"You must be careful, Bill," he said. "We mustn't drink too much at first."
And he raised the canteen forthwith and proceeded to swallow a couple of quarts.
"For Heaven's sake," I told him, "leave some for the others!"
"Yes," said Rhodes, handing the water to Drorathusa. "We have been kind of ungallant, Bill—hoggish, I'm afraid. But I was as dry as a burnt cork."
Ere he had ceased speaking, Drorathusa was moving toward her companions. How wonderful was that change, that rush from out the black depths of despair! And yet our situation was still truly a terrible one, for we were lost. But we did not think of that now. Water, water! We had water now and rejoiced as though we had been caught up and set down in the loveliest of all the lovely glades of Paradise.
A few minutes, and we all (with tent and packs, with everything) were following Drorathusa through the passage, were hurrying toward that spring or stream or pool which she had discovered. What whim, what freak of strange chance had led that mysterious woman forth whilst others slept the sleep of despair, forth into that particular passage? Even now I do not know the answer.
After following its sinuosities for several hundred feet, we suddenly stepped out of the passage and into a great chamber. This, like our sleeping-place was weird and savage in the extreme. Broken rock-masses rose up, in all directions. There were distorted pyramids, fantastic pinnacles, spires, obelisks, even pillars, but they were pillars grotesque and awful as though seen in a dream.
Wider and wider grew the place, more and more broken and savage. Soon even the walls were involved in darkness. The roof, as we advanced, became more and more lofty. Clearly this cavern was one of enormous extent. I began to glance about with some apprehension. How had Drorathusa found her way into such a place—and out again? I marveled that she had not got lost. But she had not, and evidently there was no likelihood that that could happen. She was moving forward, into that place of savage confusion, with never a sign of hesitation, with the certitude of one following a well-beaten path.
Suddenly Drorathusa stopped, and, after making a sign for silence, she said, pointing into the blackness before us:
"Narranawnzee."