The elf sprang to his feet and peered forward. “There are rapids ahead. I can see the foam and waves. Here they are! Quick, Prince, hold on for your life!” and he crouched down and grasped the edge of the table.
Harry threw down his piece of board and clutched a table-leg, and so they hung on for dear life, expecting every moment to be dashed over a waterfall, or to be spilled out in the boiling and foaming waters. But their stanch little craft kept right side up in fine shape, although it behaved very queerly otherwise. Sometimes it bobbed along sideways, sometimes it dashed forward stern foremost; once it struck an eddy, and began spinning around till they grew dizzy; once it slid upon the back of a partially submerged rock, stuck there a moment, and then plunged forward, splashing them from head to foot.
But no waterfall appeared, and gradually the water grew quieter, and they were floating tranquilly along out of danger.
“Tell you what it is, Prince,” said Kitey, “that was a narrow escape. Were you scared?”
“Scared!” replied the boy; “I’d have given anything to have been on top of the solid ground, especially that time we stuck on the rock, hey, old man?”
“Yes, sir!” said the elf emphatically. “But we’re all right now,” he added, as the sides and roof of the tunnel suddenly disappeared from view, “for here we are on the lake, and there is the light of the Gnomes’ fires in the distance.”
While he was speaking, the table gradually slackened its pace, and finally came to a standstill on the calm bosom of the lake.
CHAPTER X.
THE THREE JEWELS.
“I think we shall have to paddle our own canoe,” said Harry. “Get on this side with your board, and I’ll take the other side. It will be slow work, but we can do no better.”
The plan did not work, however, for Kitey’s piece of board was too heavy for the little fellow, so Harry endeavored to paddle the craft alone; but their progress was so slow and crooked that they would probably have been there to this day had they found no other means of propulsion.