《銀椅》第8章:哈方宮
"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-adaisy" 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 old-fashioned 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 are filled the room. But there was some trouble in Jill's mind, though she could 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?"
"1 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.
斯克羅布暗想他永遠也不會原諒她(也不會原諒普德格倫)，舔了舔嘴脣，對着巨人國王大聲說道：
“請睦下容我說，綠衣夫人派我們代她向你致敬，她說你們會樂意讓我們參加你們的秋季盛宴。”
巨人國王和王后互相望望，彼此點點頭，微微一笑。吉爾可不大喜歡他們笑的樣子。她比較喜歡國王。他有一部好看的拳曲的鬍子，一個筆直的鷹鉤鼻，就巨人來說，算是相當漂亮的了。王后胖得嚇人，雙下巴，一張擦着粉的胖臉——即使在最好的情況下，這都不是件好事，而這張臉又大了十倍，當然看上去就更糟了。這時國王伸出舌頭，舔了舔嘴脣。雖然任何人都會伸舌頭，但他的舌頭又大又紅，而且是出其不意地伸出來，真把吉爾嚇了一跳。
“哦，多好的孩子啊！”王后說。(“說不定到頭來她竟是個好人呢口”吉爾想。
“是啊，一點不錯，”國王說，”好得沒說的。我們歡迎你們到我們宮裏來。把你們的手給我。”
他伸出他那隻巨大的右手——非常乾淨，手指上還戴了不知多少戒指，不過指甲可尖得可怕。他的手實在太大了，沒法跟兩個孩子——伸出來的手握，他只好握握他們的胳膊。
“那是什麼？”國王問，一面指着普德格倫。
“正敬的乖。”普德格倫說。
“哦！”王后尖叫一聲，一面收攏裙子，圍住腳脖子，”怪物！還是活的暱。”
“它相當不錯，隆下，真的，相當不錯，”斯克羅布趕緊說，”等你跟它熟了，就會更喜歡它的。包你們會喜歡。”
要是我告訴你就在這時吉爾哭了起來，希望你們看到下文不要對吉爾失去興趣。她哭的理由可多着呢。她的手、腳、耳、鼻還只剛開始變軟；融化的雪正慢慢從她衣服上淌下，當天她簡直還沒吃過，也沒喝過什麼東西；她的腿又痛得再也站不住了。不管怎麼說，她這個時候哭比做出任何舉動都來得好，因爲王后說：
“啊呀，可憐的孩子！隆下，我們儘讓我們的客人站着可不對啊。快，來人哪！把他們帶下去。給他們吃點東西，喝點酒，讓他們洗洗澡。安慰安慰那個小女孩。給她棒糖，給她娃娃，給她吃藥，凡是你們想得到的統統給她——牛奶甜酒、蜜餓、催眠曲和玩具。別哭了，小姑娘，否則你在盛宴上就一點也沒用了。”
吉爾跟你我一樣，一聽到提起什麼玩具和娃娃，就感到氣不打一處來；雖然按他們的規矩糖果和蜜錢也許不錯，可是她卻非常希望來點更實惠的東西。不過王后這篇蠢話倒產生了極好的結果，因爲普德格倫和斯克羅布立刻被幾個巨人男侍從抱起，吉爾也被一個女侍從抱走，送到各自的房間裏去了。4
