CHAPTER EIGHT WHAT HAPPENED AFTER DINNER（第3/3頁）

“Yes，”said Lucy，almost in a whisper．“I’m afraid he has．”

“And did he tell you what he’d done or who he’d met ？”

“Well，no，he didn’t，”said Lucy．

“Then mark my words，”said Mr. Beaver，“he has already met the White Witch and joined her side，and been told where she lives. I didn’t like to mention it before（he being your brother and all） but the moment I set eyes on that brother of yours I said to myself Treacherous．He had the look of one who has been with the Witch and eaten her food．You can always tell them if you’ve lived long in Narnia；something about their eyes．”

“All the same，”said Peter in a rather choking sort of voice， “we’ll still have to go and look for him．He is our brother after all，even if he is rather a little beast．And he’s only a kid．”

“Go to the Witch’s House ？”said Mrs. Beaver．“Don’t you see that the only chance of saving either him or yourselves is to keep away from her ？”

“How do you mean ？”said Lucy．

“Why，all she wants is to get all four of you（she’s thinking all the time of those four thrones at Cair Paravel）．Once you were all four inside her House her job would be done-and there’d be four new statues in her collection before you’d had time to speak． But she’ll keep him alive as long as he’s the only one she’s got， because she’ll want to use him as a decoy；as bait to catch the rest of you with．”

“Oh，can no one help us ？”wailed Lucy．

“Only Aslan，”said Mr. Beaver，“we must go on and meet him. That’s our only chance now．”

“It seems to me，my dears，”said Mrs. Beaver，“that it is very important to know just when he slipped away．How much he can tell her depends on how much he heard．For instance，had we started talking of Aslan before he left ？ If not，then we may do very well，for she won’t know that Aslan has come to Narnia，or that we are meeting him，and will be quite off her guard as far as that is concerned．”

“I don’t remember his being here when we were talking about Aslan-”began Peter，but Lucy interrupted him．

“Oh yes，he was，”she said miserably；“don’t you remember， it was he who asked whether the Witch couldn’t turn Aslan into stone too ？”

“So he did，by Jove，”said Peter；“just the sort of thing he would say，too ！”

“Worse and worse，”said Mr. Beaver，“and the next thing is this. Was he still here when I told you that the place for meeting Aslan was the Stone Table ？”

And of course no one knew the answer to this question．

“Because，if he was，”continued Mr. Beaver，“then she’ll simply sledge down in that direction and get between us and the Stone Table and catch us on our way down．In fact we shall be cut off from Aslan．”

“But that isn’t what she’ll do first，”said Mrs. Beaver，“not if I know her．The moment that Edmund tells her that we’re all here she’ll set out to catch us this very night，and if he’s been gone about half an hour，she’ll be here in about another twenty minutes．”

“You’re right，Mrs. Beaver，”said her husband，“we must all get away from here．There’s not a moment to lose．”