"I know a great many things," answered the dwarf, "and especially that I do not like inquisitive people."
George, hearing these words, remained quite abashed, and he silently followed his guide through the thick and murky air where cuttlefish and crabs were moving. Then King Loc said to him with a grin:
"The road is rather rough, my young prince."
"Sir," George answered him, "the way to freedom is always pleasant, and I am not afraid of being lost by following my benefactor."
Little King Loc bit his lips. When he reached the hall of porphyry, he showed the young man a staircase made in the stone by which the dwarfs go up above ground.
"Here is your road," he said to him, "good-bye."
"Do not say good-bye," replied George, "tell me you will see me again. My life belongs to you after what you have done for me."
King Loc answered:
"What I have done was not for you, but for another. We had better not see each other again, because we might not like each other."
George replied unaffectedly and seriously: