“Yes, but we must be careful, Amuba; for, did any below catch sight of us, they might spread an alarm.”
“We need only stay there a minute or two,” Amuba urged. “There are so few about that we are not likely to be seen, for if we walk noiselessly none are likely to cast their eyes so far upward.”
So saying Amuba led the way up the stairs, and Chebron somewhat reluctantly followed him. They felt their way as they went, and after mounting for a considerable distance found that the stairs ended in a narrow passage, at the end of which was an opening scarce three feet high and just wide enough for a man to pass through. This evidently opened into the outer air, as sufficient light passed through to enable them to see where they were standing. Amuba crept out through the opening at the end. Beyond was a ledge a foot wide; beyond that rose a dome some six feet high and eight or ten feet along the ledge.
“Come on, Chebron; there is plenty of room for both of us,” he said, looking backward. Chebron at once joined him.
“Where can we be?” Amuba asked. “There is the sky overhead. We are twenty feet from the top of the wall, and where this ledge ends, just before it gets to the sides of this stone, it seems to go straight down.”
Chebron looked round him.
“This must be the head of one of the statues,” he said after a pause. “What a curious place! I wonder what it can have been made for. See, there is a hole here!”
Just in front of them was an opening of some six inches in diameter in the stone.
Amuba pushed his hand down.
“It seems to go a long way down,” he said; “but it is narrowing,” and removing his arm he looked down the hole.