s
spirits, up till now depressed and burdened as with a weight of brooding
evil, seemed to rise to an extraordinary pitch of exaltation, as though
rejoicing at the prospect of prompt admission into strange mysteries.
Far otherwise, however, were the other two affected by the surroundings.
Indeed, it is by no means certain that had their own inclinations been
the sole guide in the matter, they would there and then have turned
round and beat a hasty and ignominious retreat, leaving Tom Carhayes and
his potential fate to the investigation of some more enterprising party.

The atmosphere grew more foetid and pestilential. Suddenly the cavern
widened out. Great slabs of rock jutted horizontally from the sides,
sometimes so nearly meeting that there was only just room to pass in
single file between. Then a low cry of horror escaped the three white
men. They stopped short, as though they had encountered a row of fixed
bayonets, and some, at any rate, of the party were conscious of the very
hair on their heads standing erect.

For, lying about upon the rock slabs were numbers of shadowy, sinuous
shapes, similar to the one they had just disturbed. Some were lying
apart, some were coiled up together in a heaving, revolting mass. As
the light of the lantern flashed upon them, they began to move. The
hideous coils began to separate, gliding apart, head erect, and hissing
till the whole area of the grisly cavern seemed alive with writhing,
hissing serpents. Turn the light which way they would, there were the
same great wriggling coils, the same frightful heads. Many, hitherto
unseen, were pouring their loathsome, gliding shapes down the rocks
overhead, and the dull, dragging heavy sound, as the horrible reptiles
crawled over the hard and stony surface, mingled with that of strident
hissing. What a sight to come upon in the heart of the earth!

It is safe to assert that no object in Nature is held in more utter and
universal detestation by man than the serpent. And here were these men
penned up within an underground cave in the very heart of the earth,
with scores, if not hundreds, of these frightful and most deadly
reptiles--some too, of abnormal size--around them; all on the move, and
so near that it was as much as they could do to avoid actual contact.
Small wonder that their flesh should creep and that every drop of blood
should seem to curdle within their veins. It was a position to recur to
a man in his dreams unt