本集演播：槑贰 

后期：荆溪

英文对照文本在最底下，请往下拉到底。

第18章 科迪的线索

科迪还是和以前一样警惕，可是他一直没什么收获，所以都有点儿倦怠了。每天晚上，地精们挖呀钻呀的时候，科迪都会跟在它们后面。他尽可能凑近一些，躲在岩石后面监视，可他似乎还是没能发现它们到底想干什么。他一开始总是把线团的一端攥在手里，镐则留在洞口——他就是打那儿从矿井钻进地精的国度的。

那柄镐头就像只锚一样，牢牢地系着线团的另一头。地精在那块地方没听到什么动静，也就不担心会马上遭到袭击，所以没有派人站岗。

有一天晚上，科迪东躲西藏、留神倾听，累得都快睡着了，他决定回家睡觉，于是开始收拾线团。他经过一个又一个地精住的山洞，可是不一会儿，他就迷惑起来——因为他经过的山洞比来的时候多得多。这些洞穴都挨得很紧，科迪得小心翼翼地经过，以免惊动里头的地精。难道线团带错路了？他还是顺着绳子把线团缠起来，但绳子带他去的地方住的地精越来越多。科迪有点不安，而且真的有点担心，他倒不是害怕这些家伙，而是担心自己会走不出去。可是他能怎么办呢？坐下来等天亮于事无补——这里总是黑漆漆的，天亮了也还是一个模样；要是绳子也帮不了他的话，他可就一点儿办法也没有了。他可能离矿井只有一码远，但自己却压根儿不知道。科迪明白，自己这么做至少还能发现绳子的另一端在哪儿，而且如果可能的话，还能发现绳子是怎么捉弄他的。科迪根据线团的大小，知道自己就快走到绳子的尽头了。就在这时，他觉得有什么东西在拉扯手里的绳子。这究竟是怎么回事？科迪猛地转了个弯，觉得自己听到了奇怪的声音。他继续往前走，这声音先是变成了乱糟糟的脚步声，接着是怒吼声，然后是尖叫声。喧闹声越来越响，科迪又猛地转了个弯，发现自己一下子跌了进去。科迪知道那是一大群地精养的矮脚怪，他还没站起来呢，就被这群乱作一团的怪物绊倒了。

科迪还没站稳，脸上就被狠狠地抓了几下，腿上和手臂上都被重重地咬了几口。他挣扎着想爬起来的时候，摸到了自己的镐头，他在黑暗中左右挥舞镐头，免得被那些可怕的怪物伤害到。科迪随后听到了一阵可怕的尖叫，它们一边哀嚎一边仓皇逃窜，溃不成军，他相信自己已经狠狠教训了这群野蛮的家伙，心里十分满意。

CHAPTER 18 Curdie's Clue

Curdie was as watchful as ever, but was almost getting tired of his ill success. Every other night or so he followed the goblins about, as they went on digging and boring, and getting as near them as he could, watched them from behind stones and rocks; but as yet he seemed no nearer finding out what they had in view. As at first, he always kept hold of the end of his string, while his pickaxe, left just outside the hole by which he entered the goblins' country from the mine, continued to serve as an anchor and hold fast the other end. The goblins, hearing no more noise in that quarter, had ceased to apprehend an immediate invasion, and kept no watch.

One night, after dodging about and listening till he was nearly falling asleep with weariness, he began to roll up his ball, for he had resolved to go home to bed. It was not long, however, before he began to feel bewildered. One after another he passed goblin houses, caves, that is, occupied by goblin families, and at length was sure they were many more than he had passed as he came. He had to use great caution to pass unseen—they lay so close together. Could his string have led him wrong? He still followed winding it, and still it led him into more thickly populated quarters, until he became quite uneasy, and indeed apprehensive; for although he was not afraid of the cobs, he was afraid of not finding his way out.But what could he do? It was of no use to sit down and wait for the morning—the morning madeno difference here. It was dark, and always dark; and if his string failed him he was helpless. He might even arrive within a yard of the mine and never know it. Seeing he could do nothing better he  would at least find where the end of his string was, and, if possible, how it had come to play him such a trick. He knew by the size of the ball that he was getting pretty near the last of it, when he began to feel a tugging and pulling at it. What could it mean? Turning a sharp corner, he thought he heard strange sounds. These grew, as he went on, to a scuffling and growling and squeaking; and the noise increased, until, turning a second sharp corner, he found himself in the midst of it, and the same moment tumbled over a wallowing mass, which he knew must be a knot of the cobs' creatures.

Before he could recover his feet, he had caught some great scratches on his face and several severe bites on his legs and arms. But as he scrambled to get up, his hand fell upon his pickaxe, and before the horrid beasts could do him any serious harm, he was laying about with it right and left in the dark.  . The hideous cries which followed gave him the satisfaction of knowing that he had punished some of them pretty smartly for their rudeness, and by their scampering and their retreating howls, he perceived that he had routed them.