So he had, every now and then, to feel with his
hands to know how he was getting on, and to discover in what
direction to strike: the exact spot was a mere imagination.
He was getting very tired and hungry, and beginning to lose heart
a little, when out of the ground, as if he had struck a spring of
it, burst a dull, gleamy, lead-coloured light, and the next moment
he heard a hollow splash and echo. A piece of rock had fallen out
of the floor, and dropped into water beneath. Already Lina, who
had been lying a few yards off all the time he worked, was on her
feet and peering through the hole. Curdie got down on his hands
and knees, and looked. They were over what seemed a natural cave
in the rock, to which apparently the river had access, for, at a
great distance below, a faint light was gleaming upon water. If
they could but reach it, they might get out; but even if it was
deep enough, the height was very dangerous. The first thing,
whatever might follow, was to make the hole larger. It was
comparatively easy to break away the sides of it, and in the course
of another hour he had it large enough to get through.
And now he must reconnoitre. He took the rope they had tied him
with - for Curdie's hindrances were always his furtherance - and
fastened one end of it by a slipknot round the handle of his
pickaxes then dropped the other end through, and laid the pickaxe
so that, when he was through himself, and hanging on the edge, he
could place it across the hole to support him on the rope.
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