CHAPTER IX.
A STARTLING EVENT.
It was some days later that Chebron and Amuba again paid a visit to the temple by moonlight. It was well-nigh a month since they had been there; for, save when the moon was up, the darkness and gloom of the courts, lighted only by the lamps of the altars, was so great that the place offered no attractions. Amuba, free from the superstitions which influenced his companion, would have gone with him had he proposed it, although he too felt the influence of the darkness and the dim, weird figures of the gods, seen but faintly by the lights that burned at their feet. But to Chebron, more imaginative and easily affected, there was something absolutely terrible in the gloomy darkness, and nothing would have induced him to wander in the silent courts save when the moon threw her light upon them.
On entering one of the inner courts they found a massive door in the wall standing ajar.
“Where does this lead to?” Amuba asked.
“I do not know. I have never seen it open before. I think it must have been left unclosed by accident. We will see where it leads to.”
Opening it they saw in front of them a flight of stairs in the thickness of the wall.
“It leads up to the roof,” Chebron said in surprise. “I knew not there were any stairs to the roof, for when repairs are needed the workmen mount by ladders.”
“Let us go up, Chebron; it will be curious to look down upon the courts.”