I wish the Macready would hurry up and take all these people
away," said Susan presently, "I'm getting horribly cramped."
"And what a filthy smell of camphor!" said Edmund.
"I expect the pockets of these coats are full of it," said Susan, "to
keep away the moths."
"There's something sticking into my back," said Peter.
"And isn't it cold?" said Susan.
"Now that you mention it, it is cold," said Peter, "and hang it all, it's
wet too. What's the matter with this place? I'm sitting on something
wet. It's getting wetter every minute." He struggled to his feet.
"Let's get out," said Edmund, "they've gone."
"O-o-oh!" said Susan suddenly, and everyone asked her what was
the matter.
"I'm sitting against a tree," said Susan, "and look! It's getting light
— over there."
"By Jove, you're right," said Peter, "and look there — and there. It's
trees all round. And this wet stuff is snow. Why, I do believe we've got
into Lucy's wood after all."
And now there was no mistaking it and all four children stood
blinking in the daylight of a winter day. Behind them were coats
hanging on pegs, in front of them were snow-covered trees.
Peter turned at once to Lucy.
"I apologise for not believing you," he said, "I'm sorry. Will you
shake hands?"
"Of course," said Lucy, and did.
"And now," said Susan, "what do we do next?"
The Lion, the Witch and the wardrobe 29
"Do?" said Peter, "why, go and explore the wood, of course."
"Ugh!" said Susan, stamping her feet, "it's pretty cold. What about
putting on some of these coats?"
"They're not ours," said Peter doubtfully.
"I am sure nobody would mind," said Susan; "it isn't as if we wanted
to take them out of the house; we shan't take them even out of the
wardrobe."
"I never thought of that, Su," said Peter. "Of course, now you put it
that way, I see. No one could say you had bagged a coat as long as
you leave it in the wardrobe where you found it. And I suppose this
whole country is in the wardrobe."
They immediately carried out Susan's very sensible plan. The coats
were rather too big for them so that they came down to their heels and
looked more like royal robes than coats when they had put them on.
But they all felt a good deal warmer and each thought the others
looked better in their new get-up and more suitable to the landscape.
"We can pretend we are Arctic explorers," said Lucy.
"This is going to be exciting enough without pretending," said Peter,
as he began leading the way forward into the forest. There were heavy
darkish clouds overhead and it looked as if there might be more snow
before night.
"I say," began Edmund presently, "oughtn't we to be bearing a bit
more to the left, that is, if we are aiming for the lamp-post?" He had
forgotten for the moment that he must pretend never to have been in
the wood before. The moment the words were out of his mouth he
realised that he had given himself away. Everyone stopped; everyone
stared at him. Peter whistled.
"So you really were here," he said, "that time Lu said she'd met you
in here — and you made out she was telling lies."
There was a dead silence. "Well, of all the poisonous little beasts -"
said Peter, and shrugged his shoulders and said no more. There
seemed, indeed, no more to say, and presently the four resumed their
journey; but Edmund was saying to himself, "I'll pay you all out for
this, you pack of stuck-up, self-satisfied prigs."
"Where are we going anyway?" said Susan, chiefly for the sake of
changing the subject.
"I think Lu ought to be the leader," said Peter; "goodness knows she
deserves it. Where will you take us, Lu?"
"What about going to see Mr Tumnus?" said Lucy. "He's the nice
Faun I told you about."
Everyone agreed to this and off they went walking briskly and
stamping their feet. Lucy proved a good leader. At first she wondered
whether she would be able to find the way, but she recognised an oddlooking tree on one place and a stump in another and brought them
on to where the ground became uneven and into the little valley and
at last to the very door of Mr Tumnus's cave. But there a terrible
surprise awaited them.
The door had been wrenched off its hinges and broken to bits.
Inside, the cave was dark and cold and had the damp feel and smell
of a place that had not been lived in for several days. Snow had drifted
in from the doorway and was heaped on the floor, mixed with something black, which turned out to be the charred sticks and ashes from
the fire. Someone had apparently flung it about the room and then
stamped it out. The crockery lay smashed on the floor and the picture
of the Faun's father had been slashed into shreds with a knife.
"This is a pretty good wash-out," said Edmund; "not much good
coming here."
"What is this?" said Peter, stooping down. He had just noticed a
piece of paper which had been nailed through the carpet to the floor.
"Is there anything written on it?" asked Susan.
