Chapter 7 7. Rolls Royce Motor Cars

Laila woke up early, and she found that it was a quiet and warm morning, as if there was no other season in this city except the quiet summer.She slipped out of bed and went downstairs and heard the voices of children outside on the sea, so she went to see what they were doing. In the sunlit harbor, three boys and a girl paddle across the harbor in a pedal boat, paddling quickly to the pier steps.They slowed down for a moment when they saw Lyra, and then they paddled fast again.The boat that arrived first hit the steps too hard and a man fell into the water and tried to climb into the other boat and capsized that boat too, so they splashed water together , as if the fear of the night before had never existed.They were younger than most of the children at that tower, Lyra thought, so she joined them in the water, Pantalaimon a shining little silver fish beside her.She never found it difficult to talk to the other children, and soon they were sitting around her on the warm stones in the water, their shirts drying in the sun.Poor Pantalaimon had to hide in her pocket again, transformed into a frog, and hid under the cool damp cotton.

"What are you going to do with that cat?" "Can you really chase away bad luck?" "Where are you from?" "Is your friend not afraid of monsters?" "Will isn't afraid of anything," Lyra replied, "and neither am I. Why are you afraid of cats?" "Don't you know about cats?" asked the oldest boy in disbelief. "Cats have devils in them. You must kill every cat you see. They will bite you and put the devils in their bodies." into your body. Also, what's going on between you and that big leopard?"

She knew he meant Pantalaimon transformed into a leopard, so she shook her head innocently. "You must be dreaming," she said, "a lot of things look different in the moonlight. But me and Will, we came into a world without monsters, so we don't know much about them." "If you can't see them, you're safe," said one boy. "If you can see them, they'll get you, that's what my dad said. They got him." "Are they all here now, around us?" "Yeah," said one girl, reaching out, grabbing a handful of air, and proudly, "I'm grabbing one now!"

"They can't hurt us," said one boy, "so we can't hurt them." "Have there always been monsters in this world?" Lyra asked. "Yes," said a boy.Another said, "No, they came a long time ago, hundreds of years ago." "They come because of that association," said the third kid. "The what?" Lyra asked. "No!" said the girl. "My grandma said they came because people have become bad, so God sent them to punish us." "Your grandma doesn't know anything," said a boy. "Your grandma has a beard and she's a goat."

"What about that association?" Lyra insisted. "You know the Tower of Angels," said a boy, "that stone tower, it belongs to the Society, and there is a secret place there. People in the Society know everything, philosophy, alchemy, they know all kinds of things." thing. It was they who put the genie in. " "No," said the other boy, "they come from the stars." "That's right! That's how it happened. Hundreds of years ago, the man at the Guild separated a certain metal, lead, which he wanted to turn into gold. He cut it smaller and smaller until he could , there is nothing smaller than that, so small that you can't see it at all. But he divided that too, and in the smallest piece contained all the monsters, pressed together tightly, without any gaps between them. A little gap. Once he cut it, ping! They popped out, and they stayed there after that, my dad said."

"Are there still people from the association in that tower now?" Lyra asked. "No! They ran away like everyone else," said the girl. "There's no one in that tower. It's haunted," said one boy. "That's why the cat came out of there. We won't go there. No kid will go there. It's horrible." "The association's not afraid to go there," said another boy. "They have special magic, or something. They're greedy, and they live off the poor," the girl said, "and the poor do all the work, and the Guild do nothing." "But now there's no one in that tower. No?" Lyra asked, "Not a single grown-up?"

"There are no adults in this city!" "They dare not stay here." But she had seen a young man in that tower, and she was sure of it.There's something in the way those kids talk, like skilled liars.She sees through liars the moment she meets them, they're lying. She suddenly remembered that little Paul once said that he and Angelica have an older brother, Tullio, who is also in this city, and Angelica booed him to stop him... Could the young man she had seen Is it their brother? She left, leaving them to scoop up their boat and paddle back to the beach.She went into the room to make coffee and then to see if Will was awake.He was still sleeping, the cat was curled up at his feet, and Lyra was anxious to see her academician, so she wrote a note and put it on the floor next to his bed, and she picked up her backpack and set off Alright, go find that window.

