'I will soon let you see that, mother.Perhaps you may think me foolish, but until I am sure there, is nothing in my present fancy, I am more determined than ever to go on with my observations.just as we came to the channel by which we got out, I heard the miners at work somewhere near - I think down below us.Now since I began to watch them, they have mined a good half-mile, in a straight line; and so far as I am aware, they are working in no other part of the mountain.But I never could tell in what direction they were going.When we came out in the king's garden, however, Ithought at once whether it was possible they were working towards the king's house; and what I want to do tonight is to make sure whether they are or not.I will take a light with me -'
'Oh, Curdie,' cried his mother, 'then they will see you.'
'I'm no more afraid of them now than I was before,' rejoined Curdie, 'now that I've got this precious shoe.They can't make another such in a hurry, and one bare foot will do for my purpose.
Woman as she may be, I won't spare her next time.But I shall be careful with my light, for I don't want them to see me.I won't stick it in my hat.'
'Go on, then, and tell us what you mean to do.'
'I mean to take a bit of paper with me and a pencil, and go in at the mouth of the stream by which we came out.I shall mark on the paper as near as I can the angle of every turning I take until Ifind the cobs at work, and so get a good idea in what direction they are going.If it should prove to be nearly parallel with the stream, I shall know it is towards the king's house they are working.'
'And what if you should? How much wiser will you be then?'
'Wait a minute, mother dear.I told you that when I came upon the royal family in the cave, they were talking of their prince -Harelip, they called him - marrying a sun-woman - that means one of us - one with toes to her feet.Now in the speech one of them made that night at their great gathering, of which I heard only a part, he said that peace would be secured for a generation at least by the pledge the prince would hold for the good behaviour of her relatives: that's what he said, and he must have meant the sun-woman the prince was to marry.I am quite sure the king is much too proud to wish his son to marry any but a princess, and much too knowing to fancy that his having a peasant woman for a wife would be of any great advantage to them.'
'I see what you are driving at now,' said his mother.
'But,' said his father, 'our king would dig the mountain to the plain before he would have his princess the wife of a cob, if he were ten times a prince.'
'Yes; but they think so much of themselves!' said his mother.
'Small creatures always do.The bantam is the proudest cock in my little yard.'
'And I fancy,' said Curdie, 'if they once got her, they would tell the king they would kill her except he consented to the marriage.'
'They might say so,' said his father, 'but they wouldn't kill her;they would keep her alive for the sake of the hold it gave them over our king.Whatever he did to them, they would threaten to do the same to the princess.'
'And they are bad enough to torment her just for their own amusement - I know that,' said his mother.
'Anyhow, I will keep a watch on them, and see what they are up to,'
said Curdie.'It's too horrible to think of.I daren't let myself do it.But they shan't have her - at least if I can help it.So, mother dear - my clue is all right - will you get me a bit of paper and a pencil and a lump of pease pudding, and I will set out at once.I saw a place where I can climb over the wall of the garden quite easily.'
'You must mind and keep out of the way of the men on the watch,'
said his mother.
'That I will.I don't want them to know anything about it.They would spoil it all.The cobs would only try some other plan - they are such obstinate creatures! I shall take good care, mother.
They won't kill and eat me either, if they should come upon me.So you needn't mind them.'
His mother got him what he had asked for, and Curdie set out.
Close beside the door by which the princess left the garden for the mountain stood a great rock, and by climbing it Curdie got over the wall.He tied his clue to a stone just inside the channel of the stream, and took his pickaxe with him.He had not gone far before he encountered a horrid creature coming towards the mouth.The spot was too narrow for two of almost any size or shape, and besides Curdie had no wish to let the creature pass.Not being able to use his pickaxe, however, he had a severe struggle with him, and it was only after receiving many bites, some of them bad, that he succeeded in killing him with his pocket-knife.Having dragged him out, he made haste to get in again before another should stop up the way.
I need not follow him farther in this night's adventures.He returned to his breakfast, satisfied that the goblins were mining in the direction of the palace - on so low a level that their intention must, he thought, be to burrow under the walls of the king's house, and rise up inside it - in order, he fully believed, to lay hands on the little princess, and carry her off for a wife to their horrid Harelip.