The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - Audiobook - Pt 4/5
Complete unabridged, read by Derek Jacobi
00:00:00 - Chapter 10
00:22:54 - Chapter 11
00:44:17 - Chapter 12
01:04:05 - Chapter 13, Pt 1
Complete unabridged, read by Derek Jacobi
00:00:00 - Chapter 10
00:22:54 - Chapter 11
00:44:17 - Chapter 12
01:04:05 - Chapter 13, Pt 1
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FunTranscript
00:00:00Chapter 10 The Magician's Book
00:00:12The invisible people feasted their guests royally.
00:00:16It was very funny to see the plates and dishes coming to the table and not to see anyone
00:00:20carrying them.
00:00:22It would have been funny even if they had moved along level with the floor, as you would
00:00:26expect things to do in invisible hands, but they didn't.
00:00:30They progressed up the long dining-hall in a series of bounds or jumps.
00:00:35At the highest point of each jump, a dish would be about fifteen feet up in the air.
00:00:40Then it would come down and stop quite suddenly about three feet from the floor.
00:00:45When the dish contained anything like soup or stew, the result was rather disastrous.
00:00:52I'm beginning to feel very inquisitive about these people," whispered Eustace to Edmund.
00:00:57"'Do you think they're human at all?
00:01:00More like huge grasshoppers, or giant frogs, I should say.'
00:01:05"'It does look like it,' said Edmund, "'but don't put the idea of the grasshoppers into
00:01:10Lucy's head.
00:01:11She's not too keen on insects, especially big ones.'
00:01:17The meal would have been pleasanter if it had not been so exceedingly messy, and also
00:01:22if the conversation had not consisted entirely of agreements.
00:01:27The invisible people agreed about everything.
00:01:29Indeed, most of their remarks were the sort it would not be easy to disagree with.
00:01:34"'What I always say is, when a chap's hungry he likes some vittles,' or,
00:01:41"'Getting dark now.
00:01:42Always does at night,' or even, ''Ah, you've come over the water.
00:01:48Powerful wet stuff, ain't it?'
00:01:51And Lucy could not help looking at the dark, yawning entrance to the foot of the staircase.
00:01:56She could see it from where she sat, and wondering what she would find when she went up those
00:02:02stairs the next morning.
00:02:04But it was a good meal otherwise, with mushroom soup, and boiled chickens, and hot boiled
00:02:10ham and gooseberries, redcurrants, curds, cream, milk, and mead.
00:02:16The others liked the mead, but Eustace was sorry afterwards that he had drunk any.
00:02:23When Lucy woke up the next morning it was like waking up on the day of an examination,
00:02:28or a day when you're going to the dentist.
00:02:31It was a lovely morning, with bees buzzing in and out of her open window, and the lawn
00:02:36outside looking very like somewhere in England.
00:02:40She got up and dressed, and tried to talk and eat ordinarily at breakfast.
00:02:46Then, after being instructed by the chief voice about what she was to do upstairs, she
00:02:51bid good-bye to the others, said nothing, walked to the bottom of the stairs, and began
00:02:58going up them, without once looking back.
00:03:03It was quite light, that was one good thing.
00:03:06There was, indeed, a window straight ahead of her at the top of the first flight.
00:03:10As long as she was on that flight she could hear the tick-tock, tick-tock of a grandfather-clock
00:03:16in the hall below.
00:03:18Then she came to the landing, and had to turn to her left up the next flight.
00:03:23After that she couldn't hear the clock any more.
00:03:27Now she had come to the top of the stairs.
00:03:30Lucy looked, and saw a long, wide passage, with a large window at the far end.
00:03:37Apparently the passage ran the whole length of the house.
00:03:39It was carved and panelled and carpeted, and very many doors opened off it on each side.
00:03:46She stood still, and couldn't hear the squeak of a mouse, or the buzzing of a fly, or the
00:03:52swaying of a curtain, or anything, except the beating of her own heart.
00:03:58The last doorway on the left, she said to herself.
00:04:03It did seem a bit hard that it should be the last.
00:04:06To reach it she would have to walk past room after room, and in any room there might be
00:04:11the magician, asleep or awake or invisible or even dead.
00:04:17But it wouldn't do to think about that.
00:04:20She set out on her journey.
00:04:22The carpet was so thick that her feet made no noise.
00:04:25There's nothing whatever to be afraid of.
00:04:29Yet, Lucy told herself, and certainly it was a quiet sunlit passage, perhaps a bit too
00:04:37quiet, it would have been nicer if there had not been strange signs painted in scarlet
00:04:44on the doors, twisty, complicated things, which obviously had a meaning, and it mightn't
00:04:51be a very nice meaning either.
00:04:54It would have been nicer still if there weren't those masks hanging on the wall.
00:04:59Not that they were exactly ugly, or not so very ugly, but the empty eye-holes did look
00:05:06queer, and if you let yourself you would soon start imagining that the masks were doing
00:05:13things as soon as your back was turned to them.
00:05:17After about the sixth door she got her first real fright.
00:05:21For one second she felt almost certain that a wicked little bearded face had popped out
00:05:27of the wall and made a grimace at her.
00:05:29She forced herself to stop and look at it, and it was not a face at all.
00:05:35It was a little mirror, just the size and shape of her own face, with hair on the top
00:05:40of it, and a beard hanging down from it, so that when you looked in the mirror your
00:05:45own face fitted into the hair and beard, and it looked as if they belonged to you.
00:05:50I just caught my own reflection with the tail of my eye as I went past, said Lucy to herself.
00:05:57That was all it was.
00:05:59It's quite harmless.
00:06:01But she didn't like the look of her own face with that hair and beard, and went on.
00:06:07I don't know what the bearded glass was for, because I am not a magician.
00:06:13Before she reached the last door on the left, Lucy was beginning to wonder whether the corridor
00:06:18had grown longer since she began her journey, and whether this was part of the magic of
00:06:23the house.
00:06:24But she got to it at last, and the door was open.
00:06:30It was a large room with three big windows, and it was lined from floor to ceiling with
00:06:35books, more books than Lucy had ever seen before, tiny little books, fat and dumpy books,
00:06:42and books bigger than any Church Bible you have ever seen, all bound in leather, and
00:06:48smelling old, and learned, and magical.
00:06:52But she knew from her instructions that she need not bother about any of these, for the
00:06:57book, the magic book, was lying on a reading-desk in the very middle of the room.
00:07:04She saw she would have to read it standing, and anyway there were no chairs, and also
00:07:09that she would have to stand with her back to the door while she read it.
00:07:14So at once she turned to shut the door.
00:07:17It wouldn't shut.
00:07:19Some people may disagree with Lucy about this, but I think she was quite right.
00:07:24She said she wouldn't have minded if she could have shut the door, but that it was unpleasant
00:07:28to have to stand in a place like that with an open doorway right behind your back.
00:07:33I should have felt just the same.
00:07:36But there was nothing else to be done.
00:07:38One thing that worried her a good deal was the size of the book.
00:07:43The chief voice had not been able to give her any idea whereabouts in the book the spell
00:07:47for making things visible came.
00:07:49He even seemed rather surprised at her asking.
00:07:53He expected her to begin at the beginning, and go on till she came to it.
00:07:58Obviously he had never thought that there was any other way of finding a place in a
00:08:01book.
00:08:03But it might take me days and weeks, said Lucy, looking at the huge volume, and I feel
00:08:10already as if I've been in this place for hours.
00:08:14She went up to the desk and laid her hand on the book.
00:08:17Her fingers tingled when she touched it, as if it were full of electricity.
00:08:23She tried to open it, but couldn't at first.
00:08:26This however was only because it was fastened by two leaden clasps, and when she had undone
00:08:31these it opened easily enough.
00:08:34And what a book it was!
00:08:36It was written, not printed, written in a clear, even hand, with thick downstrokes and
00:08:43thin upstrokes, very large, easier than print, and so beautiful that Lucy stared at it for
00:08:51a whole minute, and forgot about reading it.
00:08:55The paper was crisp and smooth, and a nice smell came from it, and in the margins and
00:09:01round the big coloured capital letters at the beginning of each spell there were pictures.
00:09:06There was no title-page or title.
00:09:09The spells began straight away, and at first there was nothing very important in them.
