Rhodes, peering into the gallery with a curious, half-vacuous expression on his face, made no reply.
"Well," I queried, "what do you think of it? We could not tell where those lights were, how far away—anything."
"I don't think that they were here," Milton Rhodes returned. "I think that they were much farther down and on the other side."
"On the other side? How on earth could any one cross that chasm?"
"We don't know what it is like down there. And, of course, I don't know that the lights were on the other side. But I believe that they were."
A silence ensued, which at length I broke:
"What is the next thing on the programme?"
"Make our way down the ledge. That is the only way there is for us to go. But first we'll try a little finesse."
He took a position in the mouth of the tunnel, one that permitted him to look down the great cavern. He signed to me to follow suit, and, when I stood at his side, he said:
"Off go the lights."