already busy, and the mine was therefore in the greatest danger of
being
flooded and rendered useless--not to speak of the lives of the miners.
When he reached the mouth of the mine, after rousing all the miners
within reach, he found his father and a good many more just entering.
They all hurried to the gang by which he had found a way into the
goblin
country. There the foresight of Peter had already collected a great
many
blocks of stone, with cement, ready for building up the weak place-well
enough known to the goblins. Although there was not room for more
than
two to be actually building at once, they managed, by setting all the
rest to work in preparing the cement, and passing the stones, to finish
in the course of the day a huge buttress filling the whole gang, and
supported everywhere by the live rock. Before the hour when they
usually
dropped work, they were satisfied that the mine was secure.
They had heard goblin hammers and pickaxes busy all the time, and at
length fancied they heard sounds of water they had never heard before.
But that was otherwise accounted for when they left the mine; for they
Madhuri Noah
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