“You are a good little man; I shall love you for ever; but do you know where Honey-Bee of Clarides is?”
“I know a great many things,” retorted the dwarf, “and especially that I don’t like people who ask questions.”
Hearing this George paused in great confusion and followed his guide in silence through the dense black air where the octopuses and crustaceans writhed. King Loc said mockingly:
“This is not a carriage road, young prince.”
“Sir,” George replied, “the road to liberty is always beautiful, and I fear not to be led astray when I follow my benefactor.”
Little King Loc bit his lips. On reaching the gallery of porphyry he pointed out to the youth a flight of steps cut in the rock by the dwarfs, by which they ascend to earth.
“This is your way,” he said, “farewell.”
“Do not bid me farewell,” George replied, “say I shall see you again. After what you have done my life is yours.”
“What I have done,” King Loc replied, “I have not done for your sake, but for another’s. It will be better for us never to meet again, for we can never be friends.”
“I would not have believed that my deliverance could have caused me such pain,” George said simply and gravely, “and yet it does. Farewell.”