time he watched this water, or
whatever it might be, until a smothered exclamation from Francisco
caused him to look up again. As he looked, the edge of the moon rose
above the temple wall, and by slow degrees a wonderful sight was
revealed to him. Not till the moon was fully visible did he see
everything, and to describe all as he discovered it, piecemeal, would be
difficult. This was what Leonard saw at length.

Before him and underneath him lay a vast and roofless building, open to
the east, covering some two acres of ground, and surrounded by Titanic
walls, fifty feet or more in height. This building was shaped like a
Roman amphitheatre, but, with the exception of the space immediately
below him, its area was filled with stone seats, and round its wide
circumference stone seats rose tier on tier. These were all occupied by
men and women in hundreds, and, except at the further end, scarcely a
place was empty. At the western extremity of the temple a huge statue
towered seventy or eighty feet into the air, hewn, to all appearance,
from a mass of living rock. Behind this colossus, and not more than
a hundred paces from it, the sheer mountain rose, precipice upon
precipice, to the foot of a white peak clad in eternal snow. It was the
peak that they had seen from the plain when the mist lifted, and the
statue was the dark mass beneath it which had excited their curiosity.

This fearful colossus was fashioned to the shape of a huge dwarf of
hideous countenance, seated with bent arms outstretched in a forward
direction, and palms turned upwards as though to bear the weight of the
sky. The statue stood, or rather sat, upon a platform of rock; and not
more than four paces from its base, so that the outstretched hands and
slightly bowed head overhung it indeed, was a circular gulf measuring,
perhaps, thirty yards across, in which seething waters raged and boiled.
Whence they came and whither they went it was impossible to see, but
Leonard discovered afterwards that here was the source of the river
which they had followed for so many days. Escaping from the gulf by
underground passages that it had hollowed for itself through the solid
rock, the two branches of the torrent passed round the walls of the
town, to unite again in the plain below. How the pool itself was
supplied Leonard was destined to learn in after days.

Between the steep polished sides of the rock basin and the feet of the
statue was placed an altar, or sacr