out, and let it down softly.

'What was that noise?' said the goblin father.
Curdie blew out his light, lest it should shine through.

'It must be that one miner that stayed behind the rest,' said the
mother.

'No; he's been gone a good while. I haven't heard a blow for an
hour. Besides, it wasn't like that.'

'Then I suppose it must have been a stone carried down the brook
inside.'

'Perhaps. It will have more room by and by.'
Curdie kept quite still. After a little while, hearing nothing but

the sounds of their preparations for departure, mingled with an
occasional word of direction, and anxious to know whether the

removal of the stone had made an opening into the goblins' house,
he put in his hand to feel. It went in a good way, and then came

in contact with something soft. He had but a moment to feel it
over, it was so quickly withdrawn: it was one of the toeless goblin

feet. The owner of it gave a cry of fright.
'What's the matter, Helfer?' asked his mother.

'A beast came out of the wall and licked my foot.'
'Nonsense! There are no wild beasts in our country,' said his

father.
'But it was, father. I felt it.'

'Nonsense, I say. Will you malign your native realms and reduce
them to a level with the country upstairs? That is swarming with

wild beasts of every description.'
'But I did feel it, father.'

'I tell you to hold your tongue. You are no patriot.'
Curdie suppressed his laughter, and lay still as a mouse - but no

stiller, for every moment he kept nibbling away with his fingers at
the edges of the hole. He was slowly making it bigger, for here

the rock had been very much shattered with the blasting.
There seemed to be a good many in the family, to judge from the

mass of confused talk which now and then came through the hole; but
when all were speaking together, and just as if they had

bottle-brushes - each at least one - in their throats, it was not
easy to make out much that was said. At length he heard once more

what the father goblin was saying.
'Now, then,' he said, 'get your bundles on your backs. Here,

Helfer, I'll help you up with your chest.'
'I wish it was my chest, father.'

'Your turn will come in good time enough! Make haste. I must go
to the meeting at the palace tonight. When that's over, we can

come back and clear out the last of the things before our enemies
return in the morning. Now light your torches, and come along.

What a distinction it is, to provide our own light, instead of
being dependent on a thing hung up in the air - a most disagreeable

contrivance - intended no doubt to blind us when we venture out
under its baleful influence! Quite glaring and vulgar, I call it,

though no doubt useful to poor creatures who haven't the wit to
make light for themselves.'

Curdie could hardly keep himself from calling through to know
whether they made the fire to light their torches by. But a

moment's reflection showed him that they would have said they did,
inasmuch as they struck two stones together, and the fire came.

CHAPTER 9
The Hall of the Goblin Palace

A sound of many soft feet followed, but soon ceased. Then Curdie
flew at the hole like a tiger, and tore and pulled. The sides gave

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

stones, showing that there water must have once run. He waited
again at this corner till they had disappeared round the next, and

so followed them a long way through one passage after another. The
passages grew more and more lofty, and were more and more covered

in the roof with shining stalactites.
It was a strange enough procession which he followed. But the

strangest part of it was the household animals which crowded
amongst the feet of the goblins. It was true they had no wild

animals down there - at least they did not know of any; but they
had a wonderful number of tame ones. I must, however, reserve any

contributions towards the natural history of these for a later
position in my story.

At length, turning a corner too abruptly, he had almost rushed into
the middle of the goblin family; for there they had already set

down all their burdens on the floor of a cave considerably larger
than that which they had left. They were as yet too breathless to

speak, else he would have had warning of their arrest. He started
back, however, before anyone saw him, and retreating a good way,

stood watching till the father should come out to go to the palace.
Before very long, both he and his son Helfer appeared and kept on

in the same direction as before, while Curdie followed them again
with renewed precaution. For a long time he heard no sound except

something like the rush of a river inside the rock; but at length
what seemed the far-off noise of a great shouting reached his ears,

which, however, presently ceased. After advancing a good way
farther, he thought he heard a single voice. It sounded clearer

and clearer as he went on, until at last he could almost
distinguish the words. In a moment or two, keeping after the

goblins round another corner, he once more started back - this time
in amazement.

He was at the entrance of a magnificentcavern, of an oval shape,
once probably a huge natural reservoir of water, now the great

palace hall of the goblins. It rose to a tremendousheight, but
the roof was composed of such shining materials, and the multitude

of torches carried by the goblins who crowded the floor lighted up
the place so brilliantly, that Curdie could see to the top quite

well. But he had no idea how immense the place was until his eyes
had got accustomed to it, which was not for a good many minutes.

The rough projections on the walls, and the shadows thrown upwards
from them by the torches, made the sides of the chamber look as if