《魔法師的外甥》第2期:開錯的門(3)

"How are we to know we're in the next house but one?" They decided they would have to go out into the boxroom and walk across it taking steps as long as the steps from one rafter to the next. That would give them an idea of how many rafters went to a room. Then they would allow about four more for the passage between the two attics in Polly's house, and then the same number for the maid's bedroom as for the box-room. That would give them the length of the house. When they had done that distance twice they would be at the end of Digory's house; any door they came to after that would let them into an attic of the empty house.
"But I don't expect it's really empty at all," said Digory.
"What do you expect?"
"I expect someone lives there in secret, only coming in and out at night, with a dark lantern. We shall probably discover a gang of desperate criminals and get a reward. It's all rot to say a house would be empty all those years unless there was some mystery."
"Daddy thought it must be the drains," said Polly.
"Pooh! Grown-ups are always thinking of uninteresting explanations," said Digory. Now that they were talking by daylight in the attic instead of by candlelight in the Smugglers' Cave it seemed much less likely that the empty house would be haunted.
When they had measured the attic they had to get a pencil and do a sum. They both got different answers to it at first, and even when they agreed I am not sure they got it right. They were in a hurry to start on the exploration.
"We mustn't make a sound," said Polly as they climbed in again behind the cistern. Because it was such an important occasion they took a candle each (Polly had a good store of them in her cave).
It was very dark and dusty and draughty and they stepped from rafter to rafter without a word except when they whispered to one another, "We're opposite your attic now" or "this must be halfway through our house". And neither of them stumbled and the candles didn't go out, and at last they came where they could see a little door in the brick wall on their right. There was no bolt or handle on this side of it, of course, for the door had been made for getting in, not for getting out; but there was a catch (as there often is on the inside of a cupboard door) which they felt sure they would be able to turn.
"Shall I?" said Digory.
"I'm game if you are," said Polly, just as she had said before. Both felt that it was becoming very serious, but neither would draw back. Digory pushed round the catch with some difficultly. The door swung open and the sudden daylight made them blink. Then, with a great shock, they saw that they were looking, not into a deserted attic, but into a furnished room. But it seemed empty enough. It was dead silent. Polly's curiosity got the better of her. She blew out her candle and stepped out into the strange room, making no more noise than a mouse.
It was shaped, of course, like an attic, but furnished as a sitting-room. Every bit of the walls was lined with shelves and every bit of the shelves was full of books. A fire was burning in the grate (you remember that it was a very cold wet summer that year) and in front of the fire-place with its back towards them was a high-backed armchair. Between the chair and Polly, and filling most of the middle of the room, was a big table piled with all sorts of things printed books, and books of the sort you write in, and ink bottles and pens and sealing-wax and a microscope. But what she noticed first was a bright red wooden tray with a number of rings on it. They were in pairs - a yellow one and a green one together, then a little space, and then another yellow one and another green one. They were no bigger than ordinary rings, and no one could help noticing them because they were so bright. They were the most beautiful shiny little things you can imagine. If Polly had been a very little younger she would have wanted to put one in her mouth.
The room was so quiet that you noticed the ticking of the clock at once. And yet, as she now found, it was not absolutely quiet either. There was a faint - a very, very faint - humming sound. If Hoovers had been invented in those days Polly would have thought it was the sound of a Hoover being worked a long way off - several rooms away and several floors below. But it was a nicer sound than that, a more musical tone: only so faint that you could hardly hear it.
"It's alright; there's no one here," said Polly over her shoulder to Digory. She was speaking above a whisper now. And Digory came out, blinking and looking extremely dirty - as indeed Polly was too.

