rrowness of
the hole proved most disagreeable, and the roughness of the rock
left considerable traces on my hands. However trying archeological
explorations may be for a person afflicted by an unusually fine
presence, I felt perfectly confident that with two such Hercules-like
helpers as Narayan and Ram-Runjit-Das the ascent of the Himalayas would
be perfectly possible for me. Miss X---- came next, under the escort of
Mulji, but Mr. Y---- stayed behind.

The secret cell was a room of twelve feet square. Straight above the
black hole in the floor there was another in the ceiling, but this time
we did not discover any "stopper." The cell was perfectly empty with
the exception of black spiders as big as crabs. Our apparition,
and especially the bright light of the torches, maddened them;
panic-stricken they ran in hundreds over the walls, rushed down, and
tumbled on our heads, tearing their thin ropes in their inconsiderate
haste. The first movement of Miss X---- was to kill as many as she
could. But the four Hindus protested strongly and unanimously. The old
lady remonstrated in an offended voice:

"I thought that at least you, Mulji, were a reformer, but you are as
superstitious as any idol-worshiper."

"Above everything I am a Hindu," answered the "mute general." "And the
Hindus, as you know, consider it sinful before nature and before their
own consciences to kill an animal put to flight by the strength of man,
be it even poisonous. As to the spiders, in spite of their ugliness,
they are perfectly harmless."

"I am sure all this is because you think you will transmigrate into a
black spider!" she replied, her nostrils trembling with anger.

"I cannot say I do," retorted Mulji; "but if all the English ladies are
as unkind as you I should rather be a spider than an Englishman."

This lively answer coming from the usually taciturn Mulji was
so unexpected that we could not help laugh-ing. But to our great
discomfiture Miss X---- was seriously angry, and, under pretext of
giddiness, said she would rejoin Mr. Y---- below.

Her constant bad spirits were becoming trying for our cosmopolitan
little party, and so we did not press her to stay.

As to us we climbed through the second opening, but this time under the
leadership of Narayan. He disclosed to us that this place was not new to
him; he had been here before, and confided to us that similar rooms, one
on the top of the other, go up to the summit of the mountain. T