CHAPTER NINE
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THE ISLAND OF THE VOICES AND now the winds which had so long been from the north-west began to blow from the west itself and every m when the sun rose out of the sea the curved prow of the Dawn Treader stood up right across the middle of the sun. Some thought that the sun looked larger than it looked from Narnia, but others disagreed. And they sailed and sailed before a ge steady breeze and saw her fish null- nor ship nor shore. And stores began to get low again, and it crept into their hearts that perhaps the<mark>.</mark>y might have e to a sea which went on for ever. But when the very last day on which they thought they could risk tinuing their eastward voyage dawned, it showed, right ahead between them and the sunrise, a low land lying like a cloud.They made harbour in a wide bay about the middle of the afternoon and landed. It was a very different try from any they had yet seen. For when they had crossed the sandy beach they found all silent ay as if it were an uninhabited land, but before them there were level lawns in which the grass was as smooth and short as it used to be in the grounds of a great English house where ten gardeners were kept. The trees, of which there were many, all stood well apart from one another, and there were no broken branches and no leaves lying on the ground. Pigeons sometimes cooed but there was no other noise.
Presently they came to a long, straight, sanded path with not a weed growing on it and trees oher hand. Far off at the other end of this avehey now caught sight of a house - very long and grey and quiet-looking iernoon sun.
Almost as soon as they ehis path Luoticed that she had a little stone in her shoe. In that unknown place it might have been wiser for her to ask the others to wait while she took it out. But she didnt; she just dropped quietly behind and sat down to take off her shoe. Her lace had got into a knot.
Before she had uhe knot the others were a fair distance ahead. By the time she had got the sto and utting the shoe on again she could no longer hear them. But almost at once she heard something else. It was not ing from the dire of the house.
What she heard was a thumping. It sounded as if dozens of strong workmen were hitting the ground as hard as they could with great wooden mallets. And it was very quickly ing nearer. She was already sitting with her back to a tree, and as the tree was not one she could climb, there was really nothing to do but to sit dead still and press herself against the tree and hope she wouldnt be seen.
Thump, thump, thump . . . and whatever it was must be very close now for she could feel the ground shaking. But she could see nothing. She thought the thing - or things must be just behind her. But then there came a thump oh right in front of her. She k was oh not only by the sound but because she saw the sand scatter as if it had been struck a heavy blow. But she could see nothing that had struck it. Then all the thumping noises drew together about twenty feet away from her and suddenly ceased.
Then came the Voice.
It was really very dreadful because she could still see nobody at all. The whole of that park-like try still looked as quiet ay as it had looked when they first landed.
heless, only a few feet away from her, a voice spoke. And what it said was: "Mates, nows our ce.”
Instantly a whole chorus of other voices replied, "Hear him. Hear him. `Now s our ce, he said. Well done, Chief. You never said a truer word.”
"What I say," tihe first voice, "is, get down to the shore between them and their boat, a every mothers son look to his ons. Catch em whery to put to sea.”
"Eh, thats the way," shouted all the other voices. "You never made a better plan, Chief.
Keep it up, Chief. You couldnt have a better plan than that.”
"Lively, then, mates, lively," said the first voice. "Off we go.
&quht again, Chief," said the others. "Couldnt have a better order. Just what we were going to say ourselves. Off we go.”
Immediately the thumping began again - very loud at first but soon fainter and faiill it died out in the dire of the sea.
Luew there was no time to sit puzzling as to what these invisible creatures might be.
As soon as the thumping noise had died away she got up and ran along the path after the others as quickly as her legs would carry her. They must at all costs be warned.
While this had been happening the others had reached the house. It was a low building - only two stories high made of a beautiful mellow stone, many-windowed, and partially covered with ivy. Everything was so still that Eustace said, "I think its empty," but Caspian silently poio the n of smoke which rose from one ey.
They found a wide gateen and passed through it into a paved courtyard. And it was here that they had their first indication that there was something odd about this island. In the middle of the courtyard stood a pump, ah the pump a bucket.
There was nothing odd about that. But the pump handle was moving up and down, though there seemed to be no one moving it.
"Theres some magic at work here," said Caspian.
"Maery!" said Eustace. "I do believe weve e to a civilized try at last.”
At that moment Lucy, hot and breathless, rushed into the courtyard behind them. In a low voice she tried to make them uand what she had overheard. And when they had partly uood it even the bravest of them did not look very happy.
"Invisible enemies," muttered Caspian. "And cutting us off from the boat. This is an ugly furrow to plough.”
"Youve no idea what sort of creatures they are, Lu?" asked Edmund.
"How I, Ed, when I couldhem?”
"Did they sound like humans from their footsteps?”