吉爾的房間有一個教堂那麼大，要是壁爐裏沒有旺旺的火，地上沒鋪着厚厚的紅地毯，屋裏看上去就相當陰暗可怕。在這兒她開始遇上一些令人高興的事。吉爾被人交給了王后的老保姆，從巨人的觀點看，她是個上了年紀，彎腰屈背的小老太婆，從人類的觀點來看，她仍算是個女巨人，只是身材矮小得可以走進一間普通房間，腦袋不至於碰到天花板罷了。老保姆非常能幹，然而吉爾真希望她不要老是喋喋不休，說什麼，”哦，啦啦，抱抱就好了”，”真是小寶貝兒”，”好，我們就好了，小乖乖”。她在一隻巨人的洗腳盆裏倒上熱水，幫吉爾爬進去。要是你會游泳(吉爾就會游泳)，在巨人盆裏洗次澡可真妙。還有巨人的毛巾，雖然有點粗糙，也很可愛，因爲那毛巾足有幾英畝那麼大，事實上你完全不用擦乾，只要在毛巾上滾過去，滾到爐火前，痛痛快快玩就行了。洗完澡以後，吉爾穿上了乾淨、鮮豔、暖和的衣服。衣服十分華麗，就是大了一點，但看得出這衣服是爲人做的，而不是爲女巨人做的。”我猜要是那個綠衣女人上這兒來，這些衣服就用來給我們這種身材的客人穿。”吉爾想道。
她很快就看出她猜對了，因爲一副給普通成人用的桌椅已經爲她放好了，還有刀、叉、匙也都是正常的規格。終於能夠暖暖和和、乾乾淨淨地坐下來，真叫人高興。她還光着兩隻腳，踩在巨人的地毯上可真舒服。她的腳在裏面一直陷到足踝，對痛腳來說正需要這樣的東西。那頓飯——我想我們得稱之爲午飯，雖然那時已將近用茶點的時間了——是韭菜雞肉湯、熱的烤火雞，還有一道蒸布丁、烤栗子以及儘夠吃的水果。
惟一討厭的事是老保姆出出進進，每次進來，都帶來一個巨型玩具——一個大娃娃，比吉爾本人還要大，一匹有四個輪子的木馬，大約有一隻象那麼大，一隻鼓大得像只小煤氣罐，還有一隻毛茸茸的小羊羔。這些東西都是粗製濫造，塗着十分鮮豔的顏色，吉爾看見這些東西就不喜歡。她不斷跟保姆說她不要這些東西，但保姆說:
“嘖，嘖，嘖。你休息一會兒以後準會要的，我知道！嘻，嘻，嘻，好了，上牀吧，可愛的小寶貝！”
那張牀不是一張巨人牀，只是一張有四個柱子的大牀，像老式旅館裏看得見的那種，在這間其大無比的屋子裏看上去很小很小。她非常高興地爬上了牀。
“外面還在下雪嗎，嬤嬤？”她睡眼惺忪地問。
“不。現在下雨了，寶寶！”老保姆說，”雨會把討厭的大雪統統沖洗掉。小寶貝明天就能上外面去玩了！”她給吉爾蓋好了被子，並道了晚安。
我不知道還有什麼比讓一個女巨人親親更討厭的事，吉爾也有同樣想法，但她不到五分鐘就睡着了。
那天傍晚的雨一直不停地下了整整一夜，雨點濺在城堡的窗戶上，但吉爾完全沒聽見，只是沉沉熟睡，睡過了晚飯時刻，睡過了午夜。到了夜闌人靜的時刻，在這座巨人的屋子裏，除了老鼠，什麼動靜也沒有。就在這時吉爾做了一個夢。夢中她似乎就在這間屋裏醒來，看見那堆火，火力已經減弱，發紅了，火光中是那匹大木馬。木馬輪子自動轉起來，滾過地毯，停在她牀頭。這會兒那不是馬，而是一隻像馬那麼大的獅子了。接着它又不是玩具獅子，而是一頭真正的獅子了。真正的獅王，就像她曾經在世界盡頭外的高山上看見過的一樣。屋裏充滿了各種各樣的香味兒。但吉爾腦子裏出了點麻煩，儘管她想不出是怎麼回事，眼淚還是刷刷地流下她臉蛋，把枕頭都弄溼了。獅王叫她背一下指示，而她竟發現自己已經把指示全忘光了。因此，她嚇得要命。後來阿斯蘭把她銜起來(她感覺到他的嘴脣和呼吸，但感覺不到牙齒)，帶她來到窗前，叫她往外看。外面月光明亮，在天上或地上(她不知道是哪兒)是幾個大大的字”在我下面”。此後，夢就消失了，第二天早上她很晚才醒來，這時她已完全不記得做過夢了。
她起來穿上衣服，在爐火前吃完早餐，這時保姆開開門說:
“漂亮寶貝的小朋友來跟她玩了。”
斯克羅布和沼澤怪走了進來。
“嗨，早上好，”吉爾說，”這多有趣？我相信自己已睡了十五個小時了。我真覺得好多了，你們呢？”
“我也好多了，”斯克羅布說，”不過普德格倫說它頭痛。嗨，你這兒的窗戶有窗座。要是我們站在上面，就能看看外面。”他們立刻都站了上去。吉爾剛看了一眼就說”哦，糟糕透了！”
