I felt as if suddenly, between sleeping and waking, I had plunged deep
into the dusk of dreamland. We rumbled through a lofty egg-shaped
vault, lined with masonry, lighted waveringly, with strange play of
shadow, by our many lamps. This phase of the dream seemed to last a
long time; and then the train of boxes slowed down, for we had reached
the danger-point, a part of the tunnel where the hidden Genii of the
Mountain had planned a trap to upset all geological expectations.
Having allowed the engineers to penetrate thus far, they had suddenly
flooded the tunnel with cataracts of water from fissures in the rock,
and had laughed wild, echoing laughter because they had contrived to
delay the work for a year, and cause the spending of much extra money.

The dream showed me now a long iron cage, shoring up the crumbling
walls of the excavation; and through this cage we crept like a
procession of wary mice, suddenly putting on speed at the end, till we
reached the tunnel-head, and found another train preparing to go out.

Here the dream flung me into a teeming Inferno of darkness and lost
spirits who (spent with eight hours' monotonous toil in this Circle)
had dropped asleep, sitting half-naked in the line of boxes which
would bear them away to a spell of rest. They had fallen into pathetic
attitudes of collapse, some lying back with their mouths open, some
resting their heads on folded arms, some drooping on comrades'
shoulders.

As our train-load of Activity came to a stand, this other train-load
of Exhaustion rumbled slowly away, the smoky lamps glinting on
polished, olive-coloured flesh, on hairy arms, and swarthy faces shut
to consciousness.