The way she was going passed through the little square where they had been the night before.But there was no one there now, and the sun shone on the old tower, on the vague carvings along the porch: the shape of a man with folded wings.Their faces have been eroded by centuries of wind and sun, but there is still a power of authority, compassion and wisdom expressed in that silence. "Angel," said Pantalaimon, now a cricket, standing on Lyra's shoulder. "Maybe a monster," Lyra said. "No! They say it's an angel," he insisted. "It must be an angel."

"Are we going in?" They looked up at the huge oak door with black hinges, and the steps near the door were broken and ajar.Nothing could stop Lyra from walking through that door except her own fear. She tiptoed to the top of the steps and peeped through the crack of the door, all she could see was a dark stone hall, with Pantalaimon flapping anxiously on her shoulder, like they were in the basement of Jordan College Same as when those heads were joking.But now that she's wiser, it's not a good place.She ran down the steps, away from the square, and down the sunny avenue of palm trees.When she was sure no one was looking at her, she went through the window and into Will's Oxford.

Forty minutes later, she came to the physics building again and negotiated with the doorman, but this time she had a trump card in her hand. "You can ask Dr. Malone," she said sweetly. "Just ask her, and she will tell you." The doorman picked up the phone, pressed the number, and started talking.Lyra looked at him with pity, they didn't even give him a room to sit in, like the real Oxford, they just let him sit behind a big wooden counter, like it was a shop of. "Well," said the porter, turning around, "she told you to go up. Be careful, you don't go anywhere else."

"Yes, I won't." She replied demurely, like an obedient girl. Upstairs, however, she was taken aback, for she had just passed a door marked "Ma'am" when it opened and Dr. Malone motioned silently to Lyra to enter. She walked in confused.This isn't a lab, it's a restroom, and Dr. Malone is nervous. She said, "Leila, there's someone else in the lab—possibly the police, they know you came to me yesterday—I don't know what they're looking for, but I don't like it. What's going on?" "How did they know I came to see you?" "I don't know! They don't know your name, but I know what they mean—" "Oh, then I can lie to them, that's easy." "But what the hell is going on?" A woman's voice came from the corridor outside the door: "Dr. Malone? Have you seen that child?" "Yes," Dr. Malone called, "I'm leading her to the bathroom..." She needn't have been nervous at all, Laila thought, but maybe she wasn't used to dangerous situations. The woman in the corridor was young and well dressed.When Lyra came out, she tried to smile at her, but her eyes were still sharp and suspicious. "Hello," she said, "are you Lila?" "Yes, what's your name?" "I'm Sergeant Clifford, come in." Lyra thought there was something wrong with the officer, as though this was her own laboratory, but she nodded resignedly.Then she felt a pang of regret, she shouldn't be here, she knew what the alethiometer wanted her to do, but that wasn't the thing.She stood at the door suspiciously. There was already a tall, dignified man with white eyebrows in the room.Lyra knew what a Fellow should look like, and neither of them was a Fellow. "Come in, Lyra," said Inspector Clifford again. "It's all right, this is Inspector Walters." "Hello, Lyra," the man said, "I've heard a lot about you from Dr. Malone, and I'd like to ask you a few questions if I may." "What kind of question?" she said. "It's not hard," he said, smiling. "Come on, sit down, Laila." He pushed a chair for her.Lyra sat down carefully, and she heard the door close by itself.Dr. Malone was standing nearby.Pantalaimon turned into a cricket and hid in Lyra's breast pocket, and she could feel him agitating in her chest, and she hoped the trembling wouldn't show.She conveyed her thoughts to him, telling him not to move. "Where are you from, Lyra?" Inspector Walters asked. If she said it was Oxford, they could easily cross-examine it, but she couldn't say she was from another world either.These people are dangerous, and they suddenly want to know more.She thought of the only other place in the world she knew: that's where Will came from. "Winchester," she said. "You got into a fight, didn't