"Yes, I think there is," answered Peter, "but I can't read it in this light.
Let's get out into the open air."
They all went out in the daylight and crowded round Peter as he read
out the following words:
The former occupant of these premises, the Faun Tumnus, is under arrest
and awaiting his trial on a charge of High Treason against her Imperial
Majesty Jadis, Queen of Narnia, Chatelaine of Cair Paravel, Empress of the
Lone Islands, etc., also of comforting her said Majesty's enemies, harbouring
spies and fraternizing with Humans.
signed Maugrim,
Captain of the Secret Police,
LONG LIVE THE QUEEN
The children stared at each other.
"I don't know that I'm going to like this place after all," said Susan.
"Who is this Queen, Lu?" said Peter. "Do you know anything about
her?"
"She isn't a real queen at all," answered Lucy; "she's a horrible
witch, the White Witch. Everyone all the wood people — hate her. She
has made an enchantment over the whole country so that it is always
winter here and never Christmas."
"I — I wonder if there's any point in going on," said Susan. "I mean,
it doesn't seem particularly safe here and it looks as if it won't be
much fun either. And it's getting colder every minute, and we've
brought nothing to eat. What about just going home?"
"Oh, but we can't, we can't," said Lucy suddenly; "don't you see?
We can't just go home, not after this. It is all on my account that the
poor Faun has got into this trouble. He hid me from the Witch and
showed me the way back. That's what it means by comforting the
Queen's enemies and fraternizing with Humans. We simply must try
to rescue him."
"A lot we could do! said Edmund, "when we haven't even got
anything to eat!"
"Shut up — you!" said Peter, who was still very angry with Edmund.
"What do you think, Susan?"
"I've a horrid feeling that Lu is right," said Susan. "I don't want to go
a step further and I wish we'd never come. But I think we must try to
do something for Mr Whatever-his-name is — I mean the Faun."
"That's what I feel too," said Peter. "I'm worried about having no
food with us. I'd vote for going back and getting something from the
larder, only there doesn't seem to be any certainty of getting into this
country again when once you've got out of it. I think we'll have to go
on."
"So do I," said both the girls.
"If only we knew where the poor chap was imprisoned!" said Peter.
They were all still wondering what to do next, when Lucy said,
"Look! There's a robin, with such a red breast. It's the first bird I've
seen here. I say! — I wonder can birds talk in Narnia? It almost looks
as if it wanted to say something to us." Then she turned to the Robin
and said, "Please, can you tell us where Tumnus the Faun has been
taken to?" As she said this she took a step towards the bird. It at once
flew away but only as far as to the next tree. There it perched and
looked at them very hard as if it understood all they had been saying.
Almost without noticing that they had done so, the four children went
a step or two nearer to it. At this the Robin flew away again to the next
tree and once more looked at them very hard. (You couldn't have
found a robin with a redder chest or a brighter eye.)
"Do you know," said Lucy, "I really believe he means us to follow
him."
"I've an idea he does," said Susan. "What do you think, Peter?"
"Well, we might as well try it," answered Peter.
The Robin appeared to understand the matter thoroughly. It kept
going from tree to tree, always a few yards ahead of them, but always
so near that they could easily follow it. In this way it led them on,
slightly downhill. Wherever the Robin alighted a little shower of snow
would fall off the branch. Presently the clouds parted overhead and
the winter sun came out and the snow all around them grew dazzlingly
bright. They had been travelling in this way for about half an hour, with
the two girls in front, when Edmund said to Peter, "if you're not still too
high and mighty to talk to me, I've something to say which you'd
better listen to."
"What is it?" asked Peter.
"Hush! Not so loud," said Edmund; "there's no good frightening the
girls. But have you realised what we're doing?"
"What?" said Peter, lowering his voice to a whisper.
"We're following a guide we know nothing about. How do we know
which side that bird is on? Why shouldn't it be leading us into a trap?"
"That's a nasty idea. Still — a robin, you know. They're good birds
in all the stories I've ever read. I'm sure a robin wouldn't be on the
wrong side."
"It if comes to that, which is the right side? How do we know that
the Fauns are in the right and the Queen (yes, I know we've been
told she's a witch) is in the wrong? We don't really know anything
about either."
"The Faun saved Lucy."
"He said he did. But how do we know? And there's another thing too.
Has anyone the least idea of the way home from here?"
"Great Scott!" said Peter, "I hadn't thought of that.