chater even what haened at the frnt dr (第2/6页)

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“Lead on，Slave，”said the Witch to Uncle Andrew．He began muttering something about“regrettable violence—must really protest”，but at a single glance from Jadis he became speechless． She drove him out of the room and out of the house；and Digory came running down the stairs just in time to see the front door close behind them．

“Jiminy ！”he said．“She’s loose in London．And with Uncle Andrew．I wonder what on earth is going to happen now．”

“Oh，Master Digory，”said the housemaid（who was really having a wonderful day），“I think Miss Ketterley’s hurt herself somehow．”So they both rushed into the drawing-room to find out what had happened．

If Aunt Letty had fallen on bare boards or even on the carpet， I suppose all her bones would have been broken：but by great good luck she had fallen on the mattress．Aunt Letty was a very tough old lady：aunts often were in those days．After she had had some sal volatile and sat still for a few minutes，she said there was nothing the matter with her except a few bruises．Very soon she was taking charge of the situation．

“Sarah，”she said to the housemaid（who had never had such a day before），“go around to the police station at once and tell them there is a dangerous lunatic at large．I will take Mrs. Kirke’s lunch up myself．”Mrs. Kirke. was，of course，Digory’s mother．

When Mother’s lunch had been seen to，Digory and Aunt Letty had their own．After that he did some hard thinking．

The problem was how to get the Witch back to her own world，or at any rate out of ours，as soon as possible．Whatever happened，she must not be allowed to go rampaging about the house．Mother must not see her And，if possible，she must not be allowed to go rampaging about London either．Digory had not been in the drawing—room when she tried to“blast”Aunt Letty， but he had seen her“blast”the gates at Charn：so he knew her terrible powers and did not know that she had lost any of them by coming into our world．And he knew she meant to conquer our world．At the present moment，as far as he could see，she might be blasting Buckingham Palace or the Houses of Parliament：and it was almost certain that quite a number of policemen had by now been reduced to little heaps of dust．And there didn’t seem to be anything he could do about that．“But the rings seem to work like magnets，”thought Digory．“If I can only touch her and then slip on my yellow，we shall both go into the Wood between the Worlds．I wonder will she go all faint again there ？ Was that something the place does to her，or was it only the shock of being pulled out of her own world ？ But I suppose I’ll have to risk that．And how am I to find the beast ？ I don’t suppose Aunt Letty would let me go out， not unless I said where I was going．And I haven’t got more than t wopence．I’d need any amount of money for buses and trams if I went looking all over London．Anyway，I haven’t the faintest idea where to look．I wonder if Uncle Andrew is still with her．”

It seemed in the end that the only thing he could do was to wait and hope that Uncle Andrew and the Witch would come back．If they did，he must rush out and get hold of the Witch and put on his yellow Ring before she had a chance to get into the house．This meant that he must watch the front door like a cat watching a mouse’s hole；he dared not leave his post for a moment．So he went into the dining-room and“glued his face”as they say，to the window．It was a bow-window from which you could see the steps up to the front door and see up and down the street，so that no one could reach the front door without your knowing．“I wonder what Polly’s doing ？”thought Digory．

He wondered about this a good deal as the first slow half-hour ticked on．But you need not wonder，for I am going to tell you． She had got home late for her dinner，with her shoes and stockings very wet．And when they asked her where she had been and what on earth she had been doing，she said she had been out with Digory Kirke．Under further questioning she said she had got her feet wet in a pool of water，and that the pool was in a wood．Asked where the wood was，she said she didn’t know．Asked if it was in one of the parks，she said truthfully enough that she supposed it might be a sort of park．From all of this Polly’s mother got the idea that Polly had gone off，without telling anyone，to some part of London she didn’t know，and gone into a strange park and amused herself jumping into puddles．As a result she was told that she had been very naughty indeed and that she wouldn’t be allowed to play with“that Kirke boy”any more if anything of the sort ever happened again．Then she was given dinner with all the nice parts left out and sent to bed for two solid hours．It was a thing that happened to one quite often in those days．