CHAPTER 28, part 1 CAPÍTULO 28, parte 1

CHAPTER 28

Curdie's Guide Just as the consolation of this resolve dawned upon his mind and he was  turning away for the cellar to follow the goblins into their hole, something touched his hand. It was the slightest touch, and when he looked he could see nothing. Feeling and peering about in the grey of the dawn, his fingers came upon a tight thread. He looked again, and narrowly, but still could see nothing. It flashed upon him that this must be the princess's thread. Without saying a word, for he knew no one would believe him any more than he had believed the princess, he followed the thread with his finger, contrived to give Lootie the slip, and was soon out of the house and on the mountainside--surprised that, if the thread were indeed the grandmother's messenger, it should have led the princess, as he supposed it must, into the mountain, where she would be certain to meet the goblins rushing back enraged from their defeat. Не говоря ни слова, ибо знал, что никто не поверит ему больше, чем он поверил принцессе, он провел пальцем по нитке, ухитрился ускользнуть от Лути и вскоре вышел из дома и оказался на склоне горы... удивлен тем, что если нить действительно была вестником бабушки, она должна была привести принцессу, как он предполагал, в гору, где она наверняка встретит гоблинов, мчащихся назад в ярости от своего поражения. But he hurried on in the hope of overtaking her first. Но он торопился в надежде догнать ее первым. When he arrived, however, at the place where the path turned off for the mine, he found that the thread did not turn with it, but went straight up the mountain. Could it be that the thread was leading him home to his mother's cottage? Could the princess be there? He bounded up the mountain like one of its own goats, and before the sun was up the thread had brought him indeed to his mother's door. Он вскарабкался на гору, как один из ее козлов, и еще до того, как взошло солнце, нить действительно привела его к двери его матери. There it vanished from his fingers, and he could not find it, search as he might.

The door was on the latch, and he entered. Дверь была на задвижке, и он вошел. There sat his mother by the fire, and in her arms lay the princess, fast asleep. Там у огня сидела его мать, а на руках у нее крепко спала принцесса.

'Hush, Curdie!' said his mother. 'Do not wake her. I'm so glad you're come! I thought the cobs must have got you again!' With a heart full of delight, Curdie sat down at a corner of the hearth, on a stool opposite his mother's chair, and gazed at the princess, who slept as peacefully as if she had been in her own bed. All at once she opened her eyes and fixed them on him.

'Oh, Curdie! you're come!' she said quietly. 'I thought you would!' Curdie rose and stood before her with downcast eyes. Курди встал и встал перед ней с опущенными глазами.

'Irene,' he said, 'I am very sorry I did not believe you.' 'Oh, never mind, Curdie!' answered the princess. 'You couldn't, you know. You do believe me now, don't you?' 'I can't help it now. — Я ничего не могу с собой поделать. I ought to have helped it before.' 'Why can't you help it now?' 'Because, just as I was going into the mountain to look for you, I got hold of your thread, and it brought me here.' 'Then you've come from my house, have you?'