“But how did this happen?” she asked. “Does Lamara know?”
“Lamara! Does she not know everything?” exclaimed the girl, laughing. “And isn’t this a wonderful adventure! I wish you could have stayed with us longer—or I wish I might go back with you to your earth! Would any man there love me and marry me, do you think? Are there any men there like your Jack?”
“Many men might wish to marry you,” replied Miriam; “but there can never be but one Jack! Is he well and happy?”
“He will be happy when he sees you; just now he is very impatient!” answered the other. They had left the pavilion and traversed a deeply-shadowed path, while these remarks were passing, and were now descending a slope which led to a flight of steps cut out of the rock. These terminated in a cavern.
“Why, we are underground!” exclaimed Miriam, drawing back. “Where are you taking me? Can this be the right way?”
“It is the shortest,” said Zarga, urging her forward. “They are awaiting us at the other end.”
The cavern was a natural excavation in the rock, winding to right and left, now narrow and low, now high, expanding into great chambers columned with stalactite and stalagmite, and sometimes resounding with noise of subterranean waters. The rocks emitted a dim light, sufficient to dispel the darkness and enable them to go forward rapidly. But Miriam could not help a sensation of disquiet; this was a strange beginning of a journey through space! She observed a feverish excitement in Zarga’s bearing. She was about to remonstrate when the path, which had hitherto either descended or proceeded on a level, took an upward inclination, and a draft of warmer air set steadily against them.
“We’re near the end,” said Zarga; and hollowing her hand before her mouth she sent forth a long call. It was caught and reduplicated by innumerable echoes, floating away, to be again and again renewed, as if prolonged by a myriad vocalists. When it had finally died away there came an answering note, deeper and stronger, falling upon the ear in rising and subsiding cadences. Zarga glanced back over her shoulder.
“Your lover answers us!” she said.
The answer had not seemed to Miriam to have the quality of Jack’s voice; but the echoes might have disguised it. The passage widened out, and the unmistakable light of day flowed in. But as Miriam lifted her eyes the first object that met them was the red globe of Tor suspended up yonder in the sky.