I don't think we need be frightened.

See, it is quite light! The light comes up from below--down there it must be quite bright and cheerful.

Give me your hand--if we go down sideways--so--we can hold each other's hands all the way." So, in a rather queer fashion, they clambered down the long staircase.
By the time they got to its end they were really quite tired of turning round and round so many times.

But now the view before them was so pleasant that they forgot all their troubles.
They had found a little door at the foot of the stair, which opened easily.

They passed through it, and there lay before them a beautiful expanse of water surrounded by hills; the door which had closed behind them seemed on this side to have been cut out of the turf of the hill, and was all but invisible.