CHAPTER SEVEN THE HILL OF THE STRANGE TRENCHES（第2/5页）

“Are you hurt，Pole ？”shouted Scrubb.

“Both legs broken，I shouldn’t wonder,”shouted Puddleglum.

Jill stood up and explained that she was all right，but they’d have to help her out.

“What is it you’ve fallen into ？”asked Scrubb.

“It’s a kind of trench，or it might be a kind of sunken lane or something,”said Jill. “It runs quite straight.”

“Yes，by Jove,”said Scrubb. “And it runs due north ！I wonder is it a sort of road ？ If it was，we’d be out of this infernal wind down there. Is there a lot of snow at the bottom ？”

“Hardly any. It all blows over the top，I suppose.”

“What happens farther on ？”

“Half a second. I’ll go and see,”said Jill. She got up and walked along the trench；but before she had gone far，it turned sharply to the right. She shouted this information back to the others.

“What’s round the corner ？”asked Scrubb.

Now it happened that Jill had the same feeling about twisty passages and dark places underground，or even nearly underground，that Scrubb had about the edges of cliffs. She had no intention of going round that corner alone；especially when she heard Puddleglum bawling out from behind her：

“Be careful，Pole. It’s just the sort of place that might lead to a dragon’s cave. And in a giant country，there might be giant earth-worms or giant beetles.”

“I don’t think it goes anywhere much,”said Jill，coming hastily back.

“I’m jolly well going to have a look,”said Scrubb. “What do you mean by anywhere much，I should like to know ？”So he sat down on the edge of the trench（everyone was too wet by now to bother about being a bit wetter）and then dropped in. He pushed past Jill and，though he didn’t say anything，she felt sure that he knew she had funked it. So she followed him close，but took care not to get in front of him.

It proved，however，a disappointing exploration. They went round the right-hand turn and straight on for a few paces. Here there was a choice of ways：straight on again，or sharp to the right. “That’s no good,”said Scrubb，glancing down the right-hand turn，“that would be taking us back—south.”He went straight on，but once more，in a few steps，they found a second turn to the right. But this time there was no choice of ways，for the trench they had been following here came to a dead end.

“No good,”grunted Scrubb. Jill lost no time in turning and leading the way back. When they returned to the place where Jill had first fallen in，the Marsh-wiggle with his long arms had no difficulty in pulling them out.

But it was dreadful to be out on top again. Down in those narrow slits of trenches，their ears had almost begun to thaw. They had been able to see clearly and breathe easily and hear each other speak without shouting. It was absolute misery to come back into the withering coldness. And it did seem hard when Puddleglum chose that moment for saying：

“Are you still sure of those signs，Pole ？ What’s the one we ought to be after，now ？”

“Oh，come on ！Bother the signs,”said Pole. “Something about someone mentioning Aslan’s name，I think. But I’m jolly well not going to give a recitation here.”

As you see，she had got the order wrong. That was because she had given up saying the signs over every night. She still really knew them，if she troubled to think：but she was no longer so“pat”in her lesson as to be sure of reeling them off in the right order at a moment’s notice and without thinking. Puddleglum’s question annoyed her because，deep down inside her，she was already annoyed with herself for not knowing the Lion’s lesson quite so well as she felt she ought to have known it. This annoyance，added to the misery of being very cold and tired， made her say，“Bother the signs.”She didn’t perhaps quite mean it.

“Oh，that was next，was it ？”said Puddleglum. “Now I wonder，are you right ？ Got’em mixed，I shouldn’t wonder. It seems to me，this hill，this flat place we’re on，is worth stopping to have a look at. Have you noticed—”