The tunnel I came through continued down, barely large enough to enter. It was made of sticky gelatinous mud that had been pushed by something into a semblance of a passage. Descending further, I came to a wide spot in the tunnel, just as wet and muddy as elsewhere. The walls were slimy as well. Numerous slots or identations about two feet wide and a foot high opened here and there. These narrow burrows were apparently dug by hand out of the mud of the chamber walls. Thin, wire or ropelike growths emerged from a hole further down and entered most of the slots. There was background nouse here, almost loud enough to hear clearly. A small, furtive motion attracted my attention to the slots. I began to be quite certain that there was something moving inside the slot I looked at. In fact, there was motion in almost all of them.

Slowly, painfully, things emerged from the slots. They were pale, thin creatures with red mouths and staring eyes. Their clothes were muddy and tattered. They were barefoot in midwinter, and covered with mud. Mold grew in their hair and wirelike streamers (like those I'd been noticing in this area) wrapped their heads and joined a bundle on the floor. Although their eyes were open, they stared catatonically. I realized that these were urchins. They were saying or chanting something repetitive and monotonal, almost machinelike. As I listened more carefully, the noise resolved itself into voices. They were chanting, but the words were unknown to me. The deep-voiced, incomprehensible chant, which they made without moving their lips, never stopped. It resonated deep within their chests. When I spoke to them, they turned to me in unision. They smiled, revealing red, broken teeth.

As they closed in, tried to retreat further down the tunnel, but they lurched, almost as one, into my way, grabbing at me feebly but effectively. I felt their flesh. It was cold and dead. Their pale, limp hands couldn't grab me, but they were able to stop me. There was no way past.

The wires were thin, fibruous, ropy growths. They looked very tough. Seeking to free these urchins, I decided to cut them free by severing the wire. My axe only suceeded in driving the wire into the mud, but then I tried the bolt cutters. I strained and pushed the two handles of the cutters together with all my strength. At first it looked like nothing would happen, but then, with a loud stick, the jaws cut the wire! The wire, as though under tension, rapidly began to curl up, disappearing down the tunnel and away. The effect on the urchins was electric (perhaps literally). They twitched, jerked spasmodically, and fell to the ground almost in unision. They had lost all interest in me.