第9章

"Here's three candles gone a'ready, an' only three more left us, yet the tunnel's the same as it was when we started.An' how long it's goin' to keep up, no one knows.""Couldn't we walk without a light?" asked Trot."The way seems safe enough.""It does right now," was the reply, "but we can't tell when we are likely to come to another gulf, or somethin' jes' as dangerous.In that case we'd be killed afore we knew it.""Suppose I go ahead?" suggested the Ork."I don't fear a fall, you know, and if anything happens I'll call out and warn you.""That's a good idea," declared Trot, and Cap'n Bill thought so, too.So the Ork started off ahead, quite in the dark, and hand in band the two followed him.

When they had walked in this way for a good long time the Ork halted and demanded food.Cap'n Bill had not mentioned food because there was so little left -- only three biscuits and a lump of cheese about as big as his two fingers -- but he gave the Ork half of a biscuit, sighing as he did so.The creature didn't care for the cheese, so the sailor divided it between himself and Trot.They lighted a candle and sat down in the tunnel while they ate.

"My feet hurt me," grumbled the Ork."I'm not used to walking and this rocky passage is so uneven and lumpy that it hurts me to walk upon it.""Can't you fly along?" asked Trot.

"No; the roof is too low," said the Ork.

After the meal they resumed their journey, which Trot began to fear would never end.When Cap'n Bill noticed how tired the little girl was, he paused and lighted a match and looked at his big silver watch.

"Why, it's night!" he exclaimed."We've tramped all day, an' still we're in this awful passage, which mebbe goes straight through the middle of the world, an'

mebbe is a circle -- in which case we can keep walkin'

till doomsday.Not knowin' what's before us so well as we know what's behind us, I propose we make a stop, now, an' try to sleep till mornin'.""That will suit me," asserted the Ork, with a groan.

"My feet are hurting me dreadfully and for the last few miles I've been limping with pain.""My foot hurts, too," said the sailor, looking for a smooth place on the rocky floor to sit down.

"Your foot!" cried the Ork."why, you've only one to hurt you, while I have four.So I suffer four times as much as you possibly can.Here; hold the candle while Ilook at the bottoms of my claws.I declare," he said, examining them by the flickering light, "there are bunches of pain all over them!""P'r'aps," said Trot, who was very glad to sit down beside her companions, "you've got corns.""Corns? Nonsense! Orks never have corns," protested the creature, rubbing its sore feet tenderly.

"Then mebbe they're - they're - What do you call 'em, Cap'n Bill? Something 'bout the Pilgrim's Progress, you know.""Bunions," said Cap'n Bill.

"Oh, yes; mebbe you've got bunions."

"It is possible," moaned the Ork."But whatever they are, another day of such walking on them would drive me crazy.""I'm sure they'll feel better by mornin'," said Cap'n Bill, encouragingly."Go to sleep an' try to forget your sore feet."The Ork cast a reproachful look at the sailor-man, who didn't see it.Then the creature asked plaintively:

"Do we eat now, or do we starve?"

"There's only half a biscuit left for you," answered Cap'n Bill."No one knows how long we'll have to stay in this dark tunnel, where there's nothing whatever to eat; so I advise you to save that morsel o' food till later.""Give it me now!" demanded the Ork."If I'm going to starve, I'll do it all at once -- not by degrees."Cap'n Bill produced the biscuit and the creature ate it in a trice.Trot was rather hungry and whispered to Cap'n Bill that she'd take part of her share; but the old man secretly broke his own half-biscuit in two, saving Trot's share for a time of greater need.

He was beginning to be worried over the little girl's plight and long after she was asleep and the Ork was snoring in a rather disagreeable manner, Cap'n Bill sat with his back to a rock and smoked his pipe and tried to think of some way to escape from this seemingly endless tunnel.But after a time he also slept, for hobbling on a wooden leg all day was tiresome, and there in the dark slumbered the three adventurers for many hours, until the Ork roused itself and kicked the old sailor with one foot.

"It must be another day," said he.