A Secret of the Hills. 25 



are green with ferns ; the ivy and the briar hang 

 graceful sprays over the entrance. 



The cave is higher when the threshold is well 

 passed, and soon the glimmer of the candles lights up 

 a vaulted roof, fretted and ribbed and sculptured by 

 the slow tools of unnumbered ages. Here on the soft 

 black earth that covers all the floor of this the first 

 great chamber, badgers have left their footprints, and 

 perhaps even now are watching anxiously unseen. 

 Farther on, the roof is dark with clusters of bats that, 

 folded close within their leathern wings, hang motion- 

 less, all unconscious of intrusion. By what strange 

 faculty do they mark the time and know the hour for 

 sallying out into the twilight? 



The stalactites that once in thousands glittered from 

 the rock overhead have long been broken away, but 

 the massive sculpture on the walls defies the puny 

 hammer of the spoiler, and all the sides of the cavern 

 are hung with strange and graceful figures moulded by 

 the dripping water. 



It is by a very labyrinth of passages that you reach 

 the end of the cave. The first descent is by a shaft 

 that yawns like a well in the rocky floor. It is the 

 Giant's Stairs. There is no need of a rope. Even 

 ladies have ventured down that dark abyss. When 

 you have stuck a candle against the rock, look back a 

 moment to watch the lights of your companions 

 twinkling down the steep slope of the chamber and 

 throwing fantastic shadows on the rocky wall. Now 