00:09:14They were cures for warts, by washing your hands in moonlight in a silver basin, and
00:09:21toothache and cramp, and a spell for taking a swarm of bees.
00:09:26The picture of the man with toothache was so lifelike that it would have set your own
00:09:31teeth aching if you looked at it too long, and the golden bees which were dotted all
00:09:36round the fourth spell looked for a moment as if they were really flying.
00:09:42Lucy could hardly tear herself away from that first page, but when she turned over the next
00:09:47was just as interesting.
00:09:49But I must get on, she told herself, and on she went, for about thirty pages, which, if
00:09:57she could have remembered them, would have taught her how to find buried treasure, how
00:10:02to remember things forgotten, how to forget things you wanted to forget, how to tell whether
00:10:07anyone was speaking the truth, how to call up or prevent wind, fog, snow, sleet, or rain,
00:10:16how to produce enchanted sleeps, and how to give a man an ass's head, as they did to
00:10:23poor Bottom.
00:10:24And the longer she read, the more wonderful and more real the pictures became.
00:10:31Then she came to a page which was such a blaze of pictures that one hardly noticed the writing.
00:10:37Hardly!
00:10:38But she did notice the first words.
00:10:41They were, an infallible spell, to make beautiful her that uttereth it beyond the lot of mortals.
00:10:51Lucy peered at the pictures with her face close to the page, and although they had seemed
00:10:57crowded and muddlesome before, she found she could now see them quite clearly.
00:11:02The first was a picture of a girl, standing at a reading-desk, reading in a huge book,
00:11:08and the girl was dressed exactly like Lucy.
00:11:11In the next picture Lucy, for the girl in the picture was Lucy herself, was standing
00:11:17up with her mouth open and a rather terrible expression on her face, chanting or reciting
00:11:23something.
00:11:24In the third picture the beauty beyond the lot of mortals had come to her.
00:11:30It was strange, considering how small the pictures had looked at first, that the Lucy
00:11:35in the picture now seemed quite as big as the real Lucy.
00:11:39And they looked into each other's eyes, and the real Lucy looked away after a few minutes,
00:11:44because she was dazzled by the beauty of the other Lucy, though she could still see a sort
00:11:50of likeness to herself in that beautiful face.
00:11:55And now the pictures came, crowding on her thick and fast.
00:11:59She saw herself throwned on high at a great tournament in Calumet, and all the kings of
00:12:05the world fought because of her beauty.
00:12:08After that it turned from tournaments to real wars, and all Narnia and Arkenland, Telmar
00:12:14and Calum and Gallimor and Terabinthia were laid waste with the fury of the kings and
00:12:19the dukes and the great lords who fought for her favour.
00:12:23Then it changed, and Lucy, still beautiful beyond the lot of mortals, was back in England,
00:12:30and Susan, who had always been the beauty of the family, came home from America.
00:12:36The Susan in the picture looked exactly like the real Susan, only plainer, and with a nasty
00:12:42expression.
00:12:43And Susan was jealous of the dazzling beauty of Lucy.
00:12:47But that didn't matter a bit, because no one cared anything about Susan now.
00:12:53I will say the spell," said Lucy.
00:12:55I don't care.
00:12:57I will.
00:12:58She said, I don't care, because she had a strong feeling that she mustn't.
00:13:05But when she looked back at the opening words of the spell, there in the middle of the writing,
00:13:10where she felt quite sure there had been no picture before, she found the great face of
00:13:15a lion, of THE lion, Aslan himself staring into hers.
00:13:22It was painted such a bright gold that it seemed to be coming towards her out of the
00:13:27page, and, indeed, she never was quite sure afterwards that it hadn't really moved a little.
00:13:34At any rate, she knew the expression on his face quite well.
00:13:38He was growling, and you could see most of his teeth.
00:13:43She became horribly afraid, and turned over the page at once.
00:13:48A little later she came to a spell which would let you know what your friends thought about
00:13:53you.
00:13:54Now, Lucy had wanted very badly to try the other spell, the one that made you beautiful
00:14:00beyond the lot of mortals, so she felt that to make up for not having said it, she really
00:14:05would say this one.
00:14:07And all in a hurry, for fear her mind would change, she said the words.
00:14:12Nothing will induce me to tell you what they were.
00:14:16Then she waited for something to happen.
00:14:20As nothing happened, she began looking at the pictures, and all at once she saw the
00:14:26very last thing she expected, a picture of a third-class carriage in a train, with two
00:14:32schoolgirls sitting in it.
00:14:34She knew them at once.
00:14:36They were Marjorie Preston and Anne Featherstone.
00:14:39Even now it was much more than a picture.
00:14:42It was alive.
00:14:44She could see the telegraph-posts flicking past outside the window.
00:14:48Then, gradually, like when the radio is coming on, she could hear what they were saying.
00:14:55"'Shall I see anything of you this term?' said Anne.
00:14:59"'Or are you still going to be taken up with Lucy Pevensey?'
00:15:03"'Don't know what you mean by taken up,' said Marjorie.
00:15:08"'Oh, yes, you do,' said Anne.
00:15:11"'You were crazy about her last term.'
00:15:14"'No, I wasn't,' said Marjorie.
00:15:16"'I've got more sense than that.
00:15:19Not a bad little kid in a way.
00:15:21But I was getting pretty tired of her before the end of term.'
00:15:26"'Well, you jolly well won't have the chance any other term,' shouted Lucy.
00:15:32"'You two-faced little beast!'
00:15:36But the sound of her own voice at once reminded her that she was talking to a picture, and
00:15:41that the real Marjorie was far away in another world.
00:15:45"'Well,' said Lucy to herself, "'I did think better of her than that.
00:15:51And I did all sorts of things for her last term.
00:15:54And I stuck to her when not many other girls would.
00:15:57And she knows it, too.
00:16:00And to Anne Featherstone, of all people!
00:16:03I wonder, aren't all my friends the same?
00:16:05There are lots of other pictures.
00:16:08No, I won't look at any more.
00:16:10I won't.
00:16:11I won't!'
00:16:12And with a great effort she turned over the page, but not before a large, angry tear had
00:16:19splashed on it.
00:16:22On the next page she came to a spell for the refreshment of the spirit.
00:16:28The pictures were fewer here, but very beautiful.
00:16:31And what Lucy found herself reading was more like a story than a spell.
00:16:36It went on for three pages, and before she had read to the bottom of the page she had
00:16:40forgotten that she was reading at all.
00:16:42She was living in the story as if it were real, and all the pictures were real, too.
00:16:48When she had got to the third page and come to the end, she said,
00:16:51That is the loveliest story I've ever read, or ever shall read, in my whole life.
00:16:58Oh, I wish I could have gone on reading it for ten years.
00:17:02At least I'll read it over again.
00:17:05But here part of the magic of the book came into play.
00:17:10You couldn't turn back.
00:17:12The right-hand pages, the ones ahead, could be turned.
00:17:16The left-hand pages could not.
00:17:19Oh, what a shame!" said Lucy.
00:17:23I did so want to read it again.
00:17:25Well, at least I must remember it.
00:17:28Let's see, it was about ... about ... Oh, dear, it's all fading away again.
00:17:37And even this last page is going blank.
00:17:40This is a very strange book.
00:17:44How can I have forgotten?
00:17:46It was about a cup, and a sword, and a tree, and a green hill.
00:17:52I know that much, but I can't remember.
00:17:56And what shall I do?
00:18:00And she never could remember.
00:18:02And ever since that day, what Lucy means by a good story is a story which reminds her
00:18:08of the forgotten story in the magician's book.
00:18:13She turned on, and found, to her surprise, a page with no pictures at all.
00:18:18But the first words were,
00:18:20A spell to make hidden things visible.
00:18:24She read it through, to make short of all the hard words, and then said it out loud.
00:18:31And she knew at once that it was working, because as she spoke the colours came into
00:18:36the capital letters at the top of the page, and the pictures began appearing in the margins.
00:18:42It was like when you hold to the fire something written in invisible ink, and the writing
00:18:45gradually shows up.
00:18:47Only instead of the dingy colour of lemon-juice, which is the easiest invisible ink, this was
00:18:53all gold, and blue, and scarlet.
00:18:57They were odd pictures, and contained many figures that Lucy did not much like the look
00:19:02of.
00:19:03And then she thought,
00:19:04I suppose I had made everything visible, and not only the thumpers.