you, Laila?" said the Inspector. "What's with those bruises on you? One on the face and one on the leg—did someone hit you? " "No," Lyra said. "Do you go to school, Laila?" "Yes, sometimes," she added. "Shouldn't you be at school today?" She didn't speak, she felt more and more uncomfortable.She looked at Dr. Malone, her face scrunched up in displeasure. "I'm here to see Dr. Malone," Lyra said. "Do you live in Oxford, Lyla? Where do you live?" "With some people," she said, "some friends." "What's their address?" "I don't know the address, I can find it easily, but I can't remember the name of the street." "Who are they?" "A friend of my father's," she said. "Oh, I see. How did you find Dr. Malone?" "Because my father was also a physicist and he knew her." It's easier now, she thought.She began to relax and she lied more fluently. "She showed you her research, didn't she?" "Yes, devices with screens...yes, that's what it is." "You're interested in these things, aren't you? Science, and things like that?" "Yes, especially physics." "Do you want to be a scientist when you grow up?" Asking that kind of question is going to get a blank stare in return, and he did get one.But he wasn't embarrassed. His pale eyes glanced quickly at the young woman, then back to Lyra. "Are you surprised by what Dr. Malone has shown you?" "A little bit, but I've expected it." "Is it because of your father?" "Yes, because he's doing the same research." "Oh, that's right. Do you understand then?" "Understand part of it." "Then your father is studying dark matter, isn't he?" "yes." "Is his research progressing in the same way as Dr. Malone's?" "The way they do research is different, and some of the research he does is better, but the device that displays the words on the screen—he doesn't have that device." "Is Will with your friend too?" "Yes, he—" She stopped, knowing she had made a terrible mistake. They knew it too, and stood up immediately, intending to stop her, but somehow Dr. Malone got in the way, and the officer tripped and blocked the Inspector's way.That gave Lyra time to bolt out, and she slammed the door behind her, running for the stairs as fast as she could. Two men in white coats came out of a door and she bumped into them.Suddenly Pantalaimon turned into a crow, screamed and flapped his wings, and they were so startled that they fell to the ground.So she broke free from their grasp and ran down the last flight of stairs to the hall.The doorman had just put down his phone and ran behind the counter, shouting, "Hey! Stop! You!" But the counter he was lifting was on the other side, so she got to the turnstile before he ran out and grabbed her. Behind her, the elevator doors opened, and out came the light-haired man, so fast, so fast—and the door wouldn't turn!Pantalaimon screamed at her: They pushed the other way! She screamed in terror, turned and pushed the heavy glass door with the weight of her small body, hoping to turn it.She pushed the door just in time to escape the guard, who happened to block the light-haired man's way again so Lyra could escape before they could come out. She didn't care about the traffic on the road and the screeching brakes. She crossed the road, ran to the open space between the tall buildings, and ran to a road with cars passing by in both directions. She dodged the bicycle. She ran fast enough. , the light-haired one is always behind her - oh, he's horrible! She ran into a garden, leaped fences, and walked through bushes—and Pantalaimon flew over her head in the form of a little black bird, telling her which way to go.Crouching under a coal bunker, she heard the footsteps of the man rushing by, but did not hear his panting, he was so strong and he ran so fast.Pantalaimon said, "Go back now! Back on the road—" So she slipped out of her hiding place, ran across the lawn, out the garden gate, and out into the open space of the Banbury Road, where she dodged again amidst the screeching of brakes, across the road to Nauron Gardens. Norham Garden (Norham Garden), in Oxford], there is a secluded path near the park, lined with trees, and there are some tall Victorian houses near the park. She paused to catch her breath.In a garden where there was a high fence and a low wall in front of the fence, she slipped into the shade of the privet tree and sat down. "She helped us!" said Pantalaimon. "Dr. Malone stood in their way. She wasn't with them. She was with