Marmaduke looked around again and saw that they were standing, not on
the bottom of the hole, but on a little landing like that on a
stairway. Below them the hole kept on descending into the darkness,
curving round and round like a corkscrew or the stairways in old
castles--down, down, down.

"Little Mellican boy like see China?" asked Ping Pong.

"Very much, thank you," replied Marmaduke, trying to be as polite as
they were.

But the Toyman would miss him. He looked way up at the circle of light
at the top of the hole and shouted:

"Say, Toyman, can I go to China--just for a little while?"

The Toyman's face appeared in the circle of light at the top.

"Sure, sonny, have a good time," he shouted back, and his voice coming
way down that hole sounded hollow, as if he were hollering down a
well.

Marmaduke waved to him.

"Goodbye, I won't be long," he called.

Then, turning, he saw that the three Chinamen had flat-irons in their
hands. They were fitting the handles to them. Ah See handed Marmaduke
a fourth iron for himself.