way, and it was soon large enough for him to crawl through. He
would not betray himself by rekindling his lamp, but the torches of
the retreating company, which he found departing in a straight line
up a long avenue from the door of their cave, threw back light
enough to afford him a glance round the deserted home of the
goblins. To his surprise, he could discover nothing to distinguish
it from an ordinary natural cave in the rock, upon many of which he
had come with the rest of the miners in the progress of their
excavations. The goblins had talked of coming back for the rest of
their household gear: he saw nothing that would have made him
suspect a family had taken shelter there for a single night. The
floor was rough and stony; the walls full of projecting corners;
the roof in one place twenty feet high, in another endangering his
forehead; while on one side a stream, no thicker than a needle, it
is true, but still sufficient to spread a wide dampness over the
wall, flowed down the face of the rock. But the troop in front of
him was toiling under heavy burdens. He could distinguish Helfer
now and then, in the flickering light and shade, with his heavy
chest on his bending shoulders; while the second brother was almost
buried in what looked like a great feather bed. 'Where do they get
the feathers?' thought Curdie; but in a moment the troop
disappeared at a turn of the way, and it was now both safe and
necessary for Curdie to follow them, lest they should be round the
next turning before he saw them again, for so he might lose them
altogether. He darted after them like a greyhound. When he
reached the corner and looked cautiously round, he saw them again
at some distance down another long passage. None of the galleries
he saw that night bore signs of the work of man - or of goblin
either. Stalactites, far older than the mines, hung from their
roofs; and their floors were rough with boulders and large round