本集演播：槑贰 

后期：Ning

英文对照文本在最底下，请往下拉到底。

第2节

他们累得喘不过气来，所以都没说话，不然他就能听到他们的声音而有所警惕了。但幸好还没被察觉，他就迅速后退了老远，呆在那里一直等到地精爸爸出来往宫殿去为止。

等了很长时间，他和他儿子黑尔菲尔都出来了，跟之前一样朝着同一个方向走去。科迪这一次更加警觉地跟着他们。有很长一段时间，他只能听见岩石中溪水流动般的声音。但很快他就听见巨大的喧哗声传进耳朵却又立即停止了。向前又走了很远，他好像听见一个声音在说话。随着向前走得越来越近，声音也越发清晰，最后他几乎可以听到说话的内容了。又跟着地精走了一会儿，转过另一个拐角，他再一次猛地后退——这次是因为震惊。

他现在站在一个雄伟的椭圆形天然洞穴的入口处，这里过去可能是一个巨大的天然蓄水池，现在成了地精的大型宫殿。它的屋顶极高，但都是由一些发光的材料组成的，大群地精手拿的火把把宫殿照得灯火通明，科迪可以仔仔细细地观赏屋顶。宫殿大得无边无际，过了好几分钟他的眼睛才适应过来它的庞大。墙上粗大的突出的石头，以及它们在地上火把的照射下映到天花板上的投影，好像是殿堂的边上摆满了从地板的支架和底座上不规则地延伸到天花板的巨大石像。而墙壁大多是由发光的物质组成的，有一些的色彩十分夺目，跟天花板上的投影形成了强烈的对比。科迪不禁想自己的诗能对挤满了大厅地板的这么多地精起作用吗，事实上他恨不得大声地喊“一，二，三！”实验一下。但比起打败他们，他更需要揭发他们的阴谋，所以他没有出声，继续藏在门口偷偷观察，用他两只敏锐的耳朵继续偷听。

在大殿的另一头，出现在地精们的上方的，是一处极高的突起，因为上方挖掉了墙壁上洞穴的上一半，形成了台阶似的形状。地精国王和他的大臣们就在这上面：国王坐在一个用巨大的绿色铜矿石凿出的王座上，而他的大臣们坐在周围低一些的座位上。国王可能刚刚给他们发表了讲话，所以科迪听到了随之而来的掌声。

PART II

They were as yet too breathless to speak, else he would have had warning of their arrest. He started back, however, before anyone saw him, and retreating a good way, stood watching till the father should come out to go to the palace.

Before very long, both he and his son Helfer appeared and kept on in the same direction as before, while Curdie followed them again with renewed precaution. For a long time he heard no sound except something like the rush of a river inside the rock; but at length what seemed the far-off noise of a great shouting reached his ears, which, however, presently ceased. After advancing a good way farther, he thought he heard a single voice. It sounded clearer and clearer as he went on, until at last he could almost distinguish the words. In a moment or two, keeping after the goblins round another corner, he once more started back—this time in amazement.

He was at the entrance of a magnificent cavern, of an oval shape, once probably a huge natural reservoir of water, now the great palace hall of the goblins. It rose to a tremendous height, but the roof was composed of such shining materials, and the multitude of torches carried by the goblins who crowded the floor lighted up the place so brilliantly, that Curdie could see to the top quite well. But he had no idea how immense the place was until his eyes had got accustomed to it, which was not for a good many minutes. The rough projections on the walls, and the shadows thrown upwards from them by the torches, made the sides of the chamber look as if they were crowded with statues upon brackets and pedestals, reaching in irregular tiers from floor to roof. The walls themselves were, in many parts, of gloriously shining substances, some of them gorgeously coloured besides, which powerfully contrasted with the shadows. Curdie could not help wondering whether his rhymes would be of any use against such a multitude of goblins as filled the floor of the hall, and indeed felt considerably tempted to begin his shout of 'One, two, three!', but as there was no reason for routing them and much for endeavouring to discover their designs, he kept himself perfectly quiet, and peering round the edge of the doorway, listened with both his sharp ears.

At the other end of the hall, high above the heads of the multitude, was a terrace-like ledge of considerable height, caused by the receding of the upper part of the cavern-wall. Upon this sat the king and his court: the king on a throne hollowed out of a huge block of green copper ore, and his court upon lower seats around it. The king had been making them a speech, and the applause which followed it was what Curdie had heard.