No sooner had he poked his head through than he poked it farther through--and farther, and farther yet, until there was little more than his legs left in the dungeon.

By that time he had got his head and neck well into the passage beside Lina.

Then his legs gave a great waddle and spring, and he tumbled himself, far as there was betwixt them, heels over head into the passage.
'That is all very well for you, Mr Legserpent!' thought Curdie to himself; 'but what is to be done with the rest ?' He had hardly time to think it, however, before the creature's head appeared again through the floor.

He caught hold of the bar of iron to which Curdie's rope was tied, and settling it securely across the narrowest part of the irregular opening, held fast to it with his teeth.

It was plain to Curdie, from the universal hardness among them, that they must all, at one time or another, have been creatures of the mines.
He saw at once what this one was after.