than to dine off honeysuckle
and a bird's egg, or fill my pockets with gooseberries; but I must adapt
myself to circumstances, and while toiling here have to share the more
solid food provided for us." As he said this he handed Leo a pudding of
about three inches in the round, iced on the top.

Leo swallowed it down with such zest that Paz asked him to dispense with
ceremony, and help himself to anything he saw. The tasting-table was
full of puffs and tarts, and in a twinkling Leo had eaten two or three
dozen of them. They were really so light and frothy that they were
hardly equal to an ounce of lollypops such as an ordinary child could
devour, but Paz cautioned him, telling him that the sweet was so
concentrated he might have a headache.

While he was doing this, Leo watched with interest the bringing in of
some squirrels and rabbits, skinned and ready to be roasted. It took six
elves to bear the weight of an ordinary meat dish on which these were;
then they trussed and skewered them, and put them in small ovens.

"How do you kill your game?" asked Leo.

"We trap everything, and then have a mode of killing the creatures
which is entirely painless."

By this time Knops would have returned, so Paz hurried Leo off, not,
however, without first filling his pockets with goodies. Up they
clambered, until it seemed as if they might reach the stars by going a
little farther, and now Leo was really so tired that when he sank down
on the feathery couch in the sea-shell corridor he was asleep before he
could explain to Knops the cause of his absence.

He must have slept a very long while--a time quite equal to an ordinary
night, if not longer--for when he awoke he was thoroughly rested and
refreshed, and ready for any exertion he might be called upon to make;
but he found himself entirely alone.

At first this did not affect him, for he supposed his elfin friends had
taken the opportunity to rest themselves, but after minutes lengthened
into hours he began to be uneasy. What should he do if they never came
back? How would he ever find his way out of these caverns? The thought
was frightful, and to relieve his fears he began to call. His calls
became shouts, yells, and yet no answer came; nothing but echoes
responded.

CHAPTER VIII

After a long and impatient listening the echoes of Leo's calls seemed to
prolong themselves into musical strains, which, faint and far away at
first, gradually came nearer and nearer