本集演播：槑贰 

后期：倩文

英文对照文本在最底下，请往下拉到底。

第3节

他小声说：“艾琳，你救了我一命！”

“科迪！我太高兴了！我们赶紧离开这个恐怖的地方吧！”

“说起来简单做起来难呐。”科迪说。

“噢，不难，可简单了。我们沿着蛛丝走，我保证它就要带我们出去了。”

科迪在地上找他的鹤嘴锄，艾琳却已经爬过板子、跟着蛛丝跑进地牢里去了。

科迪叫了一声：“在这儿呢！”接着又失望地说：“这不是我的锄子。那会是什么？我想是个火把。太好了！简直比我的锄子还有用呢，如果不是要对付那双石头脚，那就更好了。”火把要灭了，他吹着火星把它点亮，又继续找锄子。

地牢原本黑布隆冬，他借着火光抬头往里看，却看见艾琳走进洞里不见了。他才刚从那洞里出来呢。

“你要去哪？”科迪叫起来：“那不是出去的路。我就是被困在那儿。”

艾琳小声说：“我知道。但我的蛛丝往这儿走，我要跟着它。”

科迪自言自语：“这小姑娘在胡说什么呀！不过我得跟着她，看着她可别让哥布林欺负了。她待会就知道那条路根本走不通，到时她就会跟着我走了。”

所以他又拿着火把爬过板子、爬回洞里。可是他在洞里四下看都没见到艾琳公主。他发现虽然洞穴很窄，却比他想象中深得多。有一边越往里洞就越矮，渐渐变成一条小隧道，看不到尽头。公主肯定爬进去了。科迪一手拿着火把，另一只手和膝盖撑在地上，跟着爬进去。小道拐来拐去，有些地方矮得连科迪都差点爬不过去，有些地方又高得看不见顶。但每一处都很窄，哥布林没法通过，我猜他们也没想到科迪会从这逃走。

爬了一会，科迪开始感到不安，就怕公主出什么事，这时他听见艾琳低声说话，好像就在耳边：

“你来了吗科迪？”

等他走过拐角，公主就站在那儿等着他。她说：

“我知道在窄的地方你不会走错，可是现在你得跟着我了，这儿很宽。”

“我真不明白。”科迪嘀嘀咕咕，像是对着自己，又像是对着艾琳。

“不要紧，等我们出去就明白了。”她回答道。

科迪着实吓了一跳，没想到公主已经走了这么远，而他根本不知道这条路。他想最好还是由她去吧。“总之，”他反复对自己说：“我这样的矿工都完全不知道这路该怎么走，可她却胸有成竹的样子，真是搞不懂。她和我一样有可能找到出路，既然她坚持带路，那我就跟着吧，反正情况就这么糟了。”这样想着，科迪跟着公主，没走几步他们就到了一个更大的洞。公主直接穿过这个洞，她自信满满的样子，仿佛知道每一步该怎么走。

PART III

'You've saved my life, Irene!' he whispered.

'Oh, Curdie! I'm so glad! Let's get out of this horrid place as fast as we can.'

'That's easier said than done,' returned he.

'Oh, no, it's quite easy,' said Irene. 'We have only to follow my thread. I am sure that it's going to take us out now.'

She had already begun to follow it over the fallen slab into the hole, while Curdie was searching the floor of the cavern for his pickaxe.

'Here it is!' he cried. 'No, it is not,' he added, in a disappointed tone. 'What can it be, then? I declare it's a torch. That is jolly! It's better almost than my pickaxe. Much better if it weren't for those stone shoes!' he went on, as he lighted the torch by blowing the last embers of the expiring fire.

When he looked up, with the lighted torch casting a glare into the great darkness of the huge cavern, he caught sight of Irene disappearing in the hole out of which he had himself just come.

'Where are you going there?' he cried. 'That's not the way out. That's where I couldn't get out.'

'I know that,' whispered Irene. 'But this is the way my thread goes, and I must follow it.'

'What nonsense the child talks!' said Curdie to himself. 'I must follow her, though, and see that she comes to no harm. She will soon find she can't get out that way, and then she will come with me.'

So he crept over the slab once more into the hole with his torch in his hand. But when he looked about in it, he could see her nowhere. And now he discovered that although the hole was narrow, it was much longer than he had supposed; for in one direction the roof came down very low, and the hole went off in a narrow passage, of which he could not see the end. The princess must have crept in there. He got on his knees and one hand, holding the torch with the other, and crept after her. The hole twisted about, in some parts so low that he could hardly get through, in others so high that he could not see the roof, but everywhere it was narrow—far too narrow for a goblin to get through, and so I presume they never thought that Curdie might.

He was beginning to feel very uncomfortable lest something should have befallen the princess, when he heard her voice almost close to his ear, whispering:

'Aren't you coming, Curdie?'

And when he turned the next corner there she stood waiting for him.

'I knew you couldn't go wrong in that narrow hole, but now you must keep by me, for here is a great wide place,' she said.

'I can't understand it,' said Curdie, half to himself, half to Irene.

'Never mind,' she returned. 'Wait till we get out.'

Curdie, utterly astonished that she had already got so far, and by a path he had known nothing of, thought it better to let her do as she pleased. 'At all events,' he said again to himself, 'I know nothing about the way, miner as I am; and she seems to think she does know something about it, though how she should passes my comprehension. So she's just as likely to find her way as I am, and as she insists on taking the lead, I must follow. We can't be much worse off than we are, anyhow.' Reasoning thus, he followed her a few steps, and came out in another great cavern, across which Irene walked in a straight line, as confidently as if she knew every step of the way.