discover in what part of the series
of underground caverns Inga's parents had been confined, as that
knowledge was necessary before they could take any action; so together
they started out, leaving Bilbil asleep in his room, and made their way
unopposed through many corridors and caverns.

In some places were great furnaces, where gold dust was being melted
into bricks. In other rooms workmen were fashioning the gold into
various articles and ornaments. In one cavern immense wheels revolved
which polished precious gems, and they found many caverns used as
storerooms, where treasure of every sort was piled high. Also they came
to the barracks of the army and the great kitchens.

There were nomes everywhere--countless thousands of them--but none paid
the slightest heed to the visitors from the earth's surface. Yet,
although Inga and Rinkitink walked until they were weary, they were
unable to locate the place where the boy's father and mother had been
confined, and when they tried to return to their own rooms they found
that they had hopelessly lost themselves amid the labyrinth of passages.
However, Klik presently came to them, laughing at their discomfiture,
and led them back to their bedchambers.

Before they went to sleep they carefully barred the door from
Rinkitink's room to the corridor, but the doors that connected the three
rooms one with another were left wide open.

In the night Inga was awakened by a soft grating sound that filled him
with anxiety because he could not account for it. It was dark in his
room, the light having disappeared as soon as he got into bed, but he
managed to feel his way to the door that led to Rinkitink's room and
found it tightly closed and immovable. Then he made his way to the
opposite door, leading to Bilbil's room, to discover that also had been
closed and fastened.

The boy had a curious sensation that all of his room--the walls, floor
and ceiling--was slowly whirling as if on a pivot, and it was such an
uncomfortable feeling that he got into bed again, not knowing what else
to do. And as the grating noise had ceased and the room now seemed
stationary, he soon fell asleep again.

When the boy wakened, after many hours, he found the room again light.
So he dressed himself and discovered that a small table, containing a
breakfast that was smoking hot, had suddenly appeared in the center of
his room. He tried the two doors, but finding that he could not open
them he ate some b