THE ISLAND OF THE VOICES AND now the winds which had so long been from the north-west began to blow from the west itself and every m when the sun rose out of the sea the curved prow of the Dawn Treader stood up right across the middle of the sun. Some thought that the sun looked larger than it looked from Narnia, but others disagreed. And they sailed and sailed before a ge steady breeze and saw her fish null- nor ship nor shore. And stores began to get low again, and it crept into their hearts that perhaps they might have e to a sea which went on for ever. But when the very last day on which they thought they could risk tinuing their eastward voyage dawned, it showed, right ahead between them and the sunrise, a low land lying like a cloud.
They made harbour in a wide bay about the middle of the afternoon and landed. It was a very different try from any they had yet seen. For when they had crossed the sandy beach they found all silent ay as if it were an uninhabited land, but before them there were level lawns in which the grass was as smooth and short as it used to be in the grounds of a great English house where ten gardeners were kept. The trees, of which there were many, all stood well apart from one another, and there were no broken branches and no leaves lying on the ground. Pigeons sometimes cooed but there was no other noise.
Presently they came to a long, straight, sanded path with not a weed growing on it and trees oher hand. Far off at the other end of this avehey now caught sight of a house - very long and grey and quiet-looking iernoon sun.
Almost as soon as they ehis path Luoticed that she had a little stone in her shoe. In that unknown place it might have been wiser for her to ask the others to wait while she took it out. But she didnt; she just dropped quietly behind and sat down to take off her shoe. Her lace had got into a knot.
Before she had uhe knot the others were a fair distance ahead. By the time she had got the sto and utting the shoe on again she could no longer hear them. But almost at once she heard something else. It was not ing from the dire of the house.
What she heard was a thumping. It sounded as if dozens of strong workmen were hitting the ground as hard as they could with great wooden mallets. And it was very quickly ing nearer. She was already sitting with her back to a tree, and as the tree was not one she could climb, there was really nothing to do but to sit dead still and press herself against the tree and hope she wouldnt be seen.
Thump, thump, thump . . . and whatever it was must be very close now for she could feel the ground shaking. But she could see nothing. She thought the thing - or things must be just behind her. But then there came a thump oh right in front of her. She k was oh not only by the sound but because she saw the sand scatter as if it had been struck a heavy blow. But she could see nothing that had struck it. Then all the thumping noises drew together about twenty feet away from her and suddenly ceased.
Then came the Voice.
It was really very dreadful because she could still see nobody at all. The whole of that park-like try still looked as quiet ay as it had looked when they first landed.
heless, only a few feet away from her, a voice spoke. And what it said was: "Mates, nows our ce.」
Instantly a whole chorus of other voices replied, "Hear him. Hear him. `Now s our ce, he said