《銀椅》第15章:吉爾不見了
THE patch of light did not show up anything down in the darkness where they were standing. The others could only hear, not see, Jill's efforts to get on to the Marsh-wiggle's back. That is, they heard him saying, "You needn't put your finger in my eye," and, "Nor your foot in my mouth either," and, "That's more like it," and, "Now, I'll hold on to your legs. That'll leave your arms free to steady yourself against the earth."
Then they looked up and soon they saw the black shape of Jill's head against the patch of light.
"Well?" they all shouted up anxiously.
"It's a hole," called Jill's voice. "I could get through it if I was a little bit higher."
"What do you see through it?" asked Eustace.
"Nothing much yet," said Jill. "I say, Puddleglum, let go my legs so that I can stand on your shoulders instead of sitting on them. I can steady myself all right against the edge."
They could hear her moving and then much more of her came into sight against the greyness of the opening; in fact all of her down to the waist.
"I say -" began Jill, but suddenly broke off with a cry: not a sharp cry. It sounded more as if her mouth had been muffled up or had something pushed into it. After that she found her voice and seemed to be shouting out as loud as she could, but they couldn't hear the words. Two things then happened at the same moment. The patch of light was completely blocked up for a second or so; and they heard both a scuffling, struggling sound and the voice of the Marsh-wiggle gasping: "Quick! Help! Hold on to her legs.
Someone's pulling her. There! No, here. Too late!"
The opening, and the cold light which filled it, were now perfectly clear again. Jill had vanished.
"Jill! Jill!" they shouted frantically, but there was no answer.
"Why the dickens couldn't you have held her feet?" said Eustace.
"I don't know, Scrubb," groaned Puddleglum. "Born to be a misfit, I shouldn't wonder. Fated. Fated to be Pole's death, just as I was fated to eat Talking Stag at Harfang. Not that it isn't my own fault as well, of course."
"This is the greatest shame and sorrow that could have fallen on us," said the Prince. "We have sent a brave lady into the hands of enemies and stayed behind in safety."
"Don't paint it too black, Sir," said Puddleglum. "We're not very safe except for death by starvation in this hole."
"I wonder am I small enough to get through where Jill did?" said Eustace.
What had really happened to Jill was this. As soon as she got her head out of the hole she found that she was looking down as if from an upstairs window, not up as if through a trap-door. She had been so long in the dark that her eyes couldn't at first take in what they were seeing: except that she was not looking at the daylit, sunny world which she so wanted to see. The air seemed to be deadly cold, and the light was pale and blue. There was also a good deal of noise going on and a lot of white objects flying about in the air. It was at that moment that she had shouted down to Puddleglum to let her stand up on his shoulders.
When she had done this, she could see and hear a good deal better. The noises she had been hearing turned out to be of two kinds: the rhythmical thump of several feet, and the music of four fiddles, three flutes, and a drum. She also got her own position clear. She was looking out of a hole in a steep bank which sloped down and reached the level about fourteen feet below her. Everything was very white. A lot of people were moving about. Then she gasped! The people were trim little Fauns, and Dryads with leafcrowned hair floating behind them. For a second they looked as if they were moving anyhow; then she saw that they were really doing a dance - a dance with so many complicated steps and figures that it took you some time to understand it. Then it came over her like a thunderclap that the pale, blue light was really moonlight, and the white stuff on the ground was really snow. And of course! There were the stars staring in a black frosty sky overhead. And the tall black things behind the dancers were trees. They had not only got out into the upper world at last, but had come out in the heart of Narnia. Jill felt she could have fainted with delight; and the music - the wild music, intensely sweet and yet just the least bit eerie too, and full of good magic as the Witch's thrumming had been full of bad magic - made her feel it all the more.
All this takes a long time to tell, but of course it took a very short time to see. Jill turned almost at once to shout down to the others, "I say! It's all right. We're out, and we're home." But the reason she never got further than "I say" was this. Circling round and round the dancers was a ring of Dwarfs, all dressed in their finest clothes; mostly scarlet with fur-lined hoods and golden tassels and big furry top-boots. As they circled round they were all diligently throwing snowballs. (Those were the white things that Jill had seen flying through the air.) They weren't throwing them at the dancers as silly boys might have been doing in England. They were throwing them through the dance in such perfect time with the music and with such perfect aim that if all the dancers were in exactly the right places at exactly the right moments, no one would be hit. This is called the Great Snow Dance and it is done every year in Narnia on the first moonlit night when there is snow on the ground. Of course it is a kind of game as well as a dance, because every now and then some dancer will be the least little bit wrong and get a snowball in the face, and then everyone laughs. But a good team of dancers, Dwarfs, and musicians will keep it up for hours without a single hit. On fine nights when the cold and the drum-taps, and the hooting of the owls, and the moonlight, have got into their wild, woodland blood and made it even wilder, they will dance till daybreak. I wish you could see it for yourselves.
