MASON-WORK
HE had all at once remembered the resolution of the goblins to carry out
their second plan upon the failure of the first. No doubt they were
already busy, and the mine was therefore in the greatest danger of being
flooded and rendered useless--not to speak of the lives of the miners.
When he reached the mouth of the mine, after rousing all the miners
within reach, he found his father and a good many more just entering.
They all hurried to the gang by which he had found a way into the goblin
country. There the foresight of Peter had already collected a great many
blocks of stone, with cement, ready for building up the weak place--well
enough known to the goblins. Although there was not room for more than
two to be actually building at once, they managed, by setting all the
rest to work in preparing the cement, and passing the stones, to finish
in the course of the day a huge buttress filling the whole gang, and
supported everywhere by the live rock. Before the hour when they usually
dropped work, they were satisfied that the mine was secure.
They had heard goblin hammers and pickaxes busy all the time, and at
length fancied they heard sounds of water they had never heard before.
But that was otherwise accounted for when they left the mine; for they
stepped out into a tremendous storm which was raging all over the
mountain. The thunder was bellowing, and the lightning lancing out of a
huge black cloud which lay above it, and hung down its edges of thick
mist over its sides. The lightning was breaking out of the mountain,
too, and flashing up into the cloud. From the state of the brooks, now
swollen into raging torrents, it was evident that the storm had been
storming all day.
The wind was blowing as if it would blow him off the mountain, but,
anxious about his mother and the princess, Curdie darted up through the
thick of the tempest. Even if they had not set out before the storm came
on, he did not judge them safe, for, in such a storm even their poor
little house was in danger. Indeed he soon found that but for a huge
rock against which it was built, and which protected it both from the
blasts and the waters, it must have been swept if it was not blown away;
for the two torrents into which this rock parted the rush of water
behind it united again in front of the cottage--two roaring and
dangerous streams, which his mother and the princess could not possibly
have passed. It was with great difficulty that he forced his way through
one of them, and up to the door.
The moment his hand fell on the latch, through all the uproar of winds
and waters came the joyous cry of the princess:--
"There's Curdie! Curdie! Curdie!"
She was sitting wrapped in blankets on the bed, his mother trying for
the hundredth time to light the fire which had been drowned by the rain
that came down the chimney. The clay floor was one mass of mud, and the
whole place looked wretched. But the faces of the mother and the
princess shone as if their troubles only made them merrier. Curdie
laughed at sight of them.
"I never _had_ such fun!" said the princess, her eyes twinkling and her
pretty teeth shining. "How nice it must be to live in a cottage on the
mountain!"
"It all depends on what kind your inside house is," said the mother.
"I know what you mean," said Irene. "That's the kind of thing my
grandmother says."
By the time Peter returned, the storm was nearly over, but the streams
were so fierce and so swollen, that it was not only out of the question
for the princess to go down the mountain, but most dangerous for Peter
even or Curdie to make the attempt in the gathering darkness.
"They will be dreadfully frightened about you," said Peter to the
princess, "but we cannot help it. We must wait till the morning."
With Curdie's help, the fire was lighted at last, and the mother set
about making their supper; and after supper they all told the princess
stories till she grew sleepy. Then Curdie's mother laid her in Curdie's
bed, which was in a tiny little garret-room. As soon as she was in bed,
through a little window low down in the roof she caught sight of her
grandmother's lamp shining far away beneath, and she gazed at the
beautiful silvery globe until she fell fast asleep.