“I think not,” replied the doctor quietly. “Look here; you cannot call this imagination. Small as the space is in these rock chambers, there are the remains of scores of men who fought desperately for their lives. To me it seems like a vivid reproduction of the past.”
“How far back?” said Bourne.
“Ah, that is beyond me. How long would it take these bones to decay to this extent as they lay here just as their owners fell? It is a question that no man can answer—one dependent upon the action of the air in a climate like this, with the remains sheltered from sun and rain, to gradually pass away into dust. You can see plainly enough that these are not the remains found in some burial place, added to year after year, age after age. This slaughter must have been the work of only a few hours, and the people lie piled-up as they fell. Let’s go on.”
Cell after cell was entered, with the remains lying thick as the warriors had fallen, the searchers continuing the examination to the very end, and then gladly stepping out on to the terrace, to stand there in the broad daylight, the air seeming to feel fresh and clear after what they had gone through.
“A strange bit of history,” said the doctor thoughtfully. “We know now and think how this bit of civilisation came to an end; but we have discovered no weapons of war to help us to give a date to the siege.”
“But we haven’t half done our search yet, sir,” said Griggs. “There’s another terrace above this, you see,” and he pointed up to where there had been another row of the cells formed in the rock-face, these latter standing back a little and evidently being the last, for above them the cliff projected like a gigantic cave, as far as they could see, from end to end.
“Who votes that we give up now and leave the examination till another day?” said Bourne, who had seemed more and more enthusiastic as the search went on.
There was no reply.
“Who votes that we try and get up to the next stage?”
Hands went up, and Ned shouted eagerly—