《魔法師的外甥》第31期:發生在前門的事(2)

"Lead on, Slave," said the Witch to Uncle Andrew. He began muttering something about "regrettable violence must really protest", but at a single glance from Jadis he became speechless. She drove him out of the room and out of the house; and Digory came running down the stairs just in time to see the front door close behind them.

"Jiminy!" he said. "She's loose in London. And with Uncle Andrew. I wonder what on earth is going to happen now."

"Oh, Master Digory," said the housemaid (who was really having a wonderful day), "I think Miss Ketterley's hurt herself somehow." So they both rushed into the drawing-room to find out what had happened.

If Aunt Letty had fallen on bare boards or even on the carpet, I suppose all her bones would have been broken: but by great good luck she had fallen on the mattress. Aunt Letty was a very tough old lady: aunts often were in those days. After she had had some sal volatile and sat still for a few minutes, she said there was nothing the matter with her except a few bruises. Very soon she was taking charge of the situation.

"Sarah," she said to the housemaid (who had never had such a day before), "go around to the police station at once and tell them there is a dangerous lunatic at large. I will take Mrs Kirke's lunch up myself." Mrs Kirke was, of course, Digory's Mother.

When Mother's lunch had been seen to, Digory and Aunt Letty had their own. After that he did some hard thinking.

The problem was how to get the Witch back to her own world, or at any rate out of ours, as soon as possible. Whatever happened, she must not be allowed to go rampaging about the house. Mother must not see her.

And, if possible, she must not be allowed to go rampaging about London either. Digory had not been in the drawingroom when she tried to "blast" Aunt Letty, but he had seen her "blast" the gates at Charn: so he knew her terrible powers and did not know that she had lost any of them by coming into our world. And he knew she meant to conquer our world. At the present moment, as far as he could see, she might be blasting Buckingham Palace or the Houses of Parliament: and it was almost certain that quite a number of policemen had by now been reduced to little heaps of dust. And there didn't seem to be anything he could do about that.

"But the rings seem to work like magnets," thought Digory. "If I can only touch her and then slip on my yellow, we shall both go into the Wood between the Worlds. I wonder will she go all faint again there? Was that something the place does to her, or was it only the shock of being pulled out of her own world? But I suppose I'll have to risk that. And how am I to find the beast? I don't suppose Aunt Letty would let me go out, not unless I said where I was going. And I haven't got more than twopence. I'd need any amount of money for buses and trams if I went looking all over London. Anyway, I haven't the faintest idea where to look. I wonder if Uncle Andrew is still with her."

“帶路，奴才。”女巫對安德魯舅舅說。他口中咕噥着“令人遺憾的暴力行爲——必須抗議”之類的話，但簡蒂絲瞟了他一眼他便住口了。她趕着他離開客廳，走出房子。迪格雷下樓時，剛好看見前門在他們身後關上了。

“見鬼，”他說，“她在倫敦胡來了。還跟安德各舅舅在一起，真不知道會出什麼亂子。”

“噢，迪格雷少爺，”女傭說〔她那天可開心了〕，“我想凱特利小姐弄傷了自己。”於是兩人一起衝進客斤，去看發生了什麼事。

我想，如果蕾蒂姨媽掉在光地板上，或即使掉在地毯上，都會摔得粉身碎骨，但她十分走運地落在了墊子上。蕾蒂姨媽是個強壯的老婦人；那時候姨媽們大都如此。她吃了一點提神藥，靜靜地坐了幾分鐘，然後說，只是跌腫了幾處，不嚴重。很快她就開始處理事情了。

“莎拉．”她對女傭說（這女人從未遇到像今天這樣的日子），“立刻去警察局，告訴他們有個危險的精神病人跑出來了。我自己去照料柯克夫人的午飯。”柯克夫人自然就是迪格雷的母親。

媽媽吃罷午飯以後，迪格雷和蕾蒂姨媽也吃完了。然後，他便開始苦思冥想。

問題是如何把女巫弄同她自己的地方，或者，想辦法儘快地將她趕離我們這兒。不管怎樣，決不能讓她在這幢房子裏橫衝直撞。不能讓媽媽看見她。

如果可能，不准她在倫教城裏飛揚跋扈。她“毀滅”蕾蒂姨媽的時候，迪格雷不在客廳裏，但他曾見過她搗毀恰恩的宮門，所以，他只知道她有駭人的魔力，並不知道自從到了我們的世界後，她的魔力有任何減弱。他還知道她想征服我們的世界。他能想像，目前她很可能正在搗毀白金漢宮或議會大廈；幾乎可以肯定，爲數不少的警察已經被化成一堆堆灰燼了。他不知道自己該怎樣做。”

“可是，那些戒指似乎很像磁鐵，”迪格雷想，“只要我捱到她，再去摸我的黃戒指，她和我便都會回到各個世界之間的樹林中去。不知她在那兒會不會又變得虛弱無力？是那地方對她不利呢，還是從她的世界裏被拖出來時她受了驚嚇？但我不得不去冒這個險。可我到哪兒去找這個畜生？我想，不管我說去哪兒，蕾蒂姨媽都不會讓我去的；而我的口袋裏只有兩個便士。如果我在倫敦滿城尋找，一定需要許許多多錢坐汽車和電車。再說，我壓根兒就不知道上哪兒去找。不知道安德魯舅舅是否還跟她在一起。”