“Are there any bats?” asked Gladys, hanging back.
“Nothing but brickbats,” came Sahwah’s cheerful voice from within.
Gladys and Hinpoha crawled through the opening, and Katherine, with a resigned, “Goodbye, dress,” followed with Nyoda and Nakwisi and Medmangi. The room was nothing more than an extension of the cellar, built into the side of the hill, but to them it was filled with romantic possibilities.
“What do you suppose it was?” asked Hinpoha, straining her eyes in the semi-darkness.
“The dungeon, of course,” answered Katherine promptly. “Here’s where your beautiful princess confined the lovers that didn’t suit her fancy—light-haired ones and fat ones, especially. She chained them to the wall and the rats nibbled their toes.”
“Oh-oh-oh!” shrieked Hinpoha, stopping her ears. “Don’t say such dreadful things. I can feel the rats nibbling at my toes this minute.”
The walls of this cellar were badly crumbled, and at the farther side the girls discovered another cave-like opening. This was entirely dark and they hesitated before going in. Then Nyoda took her pocket flash and Gladys found hers, and by the combined glimmer of the two the girls found their way into the farther cave. At first they had to keep the light on the ground to see where to put their feet and they were all inside before Nyoda turned her flash on the walls. Then a great cry of amazement burst from every girl, ending in a breathless gasp. The walls and roof of the cave seemed to be made of precious stones—pearls, sapphires, emeralds, amethysts and diamonds. They caught the gleam from the pocket flashes and twinkled and reflected in a hundred points of dancing light. Great masses of crystal, faceted like diamonds, hung suspended from the roof almost touching their heads, seemingly held up by magic.
“Am I dreaming,” cried Hinpoha, “or is this Alladin’s cave? What is it, Nyoda? Where are we?”
Nyoda laughed at their open mouths and staring eyes. “Only in one of Nature’s treasure vaults,” she said. “This is one of the famous crystal caves that are found throughout these islands. It’s a form of rock crystal, strontia, I believe some people call it, and I don’t doubt but what it’s related to the limestone in the quarries. Take a good look at it, for some of these crystals are simply marvellous.”
Their voices echoed and re-echoed weirdly, as they called to each other, the sound seeming to roll along the low ceiling. “Look at this mass over here,” cried Sahwah, penetrating deeper into the cave, “it looks like a man standing against the wall.”