thus; but now that a passage was broken through, and the goblins' part
proved the higher in the mountain, it was clear to Curdie that the mine
could be destroyed in an hour. Water was always the chief danger to
which the miners were exposed. They met with a little choke-damp
sometimes, but never with the explosive fire-damp so common in coal
mines. Hence they were careful as soon as they saw any appearance of
water.
As the result of his reflections while the goblins were busy in their
old home, it seemed to Curdie that it would be best to build up the
whole of this gang, filling it with stone, and clay or lime, so that
there should be no smallest channel for the water to get into. There
was
not, however, any immediate danger, for the execution of the goblins'
plan was contingent upon the failure of that unknown design which
was to
take precedence of it; and he was most anxious to keep the door of
communication open, that he might if possible discover what that
former
plan was. At the same time they could not then resume their
intermitted
labors for the inundation without his finding it out; when by putting
all hands to the work, the one existing outlet might in a single night
Madhuri Noah
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