Dippler was in agreement with the watervole. “Burb’s right, though, I’m starvin’ too. Wot I wouldn’t give fer one of ole Goody Brimm’s scones spread with honey an’ cream!”

Dann took a glance at their surroundings. “As for me, all I’d like to see is the sunlight shinin’ on trees an’ woodland again. This place gives me the creeps!”

The three friends lost all sense of night or day in the gloomy caverns deep in the mountain. They followed the course of the river, hoping that somewhere it might flow out into the open. However, there was always the dread in their minds that it would flow into ever-deeper underground caves and keep going down. Hunger, cold and weariness pervaded their bodies, but they strove onward, knowing they could not afford to lie down and sleep in the bitterly low temperatures of the subterranean regions.

Dann began bobbing his head slowly from side to side as they progressed along a winding stone corridor. Dippler, who was walking behind him, grumbled. “Keep yore ’ead still, mate. I’m startin’ to feel dizzy, watchin’ you shakin’ it from one side to t’other all the time.”

But Dann continued moving his head. “I can see a star shining up ahead. Leastways, it looks like a star, but maybe ’tis just a vision, I’m so tired.”

The shrew pushed his way in front of Dann. “Let me take a look, mate. Hah! Yore right, there is somethin’ glimmerin’ up ahead, looks a bit like a star. Come on!”

Pushing their exhausted limbs, they stumbled ahead. The light grew larger, and then Burble shouted joyfully, “Yiss yiss, I see it clear now. That ain’t no star, ’tis a gleam o’ daylight. It’s daylight, I tell yer!”

Renewed energy flooded their bodies and they ran toward the light, laughing and rubbing their paws together like gleeful Dibbuns. Leaving the river course, they climbed upward over piles of stony debris, sliding back in the deep dusty shale. Dann used his sword, digging the blade in and hauling himself up until he reached the light. The young squirrel placed his eye against the hole and peered through.

“I can see the outside! We’re on the lower slopes of the mountain at the far side. Stay back and I’ll see if I can widen this hole with my sword!”

He stabbed at the hole and was immediately rewarded. A big chunk of rocky earth, with grass growing on it and a sprig of heather, tumbled inward. Dippler and Burble moved it out of the way, and sunlight flooded in. They laughed and cried at the same time, letting the warm sun beam in on their dust-grimed faces.

“Yiss yiss, that’s the good ould sun all right. Go on, Dann, give it a good dig wid yore blade!”

Several more stabs of the sword brought soil, rock, grass, scree and mountain herbage tipping in upon them.