ot within its encircling cliffs. Let him
not try to escape by the gorge on the south, for though apparently
undefended, it is really guarded by a band of women who have the
right to kill any person--not taboo--who passes through. These
women, victims of a dark and degrading superstition, are recruited
from the village, and once they quit the valley they are never seen,
for they live about the shores of the pool beneath the cliff and in
caverns adjoining, which form the lower or basement rooms of a
series of stupendous vaults produced by volcanic agency. By night
they prowl about the slopes above the pool; by day, some of them
keep watch over the passage through the gorge and through the canon
from loopholes to which they have access from the lower vaults. I
know, because I myself tried to escape by this passage, and only
escaped owing to the vigilance of the chief woman in the valley, who
exercises control over the band, and who had her own purpose to
achieve in saving my life. I was useful to her. When ultimately,
after much labour, I discovered the only safe way out, I was, owing
to repeated attacks of fever, too weak to avail myself of the
discovery. My hope is that my efforts may be of service to some one
--if, unhappily, any should follow in my footsteps--who would be
better prepared to face the dangers and the difficulties of the
forest beyond. Listen, then, to these instructions; On the ledge
skirting the south cliff, and leading up to the gorge, there is a
cave, which may be recognized from the existence near it of a bath
hewn out of the lava by human hands. That cave is the key to the
underground passage."

Compton looked up with shilling eyes. "The very place I am in," he
muttered.

"For many months it was my home--if I may so misuse a word so
charged with bitterness to me. Not a day passed but my thoughts went
in sickness of spirit to my home, to my wife and little one; and it
was when I was thinking of them that I thought I heard them calling
my name from the cave. A sick man's fancy! But there had been a
sound, and on entering to the far end of the cavern, I heard it
repeated--a faint droning, such as would be produced by a shell held
to the ear. There was, too, a current of air, and, feeling in the
darkness, I found the crack through which it emerged. With a spear-
head I easily broke the rock away, for it was a mere envelope.
Thrusting the spear in, I felt there was an opening beyond. When I
had sa