《魔法師的外甥》第27期:安德魯舅舅的麻煩開始了(4)

"Stop," said the Witch, just as he reached the door. "Do not dream of treachery. My eyes can see through walls and into the minds of men. They will be on you wherever you go. At the first sign of disobedience I will lay such spells on you that anything you sit down on will feel like red hot iron and whenever you lie in a bed there will be invisible blocks of ice at your feet. Now go."

The old man went out, looking like a dog with its tail between its legs.

The children were now afraid that Jadis would have something to say to them about what had happened in the wood. As it turned out, however, she never mentioned it either then or afterwards. I think (and Digory thinks too) that her mind was of a sort which cannot remember that quiet place at all, and however often you took her there and however long you left her there, she would still know nothing about it. Now that she was left alone with the children, she took no notice of either of them. And that was like her too. In Charn she had taken no notice of Pony (till the very end) because Digory was the one she wanted to make use of. Now that she had Uncle Andrew, she took no notice of Digory. I expect most witches are like that. They are not interested in things or people unless they can use them; they are terribly practical. So there was silence in the room for a minute or two. But you could tell by the way Jadis tapped her foot on the floor that she was growing impatient.

Presently she said, as if to herself, "What is the old fool doing? I should have brought a whip." She stalked out of the room in pursuit of Uncle Andrew without one glance at the children.

"Whew!" said Polly, letting out a long breath of relief. "And now I must get home. It's frightfully late. I shall catch it."

"Well do, do come back as soon as you can," said Digory. "This is simply ghastly, having her here. We must make some sort of plan."

"That's up to your Uncle now," said Polly. "It was he who started all this messing about with Magic."

"All the same, you will come back, won't you? Hang it all, you can't leave me alone in a scrape like this."

"I shall go home by the tunnel," said Polly rather coldly. "That'll be the quickest way. And if you want me to come back, hadn't you better say you're sorry?"

"Sorry?" exclaimed Digory. "Well now, if that isn't just like a girl! What have I done?"

"Oh nothing of course," said Polly sarcastically. "Only nearly screwed my wrist off in that room with all the waxworks, like a cowardly bully. Only struck the bell with the hammer, like a silly idiot. Only turned back in the wood so that she had time to catch hold of you before we jumped into our own pool. That's all."

"Oh," said Digory, very surprised. "Well, alright, I'll say I'm sorry. And I really am sorry about what happened in the waxworks room. There: I've said I'm sorry. And now, do be decent and come back. I shall be in a frightful hole if you don't."

他剛走到門口，女巫說，“站住，別想耍花招。我的眼睛可以穿透牆壁，看到人的內心。你走到哪兒都逃不出我的眼睛。只要你再出不服從我的苗頭，我就會詛咒你，你坐的任何東西都會像燒紅的鐵，任何時候你躺上牀，腳下朝會有看不見的冰塊。現在走吧。”

那老傢伙像夾着尾巴的狗一樣走了出去。

孩子們害怕簡蒂此會向他們問起樹林中的事。然而，她當時沒有說，後來也沒提到這件事。我想（迪格雷也想），她的內心根本記不住那片寧靜的地方，即便你經常帶她去，或者把她長久地留在那裏，她仍然什麼都不知道。現在，她單獨與孩子們在一起，但她對他們一點兒也不留意。在恰恩，她根本不注意波莉（直到最後），因爲她只想利用迪格雷。既然她現在有了安德魯舅舅，便不再注意迪格雷了。我認爲大多數女巫都是這樣。她們極端實用，只對可以利用的人和物感興趣。所以，屋子裏有一陣很安靜。但是，從簡蒂絲用腳拍打地板的方式上看得出，她越來越不耐煩了。

不一會兒，她彷彿自言自語地說道“這老傻瓜在千什麼，我該帶根鞭子來。“她看也不看孩子們一眼，就衝出去追安德魯舅舅去了。”

“噓——”波莉長長地舒了口氣，“我必須回家了。已經太晚了，我會受罰的。”

“那，儘早回來，”迪格雷說，“把她弄到這兒來簡直糟糕透了。我們必須制定計劃。”

“這是你舅舅的事，”波莉說，“這些麻煩是他的魔法造成的。”

“不管怎麼說，你會回來的，是嗎，真該死，你不能讓我一個人去理這團亂麻。”

“我從隧道回家，”波莉冷冰冰地說，“這樣最快。要是你想計我回來，是不是最好說聲‘對不起’? ”

“對不起？”迪格雷叫道，“那不跟女孩一樣了嗎？我做了什麼？”

“當然，沒什麼。”波莉譏諷地說，“只不過在那間塑像廳早，像一個膽小的暴徒一樣差點把我的手腕擰斷。只不過像一個傻瓜似的用小錘去敲鐘。只不過在樹林裏還沒跳進水潭就轉過身去，好讓她有機會抓住你。就這些。”

“啊，”迪格雷很吃驚地說，“好了，我說對不起，而且對塑像廳甲發生的事感到非常抱歉。現在，我已經說了對不起，你就應該同來，否則太不像話，你如果不回來，就是把我推進一個可怕的深淵裏了。”