the first voice.
"Yes, but a good bit farther on than he has got to yet. If he had struck
a stroke more to the side just here," said the goblin, tapping the very
stone, as it seemed to Curdie, against which his head lay, "he would
have been through; but he's a couple of yards past it now, and if he
follow the lode it will be a week before it leads him in. You see it
back there--a long way. Still, perhaps, in case of accident, it would be
as well to be getting out of this. Helfer, you'll take the great chest.
That's your business, you know."
"Yes, dad," said a third voice. "But you must help me to get it on my
back. It's awfully heavy, you know."
"Well, it isn't just a bag of smoke, I admit. But you're as strong as a
mountain, Helfer."
"You say so, dad. I think myself I'm all right. But I could carry ten
times as much if it wasn't for my feet."
"That is your weak point, I confess, my boy."
Madhuri Noah
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