《魔法師的外甥》第2期:開錯的門(4)

"This is no good," he said. "It's not an empty house at all. We'd better bunk before anyone comes."
"What do you think those are?" said Polly, pointing at the coloured rings.'
"Oh come on," said Digory. "The sooner-"
He never finished what he was going to say for at that moment something happened. The high-backed chair in front of the fire moved suddenly and there rose up out of it - like a pantomime demon coming up out of a trapdoor the alarming form of Uncle Andrew. They were not in the empty house at all; they were in Digory's house and in the forbidden study! Both children said "O-o-oh" and realized their terrible mistake. They felt they ought to have known all along that they hadn't gone nearly far enough.
Uncle Andrew was tall and very thin. He had a long clean-shaven face with a sharply-pointed nose and extremely bright eyes and a great tousled mop of grey hair.
Digory was quite speechless, for Uncle Andrew looked a thousand times more alarming than he had ever looked before. Polly was not so frightened yet; but she soon was. For the very first thing Uncle Andrew did was to walk across to the door of the room, shut it, and turn the key in the lock. Then he turned round, fixed the children with his bright eyes, and smiled, showing all his teeth.
"There!" he said. "Now my fool of a sister can't get at you!"
It was dreadfully unlike anything a grown-up would be expected to do. Polly's heart came into her mouth, and she and Digory started backing towards the little door they had come in by. Uncle Andrew was too quick for them. He got behind them and shut that door too and stood in front of it. Then he rubbed his hands and made his knuckles crack. He had very long, beautifully white, fingers.
"I am delighted to see you," he said. "Two children are just what I wanted."
"Please, Mr Ketterley," said Polly. "It's nearly my dinner time and I've got to go home. Will you let us out, please?"
"Not just yet," said Uncle Andrew. "This is too good an opportunity to miss. I wanted two children. You see, I'm in the middle of a great experiment. I've tried it on a guinea-pig and it seemed to work. But then a guinea-pig can't tell you anything. And you can't explain to it how to come back."
"Look here, Uncle Andrew," said Digory, "it really is dinner time and they'll be looking for us in a moment. You must let us out."
"Must?" said Uncle Andrew.
Digory and Polly glanced at one another. They dared not say anything, but the glances meant "Isn't this dreadful?" and "We must humour him."
"If you let us go for our dinner now," said Polly, "we could come back after dinner."
"Ah, but how do I know that you would?" said Uncle Andrew with a cunning smile. Then he seemed to change his mind.
"Well, well," he said, "if you really must go, I suppose you must. I can't expect two youngsters like you to find it much fun talking to an old buffer like me." He sighed and went on. "You've no idea how lonely I sometimes am. But no matter. Go to your dinner. But I must give you a present before you go. It's not every day that I see a little girl in my dingy old study; especially, if I may say so, such a very attractive young lady as yourself."
Polly began to think he might not really be mad after all.
"Wouldn't you like a ring, my dear?" said Uncle Andrew to Polly.
"Do you mean one of those yellow or green ones?" said Polly. "How lovely!"
"Not a green one," said Uncle Andrew. "I'm afraid I can't give the green ones away. But I'd be delighted to give you any of the yellow ones: with my love. Come and try one on."
Polly had now quite got over her fright and felt sure that the old gentleman was not mad; and there was certainly something strangely attractive about those bright rings. She moved over to the tray.
"Why! I declare," she said. "That humming noise gets louder here. It's almost as if the rings were making it."
"What a funny fancy, my dear," said Uncle Andrew with a laugh. It sounded a very natural laugh, but Digory had seen an eager, almost a greedy, look on his face.
"Polly! Don't be a fool!" he shouted. "Don't touch them."
It was too late. Exactly as he spoke, Polly's hand went out to touch one of the rings. And immediately, without a flash or a noise or a warning of any sort, there was no Polly. Digory and his Uncle were alone in the room.