us." "Oh, Pam," she said, "I shouldn't have mentioned Will just now. I should have been more careful—" "We shouldn't have come," he said gravely. "I know, that's also..." She didn't have time to reproach herself, for Pantalaimon flapped his wings and said, "Attention—behind you—" and immediately he was a cricket again and slipped into her pocket. She stood up and was about to run when she suddenly saw a large dark blue car driving silently towards the aisle beside her, surrounded on both sides of her.But then the rear window of the car was rolled down, and a face she knew protruded from it. "Lizzie," said the old man in the museum, "good to see you again. May I send you a piece?" He opened the door and moved in, making way for a seat next to him.Pantalaimon pinched her through the thin cotton cloth, but she grabbed the backpack and sat in it immediately.The man leaned over her and closed the car door with his hand. "You look in a hurry," he said. "Where are you going?" "Please take me to Summertown," she said. The driver wears a top hat.The car was comfortable and luxurious, and the old man's cologne was very pungent in the closed compartment.The car left the corridor silently. "Where were you, Lizzie?" asked the old man. "Have you learned more about those heads?" "Yes." She turned and looked out the rear window. The light-haired man was gone. She escaped at last!That person would never have imagined that now she was sitting in a luxury car with such a rich man without incident. She has a fleeting sense of triumph. "I did some research, too," he said, "and an archaeologist friend of mine told me that they had several other heads in the same collection as the ones on display. Some were really very old, Neanderthal Man (Neanderthal), ancient fossils of the Middle Paleolithic, distributed in Europe, North Africa, West Asia, and Central Asia, originally discovered in caves in the Neanderthal River valley near the Dusseldorf region of Germany , hence the name]'s head, you know." "Yes, I've heard that too," Lyra said, though she didn't know what he was talking about. "How is your friend?" "What friend?" Lyra asked.She was a little alert, did she mention Will's name to him just now? "The friend you were with." "Oh yes. She's fine, thank you." "What does she do? An archaeologist?" "Oh...she's a physicist, and she studies dark matter," said Lyra, who hadn't recovered. In this world, lying was much harder than she had thought.There was a feeling that kept reminding her: this old man seemed familiar, but she just couldn't remember what was going on. "Dark matter?" he said. "How interesting! I read about it in The Times today. The universe is full of this mysterious matter, but no one knows what it is! Your friend is Doing research on this, are you?" "Yes, she knows a lot." "What do you want to do in the future, Lizzie? Do you want to study physics, too?" "Maybe," Lyra said, "maybe." The driver coughed lightly and slowed down. "Well, Summertown is here," said the old man. "Where do you want to get off?" "Oh, just stop by the store, I can walk over there," Lyra said. "Thank you." "Turn left onto South Street and park on the right, all right, Allen," said the old man. "Okay, sir," replied the driver. A minute later the car stopped silently in front of a public library.The old man opened his side of the car door so that Laila had to climb over the old man's lap, which was awkward even though the space was large, and she didn't want to touch him, even though he was well dressed. "Don't forget your backpack," he said, handing her the bag. "Thank you," she said. "Hope to see you again, Lizzie," he said. "Say hello to your friend." "Goodbye," she said.She walked slowly on the aisle until the car turned and disappeared from sight, then she walked towards the row of hornbeams.She had a hunch about the light-haired man, and she wanted to ask the alethiometer. Will began to read his father's letter again.He sat on the balcony, listening to the shouts of children diving in the distant port, reading the clear handwriting written on the cloth-patterned airmail letterhead, imagining the face of the person who wrote the letter, and seeing the baby over and over again. — that is, the part where he — He heard Lyra's footsteps running not far away, so he put the letter in his pocket and stood up, and almost at the same moment Lyra stood before him, eyes wide open, and Pantalaimon became An uncontrollable, snarling