What had stopped Jill when she got as far as the say of "I say" was of course simply a fine big snowball that came sailing through the dance from a Dwarf on the far side and got her fair and square in the mouth. She didn't in the least mind; twenty snowballs would not have damped her spirits at that moment. But however happy you are feeling, you can't talk with your mouth full of snow. And when, after considerable spluttering, she could speak again, she quite forgot in her excitement that the others, down in the dark, behind her, still didn't know the good news. She simply leaned as far out of the hole as she could, and yelled to the dancers.
"Help! Help! We're buried in the hill. Come and dig us out."
The Narnians, who had not even noticed the little hole in the hillside, were of course very surprised, and looked about in several wrong directions before they found out where the voice was coming from. But when they caught sight of Jill they all came running towards her, and as many as could scrambled up the bank, and a dozen or more hands were stretched up to help her. And Jill caught hold of them and thus got out of the hole and came slithering down the bank head first, and then picked herself up and said:
"Oh, do go and dig the others out. There are three others, besides the horses. And one of them is Prince Rilian."
She was already in the middle of a crowd when she said this, for besides the dancers all sorts of people who had been watching the dance, and whom she had not seen at first, came running up. Squirrels came out of the trees in showers, and so did Owls. Hedgehogs came waddling as fast as their short legs would carry them. Bears and Badgers followed at a slower pace. A great Panther, twitching its tail in excitement, was the last to join the party.
But as soon as they understood what Jill was saying, they all became active. "Pick and shovel, boys, pick and shovel. Off for our tools!" said the Dwarfs, and dashed away into the woods at top speed. "Wake up some Moles, they're the chaps for digging. They're quite as good as Dwarfs," said a voice. "What was that she said about Prince Rilian?" said another. "Hush!" said the Panther. "The poor child's crazed, and no wonder after being lost inside the hill. She doesn't know what she's saying." "That's right," said an old Bear. "Why, she said Prince Rilian was a horse!" "No, she didn't," said a Squirrel, very pert. "Yes, she did," said another Squirrel, even perter.
"It's quite t-t-t-true. D-d-don't be so silly," said Jill. She spoke like that because her teeth were now chattering with the cold.
Immediately one of the Dryads flung round her a furry cloak which some Dwarf had dropped when he rushed to fetch his mining tools, and an obliging Faun trotted off among the trees to a place where Jill could see firelight in the mouth of a cave, to get her a hot drink. But before it came, all the Dwarfs reappeared with spades and pick-axes and charged at the hillside. Then Jill heard cries of "Hi! What are you doing? Put that sword down," and "Now, young 'un: none of that," and, "He's a vicious one, now, isn't he?" Jill hurried to the spot and didn't know whether to laugh or cry when she saw Eustace's face, very pale and dirty, projecting from the blackness of the hole, and Eustace's right hand brandishing a sword with which he made lunges at anyone who came near him.
For of course Eustace had been having a very different time from Jill during the last few minutes. He had heard Jill cry out and seen her disappear into the unknown. Like the Prince and Puddleglum, he thought that some enemies had caught her. And from down below he didn't see that the pale, blueish light was moonlight. He thought the hole would lead only into some other cave, lit by some ghostly phosphorescence and filled with goodness-knows-what evil creatures of the Underworld. So that when he had persuaded Puddleglum to give him a back, and drawn his sword, and poked out his head, he had really been doing a very brave thing. The others would have done it first if they could, but the hole was too small for them to climb through. Eustace was a little bigger, and a lot clumsier, than Jill, so that when he looked out he bumped his head against the top of the hole and brought a small avalanche of snow down on his face. And so, when he could see again, and saw dozens of figures coming at him as hard as they could run, it is not surprising that he tried to ward them off.
