Then he paused, and again consulted the diagram.
He seemed to have followed it correctly.
There were no further marks upon it, and he finally began to fear that he was on the wrong scent after all.
Again he went to the mouth of the cave, and retraced each point carefully.
There could be no mistake about it, provided he was in the right place; and if he was not, it was a strange coincidence that two such peculiar points should exist in more than one cave.
Once more he approached the side of the cave to which the index finger pointed, and made a still closer examination of it.
But it was as solid as granite could be, as indicated by sounds.
He was about to give up, with the idea that he was in the wrong cave, and began slowly to walk towards the opening.
Suddenly he remembered that in the Russian language "erweldt" signified west, a thing he had not thought of before.
With a glad cry he retraced his steps to the point indicated, and then began to examine the walls, which he found more broken than those on the other side.