se was his astonishment on being assured that Penn was alive,
recovering, and in need of garments. Carl, who had been awakened in the
next room by the noise, now came in to see what was the matter. He
recognized Penn's handwriting on the note, and immediately hastened with
it to Virginia's room. A minute after she was reading it to her father
at his bedside. It was written with a pencil on a leaf torn from a
little blank book in which Pomp kept a sort of diary; but never had
gilt-edged or perfumed billet afforded the blind old minister and his
daughter such unalloyed delight.

It was long past midnight when Pomp and Cudjo returned to the cave,
bringing with them not only Penn's garments, but a goodly stock of
provisions, which Cudjo had hinted to Toby would be acceptable, and,
more precious still, a letter from Mr. Villars, written by his
daughter's own hand.

Penn now began to sit up a little every day. Gloomy as the cave was, it
was not an unwholesome abode even for an invalid. The atmosphere was
pure, cool, and bracing; the temperature uniform. Nor did Penn suffer
inconvenience from dampness; though often, in the deep stillness of the
night, he could hear the far-off, faint, and melancholy murmur of
dropping water in the hollow recesses of the cavern beyond.

One day, as soon as he was well enough for the undertaking, Pomp ordered
Cudjo to light torches and show them the hidden wonders of his
habitation. Cudjo was delighted with the honor. He ran on before, waving
the flaring pine knots over his head, and shouting.

Penn's astonishment was profound. Keen as had been his curiosity as to
what was beyond the shadowy walls the fire dimly revealed, he had formed
no conception of the extent and sublimity of the various galleries,
chambers, glittering vaults, and falling waters, embosomed there in the
mountain.

"Dis yer all my own house!" Cudjo kept repeating, with fantastic
grimaces of satisfaction. "Me found him all my own self. Nobody war eber
hyar afore me; Pomp am de next; and you's de on'y white man eber seen
dis yer cave."

It grew light as they proceeded, Cudjo's torch paled, and the waters of
a subterranean stream they were following caught gleams of the
struggling day from another opening beyond. Climbing over fragments of
huge tumbled rocks, and up an earthy bank, Penn found himself in the
bottom of an immense chasm. It had apparently been formed by the sinking
down of the roof of the cave, with a tremend