Thereon they turned and refusing all assistance from us, vanished into the darkness of the cave leaning upon each other and walking slowly.
CHAPTER XII.
Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Years!
“You seem to have made the best of your time, old fellow,” said Bickley in rather a sour voice.
“I never knew people begin to call each other by their Christian names so soon,” added Bastin, looking at me with a suspicious eye.
“I know no other,” I said.
“Perhaps not, but at any rate you have another, though you don’t seem to have told it to her. Anyway, I am glad they are gone, for I was getting tired of being ordered by everybody to carry about wood and water for them. Also I am terribly hungry as I can’t eat before it is light. They have taken most of the best fruit to which I was looking forward, but thank goodness they do not seem to care for pork.”
“So am I,” said Bickley, who really looked exhausted. “Get the food, there’s a good fellow. We’ll talk afterwards.”
When we had eaten, somewhat silently, I asked Bickley what he made of the business; also whither he thought the sleepers had gone.
“I think I can answer the last question,” interrupted Bastin. “I expect it is to a place well known to students of the Bible which even Bickley mentions sometimes when he is angry. At any rate, they seem to be very fond of heat, for they wouldn’t part from it even in their coffins, and you will admit that they are not quite natural, although that Glittering Lady is so attractive as regards her exterior.”
Bickley waved these remarks aside and addressed himself to me.