本章演播：槑贰

后期：青丘

英文文本在最下面，请往下拉

第3节

这可让她走得够呛。艾琳穿过一条条狭窄的通道，爬过一块块沙石土堆，丝线一直指引着她，最后，艾琳来到了一个小山洞跟前，她得用爬的才能穿过去。穿过小山洞，一切还是老样子，艾琳不停地思索“我是不是该回去？”她觉得自己就像在梦里头走路似的，而且还奇怪自己为什么不怎么害怕。有时候，她能听到在岩石里头缓慢流过的汨汨水声，不一会儿，她又听到一阵敲打的声音，这声音越来越近，但又越来越轻，最后完全听不到了。她顺着丝线指引的方向，转了好多个弯。

最后，艾琳看到一团黯淡的红色光芒，于是爬上云母石窗户，从那里钻了出去，又在附近转悠了一下，然后径直走进一个山洞，山洞里有一堆余烬还在燃烧。这时，丝线开始往上，一直伸到艾琳头顶，而且还在往上延伸。要是她没抓住丝线该怎么办？她正把丝线往下拽，没准儿会把它拽断的！她能瞧见丝线一直往上，而且闪耀着红色的光芒，就像那块在余烬的微光中闪闪发亮的火红蛋白石一样。

这会儿，她来到了一大堆石头前面，这堆石头挡住了洞口。她爬到石堆上面，很快就发现丝线又回到水平的位置了。不过，艾琳马上发现，丝线消失在石堆后面，她自己就站在石堆上，面对着坚硬的岩石。有那么一会儿，她害怕极了，觉得奶奶一定是不要自己了。那条在遥远的国度、由蜘蛛吐出的丝线；那条奶奶坐在月光下、为她纺成的丝线；那条她从火焰玫瑰里取出来、系在蛋白石戒指上的丝线把她带到一个可怕的山洞，然后就扔下她不管了——她再也找不到那了！奶奶真的不要她了！

“我什么时候才能醒过来呢？”她好不苦恼，自言自语道。但是艾琳立刻就发现，自己不是在做梦。她一下子扑到石堆上，放声大哭起来。幸好她不知道旁边的山洞里躺着什么样的怪物，其中一个怪物的脚上还有一双石头鞋子。不过，她也不知道石板后面关的到底是谁。

最后，艾琳突然想到，自己至少可以顺着丝线往回走，然后就能走出大山，回到家里。她立刻站起来，想找到丝线。可是，她一往后摸，丝线就消失不见了；要是往前摸的话，就能顺着丝线摸到那堆石头——往回摸的话，好像哪儿都找不到那根线。在火光的照耀下，艾琳也没法像刚才那样看到丝线。她又扑倒在石堆上嚎啕大哭起来。

PART III

Through one narrow passage after another, over lumps of rock and sand and clay, the thread guided her, until she came to a small hole through which she had to creep. Finding no change on the other side, 'Shall I ever get back?' she thought, over and over again, wondering at herself that she was not ten times more frightened, and often feeling as if she were only walking in the story of a dream. Sometimes she heard the noise of water, a dull gurgling inside the rock. By and by she heard the sounds of blows, which came nearer and nearer; but again they grew duller, and almost died away. In a hundred directions she turned, obedient to the guiding thread.

At last she spied a dull red shine, and came up to the mica window, and thence away and round about, and right, into a cavern, where glowed the red embers of a fire. Here the thread began to rise. It rose as high as her head and higher still. What should she do if she lost her hold? She was pulling it down: She might break it! She could see it far up, glowing as red as her fire-opal in the light of the embers.

But presently she came to a huge heap of stones, piled in a slope against the wall of the cavern. On these she climbed, and soon recovered the level of the thread only however to find, the next moment, that it vanished through the heap of stones, and left her standing on it, with her face to the solid rock. For one terrible moment she felt as if her grandmother had forsaken her. The thread which the spiders had spun far over the seas, which her grandmother had sat in the moonlight and spun again for her, which she had tempered in the rose-fire and tied to her opal ring, had left her—had gone where she could no longer follow it—had brought her into a horrible cavern, and there left her! She was forsaken indeed!

'When shall I wake?' she said to herself in an agony, but the same moment knew that it was no dream. She threw herself upon the heap, and began to cry. It was well she did not know what creatures, one of them with stone shoes on her feet, were lying in the next cave. But neither did she know who was on the other side of the slab.

At length the thought struck her that at least she could follow the thread backwards, and thus get out of the mountain, and home. She rose at once, and found the thread. But the instant she tried to feel it backwards, it vanished from her touch. Forwards, it led her hand up to the heap of stones—backwards it seemed nowhere. Neither could she see it as before in the light of the fire. She burst into a wailing cry, and again threw herself down on the stones.