“I’m sorry to do it, hoppy,” he said; “but if you’ll only be quiet a little while, I’ll take you out of this hole when I go.”
When he came back, Kitey was awaiting him with the food tied up. Shouldering the bundle, Harry followed the elf to the main passage, and thence to one of the other smaller passages branching off. This they followed for a distance till they came to a long, descending stairway, at the bottom of which was a door. Opening the door, Kitey held aloft his light.
“Why, it’s an underground river!” Harry exclaimed in surprise.
And so it was, a gently flowing stream of water, so clear and limpid that one could see plainly the smooth, rocky bottom. The stream was about forty feet wide, and the roof of the tunnel through which it flowed was perhaps fifteen or twenty feet high above the surface of the water.
“Where does it come from?” asked Harry.
“I don’t know,” Kitey replied. “It must come from above ground somewhere. But, although I don’t know exactly where the stream comes from, I can tell you where it goes, and that is straight to the lake that you crossed when you went to the country of the Gnomes. Can’t we go this way to see Wamby and help him?”
“Perhaps,” Harry said, glancing about. “Is there a boat here?”
“None that I know of,” said Kitey; “but I am sure, Prince, that you can devise some way of getting there without a boat.”
Harry pondered for several minutes. “A raft would answer the purpose, if we only had something to make it of. I say, Kitey, give me that lantern, and you wait here till I come back.” And he hurried up the passage.
Not long after, Kitey beheld him returning down the long stairway with a low, broad table on his back.