e which was left between the rocks rolled
thither by the force of the explosion, or shaken down from the roof.
This hole, for it was nothing more, we proceeded to stop with a few
stones in such a fashion that it could not be forced without much toil
and considerable noise, only leaving one little tortuous channel through
which, if necessary, a man could creep.

The labour of rock-carrying, in which even Maqueda shared, occupied our
minds for awhile, and induced a kind of fictitious cheerfulness. But
when it was done, and the chilly silence of that enormous cave, so
striking in comparison with the roar of the flames and the hideous human
tumult which we had left without, fell upon us like sudden cold and
blinding night upon a wanderer in windy, sunlit mountains, all our
excitement perished. In a flash, we understood our terrible position,
we who had but escaped from the red fire to perish slowly in the black
darkness.

Still we strove to keep our spirits as best we could. Leaving Higgs to
watch the blocked passage, a somewhat superfluous task, since the fire
without was our best watchman, the rest of us threaded our way up the
cave, following the telephone wire which poor Quick had laid on the
night of the blowing-up of the god Harmac, till we came to what had been
our headquarters during the digging of the mine. Into the room which
was Oliver's, whence we had escaped with so much difficulty after
that event, we could not enter because of the transom that blocked the
doorway. Still, there were plenty of others at hand in the old temple,
although they were foul with the refuse of the bats that wheeled about
us in thousands, for these creatures evidently had some unknown access
to the open air. One of these rooms had served as our store-chamber, and
after a few rough preparations we assigned it to Maqueda.

"Friends," she said, as she surveyed its darksome entrance, "it looks
like the door of a tomb. Well, in the tomb there is rest, and rest I
must have. Leave me to sleep, who, were it not for you, O Oliver, would
pray that I might never wake again.

"Man," she added passionately, before us all, for now in face of the
last peril every false shame and wish to conceal the truth had left her;
"man, why were you born to bring woe upon my head and joy to my heart?
Well, well, the joy outweighs the woe, and even if the angel who led you
hither is named Azrael, still I shall bless him who has revealed to me
my soul. Yet for y