00:19:09There might be lots of other invisible things hanging about at a place like this.
00:19:14I am not sure that I want to see them all.
00:19:18At that moment she heard soft, heavy footfalls coming along the corridor behind her.
00:19:24And of course she remembered what she had been told about the magician walking in his
00:19:28bare feet, and making no more noise than a cat.
00:19:33It is always better to turn round than to have anything creeping up behind your back.
00:19:38Lucy did so.
00:19:40Then her face lit up, till, for a moment, but of course she didn't know it, she looked
00:19:47almost as beautiful as that other Lucy in the picture.
00:19:50And she ran forward with a little cry of delight, and with her arms stretched out.
00:19:55For what stood in the doorway was Aslan himself, the lion, the highest of all high kings.
00:20:03And he was solid, and real, and warm, and he let her kiss him, and bury herself in his
00:20:08shining mane.
00:20:10And from the low, earthquake-like sound that came from inside him, Lucy even dared to think
00:20:17that he was purring.
00:20:19Oh, Aslan! said she.
00:20:23It was kind of you to come.
00:20:27I have been here all the time, said he.
00:20:33But you have just made me visible.
00:20:37Aslan! said Lucy, almost a little reproachfully.
00:20:42Don't make fun of me.
00:20:44As if anything I could do would make you visible.
00:20:48It did, said Aslan.
00:20:52Do you think I wouldn't obey my own rules?
00:20:57After a little pause he spoke again.
00:21:00Child, he said, I think you have been eavesdropping.
00:21:06Eavesdropping?
00:21:09You listened to what your two schoolfellows were saying about you.
00:21:14Oh, that!
00:21:16I never thought that was eavesdropping, Aslan.
00:21:19Wasn't it magic?
00:21:22Spying on people by magic is the same as spying on them in any other way.
00:21:28And you have misjudged your friend.
00:21:31She is weak, but she loves you.
00:21:35She was afraid of the older girl, and said what she does not mean.
00:21:41I don't think I'll ever be able to forget what I heard her say.
00:21:46No, you won't.
00:21:49Oh, dear! said Lucy, have I spoiled everything?
00:21:54Do you mean we could have gone on being friends, if it hadn't been for this, and been really
00:22:00great friends, all our lives, perhaps?
00:22:04And now we never shall?
00:22:06Child, said Aslan, did I not explain to you once before that no one is ever told what
00:22:16would have happened?
00:22:18Yes, Aslan, you did, said Lucy.
00:22:22I'm sorry, but please—
00:22:26Speak on, dear heart.
00:22:29Shall I ever be able to read that story again, the one I couldn't remember?
00:22:33Will you tell it to me, Aslan?
00:22:36Oh, do, do, do!
00:22:40Indeed, yes.
00:22:42I will tell it to you for years and years.
00:22:46Now, come, we must meet the master of this house.
00:22:55Chapter 11 The Dufflepods Made Happy
00:23:01Lucy followed the great lion out into the passage, and at once she saw coming towards
00:23:06them an old man, barefoot, dressed in a red robe.
00:23:11His white hair was crowned with a chaplet of oak leaves.
00:23:14His beard fell to his girdle, and he supported himself with a curiously carved staff.
00:23:21When he saw Aslan, he bowed low, and said,
00:23:25Welcome, sir, to the least of your houses.
00:23:30Do you grow weary, Coriachin, of ruling such foolish subjects as I have given you here?
00:23:39No, said the magician, they are very stupid, but there is no real harm in them.
00:23:46I begin to grow rather fond of the creatures.
00:23:50Sometimes perhaps I am a little impatient, waiting for the day when they can be governed
00:23:55by wisdom, instead of this rough magic.
00:23:59All in good time, Coriachin, said Aslan.
00:24:04Oh, yes, all in very good time, sir, was the answer.
00:24:09Do you intend to show yourself to them?
00:24:13Nay, said the lion, with a little half-growl that meant, Lucy thought, the same as a laugh.
00:24:22I should frighten them out of their senses.
00:24:26Many stars will grow old, and come to take their rest in islands, before your people
00:24:33are ripe for that.
00:24:35And to-day, before sunset, I must visit Trumkin the dwarf, where he sits in the castle of
00:24:42Caer Paravell, counting the days till his master Caspian comes home.
00:24:48I will tell him all your story, Lucy.
00:24:52Do not look so sad.
00:24:54We shall meet soon again.
00:24:58Please, Aslan, said Lucy, what do you call soon?
00:25:04I call all time soon, said Aslan, and instantly he was vanished away, and Lucy was alone with
00:25:14the magician.
00:25:16Gone, said he, and you and I quite crestfallen.
00:25:23It's always like that.
00:25:24You can't keep him.
00:25:26It's not as if he were a tame lion.
00:25:29And how did you enjoy my book?
00:25:32Oh, parts of it very much indeed, said Lucy.
00:25:36Did you know I was there all the time?
00:25:38Well, of course I knew, when I let the duffers make themselves invisible, that you would
00:25:45be coming along presently to take the spell off.
00:25:48I wasn't quite sure of the exact day, and I wasn't especially on the watch this morning.
00:25:56But, you see, they had made me invisible, too, and being invisible always makes me so
00:26:02sleepy.
00:26:03Oh, hay-ho!
00:26:04Hello!
00:26:05I'm yawning again."
00:26:06Are you hungry?
00:26:07Well, perhaps I am a little, said Lucy.
00:26:08I've no idea what the time is.
00:26:19Come, said the magician, all times may be soon to Aslan, but in my home all hungry times
00:26:27are one o'clock.
00:26:30He led her a little way down the passage, and opened a door.
00:26:34Passing in, Lucy found herself in a pleasant room full of sunlight and flowers.
00:26:39The table was bare when they entered, but it was, of course, a magic-table, and at a
00:26:45word from the old man, the tablecloth, silver plates, glasses, and food appeared.
00:26:51"'I hope that is what you would like,' said he.
00:26:55"'I have tried to give you food more like the food of your own land than perhaps you
00:27:00have had lately.'
00:27:02"'It's lovely,' said Lucy.
00:27:06And so it was.
00:27:07An omelette, piping hot, cold lamb and green peas, a strawberry ice, lemon-squash to drink
00:27:15with the meal, and a cup of chocolate to follow.
00:27:18But the magician himself drank only wine and ate only bread.
00:27:23There was nothing alarming about him, and Lucy and he were soon chatting away like old
00:27:28friends.
00:27:29"'When will the spell work?' asked Lucy.
00:27:32"'Will the duffers be visible again at once?'
00:27:35"'Oh, yes, they're visible now.
00:27:38But they're probably all asleep still.
00:27:41They always take a rest in the middle of the day.'
00:27:44"'And now that they're visible, are you going to let them off being ugly?
00:27:48Will you make them as they were before?'
00:27:51"'Well, that's a rather delicate question,' said the magician.
00:27:57"'You see, it's only they who think they were so nice to look at before.
00:28:03They say they've been uglified, but that isn't what I call it.
00:28:08Many people might say the change was for the better.'
00:28:11"'Are they awfully conceited?'
00:28:15"'They are.
00:28:17Or at least the chief duffer is, and he's taught all the rest to be.
00:28:22They always believe every word he says.'
00:28:26"'We'd noticed that,' said Lucy.
00:28:29"'Yes.
00:28:30We'd get on better without him, in a way.
00:28:34Of course I could turn him into something else, or even put a spell on him which would
00:28:37make them not believe a word he said.
00:28:40But I don't like to do that.
00:28:43It's better for them to admire him than to admire nobody.'
00:28:46"'Don't they admire you?' asked Lucy.
00:28:50"'Oh, not me,' said the magician.
00:28:54"'They wouldn't admire me.'
00:28:57"'What was it you uglified them for?
00:29:00I mean, what they call uglified?'
00:29:03"'Well, they wouldn't do what they were told.
00:29:07Their work is to mine the garden and raise food.
00:29:11Not for me, as they imagine, but for themselves.
00:29:15They wouldn't do it at all if I didn't make them.
00:29:18And of course for a garden you want water.
00:29:20There is a beautiful spring about half a mile away up the hill, and from that spring there
00:29:26flows a stream which comes right past the garden.
