CHAPTER TWELVE THE DARK ISLAND（第3/4页）

“That’s the island I’ve been looking for this long time，”said one of the sailors．“I reckoned I’d find I was married to Nancy if we landed here．”

“And I’d find Tom alive again，”said another．

“Fools ！”said the man，stamping his foot with rage．“That is the sort of talk that brought me here，and I’d better have been drowned or never born．Do you hear what I say ？ This is where dreams-dreams，do you understand，come to life，come real． Not daydreams：dreams．”

There was about half a minute’s silence and then，with a great clatter of armour，the whole crew were tumbling down the main hatch as quick as they could and flinging themselves on the oars to row as they had never rowed before；and Drinian was swinging round the tiller，and the boatswain was giving out the quickest stroke that had ever been heard at sea．For it had taken everyone just that halfminute to remember certain dreams they had had-dreams that make you afraid of going to sleep again-and to realize what it would mean to land on a country where dreams come true．

Only Reepicheep remained unmoved．

“Your Majesty，your Majesty，”he said，“are you going to tolerate this mutiny，this poltroonery ？This is a panic，this is a rout．”

“Row，row，”bellowed Caspian．“Pull for all our lives．Is her head right，Drinian ？You can say what you like，Reepicheep． There are some things no man can face．”

“It is，then，my good fortune not to be a man，”replied Reepicheep with a very stiff bow．

Lucy from up aloft had heard it all．In an instant that one of her own dreams which she had tried hardest to forget came back to her as vividly as if she had only just woken from it．So that was what was behind them，on the island，in the darkness！For a second she wanted to go down to the deck and be with Edmund and Caspian．But what was the use ？ If dreams began coming true， Edmund and Caspian themselves might turn into something horrible just as she reached them．She gripped the rail of the fighting top and tried to steady herself．They were rowing back to the light as hard as they could：it would be all right in a few seconds．But oh，if only it could be all right now ！

Though the rowing made a good deal of noise it did not quite conceal the total silence which surrounded the ship．

Everyone knew it would be better not to listen，not to strain his ears for any sound from the darkness．But no one could help listening．And soon everyone was hearing things．Each one heard something different．

“Do you hear a noise like... like a huge pair of scissors opening and shutting... over there ？”Eustace asked Rynelf．

“Hush ！”said Rynelf．“I can hear them crawling up the sides of the ship．”

“It’s just going to settle on the mast，”said Caspian．

“Ugh！”said a sailor．“There are the gongs beginning．I knew they would．”

Caspian，trying not to look at anything(especially not to keep looking behind him)，went aft to Drinian．

“Drinian，”he said in a very low voice．“How long did we take rowing in ？ -I mean rowing to where we picked up．the stranger．”

“Five minutes，perhaps，”whispered Drinian．“Why ？”

“Because we’ve been more than that already trying to get out．”

Drinian’s hand shook on the tiller and a line of cold sweat ran down his face．The same idea was occurring to everyone on board． “We shall never get out，never get’ out，”moaned the rowers．“He’s steering us wrong．We’re going round and round in circles．We shall never get out．”The stranger，who had been lying in a huddled heap on the deck，sat up and burst out into a horrible screaming laugh．

“Never get out ！”he yelled．“That’s it．Of course．We shall never get out．What a fool I was to have thought they would let me go as easily as that．No，no，we shall never get out．”