erfoot. It
caught fire at once and began blazing up, sending forth such a glow of
light that the men set up a cheer, drawn from them by the excitement and
wonder of the weird scene which confronted them.

CHAPTER FORTY.

THE FLOOD SUBSIDES.

As all stepped back from the crackling and blazing pile, the smoke rose,
rolling up in wreaths, and the fire illumined the whole place,
displaying a perfect crowd of grotesquely horrible figures in all manner
of menacing attitudes.

To add to the weird horror of the scene, high above and mingling with
the smoke clouds were scores of great bats, fully three feet across in
the stretch of their leathern wings, with which they silently flapped
through the gloom till they succeeded in reaching one or other of the
windows through which the smoke poured, and thence the outer air.

"Horrible!" cried the captain.

"It is weird in the extreme," said Sir Humphrey; "but it is
interesting."

The men who had been hacking away the vines stood in a group, silent and
awe-stricken, gazing at the grotesque figures and the flickering shadows
they cast as the fire rose and fell and lit up the strange interior to
the farthest corner.

"Well, Brace," said Briscoe, "I don't call this pretty; but I'd have
taken twice as much trouble to get here so as to see it. Throw on some
more of this dead stuff, lads. There's a good draught comes in and
carries the heat upwards, and it will make a clearance of all these
birds' nests and rubbish."

"It is horrible," said Brace, as the men hurried to obey the order
given, and the flames leaped up and up, revealing the many figures from
fresh points of view in the golden ruddy glare. "But I feel like you,
Briscoe; I shouldn't have liked to miss this."

"These are the old bogies with which the priests who lived in the cells
upstairs used to scare the people and keep them under. I wonder whether
they ever thought to light up the place."

"No doubt they did," said Sir Humphrey, who had now joined them. "That
square erection at the back there, surrounded by small figures, must
have been the altar, and no doubt they burned a fire upon that."

"Think so, sir," said the captain. "Well, I didn't think we were coming
up to see a sight like this. Old Dellow will be a bit mad at missing
it, eh, Lynton?"

"But he shan't miss it," said Briscoe. "We must light it up again.
Say, Brace, I can't see any sign of holes. The floor's covered with
rubbish and sto