end
of it can't be far off. Anyhow, this shaft is of no more use to us now
that the Fung have found it out."

Then we set to work to fill in the mouth of the passage with such loose
stones as we could find. It was a difficult business, but in the end the
Mountaineers made a very fair job of it under our direction, piling the
rocks in such a fashion that they could scarcely be cleared away in any
short time without the aid of explosives.

While this work was going on, Japhet, Shadrach, and the Sergeant in
charge of him, undertook to explore the last shaft which led down to the
level of the den. To our relief, just as we had finished building up
the hole, they returned with the news that now after they had removed a
fallen stone or two it was quite practicable with the aid of ropes and
ladders.

So, in the same order as before, we commenced its passage, and in about
half-an-hour, for it was under three hundred feet in depth, arrived
safely at the foot. Here we found a bat-haunted place like a room that
evidently had been hollowed out by man. As Shadrach had said, at its
eastern extremity was a large, oblong boulder, so balanced that if even
one person pushed on either of its ends it swung around, leaving on
each side a passage large enough to allow a man to walk through in a
crouching attitude.

Very silently we propped open this primaeval door and looked out. Now the
full moon was up, and her brilliant light had begun to flood the gulf.
By it we saw a dense shadow, that reached from the ground to three
hundred feet or so above us. This we knew to be that thrown by the
flanks of the gigantic sphinx which projected beyond the mountain of
stone whereon it rested, those flanks whence, according to Shadrach,
Higgs would be lowered in a food-basket. In this shadow and on either
side of it, covering a space of quite a hundred yards square, lay the
feeding-den, whence arose a sickly and horrible odour such as is common
to any place frequented by cats, mingled with the more pungent smell of
decaying flesh.

This darksome den was surrounded on three sides by precipices, and on
the fourth, that toward the east, enclosed by a wall or barrier of rock
pierced with several gates made of bars of metal, or so we judged by the
light that flowed through them.

From beyond this eastern wall came dreadful sounds of roars, snarls, and
whimperings. Evidently there the sacred lions had their home.

Only one more thing need be mentioned