It was the same feeling that overcomes one in the aisle of some mighty cathedral. As if to accentuate the similarity of impression, the wind sighing softly in the dark, dome-shaped trees, sounded like a solemn chant, now high and tremulous, now low in a rumbling diapason that thrilled.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE DWELLING OF A VANISHED RACE.
“Gee, it’s kind of lonesome, ain’t it?” said Pete, expressing exactly what they all felt.
Although they now stood in the presence of the long-sought goal, somehow each one of the party felt uncomfortably impressed. A nameless fear hung about the place. It was with difficulty that they shook off the feeling and examined the surroundings further.
The entrance to the cave itself must have escaped observation had one not known it was there. It was square, with a mighty cross-bar of unhewn stone supporting its summit. In this cross-bar were cut some rude hieroglyphics, but even the professor, savant though he was, could not hazard a guess at their meaning.
The professor, alone, seemed unimpressed by the gloomy majesty and mystery of the place. His eyes burned with a scientific fire and he rubbed his hands briskly together.
“At last!” he breathed, as if in an ecstasy, “who knows what unknown treasures we may reveal to the world, beyond that portal!”