《能言馬與男孩》第34期:沙斯塔在墳場裏(4)

Next morning when he woke, the cat was gone, the sun was already up, and the sand hot. Shasta, very thirsty, sat up and rubbed his eyes. The desert was blindingly white and, though there was a murmur of noises from the city behind him, where he sat everything was perfectly still. When he looked a little left and west, so that the sun was not in his eyes, he could see the mountains on the far side of the desert, so sharp and clear that they looked only a stone's throw away. He particularly noticed one blue height that divided into two peaks at the top and decided that it must be Mount Pire. "That's our direction, judging by what the Raven said," he thought, "so I'll just make sure of it, so as not to waste any time when the others turn up." So he made a good, deep straight furrow with his foot pointing exactly to Mount Pire.

The next job, clearly, was to get something to eat and drink. Shasta trotted back through the Tombs - they looked quite ordinary now and he wondered how he could ever have been afraid of them - and down into the cultivated land by the river's side. There were a few people about but not very many, for the city gates had been open several hours and the early morning crowds had already gone in. So he had no diffculty in doing a little "raiding" (as Bree called it). It involved a climb over a garden wall and the results were three oranges, a melon, a fig or two, and a pomegranate. After that, he went down to the river bank, but not too near the bridge, and had a drink. The water was so nice that he took off his hot, dirty clothes and had a dip; for of course Shasta, having lived on the shore all his life, had learned to swim almost as soon as he had learned to walk. When he came out he lay on the grass looking across the water at Tashbaan - all the splendour and strength and glory of it. But that made him remember the dangers of it too. He suddenly realized that the others might have reached the Tombs while he was bathing ("and gone on without me, as likely as not"), so he dressed in a fright and tore back at such a speed that he was all hot and thirsty when he arrived and so the good of his bathe was gone.

Like most days when you are alone and waiting for something this day seemed about a hundred hours long. He had plenty to think of, of course, but sitting alone, just thinking, is pretty slow. He thought a good deal about the Narnians and especially about Corin. He wondered what had happened when they discovered that the boy who had been lying on the sofa and hearing all their secret plans wasn't really Corin at all. It was very unpleasant to think of all those nice people imagining him a traitor.

But as the sun slowly, slowly climbed up to the top of the sky and then slowly, slowly began going downwards to the West, and no one came and nothing at all happened, he began to get more and more anxious. And of course he now realized that when they arranged to wait for one another at the Tombs no one had said anything about How Long. He couldn't wait here for the rest of his life! And soon it would be dark again, and he would have another night just like last night. A dozen different plans went through his head, all wretched ones, and at last he fixed on the worst plan of all. He decided to wait till it was dark and then go back to the river and steal as many melons as he could carry and set out for Mount Pire alone, trusting for his direction to the line he had drawn that morning in the sand. It was a crazy idea and if he had read as many books as you have about journeys over deserts he would never have dreamed of it. But Shasta had read no books at all.

Before the sun set something did happen. Shasta was sitting in the shadow of one of the Tombs when he looked up and saw two horses coming towards him. Then his heart gave a great leap, for he recognized them as Bree and Hwin. But the next moment his heart went down into his toes again. There was no sign of Aravis. The Horses were being led by a strange man, an armed man pretty handsomely dressed like an upper slave in a great family. Bree and Hwin were no longer got up like pack-horses, but saddled and bridled. And what could it all mean? "It's a trap," thought Shasta. "Somebody has caught Aravis and perhaps they've tortured her and she's given the whole thing away. They want me to jump out and run up and speak to Bree and then I'll be caught too! And yet if I don't, I may be losing my only chance to meet the others. Oh I do wish I knew what had happened." And he skulked behind the Tomb, looking out every few minutes, and wondering which was the least dangerous thing to do.