“好什麼？”迪格雷走過來，眨巴着眼睛，”根本不是空房子，我們最好在有人進來以前逃走。”他看上去髒極了，波莉也是。
“你說那些是什麼？”波莉指着彩色戒指問。
“過來，快……”迪格留正想說下去，一件意想不到的事發生了。火爐前的高背椅子突然移動了，像舞臺的活動門裏鑽出一個啞劇中的小丑一樣，安德魯舅舅可怕的樣子出現在他們面前。他們站的地方不是空房子，而是迪格雷家中那間禁止入內的書房！兩個孩子意識到犯了嚴重的錯誤，都大張着口，”噢——噢——”地說不出話來。他們覺得早該感到自己走得不夠遠。
安德魯舅舅又高又瘦，一頭灰髮零亂不堪，颳得乾乾淨淨的長臉上長着尖削的鼻子和一雙賊亮的眼睛。
迪格雷大氣也不敢出，囚爲安德魯舅舅看上去要比以往可怕一千倍。波莉起先還不太害怕，但很快就怕了，因爲安德魯舅舅一來便走到門口，關上門，並把門鎖了起來。然後，他轉過身，直勾勾地盯着孩子們，一笑，眼出滿口牙齒。"
“這下可好，”他說，“我那傻瓜妹妹找不到你們了。”
這哪裏像大人應該做的事！波莉的心提到了嗓子眼。她和迪格雷開始向他們進來的小門退去。但安德魯舅舅搶先衝到他們背後，將那扇門也關上了，然後站在門前。他搓着手，弄得指關節啪啪地響。他有長長的漂亮的白手指。
“很高興見到你們，”他說，“我正需要兩個孩子呢。”
“凱特利先生，”波莉說，“我要回家了，請你放我們出去，好嗎？”
“現在不行，這麼好的機會不能錯過。我需要兩個孩子。你看，我的偉大的實驗只做了一半。以前，我用過一隻豚鼠，還可以，但豚鼠沒法兒跟你說話．而你也不能告訴它怎麼回來。”
“安德魯舅舅，”迪格雷說，“現在是吃飯時間了，他們很快就會找我們的。你必須放我們出去。”
“必須？”安德每舅舅說。
迪格雷和波莉相互看了一眼。兩人不敢開口，但眼睛卻在說，“這太可怕了，不是嗎？”我們只好哄哄他。”
“要是你放我們去吃飯，我們吃完就回來。”波莉說。
“可是，我怎麼知道你們會不會回來？”安德各舅舅狡猾地一笑，好像要改變注意了。
“好吧，好吧，”他說，“如果真是非走不可，我想你們也該走了。我不指望像你們這麼大的兩個孩子會喜歡跟我這樣一個老笨蛋說話。”他嘆口氣，繼續道；“你們不明白，有時，我是多麼孤獨。可是，沒關係，去吃飯吧。但在你們走之前，我一定要送你們一件禮物。我並不是每天都能在這間骯髒的舊書房裏見到一個小姑娘的，尤其是，這麼說吧，跟你一樣吸引人的年輕姑娘。”
波莉開始想，他可能並不瘋。
“你不喜歡戒指嗎，親愛的？’他問波莉。
“你是說那些黃的綠的戒指嗎，太可愛了！”波莉很高興。
“不是綠的，”安德魯舅舅說，“我想我還不能把綠的給人。但我喜歡送你一枚包含若我一份愛心的黃戒指。過來試試吧。”
波莉一點兒也不怕了，她完全相信這位老先生並沒有瘋，那些亮晶晶的戒指有種奇異的魔力，引誘她朝托盤走去。
“啊，我知道了！”波莉說，”那種嗡嗡聲在這兒變大了，好像就是這些戒指發出的。”
“多麼有趣的幻想，親愛的。”安德魯舅舅笑起來，那笑聲聽來非常自然．但迪格雷從他的臉上看出一種急迫甚至貪婪的神色。
“波莉，別做傻事，”他大叫，“不要碰戒指！”
可是，一切都晚了，在他說話的同時，波莉的手已經伸出去，觸到了其中一枚戒指。很快，沒有閃光，沒有聲音，沒有任何警告，波莉便消失了，屋子裏只剩下迪格雷和他的安德魯舅舅。