uneventful journey in a large irregularly shaped chamber
whose roof of veined rock was about forty feet above us, its length
being about two hundred feet, and its greatest breadth about sixty.

The stream had widened out into a little lake again, leaving, however,
on one side a sandy shore some six or eight feet wide. The waters were
troubled, as if in a state of ebullition, and for a while we sat
wondering and listening to a loud moaning roar coming apparently from a
distance. Then pushing on by the side, in a manner of speaking we
coasted round the place till we reached the sandy shore and rested; for
though the water flowed out through the arch by which we had entered
there was no way of further exit from the great vault.

This, then, was the extent of the cavern river, and it was with
disappointment that I went slowly round once more, poling the raft over
the troubled waters, to find that there was no likelihood of a discovery
here. The sandy shore was the only landing-place, and unless the
treasure was buried there I could see no other spot where a search could
be made. As to the lake's profundity, of that we could tell nothing,
only that at every attempt to touch bottom we withdrew our poles with a
shiver.

Here, then, was the source of the river, which rose from springs
somewhere far below--springs which caused the bubbling we saw, making
our little raft to rock terribly in one part we passed over, so that we
gladly sought the sandy shore and there remained listening to the
lapping of the water and the faint distant roar.

"There must be another cavern beyond this, Tom," I said after a
thoughtful pause.

"Ain't a doubt about it, Mas'r Harry," he replied. "It's my belief that
if any one would do it he might go on for ever and ever, right through
the inside of the earth to find it all full of places like this."

"Look!" I said eagerly, as I stood on the sandy slip of land and held
up the light above my head, pointing the while to the end of the vault;
"there's a rift up there, Tom, if we could climb to it, and that's where
that roaring noise comes through."

"Mean to try it, Mas'r Harry?"

"Yes," I said, "if we can climb to it; otherwise we must come again with
something we can fit together like a ladder."

"Oh! I can get up there, Mas'r Harry, I know," said Tom. "I've been up
worse places than that in Cornwall after gulls' eggs."

Tom sprang ashore, and I gave a cry of horror, for the little raf