beyond began to grow more confused, and sometimes to disappear
entirely and reappear again with startling distinctness. Then a
sound of rippling water from the little stream that flowed from the
mouth of the tunnel soothed her and seemed to carry her away with
it, and then everything was dark.

The next thing she remembered was that she was apparently being
carried along on some gliding object to the sound of rippling water.
She was not alone, for her three companions were lying beside her,
rather tightly packed and squeezed in the same mysterious vehicle.
Even in the profound darkness that surrounded her, Polly could feel
and hear that they were accompanied, and once or twice a faint
streak of light from the side of the tunnel showed her gigantic
shadows walking slowly on either side of the gliding car. She felt
the little hands of her associates seeking hers, and knew they were
awake and conscious, and she returned to each a reassuring pressure
from the large protecting instinct of her maternal little heart.
Presently the car glided into an open space of bright light, and
stopped. The transition from the darkness of the tunnel at first
dazzled their eyes. It was like a dream.

They were in a circular cavern from which three other tunnels like
the one they had passed through, diverged. The walls, lit up by
fifty or sixty candles stuck at irregular intervals in crevices of
the rock, were of glittering quartz and mica. But more remarkable
than all were the inmates of the cavern, who were ranged round the
walls; men, who like their attendants, seemed to be of extra
stature; who had blackened faces, wore red bandanna handkerchiefs
round their heads and their waists, and carried enormous knives and
pistols stuck in their belts. On a raised platform made of a packing