feral cat.She sobbed furiously, who rarely cried, her chest heaving and her teeth clenched.She jumped at him, grabbed him by the arms and yelled, "Kill him! Kill him! I want him dead! I wish Iorek was here! Oh, Will, I was wrong, I'm sorry -" "What's the matter? What's the matter?" "That old man--he's just a mean, dirty thief. He stole it, Will! He stole my alethiometer! That old man with the fine clothes and the servant who drives him. Oh, this morning I Doing so many wrong things—oh, I—” She was sobbing and crying so bitterly that he thought she would break her heart.In fact her heart was about to break, for she threw herself on the ground, crying loudly, trembling.Pantalaimon turned into a wolf, howling in pain around her. On the water in the distance, the children stopped what they were doing, covered their eyes with their hands and looked here.Will sat down beside her, shaking her shoulders. "Stop! Don't cry!" he said. "Tell me the whole story. What old man? What happened?" "You're going to be angry. I swore I wouldn't tell you, I swore, but then..." she sobbed, and Pantalaimon turned into a stupid puppy again, drooping his ears and wagging his tail , twisting his body awkwardly.Will knew what Lyra must have done that he was too ashamed to tell him, so he spoke to the elf. "What happened? Tell me," he said. Pantalaimon said, "We went to the Academician, but there were other people there - a man and a woman - and they played tricks on us. They asked a lot of questions first, and then you, and before we knew it, we Said I knew you, and then we ran away—” Laila covered her face with her hands and lowered her head to the ground.The excited Pantalaimon kept changing shapes: dog, bird, cat, ermine. "What does that guy look like?" Will asked. "Big man," said Lyra in a muffled voice, "strong, light-colored eyes . . . " "Did he see you coming from that window?" "No, but..." "Well, then he won't know where we are." "But the alethiometer!" she cried, sitting up straight with a sudden jerk, her agitated face frozen like a Greek mask. "Yeah," Will said, "tell me about it." Gritting her teeth while crying, she told him what had happened: how the old man saw her using the alethiometer in the museum yesterday; On the other side of the road, so she had to crawl past him to get out of the car, he must have taken the alethiometer quickly while handing her the backpack...he could see she was being hit, but he didn't understand Why is she guilty.Then she said again: "And, Will, please. I did a very bad thing. Because the alethiometer told me I had to stop looking for dust - at least that's what I thought it meant - I had to help you Find your father. I could have done it, no matter where your father is, if I had an alethiometer. But I didn't listen to it, I just did what I wanted, and I shouldn't have... " He'd seen her use the alethiometer before, and knowing it would tell her the truth, he turned away.She grabbed his hand, but he broke free and walked to the water's edge, and the children started playing in the harbor again.Lyra ran to him and said, "Will, I'm sorry—" "What's the use of that? I don't care if you're sorry or not, you've already done it." "But, Will, we should help each other, just you and me, because there's no one else!" "I do not know what to do." "I don't know either, but..." She stopped in the middle of speaking, a gleam of light suddenly appeared in her eyes, she turned and ran to the backpack that was thrown on the side of the road, and rummaged quickly. "I know who he is! And where he lives! Look!" she said, holding up a little white card. "He gave me this at the museum! We can go get the alethiometer back!" Will took the little card which read: Sir Charles Latrome, OBE, Lymefield House, Old Headington Oxford "He's a Sir," he said, "a Sir, that's Said people will naturally believe him and not us. What on earth do you want me to do? Report the police? The police are looking for me everywhere! Even if they didn't yesterday, they must be looking for me now. If you go alone, they know now Who you are knows you know me, so that won't work either." "We can steal, we can go to his house. I know where Headington is. I have a Headington in Oxford too. It's not very far. We can walk there in an hour. It's easy." "You're an idiot." "Iorek Bernison will come over and wring his neck off right away, I wish he was here, he'll—" But she stopped, and Will was looking