a glass
like this?" said Oliver.

"Who can say? From the interior of the earth, or from deposits made by
the sea."

"I don't see that," said Drew.

"Indeed! Why, haven't you silicious sand, the lime from the coral and
shells and soda from the seaweeds of thousands of years. Plenty from
that supply alone, without calculating what may be beneath us. Now
then, forward: I'll lead, and we had better all go carefully, in case of
there being any chasms. As far as I've been the floor was all like
this, smooth and just faintly marked by a grain formed by the flow."

He took a candle, and, holding it high above his head, led the way,
closely followed by Oliver.

"No fear of our losing our way," said the latter. "We have only to keep
on by the side of the stream, and then notice which way it flows. If we
go against it, we must be right in coming back."

The way widened as they progressed, and was to a small extent down-hill,
but not sufficiently so to make the water rush onwards, only sufficient
for it to glide along in a glassy smooth fashion, keeping up the same
mysterious whispering which grew as they went on into the darkness, not
seeming to be louder, but so to speak as if there were more and more of
this strange murmur extending onward and onward to infinity.

Once they all stopped to look back at the light which shone in through
the cavern's mouth, and looking dazzlingly bright as it played upon the
water gliding in softly from the lake, but soon growing softer and
opalescent, and gradually dying away. Five minutes later, when Oliver
turned back to look again, he found that they must have unconsciously
descended, for there was only a faint dawn of light upon the roof of the
cave, and a minute later all was black.

"Now," said Drew, with an involuntary shiver which he turned off as
being from the temperature. "What are you going to show us? for it's
getting chilly here."

"One of the wonders of the world," replied Panton. "Look at the
crystals here."

"Yes, but we saw them before."

"Then look at the incrustations of sulphur here. These must have been
here for countless ages. Look, too, how it is heaped against this
wall."

"Yes, wonderful, but we saw plenty of sulphur when you came up out of
that hole where you first went down, if you remember, and brought plenty
up."

"Yes," said Oliver. "Can't you show us something more like what must
have been in Aladdin's cave, gold, silver, and precious