" said Karl. "By
the way," he went on--"do you happen to have a telephone here? I should
like to 'phone to a friend of mine and tell him where I am. It would be
such a joke."

"What's a telephone?" asked the dwarfs.

"You don't know what a telephone is! Himmel! you _are_ old-fashioned
down here--you are only half civilised!"

"Half civilised, half civilised!" repeated the dwarfs angrily, "let us
repeat our civilisation----"

"I'll tell you what a telephone is," said Karl, interrupting this burst
of eloquence. "It is a little tube connected with a wire, you put one
part of it to your ear, and then you put your mouth to the tube and say:
'No. 1280,' and then listen, and your friend will speak to you from
miles and miles away, and you can answer him."

"We don't believe it, we don't believe it!" said the unbelieving dwarfs.

"It's true for all that, _Christmas Tree_," said Karl. "I could fix that
up for you too, if you have any connection with the outer air. You must
have," he continued, sniffing, "for the air is nice and fresh here,
quite different to that in the tunnel. Have you a ventilating shaft?"

"O yes," said the little men, "we can show you that!" And they led him
out of the hall. In the passage outside was a great cleft or crevice in
the rocks such as we call in England a chine. Above it the moon shone
full and bright. A waterfall rushed down on one side; he saw ferns and
dear little plants leaning over the water, growing between the cracks of
the rocks. There were also glow-worms cunningly arranged in groups that
looked like fairy stars. On the other side, he observed to his joy rough
steps leading upwards cut in the solid rock. He sighed a sigh of relief,
here at least was the way out.

He regarded the pretty sight with the eye of the professional engineer,
rather than that of the artist. "That must be a stiff climb for you
little men up there," he said. "Now if you had a lift!"

"What's that?" asked the dwarfs eagerly.

"It's a little room that goes up and down when you pull a wire rope."

"We don't believe it, we don't believe it," said the sceptical gnomes
again.

"It's true nevertheless; now wouldn't it be fun to have a ride in it? I
could fix that up too, you know, if you gave me time and helped a bit
yourselves," said Karl.

"Really you poor things," he went on, "You do not seem to have heard
much of modern technical progress down here in this rabbit-burrow. I beg
your pardon I'm sure"--as