that if he lost his way it would be the most difficult thing
in the world to find it again. Morning would bring no light into these
regions; and towards him least of all, who was known as a special
rhymester and persecutor, could goblins be expected to exercise
courtesy. Well might he wish that he had brought his lamp and
tinder-box with him, of which he had not thought when he crept so
eagerly after the goblins! He wished it all the more when, after a
while, he found his way blocked up, and could get no farther. It was
of no use to turn back, for he had not the least idea where he had
begun to go wrong. Mechanically, however, he kept feeling about the
walls that hemmed him in. His hand came upon a place where a tiny
stream of water was running down the face of the rock. 'What a stupid
I am!' he said to himself. 'I am actually at the end of my journey!
And there are the goblins coming back to fetch their things!' he added,
as the red glimmer of their torches appeared at the end of the long
avenue that led up to the cave. In a moment he had thrown himself on
the floor, and wriggled backwards through the hole. The floor on the
other side was several feet lower, which made it easier to get back.
It was all he could do to lift the largest stone he had taken out of
the hole, but he did manage to shove it in again. He sat down on the
ore-heap and thought.

He was pretty sure that the latter plan of the goblins was to inundate
the mine by breaking outlets for the water accumulated in the natural
reservoirs of the mountain, as well as running through portions of it.
While the part hollowed by the miners remained shut off from that
inhabited by the goblins, they had had no opportunity of injuring them
thus; but now that a passage was broken through, and the goblins' part
proved the higher in the mountain, it was clear to Curdie that the mine
could be destroyed in an hour. Water was always the chief danger to
which the miners were exposed. They met with a little choke-damp
sometimes, but never with the explosive firedamp so common in
coal-mines. Hence they were careful as soon as they saw any appearance
of water. As the result of his reflections while the goblins were busy
in their old home, it seemed to Curdie that it would be best to build
up the whole of this gang, filling it with stone, and clay or lie, so
that there should be no smallest channel for the water to get into.
There was not, however, any immediate d