no toes: he had never had opportunity of inspecting them closely
enough, in the dusk in which they always appeared, to satisfy
himself whether it was a correct report. Indeed, he had not been
able even to satisfy himself as to whether they had no fingers,
although that also was commonly said to be the fact. One of the
miners, indeed, who had had more schooling than the rest, was wont
to argue that such must have been the primordial condition of
humanity, and that education and handicraft had developed both toes
and fingers - with which proposition Curdie had once heard his
father sarcastically agree, alleging in support of it the
probability that babies' gloves were a traditional remnant of the
old state of things; while the stockings of all ages, no regard
being paid in them to the toes, pointed in the same direction. But
what was of importance was the fact concerning the softness of the
goblin feet, which he foresaw might be useful to all miners. What
he had to do in the meantime, however, was to discover, if
possible, the special evil design the goblins had now in their
heads.

Although he knew all the gangs and all the natural galleries with
which they communicated in the mined part of the mountain, he had
not the least idea where the palace of the king of the gnomes was;
otherwise he would have set out at once on the enterprise of
discovering what the said design was. He judged, and rightly, that
it must lie in a farther part of the mountain, between which and
the mine there was as yet no communication. There must be one
nearly completed, however; for it could be but a thin partition
which now separated them. If only he could get through in time to
follow the goblins as they retreated! A few blows would doubtless
be sufficient - just where his ear now lay; but if he attempted to