'
'But you are a miner! Look at your pickaxe!'
Curdie did look at it, answering:
'I came upon it lying on the ground a little way from here. I
tumbled over some wild beasts who were playing with it. Look, Your
Majesty.' And Curdie showed him how he was scratched and bitten.
The king was pleased to find him behave more politely than he had
expected from what his people had told him concerning the miners,
for he attributed it to the power of his own presence; but he did
not therefore feel friendly to the intruder.
'You will oblige me by walking out of my dominions at once,' he
said, well knowing what a mockery lay in the words.
'With pleasure, if Your Majesty will give me a guide,' said Curdie.
'I will give you a thousand,' said the king with a scoffing air of
magnificent liberality.
'One will be quite sufficient,' said Curdie.
But the king uttered a strange shout, half halloo, half roar, and
in rushed goblins till the cave was swarming. He said something to
the first of them which Curdie could not hear, and it was passed
from one to another till in a moment the farthest in the crowd had
evidently heard and understood it.
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