CHAPTER TWO
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ON BOARD THE DAWN TREADER "AH, there you are, Lucy," said Caspian. "We were just waiting for you. This is my captain, the Lord Drinian.”A dark-haired ma down on one knee and kissed her hand. The only others present were Reepicheep and Edmund.
"Where is Eustace?" asked Lucy.
"In bed," said Edmund, "and I dont think we do anything for him. It only makes him worse if you try to be o him.”
"Meanwhile," said Caspian, "we want to talk.”
"By Jove, we do," said Edmund. "And first, about time. Its a year ago by our time since we left you just before your ation. How long has it been in Narnia?”
"Exactly three years," said Caspian.
"All going well?" asked Edmund.
"You dont suppose Id have left my kingdom and put to sea unless all was well,”
answered the King. "It couldter. Theres no trouble at all now between Telmarines, Dwarfs, Talkis, Fauns and the rest. And we gave those troublesome giants on the frontier such a good beating last summer that they pay us tribute now. And I had an excellent person to leave as Regent while Im away Trumpkin, the Dwarf. You remember him?”
"Dear Trumpkin," said Lucy, "of course I do. You couldnt have made a better choice.”
"Loyal as a badger, Maam, and valiant as - as a Mouse," said Drinian. He had been going to say "as a lion" but had noticed Reepicheeps eyes fixed on him.
"And where are we heading for?" asked Edmund.
"Well," said Caspian, "thats rather a long story. Perhaps you remember that when I was a child my usurping uncle Miraz got rid of seven friends of my fathers (who might have taken my part) by sending them off to explore the unknowern Seas beyond the Lone Islands.”
"Yes," said Lucy, "and none of them ever came back.”
&quht. Well, on, my ation day, with Aslans approval, I swore an oath that, if once I established pea Narnia, I would sail east myself for a year and a day to find my fathers friends or to learn of their deaths and avehem if I could. These were their names - the Lord Revilian, the Lord Bern, the Lord Argoz, the Lord Mavramorn, the Lord Octesian, the Lord Restimar, and - oh, that other one whos so hard to remember.”
"The Lord Rhoop, Sire," said Drinian.
"Rhoop, Rhoop, of course," said Caspian. "That is my main iion. But Reepicheep here has an even higher hope." Everyones eyes turo the Mouse.
"As high as my spirit," it said. "Though perhaps as small as my stature. Why should we not e to the very eastern end of the world? And what might we find there? I expect to find Aslans own try. It is always from the east, across the sea, that the great Lion es to us.”
"I say, that is an idea," said Edmund in an awed voice.
"But do you think," said Lucy, "Aslans try would be that sort of try - I mean, the sort you could ever sail to?”
"I do not know, Madam," said Reepicheep. "But there is this. When I was in my cradle, a wood woman, a Dryad, spoke this verse over me: "Where sky and water meet, Where the wbbr>?</abbr>aves grow sweet, Doubt not, Reepicheep, To find all you seek, There is the utter East.
"I do not know what it means. But the spell of it has been on me all my life.”
After a short silence Lucy asked, "And where are we noian?”
"The Captain tell you better than I," said Caspian, so Drinian got out his chart and spread it oable.
"Thats our position," he said, laying his finger on it. "Or was at noon today. We had a fair wind from Cair Paravel and stood a little north falma, which we made on the day. We were in port for a week, for the Duke of Galma made a great tour for His Majesty and there he unhorsed many knights-”
"And got a few nasty falls myself, Drinian. Some of the bruises are there still," put in Caspian.
"- And unhorsed many knights," repeated Drinian with a grin. "We thought the Duke would have been pleased if the Kings Majesty would have married his daughter, but nothing came of that-”
"Squints, and has freckles," said Caspian.
"Oh, pirl," said Lucy.
"And we sailed from Galma," tinued Drinian, "and ran into a calm for the best part of two days and had to row, and then had wind again and did not make Terebinthia till the fourth day from Galma. And there their Ki out a warning not to land for there was siess in Terebinthia, but we doubled the cape and put in at a little creek far from the city and watered. Then we had to lie off for three days before we got a south-east wind and stood out for Seven Isles. The third day out a pirate (Terebinthian by her rig)
overhauled us, but when she saw us well armed she stood off after some shooting of arrows oher part -”
"And we ought to have given her chase and boarded her and hanged every mothers son of them," said Reepicheep.
