《魔法師的外甥》第36期:燈柱前的戰鬥(2)
"Bother!" thought Digory. "We didn't want to bring him along. My hat, what a picnic. Are you there, Polly?"
"Yes, I'm here. Don't keep on shoving."
"I'm not," began Digory, but before he could say anything more, their heads came out into the warm, green sunshine of the wood. And as they stepped out of the pool Polly cried out:
"Oh look! We've-brought the old horse with us too. And Mr Ketterley. And the Cabby. This is a pretty kettle of fish!"
As soon as the Witch saw that she was once more in the wood she turned pale and bent down till her face touched the mane of the horse. You could see she felt deadly sick. Uncle Andrew was shivering. But Strawberry, the horse, shook his head, gave a cheerful whinny, and seemed to feel better. He became quiet for the first time since Digory had seen him. His ears, which had been laid flat back on his skull, came into their proper position, and the fire went out of his eyes.
"That's right, old boy," said the Cabby, slapping Strawberry's neck. "That's better. Take it easy."
Strawberry did the most natural thing in the world. Being very thirsty (and no wonder) he walked slowly across to the nearest pool and stepped into it to have a drink. Digory was still holding the Witch's heel and Polly was holding Digory's hand. One of the Cabby's hands was on Strawberry; and Uncle Andrew, still very shaky, had just grabbed on the Cabby's other hand.
"Quick," said Polly, with a look at Digory. "Greens!"
So the horse never got his drink. Instead, the whole party found themselves sinking into darkness. Strawberry neighed; Uncle Andrew whimpered. Digory said, "That was a bit of luck."
There was a short pause. Then Polly said, "Oughtn't we to be nearly there now?"
"We do seem to be somewhere," said Digory. "At least I'm standing on something solid."
"Why, so am I, now that I come to think of it," said Polly. "But why's it so dark? I say, do you think we got into the wrong Pool?"
"Perhaps this is Charn," said Digory. "Only we've got back in the middle of the night."
"This is not Charn," came the Witch's voice. "This is an empty world. This is Nothing."
“討厭！”迪格雷想，“我們不想把他帶來。啊呀，真輕鬆。你在嗎，波莉？”
“我在這兒，別老推我。”
“我沒推。”迪格雷話還沒有說完，他們便又到了那片渴暖的、陽光明媚的綠樹林。一出水潭，波莉就大喊：
“快看！我們把那匹老馬也帶來了，還有凱特利先生，還有馬車伕。亂七八糟的！”
女巫一看自己又到了那片樹林，臉刷地白了，腰慢慢地彎下來，直到臉貼着馬的鬃毛。看得出，她極爲難妥。安德魯舅舅在發抖。但“草莓”，那匹馬，卻搖搖頭，快活地低低嘶叫了一聲，似乎覺得奸些了。自從迪格雷看見它以來，它還是第一次這麼安靜。先前一直貼在腦袋上的耳朵現在恢復了正常的位置，眼睛也有了神。
“對了，好朋友，”馬車伕說着，拍拍“草莓”的脖子，“這樣好些了。別緊張。”
“草莓”做了一件世界上最自然的事情。因爲它太渴了（這一點兒也不奇怪），便走到最近的水潭裏飲水。迪格雷還抓着女巫的腳後跟，波莉拉着迪格雷的手。馬車伕一隻手搭在“草莓”身上。仍在發抖的安德魯舅舅剛好抓住了他的另一隻手。
“快！”波莉看了迪格雷一眼，喊道，“綠戒指！”
於是，馬沒有喝上水。整個一羣人馬卻發現他們又墜入了黑暗之中。“草莓”嘶鳴着，安德魯舅舅在啜泣；迪格雷說：”運氣還不錯。”
短暫的停頓以後，波莉說：”我們還沒有到嗎？”
“我們的確好像是存某個地方，”迪格雷說，“至少我站在硬實的東西上了。”
“我也這麼想。”波莉說，“可是，爲什麼這麼黑呢？我說，你覺得我們跳錯水潭了嗎？”
“也許就是恰恩，”迪格雷說，“不過我們是半夜回來的。”
“這兒不是恰恩，”女巫說道，“這個世界空無一物。這是虛無。”
