good torches. I got me a store of this and carried it down to
the cave, telling Dream what I meant to do.

"I shall go with you," she said. Nor could I dissuade her from it.

We kept a small fire burning at the entrance to the cave that day, and
when the sun had gone down we lit our torches from the fire and started
off, taking no other equipment than my clasp-knife and a lump of chalk
with which to mark our way in the labyrinth.

We soon reached a point where but two roads were left, each so wide and
lofty that a coach and four might easily have been driven along it. One
of these roads led upwards, and I made no doubt emerged on the farther
side of the hill. The other one struck more abruptly downward, and this
was the road which we took. Here, if it existed at all, I should find
the subterranean lake. As we went on, the noise of falling water became
more and more distinct. I was excited by the adventure and eager to see
more.

Presently the road widened into a vast hall, so vast that our torches
could not illumine the farthest recesses of it. And here it was as well
that I looked carefully to each step, for I found myself suddenly on the
edge of a precipice. Lying flat on my stomach and holding out my torch,
I could see a vast stretch of black water below, into which at one end a
cataract thundered. In the middle of this lake there projected something
which looked like a smooth boulder of rock. I wondered what it might be.

"We have plenty of torches?" asked Dream.

"Plenty."

"Then we will see what it is."

She waved her torch round her head till it was all ablaze and then flung
it down. It fell on that great mass in the middle of the lake. The mass
turned slowly over, showing shaggy hair matted with slime. The smell of
burning hair came up to us and with it a deep groan that seemed to shake
the cave.

We fled in panic. I must indeed ascribe it to chance and to no courage
of my own that I kept my grip of the torch. We did not even pause to
look at the chalk marks we had made for our guidance, and in consequence
found ourselves lost for a while in the labyrinth of passages at the
entrance to the cave. At last we found the way out and made our way to
the forest. There we spent the remainder of the night, wakeful and
talking of the wonders we had seen. It was the last night that we spent
together.

The sun had scarcely risen when I saw a few feet away from us a little
smoke flickering over the powdered soil.