“Oh yes, herr, I dare say; but the one I have found is, I think, better.”
“Show us it,” said Dale. And after going back about a hundred yards, Melchior suddenly disappeared as if by magic.
“Hi! Melchior! where are you!”
“Here, herr,” he replied, showing himself again from behind one of the great jagged masses of stone which strewed the ravine. “There is a great crack here.”
They climbed over some awkward rocks and joined him, to find that a dismal chasm of great depth went off here at a sharp angle; and some little distance down one of its rugged walls he pointed out a dark opening which seemed unapproachable at first, though a little further examination showed that it was quite possible for a cool-headed man to get down—one who would not think of the dark depths below.
“How came you to find this place?” said Saxe. “We have come by here three times now without seeing it.”
“I told you, herr. I found that crystal just there at the entrance to the narrow split—by the stone where you saw me standing.”
“And that made you think there must be a crystal cavern near?”
“Yes, herr; and there it is. I wonder it has never been found before. And yet I do not, for no one but an Englishman would think of coming in a place like this.”
“Have you been down to it?”