CHAPTER FOUR THE BELL AND THE HAMMER（第3/3页）

As soon as the bell was struck it gave out a note，a sweet note such as you might have expected，and not very loud．But instead of dying away again，it went on；and as it went on it grew louder． Before a minute had passed it was twice as loud as it had been to begin with．It was soon so loud that if the children had tried to speak （but they weren’t thinking of speaking now-they were just standing with their mouths open）they would not have heard one another． Very soon it was so loud that they could not have heard one another even by shouting．And still it grew：all on one note，a continuous sweet sound，though the sweetness had something horrible about it， till all the air in that great room was throbbing with it and they could feel the stone floor trembling under their feet．Then at last it began to be mixed with another sound，a vague，disastrous noise which sounded first like the roar of a distant train，and then like the crash of a falling tree．They heard something like great weights falling． Finally，with a sudden，rush and thunder，and a shake that nearly flung them off their feet，about a quarter of the roof at one end of the room fell in，great blocks of masonry fell all round them，and the walls rocked．The noise of the bell stopped．The clouds of dust

cleared away．Everything became quiet again．

It was never found out whether the fall of the roof was due to Magic or whether that unbearably loud sound from the bell just happened to strike the note which was more than those crumbling walls could stand．

“There ！ I hope you’re satisfied now，”panted Polly．

“Well，it’s all over，anyway，”said Digory．

And both thought it was；but they had never been more mistaken in their lives．