"There!" said Digory. "That's alright. Now for the adventure. Any pool will do. Come on. Let's try that one."
"Stop!" said Polly- "Aren't we going to mark this pool?"
They stared at each other and turned quite white as they realized the dreadful (可怕的) thing that Digory had just been going to do.
For there were any number of pools in the wood, and the pools were all alike (相似的) and the trees were all alike, so that if they had once left behind the pool that led to our own world without making some sort of landmark, the chances would have been a hundred to one against their ever finding it again.
Digory's hand was shaking as he opened his penknife and cut out a long strip (块) of turf (草皮) on the bank of the pool.
The soil (which smelled nice) was of a rich reddish (微红的) brown and showed up well against the green. "It's a good thing one of us has some sense," said Polly.
"Well don't keep on gassing about (吹嘘) it," said Digory. "Come along, I want to see what's in one of the other pools." And Polly gave him a pretty sharp answer and he said something even nastier (尖锐的) in reply.
The quarrel lasted for several minutes but it would be dull to write it all down. Let us skip on to the moment at which they stood with beating hearts and rather scared faces on the edge of the unknown pool with their yellow rings on and held hands and once more said "One - Two - Three - Go!"
Splash! Once again it hadn't worked. This pool, too, appeared to be only a puddle (水坑). Instead of reaching a new world they only got their feet wet and splashed their legs for the second time that morning
(if it was a morning: it seems to be always the same time in the Wood between the Worlds).
"Blast and botheration (真烦人)!" exclaimed (大叫) Digory. "What's gone wrong now? We've put our yellow rings on all right. He said yellow for the outward journey."
Now the truth was that Uncle Andrew, who knew nothing about the Wood between the Worlds, had quite a wrong idea about the rings.
The yellow ones weren't "outward" rings and the green ones weren't "homeward" rings; at least, not in the way he thought.
The stuff of which both were made had all come from the wood. The stuff in the yellow rings had the power of drawing you into the wood; it was stuff that wanted to get back to its own place, the in-between place.
But the stuff in the green rings is stuff that is trying to get out of its own place: so that a green ring would take you out of the wood into a world.
Uncle Andrew, you see, was working with things he did not really understand; most magicians are.{1} Of course Digory did not realize the truth quite clearly either, or not till later.
But when they had talked it over (商量), they decided to try their green rings on the new pool, just to see what happened.
"I'm game if you are," said Polly. But she really said this because, in her heart of hearts, she now felt sure that neither kind of ring was going to work at all in the new pool, and so there was nothing worse to be afraid of than another splash.
I am not quite sure that Digory had not the same feeling. At any rate, when they had both put on their greens and come back to the edge of the water, and taken hands again, they were certainly a good deal more cheerful and less solemn (严肃) than they had been the first time.{2}
"One - Two - Three - Go!" said Digory. And they jumped.
There was no doubt about the Magic this time. Down and down they rushed, first through darkness and then through a mass of vague and whirling (旋转的) shapes which might have been almost anything.
It grew lighter. Then suddenly they felt that they were standing on something solid. A moment later everything came into focus and they were able to look about them.
"What a queer (奇怪的) place!" said Digory.
"I don't like it," said Polly with something like a shudder (发抖).
What they noticed first was the light. It wasn't like sunlight, and it wasn't like electric light, or lamps (灯泡), or candles, or any other light they had ever seen.
It was a dull, rather red light, not at all cheerful. It was steady (稳定的) and did not flicker (闪烁). They were standing on a flat paved (铺砌的) surface (表面) and buildings rose all around them.
There was no roof overhead; they were in a sort of courtyard (庭院). The sky was extraordinarily (格外地) dark - a blue that was almost black. When you had seen that sky you wondered that there should be any light at all.
"It's very funny weather here," said Digory. "I wonder if we've arrived just in time for a thunderstorm (雷暴); or an eclipse (日食)."
"I don't like it," said Polly.
Both of them, without quite knowing why, were talking in whispers. And though there was no reason why they should still go on holding hands after their jump, they didn't let go.{2}
The walls rose very high all round that courtyard. They had many great windows in them, windows without glass, through which you saw nothing but black darkness.
Lower down there were great pillared arches, yawning blackly like the mouths of railway tunnels. It was rather cold.
The stone of which everything was built seemed to be red, but that might only be because of the curious light. It was obviously (明显地)very old.
Many of the flat stones that paved the courtyard had cracks across them. None of them fitted closely together and the sharp corners were all worn off (磨损).
One of the arched (拱形的) doorways was half filled up with rubble (碎石). The two children kept on turning round and round to look at the different sides of the courtyard.
One reason was that they were afraid of somebody - or something - looking out of those windows at them when their backs were turned.
"Do you think anyone lives here?" said Digory at last, still in a whisper.
"No," said Polly. "It's all in ruins. We haven't heard a sound since we came."
"Let's stand still and listen for a bit," suggested Digory.
They stood still and listened, but all they could hear was the thump-thump of their own hearts. This place was at least as quiet as the Wood between the Worlds.
But it was a different kind of quietness. The silence of the Wood had been rich and warm (you could almost hear the trees growing) and full of life: this was a dead, cold, empty silence. You couldn't imagine anything growing in it.
"Let's go home," said Polly.
"But we haven't seen anything yet," said Digory. "Now we're here, we simply must have a look round."