"Stop, Eustace, stop," cried Jill. "They're all friends. Can't you see? We've come up in Narnia. Everything's all right."
Then Eustace did see, and apologized to the Dwarfs (and the Dwarfs said not to mention it), and dozens of thick, hairy, dwarfish hands helped him out just as they had helped Jill out a few minutes before. Then Jill scrambled up the bank and put her head in at the dark opening and shouted the good news in to the prisoners. As she turned away she heard Puddleglum mutter. "Ah, poor Pole. It's been too much for her, this last bit. Turned her head, I shouldn't wonder. She's beginning to see things."
Jill rejoined Eustace and they shook one another by both hands and took in great deep breaths of the free midnight air. And a warm cloak was brought for Eustace and hot drinks, for both. While they were sipping it, the Dwarfs had already got all the snow and all the sods off a large strip of the hillside round the original hole, and the pickaxes and spades were now going as merrily as the feet of Fauns and Dryads had been going in the dance ten minutes before. Only ten minutes! Yet already it felt to Jill and Eustace as if all their dangers in the dark and heat and general smotheriness of the earth must have been only a dream. Out here, in the cold, with the moon and the huge stars overhead (Narnian stars are nearer than stars in our world) and with kind, merry faces all round them, one couldn't quite believe in Underland.
Before they had finished their hot drinks, a dozen or so Moles, newly waked and still very sleepy, and not well pleased, had arrived. But as soon as they understood what it was all about, they joined in with a will. Even the Fauns made themselves useful by carting away the earth in little barrows, and the Squirrels danced and leaped to and fro in great excitement, though Jill never found out exactly what they thought they were doing. The Bears and Owls contented themselves with giving advice, and kept on asking the children if they wouldn't like to come into the cave (that was where Jill had seen the firelight) and get warm and have supper. But the children couldn't bear to go without seeing their friends set free.
No one in our world can work at a job of that sort as Dwarfs and Talking Moles work in Narnia; but then, of course, Moles and Dwarfs don't look on it as work. They like digging. It was therefore not really long before they had opened a great black chasm in the hillside. And out from the blackness into the moonlight - this would have been rather dreadful if one hadn't known who they were came, first, the long, leggy, steeple-hatted figure of the Marsh-wiggle, and then, leading two great horses, Rilian the Prince himself.
As Puddleglum appeared shouts broke out on every side: "Why, it's a Wiggle - why, it's old Puddleglum - old Puddleglum from the Eastern Marshes - what ever have you been doing, Puddleglum? - there've been search-parties out for you - the Lord Trumpkin has been putting up notices there's a reward offered!" But all this died away, all in one moment, into dead silence, as quickly as the noise dies away in a rowdy dormitory if the Headmaster opens the door. For now they saw the Prince.
No one doubted for a moment who he was. There were plenty of Beasts and Dryads and Dwarfs and Fauns who remembered him from the days before his enchanting. There were some old ones who could just remember how his father, King Caspian, had looked when he was a young man, and saw the likeness. But I think they would have known him anyway. Pale though he was from long imprisonment in the Deep Lands, dressed in black, dusty, dishevelled, and weary, there was something in his face and air which no one could mistake. That look is in the face of all true kings of Narnia, who rule by the will of Aslan and sit at Cair Paravel on the throne of Peter the High King.
Instantly every head was bared and every knee was bent; a moment later such cheering and shouting, such jumps and reels of joy, such hand-shakings and kissings and embracings of everybody by everybody else broke out that the tears came into Jill's eyes. Their quest had been worth all the pains it cost.
"Please it your Highness," said the oldest of the Dwarfs, "there is some attempt at a supper in the cave yonder, prepared against the ending of the snow-dance -"
"With a good will, Father," said the Prince. "For never had any Prince, Knight, Gentleman, or Bear so good a stomach to his victuals as we four wanderers have tonight."
The whole crowd began to move away through the trees towards the cave. Jill heard Puddleglum saying to those who pressed round him. "No, no, my story can wait.
Nothing worth talking about has happened to me. I want to hear the news. Don't try breaking it to me gently, for I'd rather have it all at once. Has the King been shipwrecked? Any forest fires? No wars on the Calormen border? Or a few dragons, I shouldn't wonder?" And all the creatures laughed aloud and said, "Isn't that just like a Marshwiggle?"
