‘Why,’ said Treska, ‘this must be the famous cave in the mountain that people come to see. Suzanne, we ought to show it to Masha. I’m sure you’ve never seen anything like it, have you, Masha?’
Masha, who came from a flat and rockless country, never had.
‘But it’s too dark to go far,’ she objected, shrinking back.
‘Just to the end of this hall,’ coaxed Suzanne. ‘If there’s a gate and sidewalls there must be something beyond.’
The three girls slipped through the gate and pattered timidly into the darkness. A continuous dropping from the roof wet their shoulders as if they had been caught in a shower, and their bare feet were soon covered with mud in spite of the board walk. It was very cold. For a time the light from the mouth of the cave served to show them the rocky walls. Then they turned a corner and felt rather than saw that they had entered a vast room, for they were staring into a darkness thicker than that of night. It was warmer here, and the ground was firm and dry under their feet, but somewhere there was a dropping of water with never a splash. Except for the sound, a terrible silence seemed to close in on them.
At last Suzanne could bear it no longer.
‘Hello!’ she cried nervously.
And instantly from all sides came a chorus of voices: ‘Hello! hello! hello!’
‘Oh, don’t!’ gasped Masha.
And ‘Don’t! don’t! don’t!’ cried the walls.