not come with us?" Miss White called back to the boat.

"Oh, it is many a time I have been in the cave," said Janet Macleod;
"and I will have the luncheon ready for you. And you will not stay long
in the cave, for it is cold and damp."

He took her hand, for the scrambling over the rough rocks and stores was
dangerous work for unfamiliar ankles. They drew nearer to this awful
thing, that rose far above them, and seemed waiting to enclose them and
shut them in forever. And whereas about the other caves there were
plenty of birds flying, with their shrill screams denoting their terror
or resentment, there was no sign of life at all about this black and
yawning chasm, and there was an absolute silence, but for the rolling of
the breakers behind them that only produced vague and wandering echoes.
As she advanced over the treacherous shingle, she became conscious of a
sort of twilight appearing around her. A vast black thing--black as
night and still as the grave--was ahead of her; but already the change
from the blaze of sunlight outside to this partial darkness seemed
strange on the eyes. The air grew colder. As she looked up at the
tremendous walls, and at the mysterious blackness beyond, she grasped
his hand more tightly, though the walking on the wet sand was now
comparatively easy. And as they went farther and farther into this
blackness, there was only a faint, strange light that made an outline of
the back of his figure, leaving his face in darkness; and when he
stopped to examine the sand, she turned and looked back, and behold the
vast portal by which they entered had now dwindled down into a small
space of bewildering white.

"No," said he, and she was startled by the hollow tones of his voice;
"I cannot find any traces of the boat news; they have all gone."

Then he produced a candle and lit it; and as they advanced farther into
the blackness, there was visible this solitary star of red fire, that
threw dull, mysterious gleams from time to time on some projecting
rocks.

"You must give me your hand again, Keith," said she, in a low voice; and
when he shifted the candle, and took her hand in his, he found that it
was trembling somewhat.

"Will you go any farther?" said he.

"No."

They stood and looked around. The darkness seemed without limits; the
red light was insufficient to produce anything like an outline of this
immense place, even in faint and wandering gleams.

"If anything were to move, Keith,