w and I followed, leaving the cascade behind us, and
thoroughly examining the other side of the amphitheatre, but without
avail; when we sat down, worn out, about opposite to the rift where we
had entered, too disheartened to speak, till Tom said:

"We shall have to try and crawl through that hole, Mas'r Harry--there,
under the waterfall."

"A dog could hardly do it, Tom," I said bitterly, and then I started.
"Stop a moment," I cried. "That was a regular crack or split in the
rock that we came through, Tom; such a one as might have been made by an
earthquake."

"Sure it was, Mas'r Harry; but you don't think as another one has come
and shut it up, do you?"

"No, no, Tom," I cried, leaping up and forgetting my fatigue; "but why
should not that crack be continued on this side--here, just opposite
where we are? Come, climb higher with me, and let us have another try."

My thought was a bright one; for far up, just where the side of the
amphitheatre began to curve into the dome which formed the roof, we
found a crack answering to the one through which we entered on the other
side; and squeezing ourselves through, we found that we were in another
narrow passage--so narrow, though, that we proceeded with great
difficulty.

"This must be the way out, Tom," I said.

"Or the way in, Mas'r Harry," said Tom; "one of them two. Anyhow,
though, we shall soon see."

Not so soon, though, as Tom expected; for we crept on and climbed for
quite a couple of hours, winding and doubling about, before the rift
opened out, sloping, too, at the same time, so that walking became out
of the question; and we climbed slowly down till we lost sight of roof
and sides. Then on and on, slowly and carefully, where a false step
would have sent us gliding we knew not where; and then we stopped,
aghast, with a fearful chasm at our feet, to awake to the fact that we
had climbed down to the extreme edge of an awful precipice, while, on
holding up our lights, there before us was darkness, black and
impenetrable, above, around, beneath.

The same thought occurred to both, and in a whisper we gave utterance to
that thought together, though in different words.

"Tom, we've come round to another part of the great black gulf."

"Mas'r Harry, this is the same place where we pitched down the big
stone. Let's try another."

More to prove the truth of our thought than anything else, I assented;
and finding a good-sized lump, Tom hurled it outwards w