly like himself. At the moment this boy was not particularly like anyone for he had the finest black eye you ever saw, and a tooth missing, and his clothes (which must have been splendid ones when he put them on) were torn and dirty, and there was both blood and mud on his face.
"Who are you?" said the boy in a whisper.
"Are you Prince Corin?" said Shasta.
"Yes, of course," said the other. "But who are you?"
"I'm nobody, nobody in particular, I mean," said Shasta. "King Edmund caught me in the street and mistook me for you. I suppose we must look like one another. Can I get out the way you've got in?"
吃完飯，羊怪囑咐沙斯塔靜靜地待在原來的地方休息。
“你稍稍睡一覺也無妨，”他補充道，”我要過好久纔來叫你上船呢。上了船，就還鄉。直奔納尼亞和北方！”
正餐和圖姆納斯告訴他的一切事情，沙斯塔都十分欣賞，留下他一個人在房間裏時，他的思想發生了截然不同的轉向和變化。他現在只是希望真正的王子科林遲遲不會到來，這樣他就可以坐在船上被帶到納尼亞去了。恐怕他壓根兒沒想一想：真正的科林給丟在塔什班城會碰到什麼危險。他稍稍有點兒爲在墳場上等候他的阿拉維斯和布里擔心。但他接着又跟自己說道，”哎，我又有什麼辦法呢?“以及，”無論如何，那個阿拉維斯認爲她跟我混在一起是太擡舉我了，現在她可以高高興興地一個人走了。”同時，他又禁不住想道；辛辛苦苦穿過大沙漠，遠不如從海上坐船到納尼亞去舒服哩。+
沙斯塔想着這一切時，不覺睡着了。如果你曾大清旱起身，走了長長的路，經歷了極大的緊張激動，然後又美美地吃了一頓飯，躺在涼快房間裏的一張沙發上，四周寂靜無聲，只有一隻從大開着的窗子裏飛進來的蜜蜂嗡嗡叫着，你也會睡覺的。
響亮的啪啦一聲把他驚醒了。他從沙發上跳起身來，瞪着眼睛直瞧。僅僅從房間裏的情形——光和影截然不同了——看來，他立刻明白他必定已經睡了好幾個鐘頭。他也弄明白了是什麼弄出啪啦聲來的：原來放在窗臺上的一個珍貴瓷瓶，在地板上碎成了三十片光景。但他沒注意這些事情。他注意的是兩隻從外邊抓住窗臺的手。雙手愈抓愈緊(指關節都發白了)，接着就冒出來一個腦袋和一副肩膀。一會兒以後，便有一個年齡同沙斯塔相仿的孩子跨在窗臺上了，一條腿已經伸在房間裏面了。
沙斯塔從未在鏡子裏看見過他自己的臉。即使他看見過，他也看不出(在平常時候)這個孩子幾乎長得跟他自己一模一樣。而此時此刻，這孩子可並不特別像其他任何人，因爲他長着你見過的最美麗的黑眼睛，掉了一個牙齒，而他的衣服(他穿上身時是挺華麗的)破破爛爛、骯骯髒髒，他臉上既有血又有污泥。
“你是什麼人?”那孩子低聲問道。
“你是王子科林嗎?”沙斯塔說。
“是啊，當然是王子科林口羅！”那孩子說道，”可你是什麼人呢?”
“我是小東西，我的意思是，我不過是個無名小卒。”沙斯塔說道，”國王愛德蒙在街上逮住了我，錯把我當做你了。我猜想我們必定長得很相像。我可以從你進來的地方出去嗎?”
