“Look down there, Bart,” said the Doctor, rather excitedly; “what do you make of it?”
Bart took a step nearer so as to get a clearer view of the rent, rugged pit, at one side of which was a narrow, jagged slit where the sunshine came through, illumining what would otherwise have been gloomy in the extreme.
How far the chasm descended it was impossible to see from its irregularity, the sides projecting in great buttresses here and there, all of grey rock, while what had seemed to be the softer portions had probably crumbled away. Here and there, though, glimpses could be obtained of what looked like profound depths where all was black and still.
“What should you think this place must have been?” said the Doctor, as if eager to hear the lad’s opinion.
“Wait a minute, sir,” replied Bart, loosening a great fragment of rock, which with some difficulty he pushed to the edge, and then, placing his foot to it, thrust it over, and then bent forward to hear it fall.
The distance before it struck was not great, for there was a huge mass of rock projecting some fifty feet below upon which the stone fell, glanced off, and struck against the opposite side, with the effect that it was again thrown back far down out of sight; but the noise it made was loud enough, and as Bart listened he heard it strike heavily six times, then there was a dead silence for quite a minute, and it seemed that the last stroke was when it reached the bottom.
Bart was just about turning to speak to the Doctor when there came hissing up a horrible echoing, weird sound, like a magnified splash, and they knew that far down at an immense depth the great stone had fallen into water.
“Ugh!” ejaculated Bart, involuntarily imitating the Indians. “What a hole! Why, it must be ten times as deep as this place is high. I shouldn’t care about going down.”
“Horrible indeed, Bart; but what should you think? Is this place natural or dug out?”
“Natural, I should say, sir,” replied Bart. “Nobody could dig down to such a depth as that.”