the people of the mountain above, when they were feeding their
sheep or catching their goats. And indeed it was only when the sun was
away that the outside of the mountain was sufficiently like their own
dismal regions to be endurable to their mole eyes, so thoroughly had
they become unaccustomed to any light beyond that of their own fires
and torches.

Curdie listened, and soon found that they were talking of himself.

'How long will it take?' asked Harelip.

'Not many days, I should think,' answered the king. 'They are poor
feeble creatures, those sun-people, and want to be always eating. We
can go a week at a time without food, and be all the better for it; but
I've been told they eat two or three times every day! Can you believe
it? They must be quite hollow inside--not at all like us, nine-tenths
of whose bulk is solid flesh and bone. Yes--I judge a week of
starvation will do for him.'

'If I may be allowed a word,' interposed the queen,--'and I think I
ought to have some voice in the matter--'

'The wretch is entirely at your disposal, my spouse,' interrupted the
king. 'He is your property. You caught him yourself. We should never
have done it.'

The queen laughed. She seemed in far better humour than the night
before.

'I was about to say,' she resumed, 'that it does seem a pity to waste
so much fresh meat.'

'What are you thinking of, my love?' said the king. 'The very notion
of starving him implies that we are not going to give him any meat,
either salt or fresh.'

'I'm not such a stupid as that comes to,' returned Her Majesty. 'What I
mean is that by the time he is starved there will hardly be a picking
upon his bones.'

The king gave a great laugh.

'Well, my spouse, you may have him when you like,' he said. 'I don't
fancy him for my part. I am pretty sure he is tough eating.'

'That would be to honour instead of punish his insolence,' returned the
queen. 'But why should our poor creatures be deprived of so much
nourishment? Our little dogs and cats and pigs and small bears would
enjoy him very much.'

'You are the best of housekeepers, my lovely queen!' said her husband.
'Let it be so by all means. Let us have our people in, and get him out
and kill him at once. He deserves it. The mischief he might have
brought upon us, now that he had penetrated so far as our most retired
citadel, is incalculable. Or rather let us tie him hand and foot, and
have the pleasure of seeing hi