The two children were nearly dropping with tiredness and hunger, but the warmth of the cave, and the very sight of it, with the firelight dancing on the walls and dressers and cups and saucers and plates and on the smooth stone floor, just as it does in a farmhouse kitchen, revived them a little. All the same they went fast asleep while supper was being got ready. And while they slept Prince Rilian was talking over the whole adventure with the older and wiser Beasts and Dwarfs. And now they all saw what it meant; how a wicked Witch (doubtless the same kind as that White Witch who had brought the Great Winter on Narnia long ago) had contrived the whole thing, first killing Rilian's mother and enchanting Rilian himself. And they saw how she had dug right under Narnia and was going to break out and rule it through Rilian: and how he had never dreamed that the country of which she would make him king (king in name, but really her slave) was his own country. And from the children's part of the story they saw how she was in league and friendship with the dangerous giants of Harfang. "And the lesson of it all is, your Highness," said the oldest Dwarf, "that those Northern Witches always mean the same thing, but in every age they have a different plan for getting it."
接着，他們往上看，馬上就看見吉爾腦袋在那片光裏的黑色輪廓。"
“怎麼樣?”他們都急切地嚷道。
“原來是個洞，”吉爾的聲音叫道，“要是我再高一點，我就能爬出去。”
“你從洞口看見什麼了?”尤斯塔斯問。
“還沒看見什麼呢，”吉爾說，“嗨，普德格倫，放開我的腿，那樣我就能站在你肩膀上而不是坐着。我自己會靠着洞邊穩住身子的。”
他們聽得見她在動，隨後就看見吉爾的大部分身子在洞口灰暗的亮光下，事實上她上半身都在外面了。
“嗨……”吉爾開口說，但突然叫了一聲，聲音並不尖厲，就中斷了。聽上去像是她的嘴被人矇住了，要不就是塞進了什麼東西。過後她的聲音又恢復了，似乎在拼命地大聲喊叫，但他們聽不出她在叫什麼。於是同時出了兩件事。一是有一會兒那片光完全被堵上了；二是他們都聽見一陣扭打、掙扎的聲音，還聽見沼澤怪喘着氣說：“快，幫幫忙，抓住她腿，有人在拉她。那兒!不對，這兒。太晚了!”
那個洞和洞口那片冷光又完全露了出來。吉爾卻已經不見了。
“吉爾，吉爾。”他們發瘋似的大喊大叫，可是沒人回答。
“你究竟爲什麼不抓住她腳呢?”尤斯塔斯說。
“我不知道，斯克羅布，”普德格倫哼哼着說，“生來就時運不濟，這我不奇怪。命裏註定的。命裏註定了波爾的死。就像我命中註定了在哈方吃了會說話的鹿。當然不是說我就沒錯了。”
