The light was too bad now for Shasta to e much of the cat except that it was big and very solemn. It looked as if it might have lived for long, long years among the Tombs, alos eyes made you think it knew crets it would not tell.
“Puss, puss,” said Shasta. “I suppo you’re not a talking cat.”
The cat stared at him harder thahen it started walking away, and of cour Shasta followed it. It led him right through the tombs and out on the dert side of them. There it sat down bolt upright with its tail curled round its feet and its face t towards the dert and towards Narnia and the North, as still as if it were watg for some enemy. Shasta lay down beside it with his back against the cat and his face towards the Tombs, becau if one is nervous there’s nothing like having your face towards the danger and having something warm and solid at your back. The sand wouldn’t have emed very fortable to you, but Shasta had been sleeping on the ground for weeks and hardly noticed it. Very soon he fell asleep, though even in his dreams he went on w what had happeo Bree and Aravis and Hwin.
He was wakened suddenly by a noi he had never heard before. “Perhaps it was only a nightmare,” said Shasta to himlf. At the same momeiced that the cat had gone from his back, and he wished it hadn’t. But he lay quite still without even opening his eyes becau he felt sure he would be more frightened if he sat up and looked round at the Tombs and the loneliness： just as you or I might lie still with the clothes over our heads. But then the noi came again — a harsh, pierg cry from behind him out of the dert. Then of cour he had to open his eyes and sit up.
The moon was shining brightly. The Tombs — far bigger and han he had thought they would be — looked grey in the moonlight. In fact, they looked horribly like huge people, draped in grey robes that covered their heads and faces. They were not at all hings to have near you when spending a night alone in a strange place. But the noi had e from the opposite side, from the dert. Shasta had to turn his ba the Tombs （he didn’t like that much） and stare out across the level sand. The wild cry rang out again.