Off they went, and the blackness was upon us. So terrible was it and so strange and fearful that place in which we stood, I actually found myself wondering if it would not all prove to be a dream.
"Why," I asked at last, "did we do this?"
"To see if those lights that we saw will show again. Those Dromans may think that we have lost heart and started back."
I saw it all now: instead of our advancing to those mysterious beings somewhere down the cavern, he would bring them to us.
But they did not come. They did not show even the faintest gleam. We waited there for many minutes, but nothing whatever was seen.
"Hum," said Rhodes at last, snapping on his light. "It didn't work. Wary folk, Bill, these Hypogeans."
"And so," I replied, "we'll have to go to them."
"That's what we shall have to do."
"And," I added, "by doing so, walk maybe right into a trap."
"It is possible, certainly," Rhodes admitted. "But, as the brave Pliny said, Fortes Fortuna iuvat."