“這是我們遇到的奇恥大辱和最大的痛苦，”王子說，“我們把一位勇敢的小姐送到敵人手裏，自己卻安全地待在後面。”
“別盡往壞裏說了，殿下，”普德格倫說，“我們也不是很安全的，只有餓死在這個洞裏。”
“我不知道自己的身體是否小得能鑽過吉爾出去的那個洞?”尤斯塔斯說。
吉爾真正遇到的事是這樣的。她剛把腦袋伸出洞外，就發現自己是在往下看，正像從樓上一扇窗戶往下看似的，而不是像從活板門裏往上看。她在黑暗中待了很久，開頭眼睛一下子看不出眼前的東西，只知道她眼睛不是望着她想要看見的大白天有陽光的世界。空氣似乎冷得要命，光線灰暗發青。還有不少聲音，許多白晃晃的東西在空中飛來飛去。
她就是在這一瞬間對下面的普德格倫叫喊，叫它讓她站在它肩膀上。
她站起來以後，看也看得更清楚，聽也聽得更清楚。她聽見的聲音原來有兩種，一是有節奏的頓腳，二是四把小提琴、三支笛子和一隻鼓演奏的樂聲。她也把自己的境地弄清楚了。她正從一片陡峭的山坡上的一個洞往外看，山坡向下傾斜，她離下面平地大約十四英尺。一切景物都是白茫茫一片。好多人在那裏不停走動。她看得氣也透不過來了。那些人原來是些穿得整整齊齊的小羊怪，以及戴着花冠的頭髮在身後飄拂的樹精。有一會兒它們看上去好像是在走來走去，隨後她看出它們實際上是在跳舞——一種有很多複雜的步子和身段的舞蹈，你得看上一會兒才能看懂。再一看突然發現那灰暗發青的光是真正的月光，地上那些白的東西是真正的雪，頓時大吃一驚。當然!頭頂上還有星星在黑沉沉的寒夜中凝視着。而那些跳舞的人後面又高又黑的東西原來是樹木。他們不僅是終於回到了上面世界，而且是來到了納尼亞的中心。吉爾覺得她樂得要昏過去了。還有音樂——粗獷的音樂，歡快熱烈，然而也帶一點怪誕，充滿了正道的魔法，正如女巫彈奏的噔噔聲充滿了邪惡的魔法一樣——使她感到更樂了。
這一切說起來要花很長時間，但看上去當然只花了一小會兒工夫。吉爾幾乎立刻轉身打算往下對其他人叫道，“嗨，好啦。我們出來啦，我們到家啦。”但她只說出“嗨”，就沒再說下去，原因是這樣的。在那羣跳舞的人外面有一圈小矮人在打轉，全都穿着節日盛裝，多數是猩紅的，鑲皮風帽，金色流蘇和鑲皮高統靴。他們轉圈子時還一個勁地扔雪球(這就是吉爾剛纔看到在空中飛來飛去的白晃晃的東西)。他們並不像英國有些傻小子那樣對準跳舞的人扔。他們扔雪球是在整個舞蹈中，跟音樂合節合拍，分毫不差，對準目標，分毫不差扔過去，要是所有的舞蹈者都恰好在算準的時刻站在算準的位子上，那麼誰也不會被打中。這就叫做大雪舞，在納尼亞每年地上積雪以後第一個有月光的夜晚都跳這種舞。當然這既是一種舞蹈也是一種遊戲，因爲不時會有哪個跳舞的出點小差錯，臉上就捱上一個雪球，大家就都大笑一場。不過一隊舞蹈者、小矮人和樂師配合得當能保持幾個小時挨不到雪球。碰到天氣好的晚上，寒氣陣陣，鼓聲咚咚，貓頭鷹唬唬啼叫，還有月光，這些都跟它們那種林地人的狂野氣質一拍即合，使它們變得更加狂熱，它們會一直跳到天亮。但願你們能親眼看到這種場面。
吉爾剛剛說出“嗨”，就住了口，其原因當然只是小矮人扔的一隻大雪球從另一邊穿過舞蹈者，正好打在她的嘴裏。她可一點也不在乎。那時就是扔來二十個雪球也掃不了她的興。但無論你感到多麼高興，滿口都是雪你也說不了話。等她吐掉幾口雪，又能說話了，卻激動得忘記了其餘的人還待在她身後下面的暗處，還不知道這個好消息呢。她乾脆從洞裏儘量探出身子，向跳舞的人大聲叫喊。“救命!救命!我們被埋在這小山裏，快把我們挖出來。”
那些納尼亞人連山坡上有個小洞都沒有注意到，當然十分驚訝，東張張，西望望，才發現聲音是從哪兒來的。但等他們看見吉爾，就全都朝她跑來；凡是爬得上山坡的都跑上去了，大約有十幾雙手伸出來幫助她。吉爾抓住他們的手，到了洞外，倒頭從坡上滑下去，隨後爬起來說：
“哦，去把別人挖出來吧。除了馬，還有三個。其中之一就是瑞廉王子。”
她說這些話的時候已經給一大羣人圍在當中了，因爲除了跳舞的，還有各種各樣的動物在場觀看跳舞，她開頭沒看到，現在它們也跑了上來。小松鼠像陣雨似的紛紛從樹上下來，貓頭鷹也紛紛飛來。刺蝟搖搖擺擺，撒開短腿趕快跑來。熊和獾跟在後面，步子比較慢。最後趕來的是一隻大豹，興奮得直搖尾巴。
但等它們聽明白吉爾說的話，大家全都變得積極了。“鐵鎬和鐵鍬，孩子們，鐵鎬和鐵鍬。去拿工具來!”小矮人說着飛快衝進樹林。“把鼴鼠叫醒，它們纔是挖洞的能手，跟小矮人一樣能幹，”一個聲音說，“她說瑞廉王子怎麼了?”
