I am the Prince of Pingaree, and I have come to liberate my people, whom King Gos has enslaved." Now when the two guards heard this speech they looked at one another and laughed, and one of them said: "The King was right, for he said the boy was likely to come here and that he would try to set his people free.

Also the King commanded that we must keep the little Prince in the mines, and set him to work, together with his companions." "Then let us obey the King," replied the other man.
Inga was surprised at hearing this, and asked: "When did King Gos give you this order ?" "His Majesty was here in person last night," replied the man, "and went away again but an hour ago.

He suspected you were coming here and told us to capture you if we could." This report made the boy very anxious, not for himself but for his father, for he feared the King was up to some mischief.

So he hastened to enter the mines and the guards did nothing to oppose him or his companions, their orders being to allow him to go in but not to come out.
The little group of adventurers passed through a long rocky corridor and reached a low, wide cavern where they found a dozen guards and a hundred slaves, the latter being hard at work with picks and shovels digging for gold, while the guards stood over them with long whips.
Inga found many of the men from Pingaree among these slaves, but King Kitticut was not in this cavern; so they passed through it and entered another corridor that led to a second cavern.

Here also hundreds of men were working, but the boy did not find his father amongst them, and so went on to a third cavern.
The corridors all slanted downward, so that the farther they went the lower into the earth they descended, and now they found the air hot and close and difficult to breathe.