"Let us try, at all events!" said Belhumeur, pulling his horse by the bridle.
The ascent was rough, and any other horses than those of hunters, accustomed to the most difficult roads, would have been unable to accomplish it, but would have rolled from the top to the bottom.
It was necessary to choose with care the spot on which the foot must be placed, and then to spring forward at a bound, and all this with turnings and twisting enough to produce a dizziness.
After half an hour of extraordinary difficulties they arrived at a sort of platform, ten yards broad at most.
"This is it!" said Belhumeur, stopping.
"How this?" Loyal Heart replied, looking around on all sides without perceiving an opening.
"Come this way!" said Belhumeur, smiling.
And still dragging his horse after him, he passed behind a block of the rock, the hunter following him with awakened curiosity.
After walking for five minutes in a sort of trench, at most three feet wide, which seemed to wind round upon itself, the adventurers found themselves suddenly before the yawning mouth of a deep cavern.
This road, formed by one of those terrible convulsions of nature so frequent in these regions, was so well concealed behind the rocks and stones which masked it, that it was impossible to discover it except by a providential chance.