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 grayhound. 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
Madhuri Noah
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