They huddled together in a corner of the room.
“I hate this awful place!” said George.
“It stinks so badly I can’t smell where there’s water,” said Harry.
“Listen,” said George. “Do you hear anything?”
They both listened. It was very silent. In the earth-tunnels there are always little noises, but not here. It was very spooky, not being able to hear or see, or sense anything familiar.
“What shall we do?”
“I don’t know.”
“I wish Mama was here!”
“So do I!”
But she wasn’t. So they had to think of something to do by themselves.
“Let’s – let’s get away from this straight-up-hard-thing,” said George.
They turned inwards and started cautiously towards the middle of the room.
They felt terribly scared. While they’d been next to the straight-up-hard-thing, at least they had felt protected on one side. Now they could be Got-at from all around. The silence and the unknown smells added to the awful scariness.
They kept bumping into each other, not by accident. Just to feel that the other one was there.
At last George whispered, “There’s something just ahead.” He couldn’t see anything, but his feelers knew it.
They found it. It was hard and cold. It too went straight up, but it wasn’t a wall.
It was shaped like the water-post. They could walk all around it.
“It’s like – it’s like the outside of the Up-Pipe,” said Harry, which was a very clever thing for him to say because what it actually was, was a hollow metal bedleg.
“Let’s climb it,” said George. “Maybe there’s water up there.” He was beginning to feel very dry.
It was hard to climb, but no harder than the Up-Pipe. Quite soon they found themselves climbing something much easier. It was soft and loose, like lots of spiders’ webs put together, only not sticky. They scrambled up it and found themselves on a flat surface. It was made of the same soft, warm stuff.
They almost liked it. It was kinder to their feet. They ran about on it and would have even played, if they hadn’t still been so scared, and they hadn’t been feeling so dry. Besides, the smell was suddenly much stronger.
Harry ran up a hill and down the other side. The hill was even warmer. George followed. They kept running and exploring in the dark.
“Hx! Here’s a tunnel!” crackled George excitedly.
