he great old princess's moon! How could she
be there? Of course she was not there! He had asked the whole
household, and nobody knew anything about her or her globe either. It
couldn't be! And yet what did that signify, when there was the white
globe shining, and here was the dead white bird in his hand? That
moment the pigeon gave a little flutter. 'It's not dead!' cried
Curdie, almost with a shriek. The same instant he was running full
speed toward the castle, never letting his heels down, lest he should
shake the poor, wounded bird.

CHAPTER 3

The Mistress of the Silver Moon

When Curdie reached the castle, and ran into the little garden in front
of it, there stood the door wide open. This was as he had hoped, for
what could he have said if he had had to knock at it? Those whose
business it is to open doors, so often mistake and shut them! But the
woman now in charge often puzzled herself greatly to account for the
strange fact that however often she shut the door, which, like the
rest, she took a great deal of unnecessary trouble to do, she was
certain, the next time she went to it, to find it open. I speak now of
the great front door, of course: the back door she as persistently kept
wide: if people could only go in by that, she said, she would then know
what sort they were, and what they wanted. But she would neither have
known what sort Curdie was, nor what he wanted, and would assuredly
have denied him admittance, for she knew nothing of who was in the
tower. So the front door was left open for him, and in he walked.

But where to go next he could not tell. It was not quite dark: a dull,
shineless twilight filled the place. All he knew was that he must go
up, and that proved enough for the present, for there he saw the great
staircase rising before him. When he reached the top of it, he knew
there must be more stairs yet, for he could not be near the top of the
tower. Indeed by the situation of the stairs, he must be a good way
from the tower itself. But those who work well in the depths more
easily understand the heights, for indeed in their true nature they are
one and the same; miners are in mountains; and Curdie, from knowing the
ways of the king's mines, and being able to calculate his whereabouts
in them, was now able to find his way about the king's house. He knew
its outside perfectly, and now his business was to get his notion of
the inside right with the outside.

So he sh