but through the blowing and hammering and singing the noise came louder and louder, and the more they tried not to hear it, the more they had to. it was like the noise of some great creature purring, purring, purring and the reason they did not want to believe they really heard it was that it came from the great dungeon down below, where the old iron was, and the firewood and the twopence worth of coal, and the broken steps that went down into the dark and ended no one knew where.