外面陽光普照，除了幾堆殘雪以外，幾乎全被雨沖掉了。在他們下面，像一張地圖似的展開着的正是他們昨天下午拼命爬過來的那平坦的山頂，從城堡望去，分明是一座巨人城的廢墟，決不會看錯成任何東西。吉爾現在纔看出，說山頂是平的，是因爲那兒基本上還鋪着路面，雖然有好多地方路面已經裂開了。那些縱橫交錯的堤岸原來是那些龐大的建築留下的殘垣斷壁，這裏可能一度是巨人的宮殿和廟宇吧。有一面牆，大約有五百英尺高，仍然屹立不動，她就是把這堵牆當成是懸崖的。那些看來像工廠煙囪的是巨大的柱子，斷裂成高低不一的殘樁；斷裂的碎片就堆在柱子底座旁邊，像是倒下的大石頭樹。他們從山北坡往下爬的那些突出的石頭——毫無疑問，還有他們從南面往上爬的另外那些石頭——原來是巨型樓梯殘留下來的梯級。更糟糕的是，在路面中央，有黑色大字這麼寫着:在我下面。
他們三個都驚愕地面面相覷，斯克羅布噓的一下吹了聲口哨，說出了他們大家心裏想的。”第二點和第三點指示錯過了。”這時吉爾纔回想起她的夢。
“都怪我不好，”她說，聲音充滿絕望，”我——我放棄了每晚背誦那些指示。要是我一直想着那些指示，即使在那麼大的雪裏，我本來也看得出那是個城市的。”
“我更不好，”普德格倫說，”我的確看見了，或者說差不多看見了。我還認爲那地方看上去非常像一座廢墟城呢。”
“只有你不該受到責怪，”斯克羅布說，”你的確盡力想拉住我們。”
“可是還不夠盡力，”沼澤怪說，”而且我也不必要盡力想着，我本來應該動於乾的。我一手拉着一個，還拉不住你們嗎？”
“實際情況是，”斯克羅布說，”我們都一心向往着這個地方，別的事就不肯操心了。至少我知道我是這樣的。自從我們遇見那個女人和那個不說話的騎士，就一直沒想過別的事，幾乎已經忘了瑞廉王子了。”
“如果那正是她的目的，”普德格倫說，”我也不會奇怪。”
“我不大懂的是，”吉爾說，”我們怎麼會沒看見那些字呢？要不，這字是不是昨天晚上纔出現的？是不是他——阿斯蘭——晚上寫在那兒的？我做了個怪夢。”她把那個夢一五一十全告訴他們。
“咦，你這個笨蛋！”斯克羅布說，”我們的確見過的。我們走到字裏面去了，你還不明白？我們走到ME字後一個字母E裏去了，那就是你掉下去的那條溝。我們走在E字最下面一劃裏，正北——轉到我們右邊，頂着豎的一筆——來到另一個右轉彎——那是當中的一劃——然後再繼續到左上角拐角，或者說(也許)這字母的東北角，再回來。我們都是些大笨瓜。”他粗魯地踢了窗座一腳，再說下去：”所以這事不妙，波爾，我知道你在想什麼，因爲我跟你有同樣想法。你在想，要是阿斯蘭是在我們走過這個廢墟城之後再把這些指示寫在石頭上的該有多好呀。那就是他的錯，不是我們的錯了。很可能，對嗎？不行口我們一定得坦白承認。我們只有第四點指示可以照辦，而前面三點都已經錯過了。”
“你意思是說我錯過了，”吉爾說，”這話不假。從你帶我上這兒來以後，我就把一切都弄糟了。反正都一樣——說我非常抱歉什麼的——反正都一樣。那指示是什麼？在我下面好像沒什麼意思吧。”
“可是，那的確有意思，”普德格倫說，”意思是我們得到那個城市下面去尋找王子。”
“但我們怎麼能去呢？”吉爾問。
“問題就在這兒，”普德格倫說着，一面搓搓那雙像青蛙爪子般的大手，”現在我們有什麼辦法呢？毫無疑問，要是我們在廢墟城的時候，就一心一意放在要乾的事上面，早就有人來指點我們怎麼辦了——發現一扇小門啊，或者一個山洞啊，或者一條地道啊，遇見什麼人幫助我們啊，也許是阿斯蘭本人(事情很難說)。我們總有辦法鑽到那些鋪路石下面去的。阿斯蘭的指示一向管用，毫無例外。但現在怎麼辦——那是另一回事了。”
“得了，我想我們只好回去。”吉爾說。
“說來容易吧？”普德格倫說，”開頭我們不妨想法打開那扇門。”於是他們都看着那扇門，只見誰也夠不着門把，即使夠得着也幾乎肯定沒人轉得動那門把。
