CHAPTER EIGHT WHAT HAPPENED AFTER DINNER（第3/4页）

“How perfectly dreadful ！”said Susan as they at last came back in despair．“Oh，how I wish we’d never come．”

“What on earth are we to do，Mr. Beaver ？”said Peter．

“Do ？”said Mr. Beaver，who was already putting on his snow-boots，“do ？ We must be off at once．We haven’t a moment to spare ！”

“We’d better divide into four search parties，”said Peter，“and all go in different directions．Whoever finds him must come back here at once and-”

“Search parties，Son of Adam ？”said Mr. Beaver；“what for ？”

“Why，to look for Edmund，of course ！”

“There’s no point in looking for him，”said Mr. Beaver．

“What do you mean ？”said Susan．“He can’t be far away yet. And we’ve got to find him．What do you mean when you say there’s no use looking for him ？”

“The reason there’s no use looking，”said Mr. Beaver， “is that we know already where he’s gone ！”Everyone stared in amazement. “Don’t you understand ？”said Mr. Beaver．“He’s gone to her，to the White Witch．He has betrayed us all．”

“Oh，surely-oh，really ！”said Susan，“he can’t have done that．”

“Can’t he ？”said Mr. Beaver，looking very hard at the three children，and everything they wanted to say died on their lips， for each felt suddenly quite certain inside that this was exactly what Edmund had done．

“But will he know the way ？”said Peter．

“Has he been in this country before ？”asked Mr. Beaver．“Has he ever been here alone ？”

“Yes，”said Lucy，almost in a whisper．“I’m afraid he has．”

“And did he tell you what he’d done or who he’d met ？”

“Well，no，he didn’t，”said Lucy．

“Then mark my words，”said Mr. Beaver，“he has already met the White Witch and joined her side，and been told where she lives. I didn’t like to mention it before（he being your brother and all） but the moment I set eyes on that brother of yours I said to myself Treacherous．He had the look of one who has been with the Witch and eaten her food．You can always tell them if you’ve lived long in Narnia；something about their eyes．”

“All the same，”said Peter in a rather choking sort of voice， “we’ll still have to go and look for him．He is our brother after all，even if he is rather a little beast．And he’s only a kid．”

“Go to the Witch’s House ？”said Mrs. Beaver．“Don’t you see that the only chance of saving either him or yourselves is to keep away from her ？”

“How do you mean ？”said Lucy．

“Why，all she wants is to get all four of you（she’s thinking all the time of those four thrones at Cair Paravel）．Once you were all four inside her House her job would be done-and there’d be four new statues in her collection before you’d had time to speak． But she’ll keep him alive as long as he’s the only one she’s got， because she’ll want to use him as a decoy；as bait to catch the rest of you with．”

“Oh，can no one help us ？”wailed Lucy．

“Only Aslan，”said Mr. Beaver，“we must go on and meet him. That’s our only chance now．”

“It seems to me，my dears，”said Mrs. Beaver，“that it is very important to know just when he slipped away．How much he can tell her depends on how much he heard．For instance，had we started talking of Aslan before he left ？ If not，then we may do very well，for she won’t know that Aslan has come to Narnia，or that we are meeting him，and will be quite off her guard as far as that is concerned．”

“I don’t remember his being here when we were talking about Aslan-”began Peter，but Lucy interrupted him．

“Oh yes，he was，”she said miserably；“don’t you remember， it was he who asked whether the Witch couldn’t turn Aslan into stone too ？”

“So he did，by Jove，”said Peter；“just the sort of thing he would say，too ！”