The Princess and the Goblin Page 8

  CHAPTER 8

  The Goblins

  For some time Curdie worked away briskly, throwing all the ore he haddisengaged on one side behind him, to be ready for carrying out in themorning. He heard a good deal of goblin-tapping, but it all soundedfar away in the hill, and he paid it little heed. Towards midnight hebegan to feel rather hungry; so he dropped his pickaxe, got out a lumpof bread which in the morning he had laid in a damp hole in the rock,sat down on a heap of ore, and ate his supper. Then he leaned back forfive minutes' rest before beginning his work again, and laid his headagainst the rock. He had not kept the position for one minute beforehe heard something which made him sharpen his ears. It sounded like avoice inside the rock. After a while he heard it again. It was agoblin voice--there could be no doubt about that--and this time hecould make out the words.

  'Hadn't we better be moving?'it said.

  A rougher and deeper voice replied:

  'There's no hurry. That wretched little mole won't be through tonight,if he work ever so hard. He's not by any means at the thinnest place.'

  'But you still think the lode does come through into our house?' saidthe first voice.

  'Yes, but a good bit farther on than he has got to yet. If he hadstruck a stroke more to the side just here,' said the goblin, tappingthe very stone, as it seemed to Curdie, against which his head lay, 'hewould have been through; but he's a couple of yards past it now, and ifhe follow the lode it will be a week before it leads him in. You seeit back there--a long way. Still, perhaps, in case of accident itwould be as well to be getting out of this. Helfer, you'll take thegreat chest. That's your business, you know.'

  'Yes, dad,' said a third voice. 'But you must help me to get it on myback. It's awfully heavy, you know.'

  'Well, it isn't just a bag of smoke, I admit. But you're as strong asa mountain, Helfer.'

  'You say so, dad. I think myself I'm all right. But I could carry tentimes as much if it wasn't for my feet.'

  'That is your weak point, I confess, my boy.' 'Ain't it yours too,father?'

  'Well, to be honest, it's a goblin weakness. Why they come so soft, Ideclare I haven't an idea.'

  'Specially when your head's so hard, you know, father.'

  'Yes my boy. The goblin's glory is his head. To think how the fellowsup above there have to put on helmets and things when they go fighting!Ha! ha!'

  'But why don't we wear shoes like them, father? I should likeit--especially when I've got a chest like that on my head.'

  'Well, you see, it's not the fashion. The king never wears shoes.'

  'The queen does.'

  'Yes; but that's for distinction. The first queen, you see--I mean theking's first wife--wore shoes, of course, because she came fromupstairs; and so, when she died, the next queen would not be inferiorto her as she called it, and would wear shoes too. It was all pride.She is the hardest in forbidding them to the rest of the women.'

  'I'm sure I wouldn't wear them--no, not for--that I wouldn't!' said thefirst voice, which was evidently that of the mother of the family. 'Ican't think why either of them should.'

  'Didn't I tell you the first was from upstairs?' said the other. 'Thatwas the only silly thing I ever knew His Majesty guilty of. Why shouldhe marry an outlandish woman like that-one of our natural enemies too?'

  'I suppose he fell in love with her.' 'Pooh! pooh! He's just as happynow with one of his own people.'

  'Did she die very soon? They didn't tease her to death, did they?'

  'Oh, dear, no! The king worshipped her very footmarks.'

  'What made her die, then? Didn't the air agree with her?'

  'She died when the young prince was born.'

  'How silly of her! We never do that. It must have been because shewore shoes.'

  'I don't know that.'

  'Why do they wear shoes up there?'

  'Ah, now that's a sensible question, and I will answer it. But inorder to do so, I must first tell you a secret. I once saw the queen'sfeet.'

  'Without her shoes?'

  'Yes--without her shoes.'

  'No! Did you? How was it?'

  'Never you mind how it was. She didn't know I saw them. And what doyou think!--they had toes!'

  'Toes! What's that?'

  'You may well ask! I should never have known if I had not seen thequeen's feet. Just imagine! the ends of her feet were split up intofive or six thin pieces!'

  'Oh, horrid! How could the king have fallen in love with her?'

  'You forget that she wore shoes. That is just why she wore them. Thatis why all the men, and women too, upstairs wear shoes. They can'tbear the sight of their own feet without them.'

  'Ah! now I understand. If ever you wish for shoes again, Helfer, I'llhit your feet--I will.'

  'No, no, mother; pray don't.'

  'Then don't you.'

  'But with such a big box on my head--'

  A horrid scream followed, which Curdie interpreted as in reply to ablow from his mother upon the feet of her eldest goblin.

  'Well, I never knew so much before!' remarked a fourth voice.

  'Your knowledge is not universal quite yet,' said the father. 'Youwere only fifty last month. Mind you see to the bed and bedding. Assoon as we've finished our supper, we'll be up and going. Ha! ha! ha!'

  'What are you laughing at, husband?'

  'I'm laughing to think what a mess the miners will find themselvesin--somewhere before this day ten years.'

  'Why, what do you mean?'

  'Oh, nothing.'

  'Oh, yes, you do mean something. You always do mean something.'

  'It's more than you do, then, wife.' 'That may be; but it's not morethan I find out, you know.'

  'Ha! ha! You're a sharp one. What a mother you've got, Helfer!'

  'Yes, father.'