"I didnt hear any noise of feet - only voices and this frightful thudding and thumping - like a mallet.”
"I wonder," said Reepicheep, "do they bee visible when you drive a sword into them?”
"It looks as if we shall find out," said Caspian. "But lets get out of this gateway. Theres one of these gentry at that pump listening to all we say.”
They came out a ba to the path where the trees might possibly make them less spicuous. "Not that its any good really," said Eustace, &qu to hide from people you t see. They may be all round us.”
"Now, Drinian," said Caspian. "How would it be if we gave up the boat for lost, went down to another part of the bay, and sigo the Dawn Treader to stand in and take us aboard?”
"Not depth for her, Sire," said Drinian.
"We could swim," said Lucy.
"Your Majesties all," said Reepicheep, "hear me. It is folly to think of avoiding an invisible enemy by any amount of creeping and skulking. If these creatures mean t us to battle, be sure they will succeed. And whatever es of it Id sooner meet them face to face than be caught by the tail.”
"I really think Reep is in the right this time," said Edmund.
"Surely," said Lucy, "if Rhind the others on the Dawn Treader see us fighting on the shore theyll be able to do something.”
"But they wont see us fighting if they t see any enemy," said Eustace miserably.
"Theyll think were just swinging our swords in the air for fun.”
There was an unfortable pause.
"Well," said Caspian at last, "lets get on with it. We must go and face them. Shake hands all round - arrow oring, Lucy - swords out, everyone else - and now for it. Perhaps theyll parley.”
It was strao see the lawns and the great trees looking so peaceful as they marched back to the beach. And when they arrived there, and saw the boat lying where they had left her, and the smooth sand with no oo be seen on it, more than one doubted whether Lucy had not merely imagined all she had told them. But before they reached the sand, a voice spoke out of the air.
"No further, masters, no further now," it said. "Weve got to talk with you first. Theres fifty of us and more here with ons in our fists.”
"Hear him, hear him," came the chorus. "Thats our Chief. You depend on what he says. Hes telling you the truth, he is.”
"I do not see these fifty warriors," observed Reepicheep.
"Thats right, thats right," said the Chief Voice. "You dont see us. And why not?
Because were invisible.”
"Keep it up, Chief, keep it up," said the Other Voices. "Youre talking like a book. They couldnt ask for a better ahan that.”
&qu<tt>??t>ot;Be quiet, Reep," said Caspian, and then added in a louder voice, "You invisible people, what do you want with us? And what have we doo earn your enmity?”
"We want something that little girl do for us," said the Chief Voice. (The others explaihat this was just what they would have said themselves.)
"Little girl!" said Reepicheep. "The lady is a queen.”
"We dont know about queens," said the Chief Voice.
("No more we do, no more we do," chimed ihers.) "But we want something she do.”
"What is it?" said Lucy.
"And if it is anything against her Majestys honour or safety," added Reepicheep, "you will woo see how many we kill before we die.”
"Well," said the Chief Voice. "Its a long story. Suppose we all sit down?" , The proposal was warmly approved by the other voices but the Narnians remaianding.
"Well," said the Chief Voice. "Its like this. This island has been the property of a great magi time out of mind. And we all are - or perhaps in a manner of speaking, I might say, we were - his servants. Well, to cut a long story short, this magi that I eaking about, he told us to do something we didnt like. And why not? Because we didnt want to. Well, then, this same magi he fell into a great rage; for I ought to tell you he owhe island and he wasnt used to being crossed. He was terribly dht, you know. But let me see, where am I? Oh yes, this magi then, he goes upstairs (for you must know he kept all his magic things up there and we all lived down below), I say he goes upstairs and pu<samp>?</samp>ts a spell on us. An uglifying spell. If you saw us now, whi my opinion you may thank your stars you t, you wouldnt believe what we looked like before we were uglified. You wouldnt really. So there we all were so ugly we couldo look at one another. So then what did we do? Well, Ill tell you what we did. We waited till we thought this same magi would be asleep iernoon and we creep upstairs and go to his magic book, as bold as brass, to see if we do anything about this uglification. But we were all of a sweat and a tremble, so I wont deceive you. But, believe me or believe me not, I do assure you that we couldnt find any thing in the way of a spell for taking off the ugliness. And what with time getting on and being afraid that
the old gentleman might wake up any minute - I was all of a muck sweat, so I wont deceive you - well, to cut a long story short, whether we did right or whether we did wrong, in the end we see a spell for making people invisible. Ahought wed rather be invisible than go on being as ugly as all that. And why? Because wed like it better. So my little girl, whos just about your little girls age, and a sweet child she was before she was uglified, though now - but least said soo mended - I say, my little girl she says the spell, for its got to be a little girl or else the magi himself, if you see my meaning, for otherwise it wont work. And why not? Because nothing happens. So my Clipsie says the spell, for I ought to have told you she reads beautifully, and there we all were as invisible as you could wish to see. And I do assure you it was a relief not to see one anothers faces. At first, anyway. But the long and the short of it is were mortal tired of being invisible. And theres ahing. We never reed on this magi (the one I was telling you about befoing invisible too. But we havent ever seen him since. So we dont know if hes dead, one .away, or whether hes just sitting upstairs being invisible, and perhaps ing down and being invisible there. And, believe me, its no manner of use listening because he always did go about with his bare feet on, making no more han a great big cat. And Ill tell all you gentlemen straight, its getting more than what our nerves stand.”
