It was only fancy though, for they would be immovable until the water that the boy now heard trickling softly amongst the stones far beneath his feet had gone on doing its insidious mining perhaps for ages, for the zigzag rift was composed of massive stone.
“Oh, if I could only get some of that water!” thought Chris, as he now heard the soft musical trickle which roused within him a parching feeling of thirst.
But it was far out of reach save to some burrowing animal which might have felt no compunction about making its way down through the crevices of the fallen blocks over which Chris continued to stumble, till all at once he dragged himself through a narrow opening between the two sides of the rift, to find that he could look diagonally across the valley at the openings and terraces far away, but evidently those which would be the unexplored portions of the rock city, opposite the places they had examined.
“Hurrah!” he cried, as the light seemed to flash into his spirit and give him strength, for a shot rang out from somewhere to his right. He knew it must come from there, for the echo came from beyond the opening on his left.
Then there was another, and another, to awaken the echoes, followed by silence, during which he waited for a fresh signal.
It came at last, but very faint and distant, and though he shouted several times over, there was no reply.
“It’s of no use to wait,” muttered Chris; “they can’t hear, and if they did they couldn’t help me. I must help myself.”
Feeling this strongly he climbed a little farther, to find that he was at the edge of the zigzag rift, which, as far as he could make out, clove the face of the cliff from a great height up to far below him; and to damp his spirits the fact was clearly before him that he could go no farther outward, for there was no fancy here—he was at the edge of a genuine precipice, and if there was any escape it must be by descending.
He stepped back a little way and reached where the stones were piled-up roughly, partially filling up the rift, and by using care he was able to descend from block to block, with the water keeping up its musical tinkle far below.
“Why, it must be making its way out into the valley,” he thought, “and if I can follow it I may be able to get out where it falls.