had gone from the lake. Why or how this had happened, they did not
even ask themselves. They simply stood and stared.

In a few minutes they were joined by Edna, who had become so anxious at
their absence and silence that she had clambered over the wall, and came
running to them. By the time she reached them it was much darker than
when they had arrived, but she could see that the lake had gone. That
was enough.

"What do you suppose it means?" she said presently. "Are we over
some awful subterranean cavern in which things sink out of sight in
an instant?"

"It is absolutely unaccountable," said the captain. "But we must go back
to Mrs. Cliff. I hear her calling. And if Maka has come to his senses,
perhaps he can tell us something."

But Maka had very little to tell. To the captain's questions he could
only say that a little while before, Mok had come running to him, and
told him that, being thirsty, he had gone down to the edge of the lake to
get a drink, and found that there was no water, only a great hole, and
then he had run to tell Maka, and when Maka had gone back with him, so
greatly surprised that he had deserted his post without thinking about
it, he found that what Mok had said was true, and that there was nothing
there but a great black hole. Mok must have been asleep when the water
went away, but it was gone, and that was all he knew about it.

There was something so weird and mysterious about this absolute and
sudden disappearance of this great body of water that Mrs. Cliff became
very nervous and frightened.

"This is a temple of the devil," she said, "and that is his face outside.
You do not know what may happen next. This rocky floor on which we stand
may give way, and we may all go down into unknown depths. I can't think
of staying here another minute. It is dark now. Let us slip away down to
the beach, and take the boat, and row away from this horrible region
where human devils and every other kind seem to own the country."

"Oh, no," said the captain, "we can't consider such wild schemes as that.
I have been thinking that perhaps there may be some sort of a tide in
this lake, and in the morning we may find the water just as it was. And,
at any rate, it has not entirely deserted us, for in these pools at the
bottom we can find water enough for us to drink."

"I suppose I would not mind such things so much," said Mrs. Cliff, "if
they happened out of doors. But being shut up in this cave with mag