The next place visited, however, made up to them for any amount of hard travel or moment of terror. Having retraced their steps till they came to the original passage, they went on for some distance until told by their guide to rest for a moment on a convenient stone seat, and wait there until he called to them. He then took away all of their lamps and disappeared. For a moment they felt the darkness something frightful, but before it had lasted long enough to be painful, they saw a vision overhead of numberless stars shining down upon them from a cloudless dome.
That which for one moment in the darkness had almost provoked a cry of terror from more than one of the party, became a cry of delight; and then Mrs. Allen wondered aloud how they could see the stars so far below the surface of the earth. But even as she spoke, the scene changed. They no longer saw a clear sky, but the stars disappeared behind heavy clouds, and then they were again in that indescribably awful darkness. But gradually a soft light was seen, and they heard the bleating of sheep and the lowing of cattle as they wake in the early dawn. "Beautiful! Beautiful!" they said, and were almost sorry when they found out that these sounds were produced by their guide, who turned out to be something of a ventriloquist, and that the stars and rosy dawn are but optical illusions called forth by skillful manipulation of the light thrown on the crystals which sparkle in the dome with its coating of black oxide of manganese.
From here they wended their way back, followed by Brigham, who had waited for them on the road to the Star Chamber, feeling that they had experienced and seen enough for one day.
They rested all that day and the next, doing nothing that required more exertion than short walks through the woods or promenades along the wide galleries which surrounded both stories of the hotel. Here they swung hammocks, and rested in the open air between their little walks.
But on the third day all the members of the party again set out for the Cave, starting in the morning, for they were warned that going and returning it would be a sixteen-mile walk. Presently they found that the road they had taken on the previous day diverged, and soon they were going through the Valley of Humility leading into Fat Man's Misery, a place but eighteen inches wide, five feet high, and changing direction eight times. Through the one hundred and five yards of this place they twisted and crawled, until they reached Great Relief. Here they stopped to congratulate Mrs. Allen, the stoutest of the party, and Mr. Van Orten, the tallest, on having successfully passed this ordeal.
On again, now ascending a flight of stairs to a higher gallery, now descending to one below, always surprised at finding the immense columns piercing through from the highest galleries down to the very lowest of the five levels of the Cave. They passed through Bacon Chamber—which Winnie did not think at all "romantic"—and through various winding passages, to River Hall, where all the waters of the Cave collect, and where they gazed with awe on the deep lakes. Then they came to the Dead Sea, surrounded on all sides by massive cliffs, from which they descended by means of a stairway to the banks of the River Styx, which the party crossed by a natural bridge to Lake Lethe; then along the Great Walk, with its fine, yellow sand, to Echo River. Here they found a boat waiting for them, and, embarking, were paddled along over the clear water—thirty feet deep—singing, whistling, and shouting to waken the echoes from the rocky walls on either side, until it seemed—so Miss Kitty said—as if "Echo had been transferred from her former mountain home, with all her nymphs."
But no, it was not the Mountain Echo, but her unknown sister who dwelt in these underground regions, as their guide proved to them by striking the long vault with his cane; for it had its own keynote, which excited harmonies of wonderful depth and sweetness, each sound being prolonged many seconds.
Here, too, they saw the eyeless fish, and Gretta even went the length of pitying them, until Miss Kitty told her that, as they were not "fish with little lanterns on their tails,"—which she had once heard given as an explanation of some phosphorescent phenomenon on an ocean trip—and so could not see in those dark waters even if they had eyes, she need not waste her pity.
Soon they reached Washington Hall, and perceived a waiter, who had been following them at a distance, emerge from the gloom, bringing with him a great basket of lunch. This was a pleasant surprise, and they partook heartily of the generous repast, unmoved for the time by their gnome-like surroundings in the semi-darkness of this great chamber, so dimly lighted by the various lanterns and torches.
Beyond this place they found the crystalline gardens, where the crystals take the form of flowers and vines, and even grapes—as in Mary's Vineyard—and later they came upon a snowstorm in a chamber so thickly covered with snowy crystals that they were made to fall like flakes by a loud concussion of the air.