ck and one on his
own. "Forward!"

When they wished to proceed, however, they could not find the
continuation of the passage, and, to their dismay, it seemed as if
they would have to retrace their steps in search for another way
out, when behind a hanging mat in the left-hand corner they found a
narrow opening. It was not inviting, but they were glad of any path
that led away from that evil place, and away also from the lower
depths. So, though the way became more and more difficult as they
advanced, they continued to press on, now up, now down, at another
place going on their hands and knees, and further on having to
wriggle between cracks which sorely nipped the Hunter as he forced
his heavy frame through. And in the end they came out on the verge
of the vast vault, which appeared to fill so much of the space
below; emerged on a wind-swept platform, with a sudden din after the
quiet of the tortuous passage as of demons shrieking through the
air.

Here Venning gave up. He had been now over twenty-four hours
underground without one good meal, except the drain of goats'-milk,
and after the shock of the previous afternoon, when he hung in mid-
air, the disappointment at coming upon another forbidding pit was
too much for him. He crouched back against the rock, and sat down.

Mr. Hume spread the mat under the boy, wrapped the kaross over him,
and made him comfortable as could be, and then he looked anxiously
about. Little comfort did he gain. They had evidently pursued a
false trail, and the platform was the end, standing sheer on the
edge of that very vaulted space, down which, far down, the jets of
water shot out through the blow-holes. Their windings had brought
them, after all, to an impasse, and the only retreat was through the
chamber of the skulls, where perhaps the savage beings of the
underground vault were already collected. Looking over and down, he
could see the jets of water shooting out to fall in a mantle of
spray, on which the arrow-like shafts of sunlight sparkled in
iridescent hues, and through the spray he could see the white waters
of the cataract. Above his head there was a jutting rock, which shut
out the wall immediately above, but outside the rock he saw the roof
of the vault, gaunt ribs of rock pierced at intervals by fissures,
through which shone the blue of the sky. Turning to Venning, he saw
that the boy's eyes were fixed on those openings with a longing in
his look that wrung the man's he