The two sprites approached a large, flat, white stone and both stepped upon it at the same instant. Down it went, taking them with it into the very center of the planet. Not a word was spoken while they were slipping through the long, dark shaft, and the stone platform on which they were standing stopped after a time, while a door at one end of the shaft opened and they found themselves in Hades, proper, as this portion of it was called.
The girls blinked like bats at first when the vivid light flashed into their eyes but they soon became accustomed to it. They were now put into wheelbarrows that looked as if used for carrying coal, and were wheeled along without a word. The Princess found a chance to whisper, “Do you think they are going to burn us as they would coal?”
“I am sure I don’t know. Oh, for our magic robes!” said Ione in a similar whisper.
Presently they began to pass dismal cells in which were chained wicked-looking men and women, and over each of these cells was an account of the deeds each had committed, cut in letters which gleamed like coals of fire. All around them blue, yellow, and green devils were working, stirring the already hot fires, throwing on more sulphur or adding fuel, refusing ever to give the poor inmates the cool draught of water for which they were continuously begging.
Over one of the cells they read the account of a most brutal murder, over another the inhuman treatment of wife and children, and so on past hundreds and hundreds of cells until they were sick at heart to know that such cruelties could exist and had to be in some way punished. Of course they could not but hear the moans and groans of the victims and their horrible language as well, but deaf ears were turned to all pleadings and the girls felt that it would be useless for them to beg to be taken back to the surface and daylight and were beginning to lose their courage, when to their surprise and delight they saw Harold and the Prince coming down a broad passage just ahead of them. What then was the astonishment of the boys to see them being trundled in wheelbarrows down in the very depths of Hades?
“What do you mean by bringing these ladies down here?” said the boys’ guide to the sprites who had carried away the girls.
They explained that they had been told to bring down two people whom they would find in a certain place, and as the girls were in this place they of course brought them down. With many and profuse apologies for their mistake, made in a language not one word of which the girls could understand, these sprites retired.
The guides now asked them if they would like to investigate further for there were numerous divisions to Hades which they had not as yet seen. These divisions were graded according to the atrocity of the deeds committed. The most wicked criminals were sent to the lowest depths, the punishments there being the most severe, while they lessened as each higher division was reached. The boys declared they had seen all they cared to and as for the girls, they had witnessed much more than they wished to, so they were quickly conducted to the open air.
“This is the very way we were taken down,” said Ione.
“Sure enough, it is,” replied the Princess. “Did you ever see such an elevator in all your life?” for with a one, two, three, they had reached the open air, while just before them fluttered their air-ship.