Just as we reached the pent-house, Lindstrom came in with a big bucket of ice; I understood that it was to be used in the manufacture of water.  My companion had armed himself with a large and powerful lantern, and I saw that we were going to begin our underground travels.  In the north wall of the pent-house there was a door, and through this we went, entering a passage built against the house, and dark as the grave.  The lantern had lost its power of illumination; it burned with a dull, dead light, which did not seem to penetrate beyond the glass.  I stretched my hands in front of me.  My host stopped and gave me a lecture on the wonderful order and tidiness they had succeeded in establishing among them.  I was a willing listener, for I had already seen enough to be able to certify the truth of what he told me without hesitation.  But in the place we were now in, I had to take his word for it, for it was all as black as bilge-water.  We had just started to move on again, and I felt so secure, after all he had told me about the orderly way things were kept, that I let go my guide’s anorak, which I had been holding.  But that was foolish of me.  Smack!  I went down at full length.  I had trodden on something round —­ something that brought me down.  As I fell, I caught hold of something —­ also round —­ and I lay convulsively clutching it.  I wanted to convince myself of what it was that lay about on the floor of such a tidy house.  The glimmer of the lantern, though not particularly strong, was enough to show me what I held in my arms —­ a Dutch cheese!  I put it back in the same place —­ for the sake of tidiness —­ sat up, and looked down at my feet.  What was it I had stumbled over?  A Dutch cheese —­ if it wasn’t another of the same family!  I began to form my own opinion of the tidiness now, but said nothing.  But I should like to know why he didn’t fall over the cheeses, as he was walking in front.  Oh, I answered myself, I guess he knew what sort of order the place was in.

At the eastern end of the house the passage was brilliantly lighted up by the window that looked out on this side; I could now see more clearly where I was.  Opposite the window, in the part of the Barrier that here formed the other wall of the passage, a great hole had been dug; nothing was to be seen in it but black darkness.  My companion knew his way, so I could rely upon him, but I should have hesitated to go in there alone.  The hole extended into the Barrier, and finally formed a fairly large room with a vaulted roof.  A spade and an axe on the floor were all I saw.  What in the world was this hall used for?  “You see, all the ice and snow from here has gone to our water-supply.”  So this was Lindstrom’s quarry, from which he had hewn out ice and snow all these months for cooking, drinking, and washing.  In one of the walls, close to the floor, there was a little hole just big enough for a man to crawl through.