She had made a covering for the censer, and that had been put carefully aside. The furniture and tenting was all valueless. It fell to pieces at a touch and only small scraps of tinder-like material remained to prove the glories of the silken coverings that had been buried with the Israelites of old. Harness made of leather, and trappings bound with gold lay on the ground mixed up with the bones of the animals they had adorned; chariot wheels lay among the wreckage, and the whole scene was one of utter desolation and carnage.
“Do you know of a way out?” asked Alan of Jez-Riah over and over again, and always she answered “I have brought you in safety to the tomb of Korah, O my friends. Further the way is hidden from me. Now I trust to you.”
There was no apparent outlet from the cavern, and the boys hunted for any written record that might have been left behind by Korah or his company. “I want a proof of our statements,” said Alan. “When we get to the upper world we shall be looked upon as madmen if we are unable to substantiate our story.”
But Jez-Riah would say, “Give up hunting for records of my forefathers, I beg you, and turn your energies to find a way to the sun—”
Alan was thinking deeply on the situation they were in, when his eyes were caught by the scar on the roof. “I wonder,” said he suddenly, “I wonder if there is a way out—there.”
“Where?” asked Desmond.
Alan jerked his head in the direction of the scar. “It would be madness to try and find out,” said he. “The ledges of rock are not strong enough to bear one—don’t think of risking your life in such a foolish adventure.”
And indeed it seemed almost impossible. The walls of the cavern were jagged and rough, and in many places overhung in a dangerous manner. To climb to the roof would have made even an experienced Alpine climber think twice before he attempted it, and to one inexperienced in such feats it seemed like courting death.
“You wouldn’t try,” Desmond urged. He knew Alan of old, and feared for him.
Alan laughed. “Is it likely?” was all he said. But all the same the thought remained in his mind, and his brain was working.