"- And in five days more we were insight of Muil, which, as you know, is the westernmost of the Seven Isles. Then we rowed through the straits and came about sundown into Redhaven on the isle of Brenn, where we were very lovingly feasted and had victuals and water at will. We left Redhaven six days ago and have made marvellously good speed, so that I hope to see the Lone Islands the day after tomorrow.
The sum is, we are now nearly thirty days at sea and have sailed more than four hundred leagues from Narnia.”
"And after the Lone Islands?" said Lucy.
"No one knows, your Majesty," answered Drinian. "Uhe Lone Islanders themselves tell us.”
"They couldnt in our days," said Edmund.
"Then," said Reepicheep, "it is after the Lone Islands that the adventure really begins.”
Caspian now suggested that they might like to be showhe ship before supper, but Lucys sce smote her and she said, "I think I really must go and see Eustace.
Seasiess is horrid, you know. If I had my old cordial with me I could cure him.”
"But you have," said Caspian. "Id quite fotten about it. As you left it behind I thought it might be regarded as one of the royal treasures and so I brought it - if you think it ought to be wasted on a thing like seasiess.”
"Itll only take a drop," said Lucy.
Caspian opened one of the lockers beh the bend brought out the beautiful little diamond flask which Lucy remembered so well. "Take back your own, Queen," he said.
They thehe a out into the sunshine.
In the deck there were twe, long hatches, fore and aft of the mast, and both open, as they always were in fair weather, to let light and air into the belly of the ship. Caspiahem down a ladder into the after hatch. Here they found themselves in a place where benches for rowing ran from side to side and the light came in through the oarholes and danced on the roof. Of course Caspians ship was not that horrible thing, a galley rowed by slaves. Oars were used only when wind failed or fetting in and out of harbour and everyone (except Reepicheep whose legs were too short) had often taken a turn. At each side of the ship the spader the benches was left clear for the rowers feet, but all down the tre there was a kind of pit which went down to the very keel and this was filled with all kinds of things - sacks of flour, casks of water and beer, barrels of pork, jars of honey, skin bottles of wine, apples, nuts, cheeses, biscuits, turnips, sides of ba.
From the roof - that is, from the under side of the deck - hung hams and strings of onions, and also the men of the watch offduty in their hammocks. Caspiahem aft, stepping from bench to bench; at least, it was stepping for him, and something between a step and a jump for Lucy, and a real long jump for Reepicheep. In this way they came to a partition with a door in it. Caspian opehe door ahem into a which filled the stern underh the deck s in the poop. It was of course not so was very low and the sides sloped together as they went down so that there was hardly any floor; and though it had windows of thick glass, they were not made to open because they were under water. In fact at this very moment, as the ship pitched they were alternately golden with sunlight and dim green with the sea.
"You and I must lodge here, Edmund," said Caspian. "Well leave your kinsman the bunk and sling hammocks for ourselves.”
"I beseeajesty-" said Drinian.
"No, no shipmate," said Caspian, "we have argued all that out already. You and Rhince”
(Rhince was the mate) "are sailing the ship and will have cares and labours many a night when we are singing catches or telling stories, so you and he must have the port above. King Edmund and I lie very snug here below. But how is the stranger?”
Eustace, very green in the face, scowled and asked whether there was any sign of the stetting less. But Caspian said, "What storm?" and Drinian burst out laughing.
"Storm, young master!" he roared. "This is as fair weather as a man could ask for.”
"Whos that?" said Eustace irritably. "Send him away. His voice goes through my head.”
"Ive brought you something that will make you feel better, Eustace," said Lucy.
"Oh, go away and leave me alone," growled Eustace. But he took a drop from her flask, and though he said it was beastly stuff (the smell in the when she ope was delicious) it is certain that his face came the right colour a few moments after he had swallowed it, and he must have felt better because, instead of wailing about the storm and
his head, he began demanding to be put ashore and said that at the first port he would "lodge a disposition" against them all with the British sul. But when Reepicheep asked what a disposition was and how you lodged it (Reepicheep thought it was some new way ing a single bat) Eustace could only reply, "Fanot knowing that." In the end they succeeded in ving Eustace that they were already sailing as fast as they could towards the land they knew, and that they had no more power of sending him babridge - which was where Uncle Harold lived - than of sending him to the moon. After that he sulkily agreed to put on the fresh clothes which had been put out for him and e on deck.
