The Prince of India, vol 1 | Page 5

had
just passed. So much was of easy understanding; but where was the
other terminus? At sight of the arches the master drew a long breath of
relief. They were the friends for whom he had been searching.
Nevertheless, without stopping, he led down into a hollow on all sides
sheltered from view; and there the unloading took place. The tools and
bundles were thrown down by a rock, and preparations made for the
remainder of the night. The pallet was spread for the master. The basket
gave up its contents, and the party refreshed themselves and slept the
sleep of the weary.
The secluded bivouac was kept the next day. Only the master went
forth in the afternoon. Climbing the mountain, he found the line in
continuation of the bridge; a task the two arches serving as a base made
comparatively easy. He stood then upon a bench or terrace cumbered
with rocks, and so broad that few persons casually looking would have
suspected it artificial. Facing fully about from the piers, he walked
forward following the terrace which at places was out of line, and piled
with debris tumbled from the mountain on the right hand side; in a few
minutes that silent guide turned with an easy curve and disappeared in
what had yet the appearance hardly distinguishable of an area wrenched

with enormous labor from a low cliff of solid brown limestone.
The visitor scanned the place again and again; then he said aloud:
"No one has been here since"--
The sentence was left unfinished.
That he could thus identify the spot, and with such certainty pass upon
it in relation to a former period, proved he had been there before.
Rocks, earth, and bushes filled the space. Picking footway through, he
examined the face of the cliff then in front of him, lingering longest on
the heap of breakage forming a bank over the meeting line of area and
hill.
"Yes," he repeated, this time with undisguised satisfaction, "no one has
been here since"--
Again the sentence was unfinished.
He ascended the bank next, and removed some of the stones at the top.
A carved line in low relief on the face of the rock was directly exposed;
seeing it he smiled, and replaced the stones, and descending, went back
to the terrace, and thence to the slaves in bivouac.
From one of the packages he had two iron lamps of old Roman style
brought out, and supplied with oil and wicks; then, as if everything
necessary to his project was done, he took to the pallet. Some goats had
come to the place in his absence, but no living creature else.
After nightfall the master woke the slaves, and made final preparation
for the venture upon which he had come. The tools he gave to one man,
the lamps to another, and the water-skin to the negro. Then he led out
of the hollow, and up the mountain to the terrace visited in the
afternoon; nor did he pause in the area mentioned as the abrupt
terminus of the highway over the skeleton piers. He climbed the bank
of stones covering the foot of the cliff up to the precise spot at which

his reconnoissance had ended.
Directly the slaves were removing the bank at the top; not a difficult
task since they had only to roll the loose stones down a convenient
grade. They worked industriously. At length--in half an hour
probably--an opening into the cliff was discovered. The cavity, small at
first, rapidly enlarged, until it gave assurance of a doorway of immense
proportions. When the enlargement sufficed for his admission, the
master stayed the work, and passed in. The slaves followed. The
interior descent offered a grade corresponding with that of the bank
outside--another bank, in fact, of like composition, but more difficult to
pass on account of the darkness.
With his foot the leading adventurer felt the way down to a floor; and
when his assistants came to him, he took from a pocket in his gown a
small case filled with a chemical powder which he poured at his feet;
then he produced a flint and steel, and struck them together. Some
sparks dropped upon the powder. Instantly a flame arose and filled the
place with a ruddy illumination. Lighting the lamps by the flame, the
party looked around them, the slaves with simple wonder.
They were in a vault--a burial vault of great antiquity. Either it was an
imitation of like chambers in Egypt, or they were imitations of it. The
excavation had been done with chisels. The walls were niched, giving
them an appearance of panelling, and over each of the niches there had
been an inscription in raised letters, now mostly defaced. The floor was
a confusion of