《最後一戰》第3期:大鍋深淵(3)

He saw at once that the body of the lion—skin would be too long for Puzzle and its neck too short. So he cut a good piece out of the body and used it to make a long collar for Puzzle's long neck. Then he cut off the head and sewed the collar in between the head and the shoulders. He put threads on both sides of the skin so that it would tie up under Puzzle's chest and stomach. Every now and then a Bird would pass overhead and Shift would stop his work, looking anxiously up. He did not want anyone to see what he was doing. But none of the birds he saw were Talking Birds, so it didn't matter.
Late in the afternoon Puzzle came back. He was not trotting but only plodding patiently along, the way donkeys do.
"There weren't any oranges," he said, "and there weren't any bananas. And I'm very tired." He lay down.
"Come and try on your beautiful new lion—skin coat," said Shift.
"Oh bother that old skin," said Puzzle. "I'll try it on in the morning. I'm too tired tonight."
"You are unkind, Puzzle," said Shift. "If you're tired what do you think I am? All day long, while you've been having a lovely refreshing walk down the valley, I've been working hard to make you a coat. My paws are so tired I can hardly hold these scissors. And you won't say thank you —and you won't even look at the coat —and you don't care — and— and—"
"My dear Shift," said Puzzle getting up at once, "I am so sorry. I've been horrid. Of course I'd love to try it on. And it looks simply splendid. Do try it on me at once. Please do."
"Well, stand still then," said the Ape. The skin was very heavy for him to lift, but in the end, with a lot of pulling and pushing and puffing and blowing, he got it on to the donkey. He tied it underneath Puzzle's body and he tied the legs to Puzzle's legs and the tail to Puzzle's tail. A good deal of Puzzle's grey nose and face could be seen through the open mouth of the lion's head. No one who had ever seen a real lion would have been taken in for a moment. But if someone who had never seen a lion looked at Puzzle in his lion—skin he just might mistake him for a lion, if he didn't come too close, and if the light was not too good, and if Puzzle didn't let out a bray and didn't make any noise with his hoofs.
"You look wonderful, wonderful," said the Ape. "If anyone saw you now, they'd think you were Aslan, the Great Lion, himself."
"That would be dreadful," said Puzzle.
"No it wouldn't," said Shift. "Everyone would do whatever you told them."
"But I don't want to tell them anything."
"But you think of the good we could do!" said Shift. "You'd have me to advise you, you know. I'd think of sensible orders for you to give. And everyone would have to obey us, even the King himself. We would set everything right in Narnia."
"But isn't everything right already?" said Puzzle.
"What!" cried Shift. "Everything right?—when there are no oranges or bananas?"
"Well, you know," said Puzzle, "there aren't many people — in fact, I don't think there's anyone but yourself who wants those sort of things."
"There's sugar too," said Shift.
"H'm yes," said the Ass. "It would be nice if there was more sugar."
"Well then, that's settled," said the Ape. "You will pretend to be Aslan, and I'll tell you what to say."
"No, no, no," said Puzzle. "Don't say such dreadful things. It would be wrong, Shift. I maybe not very clever but I know that much. What would become of us if the real Aslan turned up?"
"I expect he'd be very pleased," said Shift. "Probably he sent us the lion—skin on purpose, so that we could set things to right. Anyway, he never does turn up, you know. Not nowadays."
At that moment there came a great thunderclap right overhead and the ground trembled with a small earthquake. Both the animals lost their balance and were flung on their faces.
"There!" gasped Puzzle, as soon as he had breath to speak. "It's a sign, a warning. I knew we were doing something dreadfully wicked. Take this wretched skin off me at once."
"No, no," said the Ape (whose mind worked very quickly). "It's a sign the other way. I was just going to say that if the real Aslan, as you call him, meant us to go on with this, he would send us a thunderclap and an earth—tremor. It was just on the tip of my tongue, only the sign itself came before I could get the words out. You've got to do it now, Puzzle. And please don't let us have any more arguing. You know you don't understand these things. What could a donkey know about signs?"