Caspian now showed them over the ship, though ihey had seen most it already.
They went up on the forecastle and saw the look-out man standing on a little shelf ihe gilded dragons ned peering through its open mouth. Ihe forecastle was the galley (or ships kit) and quarters for such people as the boatswain, the carpehe cook and the master-archer. If you think it odd to have the galley in the bows and imagihe smoke from its ey streaming back over the ship, that is because you are thinking of steamships where there is always a headwind. On a sailing ship the wind is ing from behind, and anything smelly is put as far forward as possible. They were taken up to the fighting top, and at first it was rather alarming to rock to and fro there ahe deck looking small and far away beh. You realized that if you fell there was no<mark>藏书网</mark> particular reason why you should fall on board rather than in the sea. Then they were taken to the poop, where Rhince was on duty with another man at the great tiller, and behind that the dragons tail rose up, covered with gilding, and round i ran a little bench. The name of the ship was Dawn Treader. She was only a little bit of a thing pared with one of our I ships, or even with the cogs, dromonds, carracks and galleons whiarnia had owned when Lud Edmund had reighere under Peter as the High King, for nearly all navigation had died out in the reigns of Caspians aors.
When his uncle, Miraz the usurper, had sent the seven lords to sea, they had had to buy a Galmian ship and man it with hired Galmian sailors. But noian had begun to teach the Narnians to be sea-faring folk once more, and the Dawn Treader was the fi ship he had built yet. She was so small that, forward of the mast, there was hardly any de between the tral hatd the ships boat on one side and the he<mark>?</mark>n -coop (Lucy fed the hens) oher. But she was a beauty of her kind, a "lady" as sailors say, her lines perfect, her colours pure, and every spar and rope and pin lovingly made. Eustace of course would be pleased with nothing, a on boasting about liners and motor-boats and aeroplanes and submarines ("As if he knew anything about them," muttered Edmund), but the other two were delighted with the Dawn Treader, and when they returned aft to the and supper, and saw the whole western sky lit up with an immense crimson su, ahe quiver of the ship, and tasted the salt on their lips, and thought of unknown lands on the Eastern rim of the world, Lucy felt that she was almost too happy to speak.
What Eustace thought had best be told in his own words, for when they all got their clothes back, dried, m, he at o out a little blaotebook and a pencil and started to keep a diary. He always had this notebook with him a a record of his marks in it, for though he didnt care much about any subject for its own sake, he
cared a great deal about marks and would even go to people and say, "I got so much.
What did you get?" But as he didnt seem likely to get many marks on the Dawn Treader he now started a diary. This was the first entry.
"7 August. Have now be<mark></mark>ey-four hours on this ghastly boat if it isnt a dream. All the time a frightful storm has been raging (its a good thing Im not seasick). Huge waves keep ing ihe front and I have seen the boat nearly go under any number of times. All the others pretend to take no notice of this, either from swank or because Harold says one of the most cowardly things ordinary people do is to shut their eyes to Facts. Its mado e out into the sea in a rotten little thing like this. Not much bigger than a lifeboat. And, of course, absolutely primitive indoors. No proper saloon, no radio, no bathrooms, no deck-chairs. I was dragged all over it yesterday evening and it would make anyone sick to hear Caspian showing off his funny little toy boat as if it was the Queen Mary. I tried to tell him what real ships are like, but hes too dense. E. and L., o f course, didnt back me up. I suppose a kid like L. doesnt realize the danger and E. is buttering up C. as everyone does here. They call him a King. I said I was a Republi but he had to ask me what that meant! He doeso know anything at all. Needless to say Ive been put in the worst of the boat, a perfect dungeon, and Lucy has been given a whole room oo herself, almost a ni pared with the rest of this place. C. says thats because shes a girl. I tried to make him see what Alberta says, that all that sort of thing is really l girls but he was too dense. Still, he might see that I shall be ill if Im kept in that hole any longer. E. says we mustnt grumble because C. is sharing it with us himself to make room for L. As if that didnt make it more crowded and far worse. Nearly fot to say that there is also a kind of Mouse thing that gives everyohe most frightful cheek. The others put up with it if they like but I shall twist his tail pretty soon if he tries it ohe food is frightful too.”
