Sentence:  "...If he had struck a stroke more to the side just here," said the <WSD>goblin</WSD>, tapping the very stone, as it seemed to Curdie, against which his head lay, "he would have been through; but he's a couple of yards past it now, and if he follow the lode it will be a week before it leads him in...." 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  One of various hostile supernatural creatures, now especially  a malevolent and grotesque diminutive humanoid.