With
one spring she threw herself at Curdie's feet, and laid her head
upon them panting. Then came a rush of two or three soldiers
darkening the doorway, but it was only to lay hold of the key, pull
the door to, and lock it; so that once more Curdie and Lina were
prisoners together.
For a few moments Lina lay panting hard: it is breathless work
leaping and roaring both at once, and that in a way to scatter
thousands of people. Then she jumped up, and began snuffing about
all over the place; and Curdie saw what he had never seen before -
two faint spots of light cast from her eyes upon the ground, one on
each side of her snuffing nose. He got out his tinder box - a
miner is never without one - and lighted a precious bit of candle
he carried in a division of it just for a moment, for he must not
waste it.
The light revealed a vault without any window or other opening than
the door. It was very old and much neglected. The mortar had
vanished from between the stones, and it was half filled with a
heap of all sorts of rubbish, beaten down in the middle, but looser
at the sides; it sloped from the door to the foot of the opposite
wall: evidently for a long time the vault had been left open, and
every sort of refuse thrown into it. A single minute served for
the survey, so little was there to note.
Meantime, down in the angle between the back wall and the base of
the heap Lina was scratching furiously with all the eighteen great
strong claws of her mighty feet.
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