at her, and she was terrified.If the armored bear looked at her like this, she would also be timid and afraid. Although Will was very young, there was something in his eyes that resembled the armored bear. "I've never heard such a stupid idea all my life," he said. "Do you think we could sneak up in his house and steal it? You gotta think and use your brains. If He is a rich man, so he must have all kinds of anti-theft alarms and mechanisms, when the time comes, the alarm bell will definitely be activated, and the special locks and lights controlled by infrared rays will automatically activate—" "I've never heard of that," Lyra said. "Our world doesn't have that stuff, and there's no way I'd know that, Will." "Well, think about it: how long would it take a thief to go through all the cupboards, drawers, and every nook and cranny when he has a whole house to hide it in? It took hours for the gang to get to my house and nothing happened. Digging out what they're looking for, I bet his house is much bigger than ours and maybe has a safe. So even if we got into his house, there's no way we'd find it before the police come." She lowered her head, what he said was the truth. "So what are we going to do?" she asked. He didn't answer.But there is no doubt that she said "we".Whether he wanted to or not, he was already tied to her. He paced back and forth between the balcony and the water's edge, clapping his hands for an answer and shaking his head angrily when he couldn't find it. "Then . Home, at least you know where the main rooms are, and that's the beginning." He entered the house without another word, and hid the letter under the pillow in the room where he slept.That way, even if he gets caught, they'll never get those letters. Lyra waited on the balcony, Pantalaimon perched on her shoulder in the form of a sparrow, looking slightly happier. "We're going to get it back," she said, "I can feel it." He didn't say anything.So, they set off towards that window. It took them an hour and a half to walk to Headington.Lyra led the way, and they circled the center of town, while Will watched all around without saying a word.It was harder for Lyra than anything she had ever been through, even harder than the journey to Birvangar at the North Pole with the gypsies and Iorek Birnisson, though that The tundra is full of dangers, but those dangers can be seen, and here, in a city that is both hers and not hers, danger can come in friendly forms, and treachery smiles and smells .Even if they didn't kill her or separate her from Pantalaimon, they took her only guide.Without the alethiometer, she's just...just a lost little girl. The exterior of Limefield House is a warm honey color, and the front half of the wall is covered with Virginia creepers.The house stands in a large well-tended garden with bushes on one side, a gravel driveway leading to the front gate and a garage for two cars, the Rolls Royce Park on the left in front of the garage door.Everything Will sees speaks of wealth and power, a sense of superiority that the upper echelons of England dream of.Something made him grit his teeth. At first he didn't know why, but then he suddenly remembered that when he was young, his mother once took him to a mansion similar to this one, and they wore the best clothes, He had the most gentle manners, but there was an old man and an old lady who made my mother cry, and she was still crying when they left the house... Lyra saw him gasping for breath and clenching his fists, and she Sensitively knowing that she shouldn't ask why, that's his business, not hers.After a while, he took a deep breath. "Well," he said, "we can try." He stepped into the driveway, Lyra following closely.They feel that they are exposed and exposed. There was an old bell on the door, like it was in Lyra's world, and Will didn't know where to press it until Laila pointed it out to him.They rang the doorbell, which rang far away in the house. It was the servant who was driving that day who answered the door, but today he was not wearing the hat.He looked first at Will, then at Lyra, his expression changing slightly. "We want to see Sir Charles Latrome," Will said. He raised his chin, just as he had faced the stone-throwing children that day in front of the tower, and the servant nodded. "Wait here," said he, "and I will inform Sir Charles." He closed the door.The door was made of solid oak, with two large heavy locks on