另一個問。“噓，”豹說，“可憐的孩子瘋了，在山裏迷了路，難怪她都不知道自己在說些什麼了。”“是啊，”老熊說，“咦，她還說瑞廉王子是一匹馬呢!”“不，她沒說。”一隻松鼠冒冒失失地說。“是的，她說了。”另一隻松鼠說話更冒失。
“這完全是真——真——真的，別——別——別犯傻了。”吉爾說。她說話這個調兒是因爲這會兒她正冷得牙齒直打架。
一個樹精立刻替她披上一件皮斗篷，那是一個小矮人奔去取他的挖掘工具時掉下的，一隻熱心助人的羊怪匆匆跑到樹林中的一個地方去給她弄點熱的喝，吉爾看得見那兒一個山洞口有火光。不過它還沒回來，所有的小矮人都帶着鏟子和鐵鎬回來了，大家往山上衝去。接着吉爾聽見七嘴八舌的喊聲，有的喊道，“嗨，你要幹什麼?把劍放下。”有的喊道，“好了，小夥子，別那樣。”還有的喊道，“好啊，他是個惡毒的傢伙吧?”吉爾急忙趕過去，正好看見尤斯塔斯的臉色又蒼白又骯髒，從黑洞中冒出來，右手還揮舞着一把劍，要猛刺任何敢於接近他的人，一時真是哭笑不得。
尤斯塔斯在剛纔這片刻間的經歷和吉爾當然大不相同。他聽見吉爾喊叫，看見她就此不知鑽到什麼地方不見了。他跟王子和普德格倫一樣，也以爲是什麼敵人把她抓去了。從下面往上看，他又看不清那灰暗發青的光是月光。他還以爲這個洞只通向另一個洞，那洞裏亮着鬼火磷光，而且擠滿了天知道是哪一種地下世界的妖魔鬼怪。因此當他說服普德格倫讓他爬到它背上，並抽出劍，再伸出頭來，在他已經幹了一件非常勇敢的事了。其餘兩個要是能先上去的話早就去了，但那個洞太小，他們爬不出去。尤斯塔斯個子比吉爾大一點點，但卻比她笨拙得多，他往外張望時，腦袋撞在洞口頂上，撞得積雪崩落下來，掉在他臉上。因此當他又能看時，只見好多人影拼命向他奔來，怪不得他拼命想抵擋了。
“住手，尤斯塔斯，住手，”吉爾叫道，“他們都是朋友。難道你看不出來嗎?我們已經來到納尼亞，太平無事了。”
這一說，尤斯塔斯才真的看清楚了，就向小矮人道歉(小矮人說沒關係)，十幾雙小矮人的粗壯多毛的手幫他出了洞，就像他們剛纔幫助吉爾那樣。接着吉爾趴在山坡上，腦袋湊到那個黑洞口，大聲把好消息報告給陷在裏面的人。
她轉身時聽見普德格倫喃喃地說，“啊呀，可憐的波爾，剛纔這一會兒實在難爲她了。她昏了頭，這我不奇怪。她在活見鬼了。”
吉爾重新跟尤斯塔斯在一起了，兩人都雙手拉着對方，大口呼吸半夜裏的空氣。他們給尤斯塔斯帶來一件暖和的斗篷，還給他倆端來了熱的飲料。他們慢慢喝着飲料時，小矮人已經把山坡上原來那個洞周圍的雪和草皮剷掉了一大片。他們歡快地揮舞鏟子和鐵鎬，就像十分鐘以前羊怪和樹精的腳歡快地跳舞一樣。只有十分鐘哪!然而對吉爾和尤斯塔斯來說，他們已經覺得剛纔在黑暗中的種種危險、炙熱，和地底下那種窒息環境一定只是一個夢罷了。在這兒外面，天氣寒冷，月亮和大星星當頭照着(納尼亞的星星比我們的世界的星星離得近些)，周圍全是和藹愉快的臉，就不大相信有地下世界了。
他們還沒喝完熱飲料，就來了十多隻鼴鼠，剛剛被叫醒，仍然睡眼惺忪，而且不大高興。但等它們瞭解到這是怎麼回事，它們就起勁地一起幹了。就連羊怪也用小車子推走挖出來的土，松鼠興奮得來回跳啊蹦的，而吉爾想來想去想不出它們認爲在幹什麼。熊和貓頭鷹出出主意就算了，還不斷問兩個孩子要不要進山洞(就是吉爾看見有火光的那個山洞)去取暖和吃晚飯。不過兩個孩子沒看到他們的朋友獲得自由不忍心走。"