The trouble betweead Reepicheep arrived even soohan might have been expected. Before dinner day, whehers were sitting round the table , waiting (being at sea gives one a magnifit appetite), Eustace came rushing in, wringing his hand and shouting out: "That little brute has half killed me. I insist on it bei under trol. I could bring an a against you, Caspian. i could order you to have it destroyed.”
At the same moment Reepicheep appeared. His sword was drawn and his whiskers looked very fierce but he olite as ever.
"I ask your pardons all," he said, "and especially her Majestys. If I had known that he would take refuge here I would have awaited a more reasoime for his corre.”
"What ohs up?" asked Edmund.
What had really happened was this. Reepicheep, who never felt that the ship was getting on fast enough, loved to sit on the bulwarks far forward just beside the dragons head, gazing out at the eastern horizon and singin<var>..</var>g softly in his little chirruping voice the song
the Dryad had made for him. He never held on to anything, however the ship pitched, a his balah perfect ease; perhaps his long tail, hanging down to the deside the bulwarks, made this easier. Everyone on board was familiar with this habit, and the sailors liked it because when one was on look-out duty it gave one somebody to talk to.
Why exactly Eustace had slipped and reeled and stumbled all the way forward to the forecastle (he had not yet got his sea-legs) I never heard. Perhaps he hoped he would see land, or perhaps he wao hang about the galley and sge something. Anyway, as soon as he saw that long tail hanging down - and perhaps it was rather tempting - he thought it would be delightful to catch hold of it, swing Reepicheep round by it once or twice upside-down, then run away and laugh, At first the plan seemed to work beautifully. The Mouse was not much heavier than a very large cat. Eustace had him off the rail in a trid very silly he looked (thought Eustace) with his little limbs all splayed out and his mouth open. But unfortunately Reepicheep, who had fought for his life many a time, never lost his head even for a moment. Nor his skill. It is not very easy to draw ones sword when one is swinging round in the air by oail, but he did. And the hiaew was two agonizing jabs in his hand which made him let go of the tail; and the hing after that was that the Mouse had picked itself up again as if it were a ball boung off the deck, and there it was fag him, and a horrid long, bright, sharp thing like a skeaving to and fro within an inch of his stomach.
(This doesnt t as below the belt for mi Narnia because they hardly be expected to reach higher.)
"Stop it," spluttered Eustace, "go aut that thing away. Its not safe. Stop it, I say. Ill tell Caspian.
Ill have you muzzled and tied up.”
"Why do you not draw your own sword, poltroon!" cheeped the Mouse. "Draw and fight or Ill beat you blad blue with the flat.”
"I havent got one," said Eustace. "Im a pacifist. I dont believe in fighting.”
"Do I uand," said Reepicheep, withdrawing his sword for a moment and speaking very sternly, "that you do not io give me satisfa?”
"I dont know what you mean," said Eustaursing his hand. "If you dont know how to take a joke I shant bother my head about you.”
"Then take that," said Reepicheep, "and that - to teaanners - and the respect due to a knight - and a Mouse - and a Mouses tail -" and at each word he gave Eustace a blow with the side of his rapier, which was thin, fine dwarf-tempered steel and as supple and effective as a birch rod. Eustace (of course) was at a school where they didnt have corporal punishment, so the sensation was quite o him. That was why, in spite of having no sealegs, it took him less than a mio get off that forecastle and cover the whole length of the ded burst in at the door - still hotly pursued by
Reepicheep. I seemed to Eustace that the rapier as well as the pursuit was hot. It might have been red-hot by the feel.
There was not much difficulty iling the matter oace realized that everyoook the idea of a duel seriously and heard Caspian to lend him a sword, and Drinian and Edmund discussing whether he ought to be handicapped in some way to make up for his being so much bigger than Reepicheep. He apologized sulkily a off with Lucy to have his hand bathed and bandaged and theo his bunk. He was careful to lie on his side.
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