FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   255  
256   257   258   259   260   261   262   >>  
It was due to the foetid exhalations produced by this mass of noisome reptiles congregated within a confined space far removed from the outer air. "Faugh!" ejaculated Hoste. "Thank Heaven these awful brutes seem to have grown scarce again. Shall we have to go back through them, Josane?" "It is not yet time to talk of going back," was the grim reply. Then he had hardly resumed his magic song before he broke it off abruptly. At the same time the others started, and their faces blanched in the semi-darkness. For, out of the black gloom in front of them, not very far in front either, there burst forth such a frightful diabolical howl as ever curdled the heart's blood of an appalled listener. CHAPTER FORTY FIVE. A FEARFUL DISCOVERY. They stood there, turned to stone. They stood there, strong men as they were, their flesh creeping with horror. The awful sound was succeeded by a moment of silence, then it burst forth again and again, the grim subterraneous walls echoing back its horrible import in ear-splitting reverberation. It sounded hardly human in its mingled intonation of frenzied ferocity and blind despair. It might have been the shriek of a lost soul, struggling in the grasp of fiends on the brink of the nethermost pit. "Advance now, cautiously, _amakosi_," said Josane. "Look where you are stepping or you may fall far. Keep your candles ready to light. The Home of the Serpents is a horrible place. There is no end to its terrors. Be prepared to tread carefully." His warning was by no means superfluous. The ground ended abruptly across their path. Suddenly, shooting up, as it were, beneath their very feet, pealed forth again that frightful, blood-curdling yell. It was awful. Starting backward a pace or two, the perspiration pouring from their foreheads, they stood and listened. On the Kafir no such impression had the incident effected. He understood the position in all its grim significance. "Look down," he said, meaningly. "Look down, _amakosi_." They did so. Before them yawned an irregular circular hole or pit, about thirty feet deep by the same in diameter. The sides were smooth and perpendicular; indeed, slightly overhanging from the side on which they stood. Opposite, the glistening surface of the rock rose into a dome. But with this hole the cavern abruptly ended, the main part of it, that is, for a narrow cleft or "gallery" branche
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   255  
256   257   258   259   260   261   262   >>  



Top keywords:

abruptly

 

horrible

 

Josane

 

frightful

 

amakosi

 

pealed

 

superfluous

 

beneath

 

Suddenly

 

shooting


ground

 

candles

 

stepping

 

Advance

 

cautiously

 

prepared

 

carefully

 

warning

 

terrors

 

Serpents


listened

 
overhanging
 

slightly

 

Opposite

 

perpendicular

 

thirty

 
diameter
 
smooth
 
glistening
 
surface

narrow

 

gallery

 

cavern

 

circular

 

branche

 
foreheads
 
nethermost
 

pouring

 

perspiration

 

Starting


backward

 

impression

 

incident

 

Before

 
yawned
 

irregular

 

meaningly

 
significance
 

effected

 

understood