第二天早晨沙斯塔醒來時，貓走了，太陽已經出來了，沙土發燙了。沙斯塔十分口渴，坐起來擦擦眼睛。大沙漠白得令人目眩，雖然他背後傳來隱隱約約的人聲喧譁，但他所坐的地方，卻是寂靜無聲的。當他稍稍向左向西看時，陽光並不直射他的眼睛，他便看得見大沙漠遠處邊緣上的大山大嶺，輪廓分明，形象清晰，看上去似乎相距不過一箭之遙。他特別注意到一個藍色高國，頂上分爲兩個山峯，便斷定它必是皮爾峯無疑。”根據渡鴉所說的話看來，這就是我們要走的方向，”他心中想道，”所以我一定要把它搞個確實，以便別人來時就不必浪費時間了。”所以他用雙腳在地上挖了一條筆直的深溝，確切地指向皮爾峯。

十分清楚，第二樁事情就是要搞點吃的喝的東西。沙斯塔小步穿過墳場跑回去——現在墳墓看上去平平常常，他想想、自己竟害怕它們也覺得奇怪——跑到河邊的耕地裏。附近有一些人，但不多，因爲城門已經開了好幾個鐘頭，大清早擁擠的人羣已經進城去了。所以沙斯塔搞點兒(布里所說的)”襲擊”毫無困難。這次”襲擊”包括爬過一道牆頭，收穫是三隻椅子、一個西瓜、一兩個無花果和一隻石榴。然後他走到河岸上，在離大橋不太近的地方，喝了點兒河水。水好極了，他脫掉又熱又髒的衣服，下去洗了個澡；當然，因爲沙斯塔一直住在水邊，幾乎在他剛學習走路時就學會了游泳。從河裏出來，他躺在青草上，眼睛越過河流，眺望着塔什班城_城裏的一切壯觀、力量和光榮。但眺望也使他記起塔什班城的危險。他突然認識到，說不定正在他洗澡的時候，其他的人馬已經到達墳場(“很可能不等我就走掉了”)，所以他驚惶地穿好衣服，用極大的速度趕回去，他到達墳場時又熱又渴，洗澡後的涼快感覺完全沒有了。

就像大部分獨自等待什麼事物的日子一樣，這一天彷彿有百個鐘頭那麼長。當然啦，他有許多事情要想，但獨自坐在那兒，只是一個勁兒地想着，時間是過得夠慢的。他想得很多的是納尼亞人，特別是科林。他很想知道，當他們發現那躺在沙發上聽到他們全部祕密計劃的孩子壓根兒不是科林時，會發生什麼事情。想到這些個好人會把他當做奸細，心裏十分不愉快。

但當太陽慢慢地慢慢地升上中天，然後又慢慢地慢慢地向西方沉落下去的時候，沙斯塔心裏愈來愈焦急不安了。當然，他現在明白了，當初他們互相約定在墳場等待，可誰也沒說要等待多久。他可不能在那兒等待一輩子！不久天又要黑了，他又要像昨夜那樣過一夜了！十多個不同的計劃在他頭腦裏翻騰，全都是微不足道的計劃，而他最後確定的，卻是個最糟糕的計劃。他決定等到天黑時跑到河邊去偷西瓜，拿得了多少就偷多少，然後獨自出發，憑着他早晨在沙上所挖的深溝的指示，向皮爾峯而去。這是個瘋狂的主意，如果他像你一樣讀過沙漠旅行的書，決不會做這種夢想的。但沙斯塔壓根兒沒讀過書。

可是，太陽落山之前，有件事情發生了。沙斯塔正坐在一個墳墓的陰影裏，他擡起頭來，看到兩匹馬正向他跑來。隨後他的心猛地一跳，因爲他認出這兩匹馬兒正是布里和赫溫。但接下來的剎那間他的心又沉到腳指頭上去了。沒有阿拉維斯的蹤影。馬兒是由一個陌生人率領着的，一個衣服頭當漂亮的軍人，好像是一個高貴家庭裏的一個高級奴隸。布里和赫溫不再裝扮得像是運貨的馱馬了，卻配上了鞍座轡頭，意味着什麼呢?”這是個圈套，”沙斯塔心裏想道，”有人逮住了阿拉維斯，也許他們折磨過她，她把整個兒事情都放棄了。他們要我跳出來，跑過去同布里說話，這就把我逮住！不過，如果我不跳出去，也許我就喪失了同其他人馬聚首的惟一機會了。啊，我真希望我能知道已經發生了什麼事情。”他偷偷地藏在墳墓背後，時時刻刻向外張望，心中琢磨着採取哪種行動危險最少。