Nearly all had brought lamps. These were not carried but were fastened to the caps that all of them wore. This gave the throng a most picturesque look. It made Dan think of a torchlight procession and, again, of the lights that jewel a town when one views it from some distant hillside. Just why the mice had been provided with lamps Dan could not guess; for the moon now floated high in the skies and flooded every inch of the way. But he was soon to find out, for it was not long before the mayors drew up in the lee of the knoll that looked so much like a haycock. Up the vines went the dragoons and, pulling this way and that, quickly bared the two doors to full view. Next Mayor Mouser and his companions alighted. Looking back, Dan saw that all the attending throng were standing upon each other’s tails as though awaiting some momentous event.
“Advance to the portals, Diggeldy Dan!” cried Mayor Mouser, as he waved toward the tightly locked doors. With two strides the clown stood before them.
“Right here in my hand,” Dan made haste to reply, as he held the object on high that all might observe it.
“Then, be it known to you that that which you hold is the key to the underground passage—the passage that leads to the Clock.
“Are we all ready?” called Mayor Mouser, as he leaped to the seat of his carriage the better to look back across the vast sea of faces that stretched for yard after yard down the avenue.
“Yes, yes!” answered a thousand and one voices as their owners danced with impatience upon a thousand and one tails.
At this command the clown dropped to both knees. Quickly he thrust the key in the lock and turned it as swiftly with a twist to the right. As he did so the dragoons swung the two doors apart. And there, before him, and leading into the knoll, was a tunnel as black as the darkest of nights.
Into this curious passage leaped the van of the column, waving bright torches high overhead. The bands followed after and next came the mayors—all four of them—marching abreast.
Now Dan had sunk down on his knees when he unlocked the doors and so was quite in a position to enter the passage—not walking upright, as you may well suppose, but moving along on “all fours.”
Down, down and still downward they all traveled. Around and around they all wound their way. Now and then the passage opened into galleries of considerable size. Still other tunnels branched into these and from out of them trooped yet other mice to join in the endless procession.