Flora was getting tired of sitting alone in the Professor's office with no one to talk to. She skimmed through the book he left a few times, but finding it was nothing more than a mundane love story, she immediately left off of reading it.

"For what is the use of a book without crime or murder?"

Just then, she heard something that snapped her out of her early-morning sleepiness. It was the pattering of someone's feet echoing down the hall. At first, there was nothing curious in that, nor did Flora find it strange to hear a man mutter to himself, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!" But when she realized the voice belonged to Clive, she jumped to her feet and dashed down the hall after him with great curiosity, for it flickered across her mind that he was meant to be in prison.

The hall they ran through went on longer than usual, and ended in two elevators that—strangely enough—weren't there before. Unfortunately, she wasn't quick enough to leap into the one he took, but she did manage to take the other.

As she descended, the elevator began disappearing from view, and Flora had more and more trouble seeing it, so she began having this vague sort of idea that she must be falling.

"Goodness!" She gasped, "after a drop as great as this one, I'd think nothing of tripping downstairs! Luke and the Professor really ought to have taken me on more of their quests, they ought! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it—even if I fell off the top of the university!" (The Truth™)

After a moment's pause, she went on, "I wonder how far I've fallen? I must be reaching the centre of the earth. Let me think…that would be four thousand miles down, I suppose—" (For, you see, she had learnt several things of this sort while studying with Luke. Still, this was not a very good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as the Professor wasn't there to listen to her.) "How strange it'd be to fall through the earth and end up walking with my head facing down! But I shall have to ask them where I am... For example—'Please, Sir, is this San Grio or Froenborg?'"

Just as she said this, she heard a deafening snap from above and suddenly, the elevator plunged through the air and crashed-landed into a clock shop.

"Well, all I did was ask…!"

Flora wasn't hurt, somehow, so she sprung back onto her feet, dusted her skirt off, and spotted Clive still running outside. Out dashed Flora, who was just in time to hear him say, "Oh, my ears and whiskers, I'll be late to the King's disco party!"

"Disco party?" These words proved to be so strange, poor Flora stopped in confusion and had a double-take at them. This lasted only for a moment, but by the time she snapped out of her daze and turned the corner he ran behind, he was out of sight, and instead she found herself in a narrow hall lit up by a row of street lamps. (I suppose they were full of glowing hint coins.)

"Well, this doesn't look like the other side of the world…" She muttered, walking on and looking about in wonder. Her attention was caught by a small, round table. There was nothing on it but a hatgram puzzle—which she worked on for some time before piecing together a little key.

"Perhaps—Perhaps it belongs to one of the doors in the hallway."

After trying a few, she spotted a tiny door about half an inch high, with a keyhole that would finally fit! Kneeling down to unlock it. She found that it led into the loveliest garden she's ever seen.

"It might even be lovelier than the garden back at St. Mystere!"

Still, it seemed pointless to lay by a door she couldn't even fit her head through, so she returned to the table and was surprised to find a glass bottle with the label 'Drink Me' tied round its neck.

She shook her head, "No, no! It's fine and well to say 'Drink Me' but I'm much wiser than that, little bottle! First, I ought to see whether you're marked 'poison' or not."

She had either heard of or been on enough of the Professor and Luke's adventures to learn a few vital lessons, such as how one ought to hold one's breath upon opening murderous boxes, and if you ever meet your future self, they are most likely an imposter and you are most likely underground. But today's lesson to keep in mind is: if you drink much from a bottle marked 'poison', it's likely to become quite disagreeable.

However, it was not marked 'poison', so Flora decided to sip a bit, and finding it had a delicious taste of cool jello, garlic soup, scotch eggs, black coffee, chamomile tea, French baguettes, shortcake, and tuna fish, she drank it all in one gulp.