“Do you mean to set us to work?” asked Dame Drusilda indignantly.
“Perhaps,” said Dragonfel, with a horrid grin. “Just now, though, I’m going to take you all to another part of the mine where we’ll await developments.”
As he spoke he seized Titania’s hand, and began to drag her off down one of the dark passage-ways. In the same manner Mandrake followed with Dame Drusilda, while after him came Boundingbore with Violet and Daffodil.
The mine-sprites watched their retreating forms, but they were too terrified to speak a word, and were helpless to aid them in any way.
Dragonfel led the rest along the subterranean passage until at last they came to a square chamber that had been cut with much skill into the solid rock.
When Mandrake lit a crystal lamp the great magnificence of the place was revealed.
The floor and walls were inlaid with precious jewels in designs that were truly wonderful. Divans were built in at the sides, and the various creatures of the wild were represented everywhere.
For all his short-comings, Dragonfel seemed to have a great respect for animals, and gave their skins at least a rest on his floors and walls where they could grin at spiders and moth-millers with some show of satisfaction.
At the ceiling which was thickly crusted with diamonds there was a slender open shaft that evidently had been made to provide air and light but which was too small to provide a means of escape.