and led the way further up the
rugged side of the peak of Rakata.

After about five minutes' walk in silence, the trio reached a spot where
there was a clear view over the tree-tops, revealing the blue waters of
the strait, with the Java shores and mountains in the distance.

Behind them there yawned, dark and mysterious, a mighty cavern, so black
and high that it might well suggest a portal leading to the regions
below, where Vulcan is supposed to stir those tremendous fires which
have moulded much of the configuration of the world, and which are ever
seething--an awful Inferno--under the thin crust of the globe on which
we stand.

Curiously formed and large-leaved trees of the tropics, with their
pendent parasites, as well as rank grasses, sprouting from below and
hanging from above, partially concealed this cavern from Nigel when he
first turned towards it, but a few steps further on he could see it in
all its rugged grandeur.

"My home," said the hermit, with a very slight smile and the air of a
prince, as he turned towards his visitor and waved his hand towards it.

"A magnificent entrance at all events," said Nigel, returning the smile
with something of dubiety, for he was not quite sure that his host was
in earnest.

"Follow me," said the hermit, leading the way down a narrow well-worn
path which seemed to lose itself in profound darkness. After being a few
minutes within the cavern, however, Nigel's eyes became accustomed to
the dim light, and he perceived that the roof rapidly lowered, while its
walls narrowed until they reached a spot which was not much wider than
an ordinary corridor. Here, however, it was so dark that it was barely
possible to see a small door in the right-hand wall before which they
halted. Lifting a latch the hermit threw the door wide open, and a glare
of dazzling light almost blinded the visitor.

Passing through the entrance, Nigel followed his guide, and the negro
let the heavy door shut behind him with a clang that was depressingly
suggestive of a prison.

"Again I bid you welcome to my home," said the hermit, turning round
and extending his hand, which Nigel mechanically took and pressed, but
without very well knowing what he did, for he was almost dumfounded by
what he saw, and for some minutes gazed in silence around him.

And, truly, there was ground for surprise. The visitor found himself in
a small but immensely high and brilliantly lighted cavern or natural
chamber,