  'Well, I suppose I must tell you. They're all at the palace consultingabout it tonight; and as soon as we've got away from this thin placeI'm going there to hear what night they fix upon. I should like to seethat young ruffian there on the other side, struggling in the agoniesof--'

  He dropped his voice so low that Curdie could hear only a growl. Thegrowl went on in the low bass for a good while, as inarticulate as ifthe goblin's tongue had been a sausage; and it was not until his wifespoke again that it rose to its former pitch.

  'But what shall we do when you are at the palace?' she asked.

  'I will see you safe in the new house I've been digging for you for thelast two months. Podge, you mind the table and chairs. I commit themto your care. The table has seven legs--each chair three. I shallrequire them all at your hands.'

  After this arose a confused conversation about the various householdgoods and their transport; and Curdie heard nothing more that was ofany importance.

  He now knew at least one of the reasons for the constant sound of thegoblin hammers and pickaxes at night. They were making new houses forthemselves, to which they might retreat when the miners should threatento break into their dwellings. But he had learned two things of fargreater importance. The first was, that some grievous calamity waspreparing, and almost ready to fall upon the heads of the miners; thesecond was--the one weak point of a goblin's body; he had not knownthat their feet were so tender as he had now reason to suspect. He hadheard it said that they had no toes: he had never had opportunity ofinspecting them closely enough, in the dusk in which they alwaysappeared, to satisfy himself whether it was a correct report. Indeed,he had not been able even to satisfy himself as to whether they had nofingers, although that also was commonly said to be the fact. One ofthe miners, indeed, who had had more schooling than the rest, was wontto argue that such must have been the primordial condition of humanity,and that education and handicraft had developed both toes andfingers--with which proposition Curdie had once heard his fathersarcastically agree, alleging in support of it the probability thatbabies' gloves were a traditional remnant of the old state of things;while the stockings of all ages, no regard b
eing paid in them to thetoes, pointed in the same direction. But what was of importance wasthe fact concerning the softness of the goblin feet, which he foresawmight be useful to all miners. What he had to do in the meantime,however, was to discover, if possible, the special evil design thegoblins had now in their heads.

  Although he knew all the gangs and all the natural galleries with whichthey communicated in the mined part of the mountain, he had not theleast idea where the palace of the king of the gnomes was; otherwise hewould have set out at once on the enterprise of discovering what thesaid design was. He judged, and rightly, that it must lie in a fartherpart of the mountain, between which and the mine there was as yet nocommunication. There must be one nearly completed, however; for itcould be but a thin partition which now separated them. If only hecould get through in time to follow the goblins as they retreated! Afew blows would doubtless be sufficient--just where his ear now lay;but if he attempted to strike there with his pickaxe, he would onlyhasten the departure of the family, put them on their guard, andperhaps lose their involuntary guidance. He therefore began to feelthe wall With his hands, and soon found that some of the stones wereloose enough to be drawn out with little noise.

  Laying hold of a large one with both his hands, he drew it gently out,and let it down softly.

  'What was that noise?' said the goblin father.

  Curdie blew out his light, lest it should shine through.

  'It must be that one miner that stayed behind the rest,' said themother.

  'No; he's been gone a good while. I haven't heard a blow for an hour.Besides, it wasn't like that.'

  'Then I suppose it must have been a stone carried down the brookinside.'

  'Perhaps. It will have more room by and by.'

  Curdie kept quite still. After a little while, hearing nothing but thesounds of their preparations for departure, mingled with an occasionalword of direction, and anxious to know whether the removal of the stonehad made an opening into the goblins' house, he put in his hand tofeel. It went in a good way, and then came in contact with somethingsoft. He had but a moment to feel it over, it was so quicklywithdrawn: it was one of the toeless goblin feet. The owner of it gavea cry of fright.

  'What's the matter, Helfer?' asked his mother.

  'A beast came out of the wall and licked my foot.'

  'Nonsense! There are no wild beasts in our country,' said his father.

  'But it was, father. I felt it.'

  'Nonsense, I say. Will you malign your native realms and reduce themto a level with the country upstairs? That is swarming with wildbeasts of every description.'

  'But I did feel it, father.'

  'I tell you to hold your tongue. You are no patriot.'

  Curdie suppressed his laughter, and lay still as a mouse--but nostiller, for every moment he kept nibbling away with his fingers at theedges of the hole. He was slowly making it bigger, for here the rockhad been very much shattered with the blasting.

  There seemed to be a good many in the family, to judge from the mass ofconfused talk which now and then came through the hole; but when allwere speaking together, and just as if they had bottle-brushes--each atleast one--in their throats, it was not easy to make out much that wassaid. At length he heard once more what the father goblin was saying.

  'Now, then,' he said, 'get your bundles on your backs. Here, Helfer,I'll help you up with your chest.'

  'I wish it was my chest, father.'

  'Your turn will come in good time enough! Make haste. I must go tothe meeting at the palace tonight. When that's over, we can come backand clear out the last of the things before our enemies return in themorning. Now light your torches, and come along. What a distinction itis, to provide our own light, instead of being dependent on a thinghung up in the air--a most disagreeable contrivance--intended no doubtto blind us when we venture out under its baleful influence! Quiteglaring and vulgar, I call it, though no doubt useful to poor creatureswho haven't the wit to make light for themselves.'

  Curdie could hardly keep himself from calling through to know whetherthey made the fire to light their torches by. But a moment'sreflection showed him that they would have said they did, inasmuch asthey struck two stones together, and the fire came.