00:29:30All I asked them to do was to take their water from the stream, instead of trudging up to
00:29:35the spring with their buckets two or three times a day, and tiring themselves out, besides
00:29:41spilling half of it on the way back.
00:29:43But they wouldn't see it.
00:29:45In the end they refused, point-blank.'
00:29:48"'Are they as stupid as all that?' asked Lucy.
00:29:53The magician sighed.
00:29:55"'You wouldn't believe the troubles I've had with them.
00:30:00A few months ago they were all for washing up the plates and knives before dinner.
00:30:05They said it saved time afterwards.
00:30:08I've caught them planting boiled potatoes to save cooking them when they were dug up.
00:30:14One day the cat got into the dairy, and twenty of them were at work moving all the milk out.
00:30:19No one thought of moving the cat.
00:30:22But I see you finished.
00:30:24Let's go and look at the duffers now they can be looked at.'
00:30:28They went into another room which was full of polished instruments, hard to understand,
00:30:33such as astrolabes, orreries, chronoscopes, posimeters, coriambuses, and theodolins.
00:30:42And here, when they had come to the window, the magician said,
00:30:46"'There!
00:30:47There are your duffers!'
00:30:50"'I don't see anybody,' said Lucy.
00:30:54"'And what are those mushroom things?'
00:30:58The things she pointed at were dotted all over the level grass.
00:31:03They were certainly very like mushrooms, but far too big, the stalks about three feet high,
00:31:09and the umbrellas about the same length from edge to edge.
00:31:13When she looked carefully she noticed, too, that the stalks joined the umbrellas not in
00:31:18the middle, but at one side, which gave an unbalanced look to them.
00:31:24And there was something, a sort of little bundle, lying on the grass at the foot of
00:31:28each stalk.
00:31:30In fact, the longer she gazed at them, the less like mushrooms they appeared.
00:31:35The umbrella part was not really round, as she had thought at first.
00:31:39It was longer than it was broad, and it widened at one end.
00:31:44There were a great many of them, fifty or more.
00:31:48The clock struck three.
00:31:51Instantly a most extraordinary thing happened.
00:31:55Each of the mushrooms suddenly turned upside down.
00:31:59The little bundles which had lain at the bottom of the stalks were heads and bodies.
00:32:04The stalks themselves were legs, but not two legs to each body.
00:32:09Each body had a single thick leg right under it, not to one side, like the leg of a one-legged
00:32:14man, and at the end of it a single enormous foot, a broad-toed foot, with the toes curling
00:32:22up a little, so that it looked rather like a small canoe.
00:32:26She saw in a moment why they had looked like mushrooms.
00:32:29They had been lying flat on their backs, each with its single leg straight up in the
00:32:34air, and its enormous foot spread out above it.
00:32:38She learned afterwards that this was their ordinary way of resting, for the foot kept
00:32:43off both rain and sun, and for a monopod to lie under its own foot is almost as good as
00:32:49being in a tent.
00:32:51Oh, the funnies, the funnies!" cried Lucy, bursting into laughter.
00:32:58Did you make them like that?"
00:33:01Yes, yes, I made the tuffers into monopods," said the magician.
00:33:08He too was laughing till the tears ran down his cheeks.
00:33:12But watch!" he added.
00:33:16It was worth watching.
00:33:18Of course, these little one-footed men couldn't walk or run, as we do.
00:33:23They got about by jumping, like fleas or frogs, and what jumps they made!
00:33:29As if each big foot were a mass of springs, and with what a bounce they came down!
00:33:36That was what made the thumping noise which had so puzzled Lucy yesterday.
00:33:40For now they were jumping in all directions, and calling out to one another,
00:33:45"'Hey, lads, we're visible again!'
00:33:48"'Visible we are,' said one, in a tussled red cap, who was obviously the Chief Monopod.
00:33:54"'And what I say is, when chaps are visible, why, they can see one another!'
00:34:00"'Ah, there it is, there it is, Chief,' cried all the others.
00:34:03"'There's the point.
00:34:04No one's got a clearer head than you.
00:34:06You couldn't have made it plainer!'
00:34:09"'She caught the old man napping, that little girl did,' said the Chief Monopod.
00:34:13"'We've beaten him this time!'
00:34:16"'Just what we were going to say ourselves,' chimed the chorus.
00:34:19"'You're going stronger than ever to-day, Chief.
00:34:22Keep it up, keep it up!'
00:34:23"'But do they dare to talk about you like that?' said Lucy.
00:34:28"'They seemed to be so afraid of you yesterday.
00:34:30Don't they know you might be listening?'
00:34:34"'That's one of the funny things about the Duffers,' said the Magician.
00:34:40"'One minute they talk as if I ran everything, and overheard everything, and was extremely
00:34:46dangerous.
00:34:48The next moment they think they can take me in, by tricks that a baby would see through.
00:34:54Bless them!'
00:34:56"'Will they have to be turned back into their proper shapes?' asked Lucy.
00:35:01"'Oh, I do hope it wouldn't be unkind to leave them as they are.
00:35:05Do they really mind very much?
00:35:07They seem pretty happy.
00:35:09I say, look at that jump!
00:35:13What were they like before?'
00:35:15"'Common little dwarfs,' said he.
00:35:19"'Nothing like so nice as the sort you have in Narnia.'
00:35:22"'It would be a pity to change them back,' said Lucy.
00:35:27"'They're so funny, and they're rather nice.
00:35:30Do you think it would make any difference if I told them that?'
00:35:34"'I'm sure it would, if you could get it into their heads.
00:35:41Will you come with me and try?'
00:35:42"'No, no, you'll get on far better without me.'
00:35:47"'Thanks awfully for the lunch,' said Lucy, and turned quickly away.
00:35:53She ran down the stairs, which she had come up so nervously that morning, and canoned
00:35:57into Edmund at the bottom.
00:35:59All the others were there with him, waiting, and Lucy's conscience smote her when she saw
00:36:03their anxious faces, and realised how long she had forgotten them.
00:36:08"'It's all right,' she shouted.
00:36:10'Everything's all right.
00:36:12The magician's a brick, and I've seen him.
00:36:16Aslan!'
00:36:17After that, she went from them like the wind and out into the garden.
00:36:22Here the earth was shaking with the jumps, and the air ringing with the shouts of the
00:36:27monopods.
00:36:28Both were redoubled when they caught sight of her.
00:36:31"'Here she comes!
00:36:32Here she comes!' they cried.
00:36:33'Three cheers for the little girl!
00:36:36Ah!
00:36:37She put it across the old gentleman properly, she did!'
00:36:40"'And we're extremely regrettable,' said the chief monopod, 'that we can't give you the
00:36:46pleasure of seeing us as we were before we were uglified.
00:36:50For you wouldn't believe the difference, and that's the truth.
00:36:52But there's no denying we're mortal ugly now, so we won't deceive you.'
00:36:57"'Aye, that we are, chief, that we are!' echoed the others, bouncing like so many toy balloons.
00:37:03'You've said it!
00:37:04You've said it!'
00:37:05"'But I don't think you are at all,' said Lucy, shouting to make herself heard.
00:37:11'I think you look very nice.'
00:37:14"'Hear her!
00:37:15Hear her!' said the monopods.
00:37:17'True for you, missy.
00:37:18Very nice we look.
00:37:19You couldn't find a handsome a lot.'
00:37:21They said this without any surprise, and did not seem to notice that they had changed their
00:37:26minds.
00:37:27"'She's a-saying,' remarked the chief monopod, 'as how we looked very nice before we were
00:37:34uglified.'
00:37:35"'True for you, chief, true for you,' chanted the others.
00:37:39That's what she says.
00:37:40We heard her ourselves.'
00:37:42"'I did not!' bawled Lucy.
00:37:45'I said you're very nice now.'
00:37:49"'So she did, so she did,' said the chief monopod.
00:37:53"'Said we were very nice then.'
00:37:55"'Hear them both, hear them both,' said the monopods.
00:37:58There's a pair for you.
00:37:59Always right.
00:38:00They couldn't have put it better.'
00:38:01"'But we're saying just the opposite,' said Lucy, stamping her foot with impatience.
00:38:08"'So you are, to be sure, so you are,' said the monopods.
00:38:11Nothing like an opposite.
00:38:12Keep it up, both of you.'
00:38:14"'You are enough to drive anyone mad,' said Lucy, and gave it up.