在我們的世界裏幹那種活的，沒一個趕得上納尼亞的小矮人和會說話的鼴鼠，不過，鼴鼠和小矮人當然也沒把這看做幹活。他們就喜歡挖洞。所以沒過多久他們就在山坡上打開一個黑洞洞的大缺口。他們從黑暗中走到月光下——要是人家不知道這兩個是誰，那可怪嚇人的——第一個出來的是細長腿、戴尖帽子的沼澤怪的身影，隨後拉着兩匹大馬的是瑞廉王子本人。
普德格倫出來時，四面八方都叫起來了。“咦，是個怪——咦，原來是老普德格倫呀——東部沼澤地的老普德格倫——你一直在幹什麼呀，普德格倫——有好幾批搜尋隊去找你了——杜魯普金爵爺出過告示——還出了賞金呢!”不過這些吵鬧聲一下子都消失了，變成一片沉默。一個吵吵鬧鬧的宿舍裏，要是校長推開了門，那些吵鬧聲就是這麼一下子消失的。因爲他們這會兒看見王子了。
誰也沒有懷疑他是誰，好多動物、樹精、小矮人和羊怪都記得他中魔法以前那些日子的模樣。有一些上了年紀的還記得凱斯賓國王年輕時的面容，看出了相像的地方。但我認爲他們不管怎樣都會認識他的。儘管他由於長期被監禁在幽深王國而臉色蒼白，又穿着黑衣服，灰頭土臉，衣冠不整，精神萎靡，但他臉上有種神情和儀態是錯不了的。那神情是所有納尼亞真正的國王都有的，凡是按照阿斯蘭意願統治這個國家，坐在凱爾帕拉維爾至尊王彼得的寶座上的國王都有這種神情。+
大家頓時都脫下帽子跪下，過了一會兒就響起了歡呼聲和喊叫聲，大家互相握手、親吻、擁抱，如此熱烈的場面使吉爾不由流下了熱淚。他們的追求是值得付出千辛萬苦代價的。
“請用餐，殿下，”最老的那個小矮人說，“那邊山洞正開始在做飯，準備大雪舞結束後吃的……”
“我很樂意，老爹，”王子說，“因爲任何王子、騎士、紳士或熊都比不上我們四個迷路人今晚吃起東西來的胃口好。”
大夥兒開始退場，穿過樹林，走向山洞。吉爾聽見普德格倫對那些擠在它周圍的動物說：“不，不，我的事可以等等再說。關於我的遭遇不值一談。我想要聽聽消息。可別一點一點兒透露給我，我情願一口氣都聽完。國王的船有沒有失事?有沒有森林火災?卡樂門邊境沒打過仗嗎?有沒有來過三兩條龍?這我不奇怪。”所有的動物都哈哈大笑着說：
“這不活脫是個沼澤怪嗎?”
兩個孩子又累又餓，差點快倒下了，但山洞裏暖洋洋，加上看見火光在牆上、食具櫃上、杯子上、碟子上、盤子上和光滑的石頭地板上跳躍，正如農家廚房裏的情景一樣，心裏倒也振奮了一會兒。但等晚飯準備好的時候他們還是睡着了。他們睡覺的時候瑞廉王子就跟那些老一些、聰明一些的動物和小矮人談論全部冒險經歷。如今他們全明白這是怎麼一回事了。一個惡毒的女巫(無疑跟很久以前給納尼亞帶來漫長的冬天的那個白女巫是一路貨色)策劃了這整個事件，先是殺了瑞廉的母親，再讓瑞廉本人中了魔法。他們還明白她在納尼亞下面挖洞，準備破土而出，借瑞廉的名義來統治這個國家。而他萬萬也想不到她要讓他做國王(名義上的國王，實際上是她的奴隸)的那個國家竟然就是他自己的國家。而從兩個孩子說的經歷中他們明白女巫和哈方那些危險的巨人是相互勾結支持的。“殿下，這件事得出的教訓是，”最老的那個小矮人說，“那些北部的女巫始終存着一個心眼兒，不過每個不同的時期，他們都有不同的計劃來達到目的。”
