described.

There was a large round table set in the middle of the floor, covered
with a fine white damask cloth, and furnished with a heterogeneous
service of the richest silver plate, the most delicate Sevres china and
the coarsest earthen ware and rudest cutlery. There were plates laid for
about a dozen persons. Around the table were seats as miscellaneous in
quality as was the service; there were three-legged stools, stumpy logs
of wood set on end, one very large stone, and one elegant piano chair.

"We always eat our great meal of the day in this place. You would call
it dinner; we call it supper, but it is all the same," said the girl.

"Oh!" exclaimed Sybil, looking in dismay at the many plates--"Oh! have I
got to meet all these horrid men?"

"Yes, my lady! You must meet these horrid men who have saved you! They
do not often have the honor of a lady's company to supper, and they will
not dispense with yours now," replied the elfin hostess, sarcastically.

A shudder ran through Sybil's frame; but she rallied all her strength to
resist the creeping terror.

"These thieves are men, after all," she said to herself. "They are not
beasts nor devils, as their companion calls them; they are human beings,
why should I fear them?" And she spoke very cheerfully to her hostess,
inquiring:

"When do you expect your companions in?"

"They drop in at any time in the evening. Some of them will be here
soon, and then we will have supper."

The darkening of the cave now indicated that the sun was setting. And
soon the wild hostess clapped her hands and called in her pale attendant
to light up the cavern. And the phantom vanished for a few moments, and
then returned with two tall silver candlesticks, supporting two such
large wax candles that Sybil saw at a glance that they must have been
stolen from the altar of a Catholic chapel. And she shivered again at
perceiving that she was the guest of the worst of outlaws--sacrilegious
church-robbers! But soon her attention was attracted by the splendor of
the scene around, when the stalactite walls of the cavern, lighted up by
the great candles, emitted millions of prismatic rays of every brilliant
hue, as if they were encrusted with diamonds, rubies, emeralds,
sapphires, amethysts, topazes, and carbuncles, all of the purest fire.

"Splendid, is it not? What palace chamber can compare to ours?" inquired
the girl, on observing the evident admiration with which her guest gazed
u