00:38:20But the monopods seemed perfectly contented, and she decided that, on the whole, the conversation
00:38:26had been a success.
00:38:29And before everyone went to bed that evening, something else happened, which made them even
00:38:34more satisfied with their one-legged condition.
00:38:38Caspian and all the Narnians went back as soon as possible to the shore, to get their
00:38:43news to Rince and the others on board the dawn-treader, who were by now very anxious.
00:38:48And, of course, the monopods went with them, bouncing like footballs, and agreeing with
00:38:53one another in loud voices, till Eustace said,
00:38:56"'I wish the magician would make them inaudible instead of invisible!'
00:39:02He was soon sorry he had spoken, because then he had to explain that an inaudible thing
00:39:08is something you can't hear.
00:39:10And though he took a lot of trouble, he never felt sure that the monopods had really understood.
00:39:15And what especially annoyed him was that they said in the end,
00:39:19"'Eh!
00:39:20He can't put things the way our chief does.
00:39:22But you'll learn, young man.
00:39:24Hark to him!
00:39:25He'll show you how to say things.
00:39:27There's a speaker for you!'
00:39:29When they reached the bay, Reepycheep had a brilliant idea.
00:39:34He had his little conical lowered, and paddled himself about in it, till the monopods were
00:39:39thoroughly interested.
00:39:42He then stood up in it, and said,
00:39:44"'Worthy and intelligent monopods!
00:39:47You do not need boats.
00:39:50Each of you has a foot that will do instead.
00:39:54Just jump as lightly as you can on the water, and see what happens!'
00:39:59The chief monopod hung back, and warned the others that they'd find the water powerful
00:40:05wet.
00:40:06But one or two of the younger ones tried it almost at once, and then a few others followed
00:40:11their example, and at last the whole lot did the same.
00:40:16It worked perfectly.
00:40:18The huge single foot of a monopod acted as a natural raft or boat.
00:40:23And when Reepycheep had taught them how to cut rude paddles for themselves, they all
00:40:28paddled about the bay, and round the dawn-treader, looking for all the world like a fleet of
00:40:34little canoes, with a fat dwarf standing up in the extreme stern of each.
00:40:39And they had races, and bottles of wine were lowered down to them from the ship as prizes,
00:40:45and the sailors stood leaning over the ship's side, and laughed till their own sides ached.
00:40:51The duffers were also very pleased with their new name of monopods, which seemed to them
00:40:57a magnificent name, though they never got it right.
00:41:01"'That's what we are!' they bellowed.
00:41:04"'Monopods!
00:41:05Bomonods!
00:41:06Bodimons!
00:41:07Just what it was on the tips of our tongues to call ourselves!'
00:41:10But they soon got it mixed up with their old name of duffers, and finally settled down
00:41:16to calling themselves the Dufflepods, and that is what they will probably be called
00:41:22for centuries.
00:41:24That evening all the Narnians dined upstairs with the magician, and Lucy noticed how different
00:41:31the whole top floor looked, now that she was no longer afraid of it.
00:41:36The mysterious signs on the doors were still mysterious, but now looked as if they had
00:41:41kind and cheerful meanings, and even the bearded mirror now seemed funny rather than frightening.
00:41:48At dinner everyone had, by magic, what everyone liked best to eat and drink, and after dinner
00:41:54the magician did a very useful and beautiful piece of magic.
00:41:58He laid two blank sheets of parchment on the table, and asked Drinian to give him an exact
00:42:04account of their voyage up to date, and, as Drinian spoke, everything he described came
00:42:10out on the parchment, in fine clear lines, till at last each sheet was a splendid map
00:42:16of the eastern ocean, showing Galma, Terabinthia, the Seven Isles, the Lone Islands, Dragon
00:42:24Island, Burnt Island, Death Water, and the land of the Duffers itself, all exactly the
00:42:30right sizes and in the right positions.
00:42:33They were the first maps ever made of those seas, and better than any that have been made
00:42:38since without magic.
00:42:40For on these, though the towns and mountains looked at first just as they would on an ordinary
00:42:46map, when the magician lent them a magnifying glass, you saw that they were perfect little
00:42:52pictures of the real things, so that you could see the very castle and slave market
00:42:57and streets in Narrowhaven, all very clear, though very distant, like things seen through
00:43:03the wrong end of a telescope.
00:43:05The only drawback was that the coast-line of most of the islands was incomplete, for
00:43:11the map showed only what Drinian had seen with his own eyes.
00:43:15When they were finished, the magician kept one himself, and presented the other to Caspian.
00:43:21It still hangs in his chamber of instruments at Caer Parabel.
00:43:25But the magician could tell them nothing about seas or lands further east.
00:43:30He did, however, tell them that about seven years before a Narnian ship had put in at
00:43:35his waters, and that she had on board the Lords Rebillion, Argos, Mavrimorn, and Roop.
00:43:42So they judged that the golden man they had seen lying in death-water must be the Lord
00:43:49Restimar.
00:43:51Next day the magician magically mended the stern of the dawn-treader, where it had been
00:43:57damaged by the sea-serpent, and loaded her with useful gifts.
00:44:01There was a most friendly parting, and when she sailed, two hours after noon, all the
00:44:07dufflepods paddled out with her to the harbour mouth, and cheered until she was out of sound
00:44:12of their cheering.
00:44:17CHAPTER XII THE DARK ISLAND
00:44:22After this adventure they sailed on south and a little east for twelve days, with a
00:44:28gentle wind, the skies being mostly clear and the air warm, and saw no bird or fish,
00:44:36except that once there were whales spouting a long way to starboard.
00:44:41Lucy and Reepitchie played a good deal of chess at this time.
00:44:45Then on the thirteenth day Edmund, from the fighting-top, sighted what looked like a great
00:44:51dark mountain, rising out of the sea on their port bow.
00:44:56The ortered course had made for this land, mostly by oar, for the wind would not serve
00:45:01them to sail north-east.
00:45:04When evening fell, they were still a long way from it, and rowed all night.
00:45:09The next morning the weather was fair, but a flat calm prevailed.
00:45:14The dark mass lay ahead, much nearer and larger, but still very dim, so that some thought it
00:45:20was still a long way off, and others thought they were running into a mist.
00:45:26About nine that morning, very suddenly, it was so close that they could see that it was
00:45:31not land at all, nor, even in an ordinary sense, a mist.
00:45:36It was a darkness.
00:45:39It is rather hard to describe, but you will see what it was like if you imagine yourself
00:45:44looking into the mouth of a railway tunnel, a tunnel either so long or so twisty that
00:45:50you cannot see the light at the far end, and you know what it would be like.
00:45:56For a few feet you would see the rails and sleepers and gravel in broad daylight.
00:46:01Then there would come a place where they were in twilight, and then, pretty suddenly, but
00:46:06of course without a sharp dividing line, they would vanish altogether into smooth, solid
00:46:12blackness.
00:46:14It was just so here.
00:46:16For a few feet in front of their bows they could see the swell of the bright greenish-blue
00:46:20water.
00:46:21After that they could see the water looking pale and grey, as it would look late in the
00:46:26evening, but beyond that again, utter blackness, as if they had come to the edge of moonless
00:46:34and starless night.
00:46:37Caspian shouted to the bosun to keep her back, and all except the rowers rushed forward and
00:46:41gazed from the bows, but there was nothing to be seen by gazing.
00:46:47Behind them was the sea and the sun, before them the darkness.
00:46:52"'Do we go into this?' asked Caspian at length.
00:46:56"'Not by my advice,' said Drinian.
00:47:00"'The captain's right,' said several sailors.
00:47:03"'I almost think he is,' said Edmund.
00:47:08Lucy and Eustace didn't speak, but they felt very glad inside at the turn things seemed
00:47:14to be taking.
00:47:15But all at once the clear voice of Reepicheep broke in upon the silence.
00:47:20"'And why not?' he said.
00:47:22"'Will someone explain to me why not?'
00:47:26No one was anxious to explain, so Reepicheep continued.
00:47:30"'If I were addressing peasants or slaves,' he said, "'I might suppose that this suggestion
00:47:37proceeded from cowardice.
00:47:40But I hope it will never be told in Narnia that a company of noble and royal persons
00:47:46in the flower of their age turned tail because they were afraid of the dark.'"
00:47:52"'But what manner of use would it be, ploughing through that blackness?' asked Drinian.
