o so, for suddenly he
slipped, and, while trying to save him, I dropped my torch; and there we
were, perched up on this pile of _debris_, in utter darkness.

"Don't move!" I cried; "you know that we are surrounded by precipices."

"How dark it is! One might fancy that the darkness was solid, and
weighed down upon our eyes."

"The fact is, that we are in a darkness in which the light does not
penetrate, even by reflection, and, like you, I could readily fancy that
I was blindfolded. Call l'Encuerado."

The vaulted roof above us re-echoed the name of the Indian, who
immediately replied.

The bats now ceased their flight; but when the light reappeared the
uproar began afresh. Lucien related our accident to his friend, who, in
his hurry to come to our rescue, fell several times over the rocks. At
last he reached us, and, lighting our torches, he guided us over the
dangerous ground. When we cleared the fallen rocks, we entered a chamber
studded with stalactites, on which Sumichrast's torches threw a light,
and the walls of the cave glittered as if they had been covered with
crystal stars. From the ground, from the roof, and from the walls,
clusters of variegated rays were reflected in every direction, as if
emanating from ten thousand diamonds. The beauty of this scene was quite
sufficient to dazzle far less enthusiastic spectators than we were. But
it was not long before a repulsive, oppressive, thick smoke compelled us
to move on, and a few paces through a passage brought us into the centre
of an immense hall, lighted by an aperture into the open air.

I joyfully hailed the blue sky, and then closely examining the ground we
were treading on, noticed that it was covered with fragments of baked
clay. Removing this, it was not long before we came to a layer of damp
charcoal. L'Encuerado went outside and cut some branches, which, when
pointed at the end, helped us in our digging. After two hours of hard
work, we succeeded in laying bare more than a square yard of black and
greasy mould.

Thoroughly exhausted, in spite of my curiosity being excited, I was
compelled to follow Sumichrast out of the cave in order to breathe the
fresh air. A fine rain was falling, and I was so devoted to the idea of
my excavation in the cave, that I was very glad to use the state of the
weather as a pretext for putting off our departure to the next day.

My companions had hardly recovered their breath before I summoned them
back to work. L