I did not answer, for my attention had been taken up by a slight sound towards the interior of the cave.
“Here, quick, Tom!” I exclaimed.
He leaped out in an instant, just as, with a fierce rush, the pent-up water conquered our little dam, took to its old bed, and swept down sand and soil, filling up our pit in a few minutes as it bore all before it, and then subsided quietly into its former course, the sand sucking up the moisture where it had levelled; and to a casual observer the cave seemed as if it had been untouched for ages.
“Well that’s pleasant, certainly,” said Tom coolly; “but ’taint so bad as it might have been. We haven’t got wet. Never mind, Mas’r Harry, we’ll have it out again by-and-by. There’s more in that hole yet than we have seen. Them bits of yaller stuff weren’t put in for nothing. But let’s go up again to the prog and have a good feed before we begin again; and, suppose you bring your spade?”
I followed Tom mechanically, spade in hand, to where, behind a mass of rock, we had made our storehouse, and seating ourselves in the gloomy shade I was busily opening my wallet, when Tom, who was getting some maize for the mules, suddenly pressed my shoulder and pointing in the direction of the cave’s mouth, I heard him whisper the one word:
“Look!”
I looked, with my eyes seeming to be glued to the spot, as slowly there appeared above the rugged line formed by the top of the rocky barrier a human head, another, and another, with intervals of a dozen yards between each; and then they remained motionless, gazing straight forward into the great cavern.