00:47:59"'Use,' replied Reepicheep.
00:48:01"'Use, captain.
00:48:03If by use you mean filling our bellies or our purses, I confess it will be no use at
00:48:11all.
00:48:12So far as I know, we did not set sail to look for things useful, but to seek honour and
00:48:18adventure.
00:48:20And here is as great an adventure as ever I heard of, and here, if we turn back, no
00:48:26little impeachment of all our honours.'"
00:48:30Several of the sailors said things under their breath that sounded like, "'Honour
00:48:35be blowed!'
00:48:37But Caspian said, "'Oh, bother you, Reepicheep!
00:48:42I almost wish we'd left you at home.
00:48:44All right, if you put it that way.
00:48:47I suppose we shall have to go on.'
00:48:49"'Unless Lucy would rather not?'
00:48:52Lucy felt that she would very much rather not.
00:48:55And what she said, out loud, was, "'I'm game!'
00:49:01"'Your Majesty would at least order lights,' said Drinian.
00:49:05"'By all means,' said Caspian.
00:49:07"'See to it, captain.'
00:49:09So the three lanterns at the stern and the prow and the masthead were all lit, and Drinian
00:49:14ordered two torches amid ships.
00:49:17Pale and feeble they looked in the sunshine.
00:49:21Then all the men, except some who were left below at the oars, were ordered on deck, and
00:49:26fully armed, and posted in their battle-stations, with swords drawn.
00:49:31Lucy and two archers were posted on the fighting-top, with bows bent and arrows on the string.
00:49:37Rynalf was in the bows, with his line ready to take sounding.
00:49:41Reepicheep, Edmund, Eustace, and Caspian, glittering in mail, were with him.
00:49:47Drinian took the tiller.
00:49:49"'And now, in Aslan's name, forward!' cried Caspian.
00:49:54"'A slow, steady stroke, and let every man be silent, and keep his ears open for orders.'
00:50:01With a creak and a groan, the dawn-treader started to creep forward as the men began
00:50:06to row.
00:50:07Lucy, up in the fighting-top, had a wonderful view of the exact moment at which they entered
00:50:13the darkness.
00:50:14The bows had already disappeared before the sunlight had left the stern.
00:50:19She saw it go.
00:50:20At one minute the gilded stern, the blue sea, and the sky were all in broad daylight.
00:50:26Next minute the sea and sky had vanished.
00:50:29The stern lantern, which had been hardly noticeable before, was the only thing to show where the
00:50:34ship ended.
00:50:36In front of the lantern she could see the black shape of Drinian crouching at the tiller.
00:50:42Down below her the two torches made visible two small patches of deck, and gleamed on
00:50:47swords and helmets.
00:50:49And forward there was another island of light on the foc'sle.
00:50:53Apart from that, the fighting-top, lit by the masthead light which was only just above
00:50:58her, seemed to be a little lighted world of its own, floating in lonely darkness.
00:51:04And the lights themselves, as always happens with lights when you have to have them at
00:51:08the wrong time of day, looked lurid and unnatural.
00:51:13She also noticed that she was very cold.
00:51:17How long this voyage into the darkness lasted, nobody knew.
00:51:21Except for the creak of the rollex and the splash of the oars, there was nothing to show
00:51:25that they were moving at all.
00:51:27Edmund, peering from the bows, could see nothing, except the reflection of the lantern in the
00:51:33water before him.
00:51:35It looked a greasy sort of reflection, and the ripple, made by their advancing prow,
00:51:40appeared to be heavy, small, and lifeless.
00:51:44As time went on, every one except the rowers began to shiver with cold.
00:51:50Suddenly, from somewhere—no one's sense of direction was very clear by now—there
00:51:55came a cry, either of some inhuman voice, or else a voice of one in such extremity of
00:52:01terror that he had almost lost his humanity.
00:52:07Caspian was still trying to speak—his mouth was too dry—when the shrill voice of Reepicheep,
00:52:12which sounded louder than usual in that silence, was heard.
00:52:16"'Who calls?' it piped.
00:52:18"'If you are a foe, we do not fear you.
00:52:22And if you are a friend, your enemy shall be taught the fear of us.'
00:52:29"'Mercy!' cried the voice.
00:52:31"'Mercy!
00:52:32Even if you are only one dream, have mercy!
00:52:37Take me on board!
00:52:38Take me, even if you strike me dead!
00:52:41But in the name of all mercies, do not fade away and leave me in this horrible land!'
00:52:48"'Where are you?'
00:52:50shouted Caspian.
00:52:51"'Come aboard, and welcome!'
00:52:54There came another cry, whether of joy or terror, and then they knew that someone was
00:52:59swimming towards them.
00:53:01"'Stand by to heave him up, men!' said Caspian.
00:53:05"'Aye, aye, your Majesty,' said the sailors.
00:53:08Several crowded to the port bulwark with ropes, and one, leaning far out over the side, held
00:53:14the torch.
00:53:15A wild, white face appeared in the blackness of the water, and then, after some scrambling
00:53:21and pulling, a dozen friendly hands had heaved the stranger on board.
00:53:27Edmund thought he had never seen a wilder-looking man.
00:53:30Though he did not otherwise look very old, his hair was an untidy mop of white, his face
00:53:36was thin and drawn, and for clothing only a few wet rags hung about him.
00:53:42But what one mainly noticed were his eyes, which were so widely opened that he seemed
00:53:48to have no eyelids at all, and stared as if in an agony of pure fear.
00:53:55The moment his feet reached the deck, he said,
00:53:57"'Fly!
00:53:58Fly!
00:53:59About with your ship and fly!
00:54:01Row!
00:54:02Row!
00:54:03Row for your lives away from this cursed shore!'
00:54:07"'Compose yourself,' said Reepy Cheep, "'and tell us what the danger is.
00:54:13We are not used to flying.'
00:54:16The stranger started horribly at the voice of the mouse, which he had not noticed before.
00:54:21"'Nevertheless, you will fly from here,' he gasped.
00:54:27"'This is the island where dreams come true.'
00:54:30"'That's the island I've been looking for this long time,' said one of the sailors.
00:54:36"'I reckon I'd find I was married to Nancy if we landed here.'
00:54:40"'And I'd find Tom alive again,' said another.
00:54:45"'Fools!' said the man, stamping his foot with rage.
00:54:49"'That is the sort of talk that brought me here, and I'd better have been drowned or
00:54:54never born.
00:54:55"'Do you hear what I say?
00:54:57This is where dreams—dreams, do you understand?—come to life, come real.
00:55:05Not daydreams—dreams!'
00:55:08There was about half a minute's silence, and then, with a great clatter of armour,
00:55:15the whole crew were tumbling down the main hatch as quick as they could, and flinging
00:55:20themselves on the oars, to row as they had never rowed before.
00:55:26Andrinian was swinging round the tiller, and the boatswain was giving up the quickest stroke
00:55:29that ever had been heard at sea.
00:55:31For it had taken everyone just that half-minute to remember certain dreams they had had—dreams
00:55:39that make you afraid of going to sleep again, and to realise what it would mean to land
00:55:44on a country where dreams come true.
00:55:48Only Reepycheep remained unmoved.
00:55:50"'Your Majesty, your Majesty,' he said, "'are you going to tolerate this mutiny,
00:55:56this paltroonery?
00:55:57This is a panic, this is a rout!'
00:56:01"'Row!
00:56:02Row!'
00:56:03bellowed Caspian.
00:56:04"'Pull for all our lives!
00:56:07Is our head right, Drinian?
00:56:09You can say what you like, Reepycheep.
00:56:10There are some things no man can face.'
00:56:14"'It is then my good fortune not to be a man!' replied Reepycheep, with a very stiff
00:56:20bow.
00:56:21Lucy, from up aloft, had heard it all.
00:56:25In an instant, one of her own dreams, which she had tried hardest to forget, came back
00:56:30to her, as vividly as if she had only just woken from it.
00:56:34So that was what was behind them—on the island, in the darkness.
00:56:39For a second she wanted to go down to the deck and be with Edmund and Caspian.
00:56:43But what was the use?
00:56:45If dreams began coming true, Edmund and Caspian themselves might turn into something horrible,
00:56:51just as she reached them.
00:56:53She gripped the rail of the fighting-top and tried to steady herself.
