At that moment there came a loud rapping on the other side of the door, which shook and trembled under the blows of someone who seemed like a maniac. They heard a bolt drawn sharply back. And then a voice let out a kind of shriek that ended quite abruptly. As one man, they turned and fled without shame or hesitation.
[CHAPTER XXVI—The White Madman]
They ran in all haste towards the entrance to the cave. The two guides led the way. If the boys were alarmed, the men were even more so.
The brothers had proved that they did not mind danger in the ordinary acceptation of the term, but, in their thinking, in this place they trespassed upon the precincts of the other world.
Cortes was about to make his escape to the terrace outside the entrance, when Harry called him back.
"Here!" cried the boy. "This way!"
In the semi-darkness he had caught sight of a narrow flight of stone steps which led to the gallery above. He was not so frightened that he had not a natural curiosity to see who approached on the other side of the door.
All this time a noise continued that echoed ceaselessly in the vastness of the cave. It was a noise of bolts withdrawn, chains jangling, locks unfastened, whilst a voice that was hardly human was continuously uplifted in a long, plaintive moan.
In the semi-darkness of the gallery the four trespassers knelt down, hiding behind the pillars in such position that they could see into the central aisle below. Their eyes were fixed upon the door whence issued these strange, uncanny sounds.
Presently the door opened, and there came forth into the light of the lamp the most extraordinary apparition it had ever been the lot of any one of them to see.