CHAPTER TWO THE RASHNESS OF THE KING（第3/4页）

They were now going Westward with the River on their right and Lantern Waste straight ahead of them. They had not gone more than a mile when they both stopped and both spoke at the same moment. The King said“What have we here ？”and Jewel said“Look!”

“It is a raft，”said King Tirian．

And so it was. Half a dozen splendid tree-trunks，all newly cut and newly lopped of their branches，had been lashed together to make a raft，and were gliding swiftly down the river. On the front of the raft there was a water rat with a pole to steer it．

“Hey! Water-Rat! What are you about ？”cried the King．

“Taking logs down to sell to the Calormenes，Sire，”said the Rat，touching his ear as he might have touched his cap if he had had one．

“Calormenes!”thundered Tirian.“What do you mean ？ Who gave order for these trees to be felled ？”

The River flows so swiftly at that time of the year that the raft had already glided past the King and Jewel. But the Water-Rat looked back over its shoulder and shouted out：

“The Lion’s orders，Sire. Aslan himself.”He added something more but they couldn’t hear it．

The King and the Unicorn stared at one another and both looked more frightened than they had ever been in any battle．

“Aslan，”said the King at last，in a very low voice.“Aslan. Could it be true ？ Could he be felling the holy trees and murdering the Dryads ？”

“Unless the Dryads have all done something dreadfully wrong-”murmured Jewel．

“But selling them to Calormenes!”said the King.“Is it possible ？”

“I don’t know，”said Jewel miserably.“He’s not a tame lion.”

“Well，”said the King at last，“we must go on and take the adventure that comes to us.”

“It is the only thing left for us to do，Sire，”said the Unicorn. He did not see at the moment how foolish it was for two of them to go on alone; nor did the King. They were too angry to think clearly. But much evil came of their rashness in the end．

Suddenly the King leaned hard on his friend’s neck and bowed his head．

“Jewel，”he said，“what lies before us ？ Horrible thoughts arise in my heart. If we had died before today we should have been happy.”

“Yes，”said Jewel.“We have lived too long. The worst thing in the world has come upon us.”They stood like that for a minute or two and then went on．

Before long they could hear the hack-hack-hack of axes falling on timber，though they could see nothing yet because there was a rise of the ground in front of them. When they had reached the top of it they could see right into Lantern Waste itself. And the King’s face turned white when he saw it．

Right through the middle of that ancient forest-that forest where the trees of gold and of silver had once grown and where a child from our world had once planted the Tree of Protection-a broad lane had already been opened. It was a hideous lane like a raw gash in the land，full of muddy ruts where felled trees had been dragged down to the river. There was a great crowd of people at work，and a cracking of whips，and horses tugging and straining as they dragged at the logs. The first thing that struck the King and the Unicorn was that about half the people in the crowd were not Talking Beasts but Men. The next thing was that these men were not the fair-haired men of Narnia：they were dark，bearded men from Calormen，that great and cruel country that lies beyond Archenland across the desert to the south. There was no reason，of course，why one should not meet a Calormene or two in Narnia-a merchant or an ambassador-for there was peace between Narnia and Calormen in those days. But Tirian could not understand why there were so many of them：nor why they were cutting down a Narnian forest. He grasped his sword tighter and rolled his cloak round his left arm. They came quickly down among the men．

Two Calormenes were driving a horse which was harnessed to a log. Just as the King reached them the log got stuck in a bad muddy place．