.

But now these charms were displayed in vain; for the gorge being
reached, I prepared to examine carefully its sides, and accordingly
began to climb.

"Thought you meant the big hole, Mas'r Harry?" said Tom, gazing uneasily
about, and evidently seeing an enemy in every lump of rock or trunk of
tree.

"Up here, Tom, first," I said.

He followed me sturdily, without a word, up, and up, and up, climbing
over the precipitous sides, with tough root or fibrous vine lending us
their aid, till, breathless, we stopped to gaze round or down into the
rich ravine below.

Platform after platform I reached, and then peered about amongst the
dense growth in search of some trace of masonry; but though again and
again the blocks of stone wore the appearance of having been piled
together, I could find nothing definite--nothing but that ever-recurring
dense foliage creeping over and hiding everything, till we had panted up
another hundred feet, where a much larger table-land or platform
extended before us.

My heart beat painfully now; for, judging from appearances, it seemed
that if ever temple had looked down upon the beautiful little vale, this
must have been the spot where it was piled. The cavern was sacred to a
god; there must, then, have been some temple or place of sacrifice near
at hand, it seemed, and I longed to begin investigating; but only to
seat myself upon a mossy block, dreading the search lest it should prove
unfruitful, and so dash my golden visionary thoughts. But at length I
was about to commence, when a throb of joy sent the blood coursing
through my veins, for Tom said, in his dry ill-tempered way:

"Been some building going on here some time or another, Mas'r Harry."

I started to my feet then, to find that the block I had used for my seat
had once been squared for building, and on peering about, there, in
every direction, amongst creeper, moss, and vine, lay fragments of some
mighty temple. Some of the blocks were crumbling away; some square and
fresh as if lately cut; and many of a size that was gigantic, and
excited wonder as to how they could have been moved.

I was right, then. Here had once been a grand temple; and if its
treasures had been hidden by the ancient priests of the place, where so
likely a concealment as the mysterious cave, whose gloomy entrance I
could just distinguish far-off below us? The building must once have
been grand, for every step revealed new traces, with the vegetab