"My brothers, I have been thinking about that thing," he said. "I will tell you about it. Perhaps the great war bird made those marks. See, he is flying up there above us. I believe his lodge is near this place."
"Yes, that is true," replied Sun Bird. "But we have not seen the thing. What we see we know about. Perhaps you have told how it happened. I do not know about it."
"No, I do not believe it is that way," declared Little Raven. "I believe that some of the mysterious Thunder People went along there."
A few moments afterward they came to a wider shelf of rock, and Sun Bird stopped and pointed to a large cavern, which he declared was the mysterious cave. They stood and gazed upon it for some time, and then Sun Bird led them toward the entrance. When they reached it they found that it apparently extended some distance into the granite cap of the mountain. The smooth rock sides were decorated as described by Sun Bird. White Otter saw all sorts of queer emblems and crude imitations of animals, birds and reptiles. These mysterious picture-writings appeared to have been chiseled into the rough granite, and some of them were apparently very old, as they were dim and scarcely discernible. The lads examined them with eager interest, for they had little doubt that they had been made by the wonderful beings who were believed to dwell upon the bleak, inhospitable peaks of these great mountains. Sun Bird declared that his people had no knowledge of their origin, but he said that his father had often told him that he understood their meaning.
"Perhaps he will tell us about it," suggested White Otter.
"No, that would break his medicine," Sun Bird assured him. "It is bad to tell such things. My father is a great medicine-person. That is why he knows those things. But he will not talk about it."
After they had spent some time studying these baffling decorations, the lads advanced a little farther into the cavern. They moved very cautiously, peering expectantly ahead of them, and straining their ears to catch some of the strange noises which they had heard described. At first they were able to stand upright, but after going a short distance they found the dimensions of the cave shrinking, and they were compelled to crouch to avoid striking their heads on the rocky roof. Sun Bird said that he had never penetrated farther than that point, and he showed no inclination to continue.
"If we stay here and listen, perhaps we will hear something," he said, somewhat uneasily.
They squatted down close together, and waited in considerable suspense to hear some strange sound from the interior of the cave. Ahead of them all was dark, and still and mysterious. Behind them they still saw the light of day streaming in at the mouth of the cave, and weakening as it followed the rocky passageway until it faded to a dim, misty twilight at the spot where they had stopped. When they had waited some time without hearing anything, White Otter proposed that they should proceed to explore the black recesses beyond them.
"No, my heart tells me that it would be a bad thing to do," declared Sun Bird. "I have never gone beyond this place. Back there in that black place are the Evil People. Yes, I have heard my father tell about them. If you go back there, I believe something will happen to you."