rly in the middle of the way. Nor was
the ascent nearly so dangerous as might have been expected, the dense
growth all along the outer edge of the stairway forming a sort of
bulwark which rendered a fall almost impossible. So safe, indeed, and
comparatively easy was the ascent that it was accomplished in about
twenty minutes: when, after pointing out the holes in the upper
platform, and fully explaining the structure and uses of the sheers
which he believed to have once stood there, Ned led the way into the
cave.

For a few minutes after entering everything was so dark compared with
the brilliant daylight without that nothing could be seen. At length,
however, their eyes became accustomed to the soft twilight gloom of the
place, when Ned at once began to direct Sibylla's attention to the
various articles that were stored there. The first objects examined
were the weapons, all of which were stacked in one corner. The
shields--for such they actually proved to be--were circular, about two
feet in diameter, and made of a metal which, when cleared of its thick
coating of grime and a small portion of its surface scraped with a
knife, turned out to be brass. The outer and inner surfaces were both
perfectly plain, or, if ornamented at all, the ornamentation could not
be discovered without resort to a much more effectual cleaning process
than Ned felt disposed to bestow upon them. On the inside two leather
straps were rivetted, one for the arm to pass through and the other for
the hand to grasp; but so old and decayed were these straps that they
crumbled into black dust at a touch. This was also the case with the
wooden shafts of the spears, which powdered away like touchwood. And,
as for the spear-heads and the blades of the axes, they were so rust-
eaten that little more than a rough jagged indication of their original
shape remained.

The earthen jars, of which there were twenty-four, next claimed Ned's
attention. These vessels stood about two feet high, and were about ten
inches diameter, of peculiar though not ungraceful shape, and they were
singularly heavy; as Ned discovered when he seized one with the
intention of moving it forward into a lighter part of the cave. The
mouth was covered with four thicknesses of a kind of wax-cloth, such as
Ned had never seen before; the cloth being bound round the neck of the
jar with several turns of fine cord, which, like the cloth, seemed to
have been treated with a waxy c