"Wouldn't it make our eyes blink?" said one thin little fellow.
Karl noticed that the dwarfs' eyes were small and their faces pale. Most of them had quite white beards and hair.
"That comes of living so long underground, it is a loss of pigment," thought Karl. "Like a geranium that has been kept in the cellar! Now I could fix it up for you," said the young engineer, always keenly on the look-out for a job. "We are going to have it laid on in the tunnel."
"How much would it cost?" inquired the dwarfs.
"O, a thousand pounds or so!" said Karl carelessly. He had heard that dwarfs were very rich, and he was a good man of business, and had his eyes open to his interests.
"That's a great deal of money, a great deal of money!" said the little men in chorus.
"O, as for that I am sure we could come to an agreement," said Karl. "By the way," he went on—"do you happen to have a telephone here? I should like to 'phone to a friend of mine and tell him where I am. It would be such a joke."
"What's a telephone?" asked the dwarfs.
"You don't know what a telephone is! Himmel! you are old-fashioned down here—you are only half civilised!"
"Half civilised, half civilised!" repeated the dwarfs angrily, "let us repeat our civilisation——"