“可我們怎麼知道剛好到了隔壁一幢的房子裏呢？”
他們決定．先出去到儲藏室，以兩根椽子之間的距離爲一步，這樣走一遍，就知道要跨過多少根椽子才能走完一個房間。他們給波莉家兩個閣樓間的通道留出稍多於四根椽子的距離，給女傭的臥室算上與儲藏室一樣多的椽子。加起來，便是那幢房子的總長度。走完兩倍這段距離，就是迪格雷家房子的盡頭。再往前，他們所走到的任何一扇門都會通向空房子的閣樓。
“但我不認爲那房子真是空的。”迪格雷說。
“那你是怎麼想的？"
“我想，有人隱居在那兒，天黑以後才提着一盞昏暗的提燈進出。我們還可能發現一幫絕望的罪犯，並由此得到獎賞。要說一幢空了多年的房子毫無祕密，那就太蠢了。”
“爸爸認爲，裏面一定是下水道。”波莉說。
“咳！大人的想法總是沒趣兒！”迪格雷說。因爲他們是在白天的閣樓裏，而不是在”走私者的山洞”裏點若蠟燭談話．空房子鬧鬼的可能性便顯得很小了。
他們測出閣樓的長度後，便拿出鉛筆來計算總長。起先，兩人答案不一致，但即使得出同一結果，我也懷疑他們是否算對了。因爲兩人都急着上路，去開始他們偉大的探險事業。"
“我們決不能弄出聲音。”當他們從水池後面再次往隧道里鑽時，波莉說。每人手裏舉了一根蠟燭（波莉在她的“山洞”裏藏了很多）。
黑暗而通風的隧道里積着厚厚的灰塵。他們踩着椽子悄然而行，偶爾互相耳語一句“到你家閣樓對面了”，或者“走到我家房子的中間了”。兩人都沒有跌倒過，蠟燭也沒有熄滅過，最後，他們停住了，看見右面的磚牆上有扇小門。門的這一面既無門閂也無把手，
顯然，那門是做來讓人進屋，而不是讓人走出去的。但門上有個掛鉤（像衣櫃門上常見的那種），他們覺得完全能夠打開。
“我去開嗎？”迪格雷問。
“只要你願意，我就願意。”波莉又搬出她的口頭禪。兩人都知道，他們正處在緊要關頭，但誰也沒有後退。迪格雷費了一番勁才把掛鉤打開。門一開，突然射來的自然光使他們忍不住眨了眨眼。接着，他們非常驚奇地發現，面前不是一間廢棄的閣樓，而是一個陳設完整的房間。但似乎又是空蕩蕩的，一派死寂。波莉在好奇心的驅使下吹滅了蠟燭，像耗子一樣悄悄地走進了那間奇怪的屋子。
屋子的形狀很像閣樓，但又裝飾得像起居室。沿牆擺滿了架子，架上放滿了書籍。壁爐裏燃着火，（你還記得那年夏天又冷又溼吧？）火爐前面，一把高背扶手椅背對他們兩人放着。在波莉和椅子之間，佔據大部分空間的是一張堆着各種物什的大桌子——書、筆記薄、墨水瓶、鋼筆、封蠟和一臺顯微鏡。然而，她首先注意到的是一隻紅得發亮的木托盤，裏面有幾隻戒指。這些戒指成對放着，一枚黃的和一枚綠的挨在一起隔了一點距離，又是一枚黃的和一枚綠的挨在一起。它們只不過像普通戒指那麼大，但由於太亮了，誰也不會看不見。這些小戒指閃着你能想像的最共麗的光彩。如果波莉再小一點兒，她說不定會草一枚放進嘴裏。
房間裏靜崢的，你很快便能清楚地聽見鐘的嘀嗒聲。可波莉又發現，畢面並非絕對寂靜有一種微弱的嗡嗡聲。假如那時已有吸塵器，波莉肯定會認爲這是一臺吸塵器在幾間房子外或幾層樓下工作發出的聲音。但她聽到的聲音更柔和，更富音樂感，只是微弱得幾乎聽不見。
“太好了，這兒沒人。”波莉偏過頭，用略高於耳語的聲音對迪格雷說。