, and at last I saw, to my unspeakable
amaze, a broad level road at the bottom of the abyss, illumined as far
as the eye could reach by what seemed artificial gas-lamps placed at
regular intervals, as in the thoroughfare of a great city; and I heard
confusedly at a distance a hum as of human voices. I know, of course,
that no rival miners are at work in this district. Whose could be those
voices? What human hands could have levelled that road and marshalled
those lamps?

"The superstitious belief, common to miners, that gnomes or fiends dwell
within the bowels of the earth, began to seize me. I shuddered at the
thought of descending further and braving the inhabitants of this nether
valley. Nor indeed could I have done so without ropes, as from the spot
I had reached to the bottom of the chasm the sides of the rock sank down
abrupt, smooth, and sheer. I retraced my steps with some difficulty. Now
I have told you all."

"You will descend again?"

"I ought, yet I feel as if I durst not."

"A trusty companion halves the journey and doubles the courage. I will
go with you. We will provide ourselves with ropes of suitable length and
strength--and--pardon me--you must not drink more to-night, our hands
and feet must be steady and firm tomorrow."

Chapter II.

With the morning my friend's nerves were rebraced, and he was not
less excited by curiosity than myself. Perhaps more; for he evidently
believed in his own story, and I felt considerable doubt of it; not that
he would have wilfully told an untruth, but that I thought he must have
been under one of those hallucinations which seize on our fancy or our
nerves in solitary, unaccustomed places, and in which we give shape to
the formless and sound to the dumb.

We selected six veteran miners to watch our descent; and as the cage
held only one at a time, the engineer descended first; and when he had
gained the ledge at which he had before halted, the cage rearose for me.
I soon gained his side. We had provided ourselves with a strong coil of
rope.

The light struck on my sight as it had done the day before on my
friend's. The hollow through which it came sloped diagonally: it seemed
to me a diffused atmospheric light, not like that from fire, but soft
and silvery, as from a northern star. Quitting the cage, we descended,
one after the other, easily enough, owing to the juts in the side, till
we reached the place at which my friend had previously halted, and whic