the top and bottom, although Will didn't think a sane thief would try to get in through the door.With a burglar alarm prominently installed in front of the door and spotlights on the left and right, it was impossible for them to even approach the house, let alone break in. There was the sound of unhurried footsteps behind the door, and the door opened again.Will looked up at the man's greedy face, and he was surprised to see that he carried a calm and dignified demeanor, with no trace of guilt or shame. Will felt Lyla furious beside him, so he said quickly, "I'm sorry, Lyla thought she accidentally left her things in the car when she gave you a ride earlier." "Lila? I don't know a Lila. It's an unusual name. I know a little girl named Lizzie. Who are you?" Will secretly scolded his bad memory, he said, "I'm her brother, and my name is Mark." "Oh, hello, Lizzie, or Lyra, come in." He stands aside.Neither Will nor Lyra expected him to do this, and they walked in uncertainly. The hall was dark and smelled of beeswax and flowers.The room was full of light, and against one wall stood a mahogany cabinet displaying beautiful china figures.Will found the servant standing aside, as if waiting to be called. "Come to my study," said Sir Charles, opening another door in the hall. He was polite, even hospitable, but there was something about his manner that made Will wary.The study was large and comfortable, smelling of cigars, with leather armchairs, and seemed to be filled with bookshelves, pictures and hunting memorabilia, and three or four glass-doored cabinets displaying ancient scientific instruments—copper Microscope, telescope covered in green leather, sextant, compass.It's not hard to see why he wanted the alethiometer. "Sit down," said Sir Charles, pointing to a sofa.Sitting in a chair behind the desk, he continued: "How is it? What are you going to say?" "You stole—" Lyra said eagerly, but Will gave her a look and she stopped. "Laila thinks she left something in your car," he began again. "Let's get it back." "Is that what you mean?" he said, taking a velvet parcel from a desk drawer.Lyra stood up, but he ignored it, and opened the package, revealing the resplendent alethiometer in his hand. "Yes!" Lyra blurted out, reaching for it. But he closed his palms.The table top was wide and she couldn't reach it.Before she could do anything else, he had turned around, put the alethiometer into the glass-door cabinet, locked it, and put the key in his vest pocket. "But it's not yours, Lizzie," he said, "or Lyra, if that's your name." "It's mine! That's my alethiometer!" He shook his head sadly and heavily, as though he didn't want to blame her, but he did it for her own good. "I think there's at least a fair amount of doubt about that," he said. "But it's hers!" said Will. "It is! She showed it to me! I know it's hers!" "Look, I think you have to prove it," he said, "I don't need any proof, because now that it's in my possession, that means it's mine, like everything else in my collection. I必须说，莱拉，我很惊讶地发现你那么不诚实——” “我没有不诚实！”莱拉喊道。 “哦，可你是这样，你告诉我你的名字是利齐，现在我知道你有另外一个名字。坦率地说，你没有任何办法使别人相信这么珍贵的东西属于你。这样吧，我们叫警察来。” 他扭头去叫他的仆人。 查尔斯爵士还没来得及说完，威尔就喊道：“不，等一下——”，而就在这时，莱拉绕着桌子跑起来，潘特莱蒙不知从什么地方冒出来，出现在她的臂弯里。 他变成一只咆哮的野猫，向那个老头龇牙咧嘴，发出嘶嘶的声音。查尔斯爵士对突然出现的精灵眨了眨眼，却没有退缩。 “你甚至不知道你偷的是什么，”莱拉吼道，“你见过我用它，你就想偷，然后你就偷走了它。但你——你——你比我母亲还坏，至少她还知道它很重要！ 你却只把它放在盒子里不管不问！你真该去死！如果我能做到，我会叫人杀了你，你不配活着，你是——” 她说不下去了，她所能做的就是向他脸上吐唾沫，于是她就使劲地这么干了。 威尔静静地坐着，观察着四周，牢记着每样东西所在的位置。 查尔斯爵士平静地抖开一块丝绸手帕擦了擦。 “你有没有一点自控力？”他说，“去，坐下，你这肮脏的小孩。” 莱拉的身体颤抖着，她感到泪水涌出了眼眶，她猛地坐在了沙发上，潘特莱蒙成了一只猫，他站在莱拉的膝盖上，竖着尾巴，瞪着那个老头。 威尔一言不发地坐在那里，他感到困惑不解。查尔斯爵士早就可以把他们赶出去，他在玩什么花招呢？ 这时他看见了一幕奇怪的景象，那景象那么奇怪，他甚至以为那是自己的想像。从查尔斯爵士的亚麻上衣的袖子里，在那雪白的衬衫袖口，出现了一个翠绿色的蛇头，窜吐着黑色的信子，布满锁子甲般的鳞片的蛇头上是一双带着金边的黑眼睛，它们来回打量着莱拉和威尔。她因为愤怒压根没看见它，威尔也只看见了一会儿，然后它就又缩进老头的袖子里，但这就已经让他吃惊得瞪大了眼睛。 查尔斯爵士来到窗口附近的座位，平静地坐下，手抚着裤子上的皱褶。 “我觉得你们最好听我说，而不是不加控制地做出这种举动，”他说，“你们的确没有任何选择，那台仪器现在归我了，它会一直在我这儿，我需要它，我是个收藏家。你可以吐唾沫，跺脚，尖叫，想怎么样都可以。但等到你说服任何人听你讲的时候，我就会有很多文件证明我已经买下了它，我很容易做到这一点，这样你们就再也拿不回它了。” 现在他们俩都沉默了。他还没有结束，一股巨大的困惑使莱拉的心跳变得缓慢，使整个房间都沉寂下来。 “不过，”他继续说道，“我有一样更想要的东西，但我自己拿不到它，我想和你做个交易，你把我要的东西拿来，我就还给你——你叫它什么？” “真理仪。”莱拉嗓音嘶哑地说。 “真理仪，真是有趣。真理——那些符号——是的，我明白了。” “你要的东西是什么？”威尔问道，“它在哪儿？” “它在我去不了但你们能去的一个地方。我很清楚你们已经在什么地方找到了人口，我猜那儿离萨默敦不远，今天上午，利齐，或是莱拉就是在那儿下的车。 入口的那一侧就是另外一个世界，一个没有大人的世界。到现在为止我说得对吗？ 你们知道，建造这个入口的人有一把刀，他把那把刀藏在那个世界里，他非常害怕，他有他的理由。如果他的确在我说的那个地方的话，那他应该在那座门口雕刻着天使的古老的石塔里，那座天使之塔。 “那就是你们要去的地方，我不管你们怎么去做，我要得到那把刀。把它拿来给我，你们就可以拿走真理仪。虽然失去它我会很难受，但我是一个遵守诺言的人。你们要做的就是：把那把刀拿来给我。”