And when he turned the next corner there she stood waiting for him.
“I knew you couldn’t go wrong in that narrow hole, but now you must keep by me, for here is a great wide place,” she said.
“I can’t understand it,” said Curdie, half to himself, half to Irene.
“Never mind,” she returned. “Wait till we get out.”
Curdie, utterly astonished that she had already got so far, and by a path he had known nothing of, thought it better to let her do as she pleased. “At all events,” he said again to himself, “I know nothing about the way, miner as I am; and she seems to think she does know something about it, though how she should passes my comprehension. So she’s just as likely to find her way as I am, and as she insists on taking the lead, I must follow. We can’t be much worse off than we are, anyhow.” Reasoning thus, he followed her a few steps, and came out in another great cavern, across which Irene walked in a straight line, as confidently as if she knew every step of the way. Curdie went on after her, flashing his torch about, and trying to see something of what lay around them. Suddenly he started back a pace as the light fell upon something close by which Irene was passing. It was a platform of rock raised a few feet from the floor and covered with sheepskins, upon which lay two horrible figures asleep, at once recognized