詭譎立刻看出來了，要給驢子做外套的話，獅子毛皮的軀體部分是太大了，脖子部分又太短了。所以它就從太大的部分剪下一大塊來，給驢子的長脖子做一條長長的領子。它把獅子腦袋的毛皮剪下來，在腦袋和肩膀之間的部位上把那長領子縫上去。它把整張獅子毛皮的兩邊都用線縫上，使驢子外套的胸腹部都得以收緊。時不時鳥兒在它頭上飛過，它就停止縫製，焦急地向上張望。它不要任何飛禽走獸看到它正在幹什麼。但，它看到的鳥兒，沒有一隻是會說人話的鳥兒，所以它們看到了也沒多大關係。
下午很晚的時候迷惑回來了。它不是小跑着回來的，只不過是耐心地一路踏着沉着的步子慢吞吞地回來的，驢子都是這樣走道的。
“什麼橘子也沒有，”驢子說道，“什麼香蕉也沒有。我疲倦得很。”它躺下了。
“來，試試你那美麗的獅皮新外套吧。”詭譎說道。
“啊，討厭的舊毛皮，”迷惑說，“我明兒早晨試穿吧，今天夜裏我太累了。”
“迷惑，你太不近人情了，”詭譎道，“如果你累了，你以爲我又如何呢？整整一天，你走下山谷作一番賞心悅目、精神爲之一振的散步，我卻在拼命幹活，給你縫製一件外套。我的腳爪搞得那麼累，幾乎剪刀都拿不住了。如今你卻不肯說一聲謝謝——甚至不肯對外套看一眼——你不關心——你——你——”
“我親愛的詭譎，”躺着的迷惑立刻站起身來，“我很抱歉。我態度粗暴。我當然喜歡試穿的。外套看上去簡直華貴極了。立刻讓我穿上試試吧。請讓我試穿吧。”
“好吧，那就安安靜靜地站着。”無尾猿說道。獅子毛皮很重，無尾猿幾乎舉不動它，但，經過許多拉啊推啊，氣喘吁吁啊，它終於把獅皮外套套到驢子身上去了。它把獅子軀體上的毛皮縛在驢子的身體上，把獅腿上的毛皮縛在驢腿上，把獅子尾巴上的毛皮縛在驢子尾巴上。通過獅子腦袋張開嘴巴的毛皮，可以看得見驢子的大部分鼻子和臉孔。凡見過真正的獅子的，沒有一個會受騙上當的。然而，如果有誰從未見過獅子，假如他並沒走得很近，假使光線不是太好，假如迷惑並不發出驢叫聲，並不用蹄子弄出什麼聲音來，瞧見迷惑穿上了獅子毛皮外套，倒可能把它誤認爲是獅子。
“你看上去真了不起，真了不起，”無尾猿說道，“如今不論誰看見你，都會認爲你就是阿斯蘭，就是偉大的獅王本人。”
“那就可怕了。”迷惑說道。
“不，不會可怕的，”詭譎說道，“你叫大家做什麼，大家就會做什麼了。”
“但我不想叫大家做什麼。”
“可是你想想我們可以乾的好事吧，”詭譎說，“你知道，你有我在替你出主意哩。我會替你想出種種明智的命令，由你去發佈。於是大家都得服從我們的命令，連國王本人也得服從。我們就可以在納尼亞把一切都整頓得好好的。”
“但，納尼亞不是一切已經都好好的嗎？”迷惑說道。
“什麼話！”詭譎嚷道，“一切都好好的嗎？——現在不是連橘子或香蕉都沒有嗎？”
“哦，你知道，”迷惑道，“沒有多少人——事實上，我認爲除了你沒有什麼人——要吃這種東西的。”
“也沒有糖哩。”詭譎說。
“唔，是的，”驢子說，“如果糖再多一點，那就妙了。”
“那麼，事情就這麼定了，”無尾猿說道，“你一定要假扮成阿斯蘭，我會囑咐你說什麼話。”
“不，不，不，”迷惑說道，“別提這種可怕的事兒。這會犯錯誤的，詭譎。我也許不大聰明，然而這種事我可明白利害的。如果真正的阿斯蘭出現時，我們會落得個什麼下場？”
“我料想獅王會十分高興的，”詭譎說，“很可能是獅王故意把獅子毛皮捎來的，這樣我們就可以把事情整頓好了。無論如何，你要知道，獅王是從來不出現的。當今之世，獅王是不出現的了。”
就在這當兒，頭頂上響起一個巨大的晴天霹靂，大地抖動着，爆發小地震了。兩頭野獸都站不住腳，失掉了平衡，面孔朝下摔倒在地上。
“啊！”迷惑剛緩過一口氣來，便喘息着說道，“這是一個徵兆，一個警告。我知道我們是在幹着邪惡得可怕的事情啊。立刻從我身上脫掉這件討厭的毛皮外套吧！”
“不，不，”無尾猿(它的腦筋動得很快)說道，“恰巧相反，這是個吉祥之兆。我剛纔正要說：如果那位真正的阿斯蘭(正如你所稱呼他的)有意要我們進行這件事情，他就會給我們送來一個霹靂和一個地震——只是我還沒把話說出口，吉祥之兆便出現了。迷惑啊，如今你非幹這個不可了。讓我們別再爭辯了。你自己心裏明白：這些個事情你並不瞭解。一頭驢子，怎麼能懂得徵兆呢。”