00:56:56They were rowing back to the light as hard as they could.
00:57:00It would be all right in a few seconds, but, oh, if only it could be all right now!
00:57:07Though the rowing made a good deal of noise, it did not quite conceal the total silence
00:57:12which surrounded the ship.
00:57:14Everyone knew it would be better not to listen, not to strain his ears for any sound from
00:57:19the darkness.
00:57:20But no one could help listening, and soon everyone was hearing things.
00:57:25Each one heard something different.
00:57:28"'Do you hear a noise like—like a—a huge pair of scissors opening and shutting?
00:57:34Over there!' Eustace asked Rhinelph.
00:57:37"'Hush!' said Rhinelph.
00:57:39'I can hear them crawling up the sides of the ship.'
00:57:42"'It's—just going to settle on the mast,' said Caspian.
00:57:48"'Argh!' said a sailor.
00:57:50"'There are the gongs beginning anew, they would!'
00:57:54Caspian, trying not to look at anything, especially not to keep looking behind him, went aft to
00:57:59Drinian.
00:58:00"'Drinian,' he said, in a very low voice, "'how long did we take rowing in—I mean,
00:58:07rowing to where we picked up the stranger?'
00:58:09"'Five minutes, perhaps,' whispered Drinian.
00:58:13"'Why?'
00:58:14"'Because we've been more than that already trying to get out.'
00:58:19Drinian's hand shook on the tiller, and a line of cold sweat ran down his face.
00:58:24The same idea was occurring to every one on board.
00:58:29"'We shall never get out—never get out!' moaned the rowers.
00:58:34"'He's steering us wrong!
00:58:36We're going round and round in circles!
00:58:38We shall never get out!'
00:58:41The stranger, who had been lying in a huddled heap on the deck, sat up, and burst out into
00:58:46a horrible screaming laugh.
00:58:50"'Never get out!' he yelled.
00:58:52"'That's it!
00:58:53Of course!
00:58:54We shall never get out!
00:58:56What a fool I was to have thought they would let me go as easily as that!
00:59:00No!
00:59:01No!
00:59:01We shall never get out!'
00:59:05Lucy leant her head on the edge of the fighting-top, and whispered,
00:59:09"'Aslan!
00:59:10Aslan!
00:59:11If ever you loved us at all, send us help now!'
00:59:15The darkness did not grow any less, but she began to feel a little—a very, very little
00:59:21better.
00:59:22"'After all, nothing has really happened to us yet,' she thought.
00:59:29"'Look!' cried Ryan Elf's voice hoarsely from the bows.
00:59:34There was a tiny speck of light ahead, and while they watched, a broad beam of light
00:59:40fell from it upon the ship.
00:59:42It did not alter the surrounding darkness, but the whole ship was lit up as if by searchlight.
00:59:49Caspian blinked, stared round, saw the faces of his companions, all with wild, fixed expressions.
00:59:57Everyone was staring in the same direction.
01:00:00Behind everyone lay his black, sharply-edged shadow.
01:00:06Lucy looked along the beam, and presently saw something in it.
01:00:09At first it looked like a cross, then it looked like an aeroplane, then it looked like a kite,
01:00:16and at last, with a whirring of wings, it was right overhead, and was an albatross.
01:00:23It circled three times round the mast, and then perched for an instant on the crest of
01:00:28the gilded dragon at the prow.
01:00:30It called out, in a strong, sweet voice, what seemed to be words, though no one understood
01:00:36them.
01:00:37After that, it spread its wings, rose, and began to fly slowly ahead, bearing a little
01:00:45to starboard.
01:00:46Drinian steered after it, not doubting that it offered good guidance.
01:00:51But no one, except Lucy, knew that as it circled the mast, it had whispered to her,
01:00:59Courage, dear heart!
01:01:02And the voice she felt sure was Aslan's, and with the voice a delicious smell breathed
01:01:09in her face.
01:01:11In a few moments the darkness turned into a greyness ahead, and then, almost before
01:01:17they dared begin hoping, they had shot out into the sunlight, and were in the warm, blue
01:01:23world again.
01:01:25And all at once everybody realised that there was nothing to be afraid of, and never had
01:01:29been.
01:01:30They blinked their eyes and looked about them.
01:01:33The brightness of the ship herself astonished them.
01:01:36They had half expected to find that the darkness would cling to the white and the green and
01:01:41the gold, in the form of some grime or scum.
01:01:46And then, perched one, and then another, began laughing.
01:01:51I reckon we've made pretty good fools of ourselves, said Rhinelph.
01:01:57Lucy lost no time in coming down to the deck, where she found the others, all gathered round
01:02:02the new-comer.
01:02:04For a long time he was too happy to speak, and could only gaze at the sea and the sun
01:02:10and fill the bulwarks and the ropes, as if to make sure he was really awake, while tears
01:02:16rolled down his cheeks.
01:02:17Thank you, he said at last, you have saved me from—but I won't talk of that, and don't
01:02:25let me know who you are.
01:02:28I am a Telmarine of Narnia, and when I was worth anything, men called me the Lord Roop.
01:02:35And I, said Caspian, am Caspian, King of Narnia, and I sail to find you and your companions,
01:02:42who were my father's friends.
01:02:44Lord Roop fell on his knees and kissed the King's hand.
01:02:48Sire, he said, you are the man in all the world I most wish to see.
01:02:53Grant me a boon.
01:02:55What is it?
01:02:56asked Caspian.
01:02:59Never to bring me back there, he said.
01:03:03He pointed astern.
01:03:04They all looked.
01:03:06But they saw only bright blue sea and bright blue sky.
01:03:10The dark island and the darkness had vanished for ever.
01:03:15Why, cried Lord Roop, you have destroyed it.
01:03:20I don't think it was us, said Lucy.
01:03:24Sire, said Rinian, this wind is fair for the South-East.
01:03:29Shall I have our poor fellows up and set sail, and after that, every man who can be spared
01:03:35to his house?
01:03:37Every man who can be spared to his hammock?
01:03:41Yes, said Caspian, and let there be grog all round.
01:03:46Hey-ho, I feel I could sleep the clock round myself.
01:03:52So, all afternoon, with great joy, they sailed South-East with a fair wind.
01:03:59But nobody noticed when the albatross had disappeared.
01:04:04CHAPTER XIII THE THREE SLEEPERS
01:04:11The wind never failed, but it grew gentler every day, till at length the waves were little
01:04:17more than ripples, and the ship glided on, hour after hour, almost as if they were sailing
01:04:22on a lake.
01:04:24And every night they saw that there rose in the East new constellations, which no one
01:04:30had ever seen in Narnia, and, perhaps, as Lucy thought, with a mixture of joy and fear,
01:04:39no living eye had seen at all.
01:04:42Those new stars were big and bright, and the nights were warm.
01:04:47Most of them slept on deck, and talked far into the night, or hung over the ship's side,
01:04:53watching the luminous dance of the foam thrown up by their bows.
01:04:57On an evening of startling beauty, when the sunsets behind them were so crimson and purple
01:05:02and widely spread, that the very sky itself seemed to have grown larger, they came in
01:05:08sight of land on their starboard bow.
01:05:11It came slowly nearer, and the light behind them made it look as if the capes and headlands
01:05:17of this new country were all on fire.
01:05:19But presently they were sailing along its coast, and its western cape now rose up astern
01:05:25of them.
01:05:27Black against the red sky, and sharp, as if it was cut out of cardboard.
01:05:32And then they could see better what this country was like.
01:05:37It had no mountains, but many gentle hills, with slopes like pillows.
01:05:43An attractive smell came from it, what Lucy called a dim, purple kind of smell, which
01:05:51Edmund said, and Rince thought, was rot.
01:05:55But Caspian said, I know what you mean.
01:05:59They sailed on a good way, past point after point, hoping to find a nice deep harbour,
01:06:05but had to content themselves in the end with a wide and shallow bay.
01:06:10Though it had seemed calm out at sea, there was, of course, surf breaking on the sand,
01:06:15and they could not bring the dawn treasure as far in as they would have liked.
01:06:19They dropped anchor a good way away from the beach, and had a wet and tumbling landing
01:06:24in the boat.
01:06:25The Lord Roop remained on board the dawn-treader.
01:06:28He wished to see no more islands.