Such was the Chief Voices story, but very much shortened, because I have left out what the Other Voices said. Actually he never got out more than six or seven words without being interrupted by their agreements and encements, which drove the Narnians nearly out of their minds with impatience. When it was over there was a very long silence.
"But," said Lucy at last, "whats all this got to do with us? I dont uand.”
"Why, bless me, if I havent gone a out the whole point," said the Chief Voice.
"That you have, that you have," roared the Other Voices with great enthusiasm. "No one couldnt have left it out er aer. Keep it up, Chief, keep it up.”
"Well, I go ov<samp>藏书网</samp>er the whole stain," began the Chief Voice.
"No. Certainly not," said Caspian and Edmund.
"Well, then, to put it in a nutshell," said the Chief Voice, "weve been waiting for ever so long for a tle girl from fn parts, like it might be you, Missie - that would go upstairs and go to the magic book and find the spell that takes off the invisibleness, and say it. And we all swore that the first strangers as landed on this island (having a tle girl with them, I mean, for if they hadnt itd be another matter) we wouldhem go away alive uheyd dohe needful for us. And thats why, gentlemen, if your little girl doesnt e up to scratch, it will be our painful duty to cut all your throats.
Merely in the way of business, as you might say, and no offence, I hope.”
"I dont see all your ons," said Reepicheep. "Are they invisible too?" The words were scarcely out of his mouth before they heard a whizzing sound a moment a spear had stuck, quivering, in one of the trees behind them.
"Thats a spear, that is," said the Chief Voice.
"That it is, Chief, that it is," said the others. "You couldnt have put it better.”
"And it came from my hand," the Chief Voice tinued. "They get visible when they leave us.”
"But why do you wao do this?" asked Lucy.
"Why t one of your own people? Havent you got any girls?”
"We dursent, we dursent," said all the Voices. "Were not going upstairs again.”
"In other words," said Caspian, "you are asking this lady to fae danger which you darent ask your own sisters and daughters to face!”
"Thats right, thats right," said all the Voices cheerfully. "You couldnt have said it better.
Eh, youve had some education, you have. Anyone see that.”
"Well, of all the eous - " began Edmund, but Luterrupted.
"Would I have to go upstairs at night, or would it do in daylight?”
"Oh, daylight, daylight, to be sure," said the Chief Voice. "Not at night. No ones asking you to do that. Go upstairs in the dark? Ugh.”
"All right, then, Ill do it," said Lucy. "No," she said, turning to the others, "dont try to stop me. t you see its no use? There are dozens of them there. We t fight them.
And the other way there is a ce.”
"But a magi!" said Caspian.
"I know," said Lucy. "But he maynt be as bad as they make out. Dont you get the idea that these people are not very brave?”
"Theyre certainly not very clever," said Eustace.
"Look here, Lu," said Edmund. "We really t let you do a thing like this. Ask Reep, Im sure hell say just the same.”
"But its to save my own life as well as yours," said Lucy. "I dont want to be cut to bits with invisible swords any more than anyone else.”
"Her Majesty is in the right," said Reepicheep. "If we had any assurance of saving her by battle, our duty would be very-plain. It appears to me that we have none. And the service they ask of her is in no way trary to her Majestys honour, but a noble and heroical act.<s></s> If the Quee moves her to risk the magi, I will not speak against it.”
As no one had ever known Reepicheep to be afraid of anything, he could say this without feeling at all awkward. But the boys, who had all been afraid quite often, grew very red.
he less, it was such obvious sehat they had to give in. Loud cheers broke from the invisible people when their decision was announced, and the Chief Voice (warmly supported by all the others) ihe Narnians to e to supper and spend the night.
Eustace didnt want to accept, but Lucy said, "Im sure theyre not treacherous. Theyre not like that at all," and the reed. And so, apanied by an enormous noise of thumpings (which became louder when they reached the flagged and eg courtyard)
they all went back to the house.
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