passed through, the shaggy rocks above, the dark
sky and a few stars, but the strangest thing of all was, that the grotto
into which I had fallen was as light as day.

CHAPTER V

After all I had passed through during the preceding twenty-four hours,
then to be suddenly cast from the outer darkness into a hole as light as
if illuminated by the mid-day sun was a revelation that caused me to
seriously doubt my own senses. But having spent a life of travel and
adventure in which I had faced many unexpected dangers and inexplicable
sights, I soon regained my normal presence of mind and began to look
around with considerable interest. I was now fully convinced that the
great pile of stone which I had so strangely reached had at one time
formed a gigantic structure moulded together by human ingenuity.

The enclosure I found myself within might have been a hallway of the
edifice, but it was hard to positively distinguish it as such, for the
building in falling had placed things in an almost unrecognizable
condition. Some of the great stones from above had passed through the
ceiling and floor, while others had become wedged together before
reaching the surface, thus forming a very ragged and peculiar aperture.

In places where there were no obstructions I noticed a beautiful white
marble floor, while here and there a fragment of the walls showed that
the art of decorating had at one time reached a degree of proficiency
quite unapproachable by our modern artists. The space I found myself in
was too irregular in its outlines to form an adequate idea of what it
might have been used for. In some places I had to stoop to pass along,
while in others I was forced to climb over great blocks of stone.

After being in this passage about half an hour making an inspection of
the premises, I discovered a small opening which led into another
apartment. It appeared that a great door had separated the two rooms,
but had apparently become broken with the fall of the building and left
a space barely wide enough for my body to pass through. So in I went. Or
out I went, I was not quite sure which, for after squeezing through the
doorway a scene presented itself to my astonished gaze that I must
confess my inability to properly describe.

The view before me was a mammoth park with its variety of trees, flowers
and shrubbery of every possible description.

Straight ahead in the distance and plainly discernible was a running
brook which flowed