CHAPTER SEVEN HOW THE ADVENTURE ENDED(第3/3页)

“Dressed you.With his paws ?”

“Well,I don’t exactly remember that bit.But he did somehow or other:in new clothes—the same I’ve got on now, as a matter of fact.And then suddenly I was back here.Which is what makes me think it must have been a dream.”

“No.It wasn’t a dream,”said Edmund.

“Why not ?”

“Well,there are the clothes,for one thing.And you have been—well,un-dragoned,for another.”

“What do you think it was,then ?”asked Eustace.

“I think you’ve seen Aslan,”said Edmund.

“Aslan !”said Eustace.“I’ve heard that name mentioned several times since we joined the Dawn Treader.And I felt—I don’t know what—I hated it.But I was hating everything then. And by the way,I’d like to apologize.I’m afraid I’ve been pretty beastly.”

“That’s all right,”said Edmund.“Between ourselves,you haven’t been as bad as I was on my first trip to Narnia.You were only an ass,but I was a traitor.”

“Well,don’t tell me about it,then,”said Eustace.“But who is Aslan ? Do you know him ?”

“Well—he knows me,”said Edmund.“He is the great Lion, the son of the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea,who saved me and saved Narnia.We’ve all seen him.Lucy sees him most often.And it may be Aslan’s country we are sailing to.”

Neither said anything for a while.The last bright star had vanished and though they could not see the sunrise because of the mountains on their right,they knew it was going on because the sky above them and the bay before them turned the colour of roses. Then some bird of the parrot kind screamed in the wood behind them,they heard movements among the trees,and finally a blast on Caspian’s horn.The camp was astir.

Great was the rejoicing when Edmund and the restored Eustace walked into the breakfast circle round the camp fire.And now of course everyone heard the earlier part of his story.People wondered whether the other dragon had killed the Lord Octesian several years ago or whether Octesian himself had been the old dragon.The jewels with which Eustace had crammed his pockets in the cave had disappeared along with the clothes he had then been wearing:but no one,least of all Eustace himself,felt any desire to go back to that valley for more treasure.

In a few days now the Dawn Treader,remasted,repainted, and well stored,was ready to sail.Before they embarked Caspian caused to be cut on a smooth cliff facing the bay the words:

DRAGON ISLAND DISCOVERED BY CASPIAN X,KING OF NARNIA,ETC.IN THE FOURTH YEAR OF HIS REIGN. HERE,AS WE SUPPOSE,THE LORD OCTESIAN HAD HIS DEATH .

It would be nice,and fairly nearly true,to say that“from that time forth Eustace was a different boy.”To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy.He had relapses.There were still many days when he could be very tiresome.But most of those I shall not notice.The cure had begun.

The Lord Octesian’s arm ring had a curious fate.Eustace did not want it and offered it to Caspian and Caspian offered it to Lucy.She did not care about having it.“Very well,then,catch as catch can,”said Caspian and flung it up in the air.This was when they were all standing looking at the inscription.Up went the ring, flashing in the sunlight,and caught,and hung,as neatly as a well-thrown quoit,on a little projection on the rock.No one could climb up to get it from below and no one could climb down to get it from above.And there,for all I know,it is hanging still and may hang till that world ends.