"But, Peter," said Lucy, "look here. I know I cant swim for nuts at home - in England, I mean. But couldnt we all swim long ago - if it was long ago - when we were Kings and Queens in Narnia? We could ride then too, and do all sorts of things. Dont you think -?”
"Well have to swim," said Edmund.
"What do you mean by old Narnians, please?" asked Lucy.
The Dwarf stared round at all four of them with a very curious expression on his face.
"I wasnt shooting to kill, you know," said Susan. She would not have liked anyone to think she could miss at such a short range.
The Dwarf gave a low whistle. "Beards and bedsteads!" he said. "So there really is a castle, after all?”
"Garn!" growled the other. "We dont need that, and we havent brought one. Hell drown sure enough without a stone, as long as weve tied the cords right." With these words he rose and lifted his bundle. Peter now saw that it was really alive and was in fact a Dwarf, bound hand and foot but struggling as hard as he could. Next moment he heard a twang just beside his ear, and all at once the soldier threw up his arms, dropping the Dwarf into the bottom of the boat, and fell over into the water. He floundered away to the far bank and Peter knew that Susans arrow had struck on his helmet. He turned and saw that she was very pale but was already fitting a second arrow to the string. But it was never used.
When they had come round into open sea on the east of the island, the Dwarf took to fishing. They had an excellent catch of pavenders, a beautiful rainbow- coloured fish which they all remembered eating in Cair Paravel in the old days. When they had caught enough they ran the boat up into a little creek and moored her to a tree. The Dwarf, who was a most capable person (and, indeed, though one meets bad Dwarfs, I never heard of a Dwarf who was a fool), cut the fish open, cleaned them, and said: "Now, what we want next is some firewood.”
Like most Dwarfs he was very stocky and deep-chested. He would have been about three feet high if he had been standing up, and an immense beard and whiskers of coarse red hair left little of his face to be seen except a beak-like nose and twinkling black eyes.
"I dont," said Edmund.
At first the Dwarf did not seem very comfortable in the castle. He kept looking round and sniffing and saying, "Hm. Looks a bit spooky after all. Smells like ghosts, too." But he cheered up when it came to lighting the fire and showing them how to roast the fresh pavenders in the embers. Eating hot fish with no forks, and one pocket knife between five people, is a messy business and there were several burnt fingers before the meal was ended; but, as it was now nine oclock and they had been up since five, nobody minded the burns so much as you might have expected. When everyone had finished off with a drink from the well and an apple or so, the Dwarf produced a pipe about the size of his own arm, filled it, lit it, blew a great cloud of fragrant smoke, and said, "Now.”
"Caspian the Tenth, King of Narnia, and long may he reign!" answered the Dwarf. "That is to say, he ought to be King of Narnia and we hope he will be. At present he is only King of us Old Narnians - “
"Anyway," he continued, "ghosts or not, youve saved my life and Im extremely obliged to you.”
"Ive just seen it all," he said.
"Its only a ruin," said Lucy.
"Ah, but we were sort of grown-up then," said Peter.
"Whos he?" asked four voices all at once.
"We reigned for years and years and learned to do things. Arent we just back at our proper ages again now?”
But the gist of the story, as they knew it in the end, was as follows.
So the Dwarf settled down and told his tale. I shall not give it to you in his words, putting in all the childrens questions and interruptions, because it would take too long and be confusing, and, even so,it would leave out some points that the children only heard later.
"Oh dear," said the Dwarf. "Im doing this very badly. Look here: I think Ill have to go right back to the beginning and tell you how Caspian grew up in his uncles court and how he comes to be on our side at all. But itll be a long story.”
"And who on earth - ?" he began, but then broke off and said, "No matter. Breakfast first.
"Ive been told all my life," said the Dwarf, "that these woods along the shore were as full of ghosts as they were of trees. Thats what the story is. And thats why, when they want to get rid of anyone, they usually bring him down here (like they were doing with me)
"But I dont know about the rest of us." By "the rest of us" he really meant Edmund who couldnt yet do two lengths at the school baths, and Lucy, who could hardly swim at all.
"Anyway," said Susan, "there may be currents. Father says its never wise to bathe in a place you dont know.”
"Go on," said Susan. "I think Im beginning to understand.”
"Quick! Before she drifts!" shouted Peter. He and Susan, fully dressed as they were, plunged in, and before the water was up to their shoulders their hands were on the side of the boat. In a few seconds they had hauled her to the bank and lifted the Dwarf out, and Edmund was busily engaged in cutting his bonds with the pocket knife. (Peters sword would have been sharper, but a sword is very inconvenient for this sort of work because you cant hold it anywhere lower than the hilt.) When at last the Dwarf was free, he sat up, rubbed his arms and legs, and exclaimed: "Well, whatever they say, you dont feel like ghosts.”
"All the better," said Lucy. "We love stories.”
When they had drunk from the well and splashed their faces they all went down the stream again to the shore and stared at the channel which divided them from the mainland.