“你們看，要是我們要求出去，他們會不讓我們出去嗎？”吉爾說。大家都不吭聲，但每個人都在想”假如他們不肯呢？”
這主意可不妙。普德格倫堅決反對把他們真正的任務告訴巨人和乾脆要求出去這樣的主意。當然兩個孩子沒有它的許可也不能說，因爲他們已經保證過了。他們三個都知道要在晚上逃出城堡是萬萬不可能的。一旦他們待在自己的房間裏，房門關上了，他們就得一直關到早上爲止。他們當然可以請求讓房門開着，但那樣會引起懷疑。
“我們惟一的機會是，”斯克羅布說，”想法在白天偷偷溜走。下午會不會有個把小時大多數巨人都睡着了呢？——要是我們能偷偷到廚房裏去，會不會有一扇後門開着？”
“這也說不上是一個機會，”沼澤怪說，”但我們很可能只有這麼個機會了。”事實上，斯克羅布的計劃並不像你們認爲那麼希望渺茫。如果你要走出一所房子而不讓人看見，從某些方面看來，在下午這段時間試試看，倒比半夜裏更好，門窗很可能都開着，萬一被抓住，你總是可以裝出並不是有意要走遠，而且也沒什麼特別的打算。(要是半夜一點鐘給人發現你正從臥室窗戶往外爬，就很難叫巨人或成人相信這一點了。
“可是，我們一定要趁他們不提防，”斯克羅布說，”我們得裝出喜歡待在這兒，一心盼望着這次秋季盛宴。”
“那就在明天晚上，”普德格倫說，”我聽他們中間有人這麼說。”
“明白了，”吉爾說，”我們得裝出對秋季盛宴非常起勁兒，問這問那，問個沒完。反正他們當我們完全是小娃娃，這樣事情也好辦一些。”
“高高興興，”普德格倫說着深深嘆了口氣，”我們一定得這樣，高高興興的。彷彿我們一點心事也沒有，就愛鬧着玩兒。我注意到了，你們兩個孩子沒有經常保持興高采烈的樣子。你們得看着我，照我做的去做。我會高高興興的。就像這樣——”它齜牙咧嘴，裝出一副可怕的笑容，”還愛鬧着玩兒——”說到這兒它又苦中作樂地蹦蹦跳跳，”要是你們一直看着我，很快就學會了。你們瞧，他們已經把我當成有趣的傢伙了。我敢說，你們倆都認爲昨晚我有點喝醉了吧，但我請你們放心，那是——嗯，大部分是——裝出來的。我有個想法，這樣做總會派上用處的。”
“行啊，就高高興興吧，”斯克羅布說，”好了，只要我們能讓什麼人打開這扇門就行。我們在四處閒逛，裝得高高興興的時候，還得儘量摸清這座城堡的情況。”
幸虧就在這時，門開了，那個巨人保姆急忙奔進來說:”喂，我的寶貝兒。想來看看國王和滿朝上下出發去打獵嗎？那場面真好看啊！”
他們立刻奔過她身邊，爬下他們走到的第一段階梯。獵狗、號角和巨人的聲音爲他們指路，因此不到幾分鐘他們就來到院子裏。巨人們全都步行，因爲在世界那一邊還沒有巨型馬，所以巨人打獵是走着去的，就像在英國打兔子那樣。
而且獵狗也是正常大小的狗。吉爾看見沒有馬，開頭她感到非常失望，因爲她確信那個大胖王后是絕對不會跟在獵狗後面走的，而讓王后整天都待在宮裏也是絕對不行的。不料後來她看見王后原來坐在一種轎子裏，由六個年輕的巨人擡着。那個老蠢貨穿着一身綠，身邊還放着一隻號角。二三十個巨人，包括國王，集合起來準備去打獵，大家說說笑笑，把你耳朵都要震聾了。底下，同吉爾差不多高的，盡是一條條搖擺的尾巴，汪汪叫的、鬆開的、潮乎乎的狗嘴和狗鼻子硬捱到你手裏。普德格倫正開始裝出一種它認爲是高高興興、好玩的態度(要是有誰注意到它，可能就把一切都毀了),這時吉爾就裝出她最動人的孩子氣的笑容，衝到王后轎邊，大聲朝王后嚷道:
“哦，求求你了！你不走吧。你要回來嗎？”
“是啊，親愛的，”王后說”我今天晚上就回來。”
“哦，好啊。多妙啊！”吉爾說，“我們能參加明天的盛宴吧？我們都盼望着明天晚上呢！我們真喜歡待在這兒。你們出去的時候我們能在城堡裏跑來跑去看看，行嗎？請說聲行吧。”
王后果真說了聲行，但所有大臣都哈哈大笑，笑聲幾乎把她的聲音淹沒了。
