本集演播：槑贰

后期：骐煜

英文对照在底部，请往下拉

第4节

“爸爸，你知道，在山里面，特别是在黑暗里，根本不知道自己拐到了什么地方，所以很难说清楚外面是哪里。”

“孩子，没有地图，根本走不了，至少也得有指南针。”

“嗯，我觉得我大概知道那些短腿怪在往哪边挖地道了。没错的话，我还知道点别的可以联系起来。一加一大于二，知道一点，又知道一点，加起来就可以明白第三点了。”

“通常是这样的，科迪，我们做矿工的应该都很清楚。孩子，告诉我，你说的一加一是什么，让我们看看能不能也猜出来这第三点。”

“我看不出这和公主有什么关系。”妈妈插嘴了。

“很快你就知道了，妈妈。你可能会笑我，但我要继续观察，直到一切都水落石出，我可从没这么坚定过。我们走到就要出来的那条小道的时候，我听到有哥布林就在边上哪里干活，我想就在我们下面。从我开始盯着他们，到现在要是算直线距离的话，他们得挖了有半英里长了。据我所知，他们没在山里其他地方挖路。但我总是分不清楚他们在往哪挖。不过，我们从山里出来时到了国王的花园里，我立刻想到，他们挖的通道会不会是通向王宫呢？我想今晚去看看到底是不是，带盏灯去……”

“噢，科迪，”妈妈大声说，“这样他们会发现你的。”

科迪回答：“我把哥布林皇后特别宝贝的鞋子偷走了，现在更不怕他们了。他们暂时赶不出另一只，光着一只脚我就好对付了 。虽然她是女人，下次我可不会放过她。不过我会小心掩着光的，我还不想让他们发现我。我会放帽子里不拿出来。”

“接着说，你打算怎么做？”

“我要带上纸带上笔，从我们出来的溪头那里进山洞，然后一路到那些短腿怪干活的地方，尽量把我拐的每一个弯都在纸上记下来。这样他们在往哪边挖通道就能一清二楚了。要是和水流的方向大致一样，那就可以确定，他们的确是往王宫那去的。”

“如果真是那样，你要怎么办？接下来你还有什么办法？”

“别急，亲爱的妈妈。我刚刚说过，我在洞里遇见哥布林王室的时候，他们在聊王子赫尔利普，他们要他和一个有脚趾的地上女人结婚，说的是像我们这样的人。那天晚上的大集会我听到了一点，有人说王子娶了这个地上女人，能让她的亲戚们都老老实实的，这样至少可以保证一代人的和平了。那人是这么说的，他说王子要娶的就是地上女人。我敢肯定，哥布林大王那么高傲，除了我们的公主，他才不要儿子娶别人。他自以为什么都知道，却不知道找一个乡下女人做老婆对他们来说才好过。”

“我懂了。”妈妈说。

“哼，”爸爸说，“管他是什么王子，那个短腿怪要是想抢公主做老婆，我们的国王会把整座山都铲平，绝不让他得逞。”

“没错，他们可真当自己一回事！”妈妈说，“小东西常常这样。咱家小院里那只矮脚鸡是鸡群里最自大的。”

PART IV

'It's difficult, you know, father, inside the mountain, especially in the dark, and not knowing what turns you have taken, to tell the lie of things outside.'

'Impossible, my boy, without a chart, or at least a compass,' returned his father.

'Well, I think I have nearly discovered in what direction the cobs are mining. If I am right, I know something else that I can put to it, and then one and one will make three.'

'They very often do, Curdie, as we miners ought to be very well aware. Now tell us, my boy, what the two things are, and see whether we can guess at the same third as you.'

'I don't see what that has to do with the princess,' interposed his mother.

'I will soon let you see that, mother. Perhaps you may think me foolish, but until I am sure there, is nothing in my present fancy, I am more determined than ever to go on with my observations. Just as we came to the channel by which we got out, I heard the miners at work somewhere near—I think down below us. Now since I began to watch them, they have mined a good half-mile, in a straight line; and so far as I am aware, they are working in no other part of the mountain. But I never could tell in what direction they were going. When we came out in the king's garden, however, I thought at once whether it was possible they were working towards the king's house; and what I want to do tonight is to make sure whether they are or not. I will take a light with me—'

'Oh, Curdie,' cried his mother, 'then they will see you.'

'I'm no more afraid of them now than I was before,' rejoined Curdie, 'now that I've got this precious shoe. They can't make another such in a hurry, and one bare foot will do for my purpose. Woman as she may be, I won't spare her next time. But I shall be careful with my light, for I don't want them to see me. I won't stick it in my hat.'

'Go on, then, and tell us what you mean to do.'

'I mean to take a bit of paper with me and a pencil, and go in at the mouth of the stream by which we came out. I shall mark on the paper as near as I can the angle of every turning I take until I find the cobs at work, and so get a good idea in what direction they are going. If it should prove to be nearly parallel with the stream, I shall know it is towards the king's house they are working.'

'And what if you should? How much wiser will you be then?'

'Wait a minute, mother dear. I told you that when I came upon the royal family in the cave, they were talking of their prince—Harelip, they called him—marrying a sun-woman—that means one of us—one with toes to her feet. Now in the speech one of them made that night at their great gathering, of which I heard only a part, he said that peace would be secured for a generation at least by the pledge the prince would hold for the good behaviour of her relatives: that's what he said, and he must have meant the sun-woman the prince was to marry. I am quite sure the king is much too proud to wish his son to marry any but a princess, and much too knowing to fancy that his having a peasant woman for a wife would be of any great advantage to them.'

'I see what you are driving at now,' said his mother.

'But,' said his father, 'our king would dig the mountain to the plain before he would have his princess the wife of a cob, if he were ten times a prince.'

'Yes; but they think so much of themselves!' said his mother. 'Small creatures always do. The bantam is the proudest cock in my little yard.'