01:06:31All the time that they remained in this country, the sound of the long breakers was in their
01:06:36ears.
01:06:38Two men were left to guard the boat, and Caspian led the others inland, but not far, because
01:06:44it was too late for exploring, and the light would soon go.
01:06:47But there was no need to go far to find an adventure.
01:06:51The level valley which lay at the head of the bay showed no road, or track, or other
01:06:56sign of habitation.
01:06:58Under foot was fine springy turf, dotted here and there with a low bushy growth, which Edmund
01:07:05and Lucy took for heather.
01:07:07Eustace, who was really rather good at botany, said it wasn't, and he was probably right.
01:07:14But it was something of very much the same kind.
01:07:18When they had gone less than a bow-shot from the shore, Drinian said,
01:07:23"'Look!
01:07:24What's that?'
01:07:25and everyone stopped.
01:07:27"'Are they great trees?' said Caspian.
01:07:32"'Towers, I think,' said Eustace.
01:07:35"'It might be giants,' said Edmund, in a lower voice.
01:07:40"'The way to find out is to go right in among them,' said Reepycheap,
01:07:44drawing his sword and pattering off ahead of everyone else.
01:07:48"'I think it's a ruin,' said Lucy, when they had got a good deal nearer,
01:07:54and her guess was the best so far.
01:07:57What they now saw was a wide, oblong space, flagged with smooth stones and surrounded
01:08:03by grey pillars, but unroofed, and from end to end of it ran a long table,
01:08:09laid with a rich crimson cloth that came down nearly to the pavement.
01:08:14At either side of it were many chairs of stone,
01:08:17richly carved, and with silken cushions upon the seats.
01:08:21But on the table itself there was set out such a banquet as had never been seen.
01:08:26Not even when Peter, the High King, kept his court at Caer Parabel,
01:08:31there were turkeys and geese and peacocks, there were boar's heads and sides of venison,
01:08:37there were pies shaped like ships under full sail, or like dragons and elephants,
01:08:43there were ice-puddings and bright lobsters and gleaming salmon,
01:08:47there were nuts and grapes, pineapples and peaches, pomegranates and melons and tomatoes,
01:08:52there were flagons of gold and silver and curiously wrought glass,
01:08:57and the smell of the fruit and the wine blew towards them like a promise of all happiness.
01:09:05"'I say!' said Lucy.
01:09:09They came nearer and nearer, all very quietly.
01:09:14"'But where are the guests?' asked Eustace.
01:09:18"'We can provide that, sir,' said Rince.
01:09:22"'Look!' said Edmund sharply.
01:09:24"'They were actually within the pillars now, and standing on the pavement.
01:09:29Everyone looked where Edmund had pointed.
01:09:31The chairs were not all empty.
01:09:34At the head of the table, and in the two places beside it, there was something, or
01:09:42possibly three somethings.'
01:09:46"'What are those?' asked Lucy in a whisper.
01:09:50"'It looks like three beavers sitting on the table.'
01:09:54"'Or a huge bird's nest,' said Edmund.
01:09:57"'It looks more like a haystack to me,' said Caspian.
01:10:01Reepy Cheep ran forward, jumped on a chair, and thence on to the table,
01:10:06and ran along it, threading his way as nimbly as a dancer between jewelled cups
01:10:11and pyramids of fruit and ivory salt-cellars.
01:10:15He ran right up to the mysterious grey mass at the end, peered, touched, and then called out,
01:10:22"'These will not fight, I think!'
01:10:26Everyone now came close, and saw that what sat in those three chairs
01:10:32was three men, though hard to recognise as men till you look closely.
01:10:37Their hair, which was grey, had grown over their eyes, till it almost
01:10:42concealed their faces, and their beards had grown over the table,
01:10:46climbing round and entwining plates and goblets as brambles entwine a
01:10:51fence, until, all mixed in one great mat of hair, they flowed over
01:10:56the edge and down to the floor, and from their heads their hair hung
01:11:01over the backs of their chairs, so that they were wholly hidden.
01:11:06In fact, the three men were nearly all hair.'
01:11:11"'Dead?' said Caspian.
01:11:14"'I think not, sire,' said Reepy Cheep, lifting one of their hands
01:11:18out of its tangle of hair in his two paws.
01:11:22"'This one is warm, and his pulse beats.'
01:11:26"'This one, too.
01:11:28And this,' said Drinian.
01:11:31"'Why, they're only asleep,' said Eustace.
01:11:34"'It's been a long sleep, though,' said Edmund,
01:11:38"'to let the hair grow like this.'
01:11:41"'It must be an enchanted sleep,' said Lucy.
01:11:45"'I felt the moment we landed on this island that it was full of magic.
01:11:50Oh, do you think we have perhaps come here to break it?'
01:11:55"'We can try,' said Caspian, and began shaking the nearest of the
01:11:59three sleepers.
01:12:01For a moment everyone thought he was going to be successful, for the
01:12:03man breathed hard and muttered, "'I'll go eastward no more.
01:12:10Out oars, for Narnia!'
01:12:12But he sank back almost at once into a yet deeper sleep than before.
01:12:17That is, his heavy head sagged a few inches lower towards the table,
01:12:22and all efforts to rouse him again were useless.
01:12:26With the second it was much the same.
01:12:29"'Weren't born to live like animals.
01:12:31Get to the east while you have a chance.
01:12:33Lands behind the sun.'
01:12:36And sank down.
01:12:38And the third only said, "'Mustard, please,' and slept hard.
01:12:45"'Out oars for Narnia, eh?' said Drinian.
01:12:51"'Yes,' said Caspian, "'you are right, Drinian.
01:12:54I think our quest is at an end.
01:12:56Let's look at their rings.
01:12:59Yes, these are their devices.
01:13:02This is the Lord Rebellion, this is the Lord Argos,
01:13:05and this the Lord Mavrimorn.'"
01:13:09"'But we can't wake them,' said Lucy.
01:13:12"'What are we to do?'
01:13:14"'Begging your Majesty's pardons all,' said Rince,
01:13:17"'but why not fall to while you're discussing it?
01:13:20We don't see a dinner like this every day.'
01:13:24"'Not for your life,' said Caspian.
01:13:27"'That's right, that's right,' said several of the sailors.
01:13:31"'Too much magic about here.
01:13:32The sooner we're back on board, the better.'
01:13:34"'Depend upon it,' said Reepy Cheep.
01:13:38"'It was from eating this food
01:13:41that these three lords came by a seven-year's sleep.'
01:13:45"'I wouldn't touch it to save my life,' said Drinian.
01:13:50"'The light's going.
01:13:51Uncommon quick,' said Rynelf.
01:13:53"'Back to ship, back to ship,' muttered the men.
01:13:56"'I really think,' said Edmund,
01:13:59"'they're right.
01:14:00We can decide what to do with the three sleepers tomorrow.
01:14:03We daren't eat the food,
01:14:05and there's no point in staying here for the night.
01:14:07The whole place smells of magic and danger.'
01:14:13"'I am entirely of King Edmund's opinion,' said Reepy Cheep,
01:14:16"'as far as concerns the ship's company in general,
01:14:20but I myself will sit at this table till sunrise.'
01:14:25"'Why on earth?' said Eustace.
01:14:28"'Because,' said the mouse,
01:14:30"'this is a very great adventure,
01:14:33and no danger seems to me so great
01:14:36as that of knowing when I get back to Narnia
01:14:38that I left a mystery behind me through fear.'
01:14:43"'I'll stay with you, Reep,' said Edmund.
01:14:46"'And I too,' said Caspian.
01:14:49"'And me,' said Lucy.
01:14:52And then Eustace volunteered also.
01:14:55This was very brave of him,
01:14:57because never having read of such things,
01:14:59or even heard of them,
01:15:01till he joined the Dawn Treader,
01:15:03made it worse for him than for the others.'
01:15:07"'I beseech your majesty,' began Drinian.
01:15:10"'No, my lord,' said Caspian.
01:15:13"'Your place is with the ship,
01:15:15and you have had a day's work while we five have idled.'
01:15:19There was a lot of argument about this,
01:15:21but in the end Caspian had his way.
01:15:23As the crew marched off to the shore in the gathering dusk,
01:15:27none of the five watchers,
01:15:29except, perhaps, Reepicheep,
01:15:31could avoid a cold feeling in the stomach.