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5节

他们不慌不忙地沿着蛛丝走，公主问了很多问题，科迪从那天晚上他在山上救了她和洛蒂说起，仔仔细细地讲了他知道的哥布林的性格和习惯，又说了他和哥布林的冒险大作战。

说完他的故事，科迪让艾琳说说她是怎么一路过来解救他的。艾琳兜兜转转说了一个很长的故事，因为有些地方没讲清楚，所以总是被科迪的问题打断。但故事的一大半科迪都不信，听完还是莫名其妙。他迷糊了，觉得公主肯定也是迷糊了。他觉得不是公主故意胡编乱造，他只觉 得是洛蒂在糊弄小孩，为了什么扯了一大堆谎来吓唬她。

他说：“可是洛蒂怎么会让你一个人来？”

“洛蒂什么都不知道。我走的时候她睡得很沉，反正看起来挺沉的。希望奶奶没让她惹上麻烦，奶奶知道洛蒂没做错什么。”

科迪追问：“可你怎么找到我的呢？”

艾琳说：“我说过啦。就这样，把手指放在奶奶的蛛丝上。”

“你不是说那里有蛛丝吧？”

“是有呀。我都说了十多遍啦。除了搬石头的时候，我手都没从上面放下来。你看！”她拉过科迪的手去碰蛛丝，接着说：“你自己摸摸，摸到没？”

科迪说：“我什么都没摸到。”

“你的手怎么了？我明明摸到了。它是很细，阳光底下看起来就像一条蜘蛛丝，其实是由很多蜘蛛丝缠绕一起做成的。可是就算很 细，我还是不懂，怎么我摸得到，你就摸不到呢？”

科迪只是客气才没说他压根就不信有这么一条蛛丝。他只是说：

“好吧。我也不懂。”

“没关系，我摸得到。你得偷着乐吧，反正这条蛛丝能把我们俩都带出去。”

“我们还没出去呢。”科迪说。

“很快就出去了。”艾琳自信满满。现在蛛丝往下走，带着艾琳走到洞底出口。他们之前一直听到的水流声就是从这儿传出的。

艾琳停下来说：“科迪，已经到地面啦。”

而他一直在听别的声音，他耳朵尖，早就留意到了，而那声音变得越来越大了。这是哥布林矿工干活的声音，现在似乎离得不远。艾琳站住的时候也听到了。

“什么声音？你知道吗，科迪？”她问。

“嗯。是哥布林在打洞。”他说。

“打洞做什么？你知道吗？”

“我还一点都不清楚。你想瞧瞧他们吗？”他想再试试，看看他们打什么算盘。

PART V

The princess asked more questions, and Curdie, as they walked leisurely along, gave her a full account, not only of the character and habits of the goblins, so far as he knew them, but of his own adventures with them, beginning from the very night after that in which he had met her and Lootie upon the mountain.

When he had finished, he begged Irene to tell him how it was that she had come to his rescue. So Irene too had to tell a long story, which she did in rather a roundabout manner, interrupted by many questions concerning things she had not explained. But her tale, as he did not believe more than half of it, left everything as unaccountable to him as before, and he was nearly as much perplexed as to what he must think of the princess. He could not believe that she was deliberately telling stories, and the only conclusion he could come to was that Lootie had been playing the child tricks, inventing no end of lies to frighten her for her own purposes.

'But how ever did Lootie come to let you go into the mountains alone?'he asked.

'Lootie knows nothing about it. I left her fast asleep—at least I think so. I hope my grandmother won't let her get into trouble, for it wasn't her fault at all, as my grandmother very well knows.'

'But how did you find your way to me?' persisted Curdie.

'I told you already,' answered Irene; 'by keeping my finger upon my grandmother's thread, as I am doing now.'

'You don't mean you've got the thread there?'

'Of course I do. I have told you so ten times already. I have hardly—except when I was removing the stones—taken my finger off it. There!' she added, guiding Curdie's hand to the thread, 'you feel it yourself—don't you?'

'I feel nothing at all,' replied Curdie.

 'Then what can be the matter with your finger? I feel it perfectly. To be sure it is very thin, and in the sunlight looks just like the thread of a spider, though there are many of them twisted together to make it—but for all that I can't think why you shouldn't feel it as well as I do.'

Curdie was too polite to say he did not believe there was any thread there at all. What he did say was:

'Well, I can make nothing of it.'

'I can, though, and you must be glad of that, for it will do for both of us.'

'We're not out yet,' said Curdie.

'We soon shall be,' returned Irene confidently. And now the thread went downwards, and led Irene's hand to a hole in the floor of the cavern, whence came a sound of running water which they had been hearing for some time.

'It goes into the ground now, Curdie,' she said, stopping.

He had been listening to another sound, which his practised ear had caught long ago, and which also had been growing louder. It was the noise the goblin-miners made at their work, and they seemed to be at no great distance now. Irene heard it the moment she stopped.

'What is that noise?' she asked. 'Do you know, Curdie?'

'Yes. It is the goblins digging and burrowing,' he answered.

'And you don't know what they do it for?'

'No; I haven't the least idea. Would you like to see them?' he asked, wishing to have another try after their secret.