It was a strange, weird sight they saw. They had entered another large cave, but it was of a totally different formation to those they had seen. At the far end of the cave was a beautiful crystal wall nearly thirty feet high. The stalagmites were short and thick, and the stalactitic formations extremely long, many being over a hundred feet in length. Massive deposits could be seen on all sides heaped up in the most curious manner. Many of them were of a wondrous salmon colour, others were deep red, and brown, and several glittered with a dull blood-red glow.
They were awed by this grand, majestic freak of Nature. To the left was another passage, full of magnificent columns of stalactites and stalagmites, all pure white and diamond-like in brilliance; they seemed to be coated with sparkling and lustrous gems. These columns rose from floor to roof like huge pillars in some vast cathedral. They were of different formations, but all about the same height. All the colours of the rainbow sparkled in the various pillars, and the effect was dazzling.
Passing down this magnificent column passage, untouched by the art of man, and marvelling at its strange beauty, they came to a beautiful shawl-like formation of the purest white, which hung suspended from the roof between two massive pillars until it reached within a yard of the floor. This curtain was of the most delicate pattern, the tracery being very fine, in some places almost as fine as a spider’s web. There were designs on it of flowers and leaves unlike any they had ever seen in reality. It was evident this curtain shut off some chamber beyond from the passage of columns they had just passed through.
Edgar was about to speak, when they again heard the wail that had before startled them.
This time it sounded nearer, on the other side of the curtain, and Edgar stooped down in order to pass underneath. Will followed him, and both clutched their revolvers.
They were now in a richly-stocked chamber of large size, the colours on the rock and the roof being of a dazzling white, like alabaster. In a recess at the end was a white recumbent figure, resting on a huge salmon-coloured slab, from which hung down like drapery a yellow-tinted curtain of stone, with red-veined tracery running through it in all manner of intricate shapes and ways.
Before this stone figure, resting upon its hard bed, knelt the black figure of Yacka, standing out with extraordinary distinctness from his white surroundings. Yacka prostrated himself before the white figure, and from time to time gave a low, yet piercing, wailing cry.
They stood looking upon the strange scene in silence, and neither felt inclined to break it.
Yacka suddenly seemed to be aware that someone was present, for he rose to his feet and, turning round, faced them.
He did not seem at all surprised to see them, and beckoned to them to advance.