CHAPTER FIVE PRINCE CORIN（第4/5页）

When he had thought all this he did what I expect you would have done if you had been up very early and had a long walk and a great deal of excitement and then a very good meal,and were lying on a sofa in a cool room with no noise in it except when a bee came buzzing in through the wide open windows.He fell asleep.

What woke him was a loud crash. He jumped up off the sofa, staring. He saw at once from the mere look of the room— the lights and shadows all looked different—that he must have slept for several hours. He saw also what had made the crash: a costly porcelain vase which had been standing on the window-sill lay on-the floor broken into about thirty pieces. But he hardly noticed all these things. What he did notice was two hands gripping the windowsill from outside. They gripped harder and harder (getting white at the knuckles) and then up came a head and a pair of shoulders. A moment later there was a boy of Shasta' s own age sitting astride the sill with one leg hanging down inside the room.

Shasta had never seen his own face in a looking-glass. Even if he had, he might not have realized that the other boy was (at ordinary times) almost exactly like himself. At the moment this boy was not particularly like anyone for he had the finest black eye you ever saw, and a tooth missing, and his clothes (which must have been splendid ones when he put them on) were torn and dirty, and there was both blood and mud on his face.

"Who are you ?" said the boy in a whisper.

"Are you Prince Corin ?" said Shasta.

"Yes, of course," said the other. "But who are you ?"

"I'm nobody,nobody in particular,I mean," said Shasta."King Edmund caught me in the street and mistook me for you. I suppose we must look like one another. Can I get out the way you' ve got in ?"

"Yes, if you're any good at climbing," said Corin. "But why are you in such a hurry ? I say: we ought to be able to get some fun out of this being mistaken for one another."

"No, no," said Shasta. "We must change places at once. It' ll be simply frightful if Mr. Tumnus comes back and finds us both here.I' ve had to pretend to be you.And you' re starting tonight-secretly.And where were you all this time ?"

"A boy in the street made a beastly joke about Queen Susan," said Prince Corin, "so I knocked him down. He ran howling into a house and his big brother came out. So I knocked the big brother down. Then they all followed me until we ran into three old men with spears who are called the Watch. So I fought the Watch and they knocked me down. It was getting dark by now. Then the Watch took me along to lock me up somewhere. So I asked them if they' d like a stoup of wine and they said they didn' t mind if they did. Then I took them to a wine shop and got them some and they all sat down and drank till they feel asleep. I thought it was time for me to be off so I came out quietly and then I found the first boy-the one who had started all the trouble-still hanging about. So I knocked him down again. After that I climbed up a pipe on to the roof of a house and lay quiet till it began to get light this morning. Ever since that I' ve been finding my way back. I say, is there anything to drink ?"

"No, I drank it," said Shasta."And now,show me how you got in. There's not a minute to lose. You'd better lie down on the sofa and pretend—but I forgot. It'll be no good with all those bruises and black eye. You'll just have to tell them the truth, once I'm safely away. "

"What else did you think I'd be telling them ?" asked the Prince with a rather angry look. "And who are you ?"

"There's no time," said Shasta in a frantic whisper. "I'm a Narnian,I believe;something Northern anyway.But I've been brought up all my life in Calormen. And I'm escaping: across the desert;with a talking Horse called Bree.And now, quick ! How do I get away ?"

"Look," said Corin. "Drop from this window on to the roof of the verandah. But you must do it lightly, on your toes, or someone will hear you. Then along to your left and you can get up to the top of that wall if you' re any good at all as a climber. Then along the wall to the corner. Drop onto the rubbish heap you will find outside, and there you are. "