rvious blackness. Before them, where the light of the torches
died was the same black wall, and they themselves were only a little
island of light. But they could see that the cave ran on before them, as
if it were a subterranean, vaulted gallery, hewed out of the stone by
hands of many Titans! Henry held up his torch, and from the roof twenty
feet above his head the stone flashed back multicolored and glittering
lights. Paul's eyes followed Henry's and the gleaming roof appealed to
his sensitive mind.

"Why, it's all a great underground palace!" he exclaimed, "and we are
the princes who are living in it!"

Hart heard Paul's enthusiastic words and he smiled.

"Come here, Paul," he said, "I want to show you something."

Paul came at once and Hart swung the light of his torch into a dark
cryptlike opening from the gallery.

"I see some dim shapes lying on the floor in there, but I can't tell
exactly what they are," said Paul.

"Come into this place itself."

Paul stepped into the crypt, and Hart with the tip of his moccasined toe
gently moved one of the recumbent forms. Paul could not repress a little
cry as he jumped back. He was looking at the dark, withered face of an
Indian, that seemed to him a thousand years old.

"An' the others are Indians, too," said Hart. "An' they needn't trouble
us. God knows how long they've been a-layin' here where their friends
brought 'em for burial. See the bows an' arrows beside 'em. They ain't
like any that the Indians use now."

"And the dry cave air has preserved them, for maybe two or three hundred
years," said the schoolmaster. "No, their dress and equipment do not
look like those of any Indians whom I have seen."

"Let's leave them just as they are," said Paul.

"Of course," said Ross, "it would be bad luck to move 'em."

They went on farther into the cave, and found that it increased in
grandeur and beauty. The walls glittered with the light of the torches,
the ceiling rose higher, and became a great vaulted dome. From the roof
hung fantastic stalactites and from the floor stalagmites equally
fantastic shot up to meet them. Slow water fell drop by drop from the
point of the stalactite upon the point of the stalagmite.

"That has been going on for ages," said the schoolmaster, "and the same
drop of water that leaves some of its substance to form the stalactite,
hanging from the roof, goes to form the stalagmite jutting up from the
floor. Come, Paul, here's a seat for