Harelip, go to bed.' 'I'm going,' said Harelip sleepily.
'So am I,' said the king.
'Come along, then,' said the queen; 'and mind you are good, or I'll--' 'Oh, no, no, no!' screamed the king in the most supplicating of tones.
Curdie heard only a muttered reply in the distance; and then the cave was quite still.
They had left the fire burning, and the light came through brighter than before.

Curdie thought it was time to try again if anything could be done.

But he found he could not get even a finger through the chink between the slab and the rock.

He gave a great rush with his shoulder against the slab, but it yielded no more than if it had been part of the rock.

All he could do was to sit down and think again.
By and by he came to the resolution to pretend to be dying, in the hope they might take him out before his strength was too much exhausted to let him have a chance.