“I tell you what, old chap, if you ever want me to slide down that place again, you’ll have to provide a cushion for me.”
Wamby chuckled, and trotted onward. After another long walk through a level corridor they came to the entrance of an immense chamber or cave, so large that they could see neither the roof, nor opposite sides. The floor was smooth and glistening, and reflected the light which Wamby held aloft.
“What is the floor—glass?” asked Harry.
“No,” replied the elf, “it’s water. We shall have to go the rest of the way in a boat. Let me show you something,” he continued, catching Harry by the sleeve, and shutting the lid of his lantern-box. “Look way over there, a little to the left, and tell me what you see.”
“Why, it looks like a little red star. It flickers a good deal. Sometimes it blazes up brightly, and then it gets so faint that I can scarcely see it. What is it?”
“It is where the Gnomes live. That star, as you call it, is the light from their furnace fires; and when I tell you it is as bright as day over there, you can see how far away it must be from us.”
“But how can we ever get there?” demanded Harry.
“You’ll see presently,” was the answer. “First, let us eat some of that food you brought. I’m hungry.”
They hastily swallowed a few mouthfuls, and quenched their thirst with a draught of cool, clear water from the lake.
“Now, give me that pin,” said Wamby. Opening a large door at one side, he disclosed a room with the floor covered with water, on which floated a sail-boat with its sails all set. “Here,” he continued, “take hold of that bowline, and while I shove, you pull the boat around alongside of the landing-place there. Now, fasten the stern-line over that stone post, and get in the boat, and shove the bow out a little.”