“Quick， quick. Stones. Fill up the opening，” came Puddleglum‘s voice in the darkness beside her. It was pitch black in there， except for the grey light in the opening by which they had crawled in. The other two were working hard. She could see Scrubb’s small hands and the Marsh- wiggle‘s big， frog-like hands black against the light， working desperately to pile up stones. Then she realized how important this was and began groping for large stones herself， and handing them to the others. Before the dogs were baying and yelping at the cave mouth， they had it pretty well filled； and now， of course， there was no light at all.
“Farther in， quick，” said Puddleglum’s voice. “Let‘s all hold hands，” said Jill.
“Good idea，” said Scrubb. But it took them quite a long time to find one another’s hands in the darkness. The dogs were sniffing at the other side of the barrier now.
“Try if we can stand up，” suggested Scrubb. They did and found that they could. Then， Puddleglum holding out a hand behind him to Scrubb， and Scrubb holding a hand out behind him to Jill （who wished very much that she was the middle one of the party and not the last）， they began groping with their feet and stumbling forwards into the blackness. It was all loose stones underfoot. Then Puddleglum came up to a wall of rock. They turned a little to their right and went on. There were a good many more twists and turns. Jill had now no sense of direction at all， and no idea where the mouth of the cave lay.
“The question is，” came Puddleglum‘s voice out of the darkness ahead， “whether， taking one thing with another， it wouldn’t be better to go back （if we can） and give the giants a treat at that feast of theirs， instead of losing our way in the guts of a hill where， ten to one， there‘s dragons and deep holes and gases and water and-Ow！ Let go！ Save yourselves. I’m-”
After that all happened quickly. There was a wild cry， a swishing， dusty， gravelly noise， a rattle of stones， and Jill found herself sliding， sliding， hopelessly sliding， and sliding quicker every moment down a slope that grew steeper every moment. It was not a smooth， firm slope， but a slope of small stones and rubbish. Even if you could have stood up， it would have been no use. Any bit of that slope you had put your foot on would have slid away from under you and carried you down with it. But Jill was more lying than standing. And the further they all slid， the more they disturbed all the stones and earth， so that the general downward rush of everything （including themselves） got faster and louder and dustier and dirtier. From the sharp cries and swearing of the other two， Jill got the idea that many of the stones which she was dislodging were hitting Scrubb and Puddleglum pretty hard. And now she was going at a furious rate and felt sure she would be broken to bits at the bottom.
Yet somehow they weren‘t. They were a mass of bruises， and the wet sticky stuff on her face appeared to be blood. And such a mass of loose earth， shingle， and larger stones was piled up round her （and partly over her） that she couldn’t get up. The darkness was so complete that it made no difference at all whether you had your eyes open or shut. There was no noise. And that was the very worst moment Jill had ever known in her life. Supposing she was alone： supposing the others . . . Then she heard movements around her. And presently all three， in shaken voices， were explaining that none of them seemed to have any broken bones.
“We can never get up that again，” said Scrubb‘s voice.
“And have you noticed how warm it is？” said the voice of Puddleglum. “That means we’re a long way down. Might be nearly a mile.”
No one said anything. Some time later Puddleglum added： “My tinder-box has gone.”
After another long pause Jill said， “I‘m terribly thirsty.”
No one suggested doing anything. There was so obviously nothing to be done. For the moment， they did not feel it quite so badly as one might have expected； that was because they were so tired.
Long， long afterwards， without the slightest warning， an utterly strange voice spoke. They knew at once that it was not the one voicein the whole world for which each had secretly been hoping； the voice of Aslan. It was a dark， flat voice-almost， if you know what that means， a pitch-black voice. It said：
“What make you here， creatures of the Overworld？”
中文阅读
另外两位男士事后承认，那天吉尔表现得十分出色。国王和狩猎队的人刚一出发，她就开始在整个城堡逛来逛去，还提出一些问题。但是她所有这些言谈举止，都是带着一种天真烂漫的表情，使人不会怀疑她有什么秘密的计划。尽管她嘴上说个不停，你却很难说她讲过什么话：她叽叽喳喳，咯咯傻笑，向每个人表示友好--马夫、搬运工、女佣、侍女，还有因年老而不能去打猎的巨人贵族。她欣然接受众多女巨人的亲吻和触摸，有不少人似乎为她感到惋惜，称她为“可怜的小东西”，但没有人说明原因。她和厨师成了特别要好的朋友，还有了一个极其重要的发现：即洗碗室有一道门，可以直接由外墙出去，而不必穿过庭院或经过巨大的门房。在厨房，她装出贪吃的样子，吃掉了厨师和佣人乐于拿给她的各种食物碎片。在楼上的贵妇人那里，她问了一些关于盛大宴会的着装，将会允许她熬夜到什么时候，以及她能否与一些小个子的巨人跳舞之类的问题。接着（她事后回忆起来，依然感到全身发烫，羞愧难当），她傻乎乎地把脑袋歪到一边，成年人与巨人等，都认为她这个样子非常迷人。她摇了摇卷发，坐立不安地说：“噢，我真希望这会儿就是明天晚上，你们呢？你们觉得时间很快就会过去吗？”所有的女巨人都说她是个完美的小宝贝儿；有的用大手帕擦了擦眼睛，看样子快要哭出来了。
“在那个年龄，他们是些可爱的小东西。”一个女巨人对另外一个说道，“这可真有点遗憾……”
斯克拉布和浦都格伦也使出了浑身的解数，但女孩子比男孩子更擅长这一类事情，男孩子又比沼泽人略胜一筹。
午饭时发生的一件事，使他们三个更加急不可待地想要离开温和巨人的城堡。在巨大厅堂的壁炉旁边，他们坐在自己的小桌子前吃着午餐。大约二十米之外，六个老巨人坐在一张大桌子旁用餐。他们的谈话声刺耳喧闹，滔滔不绝，孩子们很快就对其置若罔闻，就好像你忽视窗外的汽笛声或街道上的交通噪音。他们正在吃冷鹿肉，吉尔以前从来没有尝过这种食物，她吃得津津有味。
