TRAVELS WITHOUT THE SUN "WHOs there?" shouted the three travellers.
"I am the Warden of the Marches of Underland, and with me stand a hundred Earthmen in arms," came the reply. "Tell me quickly who you are and what is your errand in the Deep Realm?」
"We fell down by act," said Puddleglum, truthfully enough.
"Many fall down, and few return to the sunlit lands," said the voice. "Make ready now to e with me to the Queen of the Deep Realm.」
"What does she want with us?" asked Scrubb cautiously.
"I do not know," said the voice. "Her will is not to be questioned but obeyed.」
While he said these words there was a noise like a soft explosion and immediately a cold light, grey with a little blue in it, flooded the cavern. All hope that the speaker had been idly boasting when he spoke of his hundred armed followers died at once. Jill found herself blinking and staring at a dense crowd. They were of all sizes, from little gnomes barely a foot high to stately figures taller than men. All carried three- pronged spears in their hands, and all were dreadfully pale, and all stood as still as statues. Apart from that, they were very different; some had tails and others not, some wreat beards and others had very round, smooth faces, big as pumpkins. There were long, pointed noses, and long, soft noses like small trunks, and great blobby noses. Several had single horns in the middle of their foreheads. But in one respect they were all alike: every fa the whole hundred was as sad as a face could be. They were so sad that, after the first glance, Jill almost fot to be afraid of them. She felt she would like to cheer them up.
"Well!" said Puddleglum, rubbing his hands. "This is just what I needed. If these chaps dont teach me to take a serious view of life, I dont know what will. Look at that fellow with the walrus moustache - or that oh the -」
"Get up," said the leader of the Earthmen.
There was nothing else to be dohe three travellers scrambled to their feet and joined hands. One wahe touch of a friends hand at a moment like that. And the Earthmen came all round them, padding on large, soft feet, on whie had ten toes, some twelve, and others none.
"March," said the Warden: and march they did.
The cold light came from a large ball oop of a long pole, and the tallest of the gnomes carried this at the head of the procession. By its cheerless rays they could see that they were in a natural cavern; the walls and roof were kwisted, and gashed into a thousand fantastic shapes, and the stony floor sloped downward as they proceeded. It was worse for Jill than for the others, because she hated dark, underground places. And when, as they went on, the cave got lower and narrower, and when, at last, the light-bearer stood aside, and the gnomes, one by oooped down (all except the very smallest ones) and stepped into a little dark crad disappeared, she felt she could bear it no longer.
"I t go in there, I t! I t! I wont," she pahe Earthmen said nothing but they all lowered their spears and poihem at her.
"Steady, Pole," said Puddleglum. "Those big fellows wouldnt be crawling in there if it did wider later on. And theres ohing about this underground work, we sha any rain.」
"Oh, you dont uand. I t," wailed Jill.
"Think how 1 felt on that cliff, Pole," said Scrubb. "You go first, Puddleglum, and Ill e after her.」
"Thats right," said the Marsh