In fact, he got on so fast that Roy, who, as the slimmest of the party, had to keep the tunnel clear of the dug-out snow, had almost more to do than he could manage.
It was frightfully exciting, and Mirak and Bija were dancing about, unable to keep still, when a sudden shaft of light that burst into the dark shed, and a furiously joyful barking that came down the funnel as if it had been a speaking trumpet, announced Tumbu's arrival in free air.
"Now, we shall do," said Old Faithful with much importance.

"Lo! how one clever idea begets another.

But for Firdoos Gita Makani trampling a road I should never have thought of a tunnel!" Roy, however, was already hard at work improving on the idea by widening the way with Old Faithful's sword, being only let from doing more by Head-nurse's exclamation that the melting snow would flood the shed.
"Let be, boy!" said Foster-father; "the hot air from within, rising through the tunnel, will melt the sides by degrees.

To-morrow will see it large enough for you, at any rate, to pass through." And so it proved.

Not next day, but the day after, not only Roy, but Mirak and Bija, had managed to climb up to the outer world by the notches which Roy cut in the snow walls.
It was a strange, chill world which they saw.