'
She had already begun to follow it over the fallen slab into the
hole, while Curdie was searching the floor of the cavern for his
pickaxe.
'Here it is!' he cried. 'No, it is not,' he added, in a
disappointed tone. 'What can it be, then? I declare it's a torch.
That is jolly! It's better almost than my pickaxe. Much better if
it weren't for those stone shoes!' he went on, as he lighted the
torch by blowing the last embers of the expiring fire.
When he looked up, with the lighted torch casting a glare into the
great darkness of the huge cavern, he caught sight of Irene
disappearing in the hole out of which he had himself just come.
'Where are you going there?' he cried. 'That's not the way out.
That's where I couldn't get out.'
'I know that,' whispered Irene. 'But this is the way my thread
goes, and I must follow it.'
'What nonsense the child talks!' said Curdie to himself. 'I must
follow her, though, and see that she comes to no harm. She will
soon find she can't get out that way, and then she will come with
me.'
So he crept over the slab once more into the hole with his torch in
his hand.
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