re was no sign indicative
of another spring-closed door. But no brilliant fragment of stalactite
appeared as a reward for her search, and she turned away with a feeling of
disappointment, and heaviness at her heart. As she did so, for the first
time her eye fell upon a polished surface, much resembling the face of a
mirror, upon the opposite wall. Looking more attentively, she discovered,
as it were, trees, shrubs, a running stream of water, and all the
accompaniments of a finished landscape painting. Fearful as was her
situation, she could not help pausing to admire the beauty, the
naturalness, the perfection of the scene. She had never beheld any thing
half so vivid, so truthful, from the pencil of the artist. It actually
seemed as if water was running over its gravelly bed, as if the bushes
moved in the breeze; in a word, the whole looked far more like a reality
than a cold painting. As she was gazing in admiration upon this singular
appearance, a bird actually flew over the scene! She could hardly believe
her senses; but soon another one followed, and she knew there was no
deception in her eyes this time.

Philosophy was not universally taught in those days, as it is now, and
Eveline did not know how to solve this mystery as well as many a school
girl could do at the present day; but she had read of the tricks of the
magicians of Egypt and India, and what seeming wonders they could show in
their magic mirrors; and she came to the conclusion that the robbers of the
cave had learned the same art, and that before her was one of the
soothsayers' glasses.

But what was the design had in view in placing it in that obscure and
unfrequented place? As this query suggested itself to her mind, a man
passed along on the bank of the stream! and in a few minutes another in the
opposite direction; and in the last one she recognized one of her captors!
She at once comprehended the design of the apparatus; it was to reveal what
was passing without to the eye of the individual within, who had doubtless
adopted this method of informing himself of passing external events, as a
means of personal safety in case of need. It was, she supposed, a device of
the captain of the thieves, to save himself, either from the ministers of
the law or from the violence of those under him, in case of revolt.

It is not our design to enter into an elaborate description of this piece
of mechanism, as every student of philosophy, who is well acquainted wi