Was I right?

by Mrs. O. F. Walton

"In a very curious way," he said. "Not many years ago there was a lad shooting rock-pigeons outside the northern wall. He had a dog with him, and the dog suddenly disappeared. He had seen it last going behind an olive tree which grew at the bottom of the rock on which you see the wall is built. He went to look for the dog, and found on the face of the rock quite a small hole, so small that he could not get through it himself, though he heard his dog barking inside. So he came back into the city for help, and then the hole was made bigger, and they discovered this place."

"How very curious!" said Sir William.

"Here we are," said Mr. Stanley, "here is the hole; now, Miss Lindsay, are you ready to leave the sunshine behind?"

We had brought candles with us, and we lighted them and began slowly to descend, crouching for some distance almost on our hands and knees, for there was not room to stand upright. But after we had gone thus for a few yards, we found ourselves in a large, rock-hewn cave, as spacious as an immense church, and from this point, passage after passage went in different directions.

Our guide led the way and we followed; hall after hall, passage after passage, we explored; we went for nearly a mile underneath the streets of Jerusalem.

"Can you picture the scene, 3,000 years ago," said Mr. Stanley to me, "when the place was full of Solomon's workmen? Look! Here are the marks of their tools in the stone, as fresh as ever. And do you see this?" he said, as he pointed to a little niche in the wall. "This is where the workman put his lamp whilst he was at work; you see even the black smoke which the flame left on the stone above is still here."

"How very wonderful!" I said. "Oh, Mr. Stanley, it is an interesting place!"

"Yes," he said, smiling, "I knew you would like it, that is why I wanted so much to come here; it is one of my favourite places, and I wanted you to see it. It is a great comfort to me, oftentimes, this deserted quarry."

"How can it be a comfort to you?" I asked.

"It is such a wonderful picture," he said.