Fairy Tales & Fantasy: George MacDonald Collection (With Complete Original Illustrations). George MacDonald
it off. The moment he succeeded, he saw to his astonishment that what he had sung in ignorance, to annoy the queen, was actually true: she had six horrible toes. Overjoyed at his success, and seeing by the huge bump in the sheep skins where the other foot was, he proceeded to lift them gently, for, if he could only succeed in carrying away the other shoe as well, he would be no more afraid of the goblins than of so many flies. But as he pulled at the second shoe, the queen gave a growl and sat up in bed. The same instant the king awoke also, and sat up beside her.
"Run, Irene!" cried Curdie, for though he was not now in the least afraid for himself, he was for the princess.
Irene looked once round, saw the fearful creatures awake, and like the wise princess she was, dashed the torch on the ground and extinguished it, crying out—
"Here, Curdie, take my hand."
He darted to her side, forgetting neither the queen's shoe nor his pickaxe, and caught hold of her hand, as she sped fearlessly where her thread guided her. They heard the queen give a great bellow; but they had a good start, for it would be some time before they could get torches lighted to pursue them. Just as they thought they saw a gleam behind them, the thread brought them to a very narrow opening, through which Irene crept easily, and Curdie with difficulty.
"Now," said Curdie; "I think we shall be safe."
"Of course we shall," returned Irene.
"Why do you think so?" asked Curdie.
"Because my grandmother is taking care of us."
"That's all nonsense," said Curdie. "I don't know what you mean."
"Then if you don't know what I mean, what right have you to call it nonsense?" asked the princess, a little offended.
"I beg your pardon, Irene," said Curdie; "I did not mean to vex you."
"Of course not," returned the princess. "But why do you think we shall be safe?"
"Because the king and queen are far too stout to get through that hole."
"There may be ways round," said the other.
"To be sure there might; we are not out of it yet," acknowledged Curdie.
"But what do you mean by the king and queen?" asked the princess. "I should never call such creatures as those a king and a queen."
"Their own people do, though," answered Curdie.
The princess asked more questions, and Curdie, as they walked leisurely along, gave her a full account, not only of the character and habits of the goblins, so far as he knew them, but of his own adventures with them, beginning from the very night after that in which he had met her and Lootie upon the mountain. When he had finished, he begged Irene to tell him how it was that she had come to his rescue. So Irene too had to tell a long story, which she did in rather a roundabout manner, interrupted by many questions concerning things she had not explained. But her tale, as he did not believe more than half of it, left everything as unaccountable to him as before, and he was nearly as much perplexed as to what he must think of the princess. He could not believe that she was deliberately telling stories, and the only conclusion he could come to was that Lootie had been playing the child tricks, inventing no end of lies to frighten her for her own purposes.
"But how ever did Lootie come to let you go into the mountain alone?" he asked.
"Lootie knows nothing about it. I left her fast asleep—at least I think so. I hope my grandmother won't let her get into trouble, for it wasn't her fault at all, as my grandmother very well knows."
"But how did you find your way to me?" persisted Curdie.
"I told you already," answered Irene;—"by keeping my finger upon my grandmother's thread, as I am doing now."
"You don't mean you've got the thread there?"
"Of course I do. I have told you so ten times already. I have hardly—except when I was removing the stones—taken my finger off it. There!" she added, guiding Curdie's hand to the thread, "you feel it yourself—don't you?"
"I feel nothing at all," replied Curdie.
"Then what can be the matter with your finger? I feel it perfectly. To be sure it is very thin, and in the sunlight looks just like the thread of a spider, though there are many of them twisted together to make it—but for all that I can't think why you shouldn't feel it as well as I do."
Curdie was too polite to say he did not believe there was any thread there at all. What he did say was—
"Well, I can make nothing of it."
"I can though, and you must be glad of that, for it will do for both of us."
"We're not out yet," said Curdie.
"We soon shall be," returned Irene confidently.
And now the thread went downward, and led Irene's hand to a hole in the floor of the cavern, whence came a sound of running water which they had been hearing for some time.
"It goes into the ground now, Curdie," she said, stopping.
He had been listening to another sound, which his practised ear had caught long ago, and which also had been growing louder. It was the noise the goblin miners made at their work, and they seemed to be at no great distance now. Irene heard it the moment she stopped.
"What is that noise?" she asked. "Do you know, Curdie?"
"Yes. It is the goblins digging and burrowing," he answered.
"And don't you know for what purpose they do it?"
"No; I haven't the least idea. Would you like to see them?" he asked, wishing to have another try after their secret.
"If my thread took me there, I shouldn't much mind; but I don't want to see them, and I can't leave my thread. It leads me down into the hole, and we had better go at once."
"Very well. Shall I go in first?" said Curdie.
"No; better not. You can't feel the thread," she answered, stepping down through a narrow break in the floor of the cavern. "Oh!" she cried, "I am in the water. It is running strong—but it is not deep, and there is just room to walk. Make haste, Curdie."
He tried, but the hole was too small for him to get in.
"Go on a little bit," he said, shouldering his pickaxe.
In a few moments he had cleared a large opening and followed her. They went on, down and down with the running water, Curdie getting more and more afraid it was leading them to some terrible gulf in the heart of the mountain. In one or two places he had to break away the rock to make room before even Irene could get through—at least without hurting herself. But at length they spied a glimmer of light, and in a minute more, they were almost blinded by the full sunlight into which they emerged. It was some little time before the princess could see well enough to discover that they stood in her own garden, close by the seat on which she and her king-papa had sat that afternoon. They had come out by the channel of the little stream. She danced and clapped her hands with delight.
"Now, Curdie!" she cried, "won't you believe what I told you about my grandmother and her thread?"
For she had felt all the time that Curdie was not believing what she had told him.
"There!—don't you see it shining on before us?" she added.
"I don't see anything," persisted Curdie.
"Then you must believe without seeing," said the princess; "for you can't deny it has brought me out of the mountain."
"I can't deny we are out of the mountain, and I should be very ungrateful indeed to deny that you had brought me out of it."
"I couldn't have done it but for the thread," persisted Irene.
"That's the part I don't understand."
"Well, come along, and Lootie will get you something to eat. I am sure you must want it very much."
"Indeed