CHAPTER TEN THE RETURN OF THE LION（第2/5页）

“By Jove，”said Edmund．“We fought the Battle of Beruna just where that town is！”

This cheered the boys more than anything．You can’t help feeling stronger when you look at a place where you won a glorious victory not to mention a kingdom，hundreds of years ago．Peter and Edmund were soon so busy talking about the battle that they forgot their sore feet and the heavy drag of their mail shirts on their shoulders．The Dwarf was interested too．

They were all getting on at a quicker pace now．The going became easier．Though there were still sheer cliffs on their left，the ground was becoming lower on their right．Soon it was no longer a gorge at all，only a valley．There were no more waterfalls and presently they were in fairly thick woods again．

Then—all at once—whizz，and a sound rather like the stroke of a woodpecker．The children were still wondering where (ages ago) they had heard a sound just like that and why they disliked it so，when Trumpkin shouted，“Down,”at the same moment forcing Lucy (who happened to be next to him) flat down into the bracken．Peter，who had been looking up to see if he could spot a squirrel，had seen what it was—a long cruel arrow had sunk into a tree trunk just above his head．As he pulled Susan down and dropped himself，another came rasping over his shoulder and struck the ground at his side．

“Quick！ Quick！ Get back！ Crawl！”panted Trumpkin．

They turned and wriggled along uphill，under the bracken amid clouds of horribly buzzing flies．Arrows whizzed round them.

One struck Susan’s helmet with a sharp ping and glanced off．They crawled quicker．Sweat poured off them．Then they ran，stooping nearly double．The boys held their swords in their hands for fear they would trip them up．

It was heart-breaking work—all uphill again，back over the ground they had already travelled．When they felt that they really couldn’t run any more，even to save their lives，they all dropped down in the damp moss beside a waterfall and behind a big boulder，panting．They were surprised to see how high they had already got．

They listened intently and heard no sound of pursuit．

“So that’s all right，”said Trumpkin，drawing a deep breath.“They’re not searching the wood．Only sentries，I expect．But it means that Miraz has an outpost down there．Bottles and battledores！ though，it was a near thing．”

“I ought to have my head smacked for bringing us this way at all，”said Peter．

“On the contrary，your Majesty，”said the Dwarf．“For one thing it wasn’t you，it was your royal brother，King Edmund，who first suggested going by Glasswater．”

“I’m afraid the D．L．F．’s right，”said Edmund，who had quite honestly forgotten this ever since things began going wrong．

“And for another，”continued Trumpkin，“if we’d gone my way，we’d have walked straight into that new outpost，most likely; or at least had just the same trouble avoiding it．I think this Glasswater route has turned out for the best．”

“A blessing in disguise，”said Susan．

“Some disguise！”said Edmund．

“I suppose we’l l have to go right up the gorge again now，”said Lucy.

“Lu，you’re a hero，”said Peter．“That’s the nearest you’ve got today to saying I told you so．Let’s get on．”

“And as soon as we’re well up into the forest，”said Trumpkin，

“whatever anyone says，I’m going to light a fire and cook supper.But we must get well away from here．”

There is no need to describe how they toiled back up the gorge．It was pretty hard work，but oddly enough everyone felt more cheerful．They were getting their second wind; and the word supper had had a wonderful effect．

They reached the fir wood which had caused them so much trouble while it was still daylight，and bivouacked in a hollow just above it．It was tedious gathering the firewood; but it was grand when the fire blazed up and they began producing the damp and smeary parcels of bear-meat which would have been so very unattractive to anyone who had spent the day indoors．The Dwarf had splendid ideas about cookery．Each apple (they still had a few of these) was wrapped up in bear’s meat—as if it was to be apple dumpling with meat instead of pastry，only much thicker—and spiked on a sharp stick and then roasted．And the juice of the apple worked all through the meat，like apple sauce with roast pork．Bear that has lived too much on other animals is not very nice，but bear that has had plenty of honey and fruit is excellent，and this turned out to be that sort of bear．It was a truly glorious meal．And，of course，no washing up—only lying back and watching the smoke from Trumpkin’s pipe and stretching one’s tired legs and chatting．Everyone felt quite hopeful now about finding King Caspian tomorrow and defeating Miraz in a few days．It may not have been sensible of them to feel like this，but they did．