“Maybe I don’t, too. If we ever get out of this place, I’ll leave all such devices severely to themselves in future.”
“Have you any idea of the purpose of this passage?”
“Not I. Maybe it was used as a means of escape. In that case——”
“In that case we will get out to daylight again,” Joe concluded.
“On the other hand, it may have been designed as a means of executing their criminals or enemies. I’ve heard of such things.”
Joe fairly shuddered.
“Oh, talk of something pleasant,” he said, with a groan.
No more was said for a time. The circumstances didn’t make the boys feel much inclined for conversation.
All at once they emerged into a vaulted chamber, seemingly cut out of the living rock. At the top of its arched roof was set a huge crystal, very like the one they had seen in the “telescope tower,” only much larger. Through this lens light was streaming into the place, the walls of which were painted and carved with all manner of strange-looking inscriptions and designs. Nat was so intent on gazing at these that he did not look as carefully where he was going as he had in his progress down the passage.
Suddenly his feet slipped from under him and he found himself falling downward. Joe uttered a cry as he saw his comrade vanish. He leaped forward, checking himself just in time to avoid sharing Nat’s plight. He found himself on the brink of a sort of well about ten feet deep. At the bottom of this was Nat. Joe uttered a cry of relief as Nat hailed him and assured him that, by a miracle, he was not hurt.