a lantern threw a great volume of white light which
spread out upon the sea, and showed me at once that we were in a cove
of some breadth, surrounded by prodigiously high cliffs; and the light
being focussed right across the bay, disclosed a cleft in these rocks
leading apparently to a farther cove beyond. I had scarce time to get
other than a rough idea of the whole situation, for a boat was waiting
at the gangway, and the negro motioned to me to pass down the ladder
and take my seat in the stern. The men gave way at once, keeping in the
course of the searchlight, and rowing straight to the cleft in the
cliffs, through which they passed; and so left the light and entered a
narrower fjord, which was ravine-like in the steepness of its sides,
and so dark, that one could see but a narrow vista of the sky through
the overhanging summits of the giant rocks. This second cove opened
after a while into a lake; above whose shores, at a high spot in the
side of the precipice on the left hand, I observed many twinkling
lights, which seemed to come from windows far up the face of the cliff.
These lights marked our destination, the men rowing straight to them;
and I found, when we came near the precipitous shore which bound the
fjord, that there was a rough landing-stage, cut in the rock, and that
an iron stairway led thence to the chambers which evidently existed
above.

When we had come to shore, and had been received there by several men
who held lanterns, and had the look of Lascars, the negro conducting me
pointed to the iron stairway and told me to mount: he following me to
the summit, where there was a platform and an iron door. The door
opened as we arrived before it, and there standing by it I found the
young doctor, who greeted me very heartily and appeared to be
altogether in a merry mood.

"Come in," he said, "they're waiting for you; and this infernal cold
gives men appetites. This way--but it isn't very dark, is it?"

We were in a broad passage lit by electric light--a passage cut in a
crystal-like rock, whose surface had almost the lustre of a mirror. At
intervals facing the cove were incisions for windows, but these were
now hung with heavy curtains; and there were cupboards and pegs against
the rock wall on the opposite side to make the place serve the purposes
of a hall. The passage led up to a second door--this one built of fine
American walnut; and we passed through it at once into a room where I
was astounde