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The Princess and Curdie-Part13_George MacDonald(1824-1905)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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upon them panting. Then came a rush of two or three soldiers



darkening the doorway, but it was only to lay hold of the key, pull

the door to, and lock it; so that once more Curdie and Lina were



prisoners together.

For a few moments Lina lay panting hard: it is breathless work



leaping and roaring both at once, and that in a way to scatter

thousands of people. Then she jumped up, and began snuffing about



all over the place; and Curdie saw what he had never seen before -

two faint spots of light cast from her eyes upon the ground, one on



each side of her snuffing nose. He got out his tinder box - a

miner is never without one - and lighted a precious bit of candle



he carried in a division of it just for a moment, for he must not

waste it.



The light revealed a vault without any window or other opening than

the door. It was very old and much neglected. The mortar had



vanished from between the stones, and it was half filled with a

heap of all sorts of rubbish, beaten down in the middle, but looser



at the sides; it sloped from the door to the foot of the opposite

wall: evidently for a long time the vault had been left open, and



every sort of refuse thrown into it. A single minute served for

the survey, so little was there to note.



Meantime, down in the angle between the back wall and the base of

the heap Lina was scratching furiously with all the eighteen great



strong claws of her mighty feet.

'Ah, ha!' said Curdie to himself, catching sight of her, 'if only



they will leave us long enough to ourselves!'

With that he ran to the door, to see if there was any fastening on



the inside. There was none: in all its long history it never had

had one. But a few blows of the right sort, now from the one, now



from the other end of his mattock, were as good as any bolt, for

they so ruined the lock that no key could ever turn in it again.



Those who heard them fancied he was trying to get out, and laughed

spitefully. As soon as he had done, he extinguished his candle,



and went down to Lina.

She had reached the hard rock which formed the floor of the



dungeon, and was now clearing away the earth a little wider.

Presently she looked up in his face and whined, as much as to say,



'My paws are not hard enough to get any farther.'

'Then get out of my way, Lina,' said Curdie, and mind you keep your



eyes shining, for fear I should hit you.'

So saying, he heaved his mattock, and assailed with the hammer end



of it the spot she had cleared.

The rock was very hard, but when it did break it broke in



good-sized pieces. Now with hammer, now with pick, he worked till

he was weary, then rested, and then set to again. He could not



tell how the day went, as he had no light but the lamping of Lina's

eyes. The darkness hampered him greatly, for he would not let Lina



come close enough to give him all the light she could, lest he

should strike her. So he had, every now and then, to feel with his



hands to know how he was getting on, and to discover in what

direction to strike: the exact spot was a mere imagination.



He was getting very tired and hungry, and beginning to lose heart

a little, when out of the ground, as if he had struck a spring of



it, burst a dull, gleamy, lead-coloured light, and the next moment

he heard a hollow splash and echo. A piece of rock had fallen out



of the floor, and dropped into water beneath. Already Lina, who

had been lying a few yards off all the time he worked, was on her



feet and peering through the hole. Curdie got down on his hands

and knees, and looked. They were over what seemed a natural cave



in the rock, to which apparently the river had access, for, at a

great distance below, a faint light was gleaming upon water. If



they could but reach it, they might get out; but even if it was

deep enough, the height was very dangerous. The first thing,



whatever might follow, was to make the hole larger. It was

comparatively easy to break away the sides of it, and in the course



of another hour he had it large enough to get through.

And now he must reconnoitre. He took the rope they had tied him



with - for Curdie's hindrances were always his furtherance - and

fastened one end of it by a slipknot round the handle of his



pickaxes then dropped the other end through, and laid the pickaxe

so that, when he was through himself, and hanging on the edge, he



could place it across the hole to support him on the rope. This

done, he took the rope in his hands, and, beginning to descend,



found himself in a narrow cleft widening into a cave. His rope was

not very long, and would not do much to lessen the force of his



fall - he thought to himself - if he should have to drop into the

water; but he was not more than a couple of yards below the dungeon






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