"So am I," said the king.
"Come along then," said the queen; "and mind you are good, or I'll--"
"Oh, no, no, no!" screamed the king, in the most supplicating of tones.
Curdie heard only a muttered reply in the distance; and then the cave
was quite still.
They had left the fire burning, and the light came through brighter
than
before. Curdie thought it was time to try again if anything could be
done. But he found he could not get even a finger through the chink
between the slab and the rock. He gave a great rush with his shoulder
against the slab, but it yielded no more than if it had been part of the
rock. All he could do was to sit down and think again.
By and by he came to the resolution to pretend to be dying, in the hope
they might take him out before his strength was too much exhausted to
let him have a chance. Then, for the creatures, if he could but find his
axe again, he would have no fear of them; and if it were not for the
queen's horrid shoes, he would have no fear at all.
Madhuri Noah
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