"They got away," said Edmund. "To the mainland.”
"Why, the whole thing," said Edmund. "You know what we were puzzling about last night, that it was only a year ago since we left Narnia but everything looks as if no one had lived in Cair Paravel for hundreds of years? Well, dont you see? You know that, however long we seemed to have lived in Narnia, when we got back through the wardrobe it seemed to have taken no time at all?”
When they had all reassured him, the next question was how to carry the fish. They had nothing to string them on and no basket. They had to use Edmunds hat in the end because no one else had a hat. He would have made much more fuss about this if he had not by now been so ravenously hungry.
"What were they going to drown you for?" asked Peter.
THE DWARF
"Well," said the Dwarf, "as youve saved my life it is only fair you should have your own way. But I hardly know where to begin. First of all Im a messenger of King Caspians.”
"Oh!" said Edmund in a voice which made everyone stop talking and listen to him.
"Hm," said the Dwarf. "Thats not so good. That may mean trouble later on. Unless they hold their tongues for their own sake.”
"Oh," said Susan. "So thats why they both ran away.”
As soon as he saw his companion fall, the other soldier, with a loud cry, jumped out of the boat on the far side, and lie also floundered through the water (which was apparently just in his depth) and disappeared into the woods of the mainland.
"By Jove, Ed," said Peter. "I believe youve got it. In that sense it really was hundreds of years ago that we lived in Cair Paravel. And now were coming back to Narnia just as if we were Crusaders or Anglo-Saxons or Ancient Britons orsomeone coming back to modern England?”
"I see," said Peter. "And Caspian is the chief Old Narnian.”
There was a wooded point on the mainland a little to their right, and they all felt sure that just beyond that point must be the mouth of the river. And now, round that point there came into sight a boat. When it had cleared the point, it turned and began coming along the channel towards them. There were two people on board, one rowing, the other sitting in the stern and holding a bundle that twitched and moved as if it were alive. Both these people seemed to be soldiers. They had steel caps on their heads and light shirts of chain-mail. Their faces were bearded and hard. The children drew back from the beach into the wood and watched without moving a finger.
The four children and the Dwarf went down to the waters edge, pushed off the boat with some difficulty, and scrambled aboard. The Dwarf at once took charge. The oars were of course too big for him to use, so Peter rowed and the Dwarf steered them north along the channel and presently eastward round the tip of the island. From here the children could see right up the river, and all the bays and headlands of the coast beyond it. They thought they could recognize bits of it, but the woods, which had grown up since their time, made everything look very different.
"It would be all right for Su," said Peter (Susan had won prizes for swimming at school).
"And that means," continued Edmund, "that, once youre out of Narnia, you have no idea how Narnian time is going. Why shouldnt hundreds of years have gone past in Narnia while only one year has passed for us in England?”
"You tell us your story first," said Peter. "And then well tell you ours.”
Meantime, I was wondering if perhaps you were going to ask me to breakfast? Youve no idea what an appetite it gives one, being executed." "Theres only apples," said Lucy dolefully.
But one thing before we go on. Can you lay your hand on your hearts and tell me Im really alive? Are you sure I wasnt drowned and were not all ghosts together?”
"Weve got some up at the castle," said Edmund.
"What about tying a stone to his feet, Corporal?" said the other, resting on his oars.
"Its worse than the Wars of the Roses," said Lucy.
"Well, in a manner of speaking," said the Dwarf, scratching his head. "But hes really a New Narnian himself, a Telmarine, if you follow me.”
"Oh, Im a dangerous criminal, I am," said the Dwarf cheerfully. "But thats a long story.
"I ought to have thought of that myself," said Peter.
"Why, thats us," said the Dwarf. "Were a kind of rebellion, I suppose.”
and say theyll leave him to the ghosts. But I always wondered if they didnt really drown em or cut their throats. I never quite believed in the ghosts. But those two cowards youve just shot believed all right. They were more frightened of taking me to my death than I was of going!”
"Thisll do," said the soldier in the stern when the boat had come about opposite to them.
"Eh? Whats that?" said the Dwarf.
And it makes matters worse if there is nothing but apples for breakfast and you have had nothing but apples for supper the night before. When Lucy had said - truly enough that it was a glorious morning, there did not seem to be anything else nice to be said. Edmund said what everyone was feeling, "Weve simply got to get off this island.”
"But why should we be ghosts?" asked Lucy.
THE worst of sleeping out of doors is that you wake up so dreadfully early. And when you wake you have to get up because the ground is so hard that you are uncomfortable.
"Seen what?" asked Peter.
"How excited theyll be to see us -" began Lucy, but at the same moment everyone else said, "Hush!" or "Look!" For now something was happening.
"Better than nothing, but not so good as fresh fish," said the Dwarf. "It looks as if Ill have to ask you to breakfast instead. I saw some fishing tackle in that boat. And anyway, we must take her round to the other side of the island. We dont want anyone from the mainland coming down and seeing her.”
