A Secret of the Hills. 27 



by the ceaseless drip of water and the far-off plash of 

 the stream. 



x\ll the lights are put out except that carried by the 

 leader of the party, who goes back alone to try and 

 recover the lost clue. The others watch his light 

 grow fainter and then vanish, and hear his footsteps 

 die away along the gallery. 



After a few minutes, which to their troubled souls 

 seem ages, comes a shout that puts new heart into the 

 listeners, and calls back an answering cheer. Candles 

 are relit, a few steps are retraced, and all is well. 



By-and-by appears in the distance a faint glimmer, 

 like a star, far on in front. It is the light of day, 

 doubly welcome after those brief moments of sus- 

 pense. 



The old inhabitants, probably, seldom penetrated far 

 into the interior. It is here, close to the entrance, 

 that we must look for their traces. The cave men 

 have left but little from which we can picture their 

 way of life. In few but graphic touches is written the 

 story of the race. About the red earth of their hearths 

 we find no shards of pottery, no coloured beads, no 

 weapons but the rudest instruments of flint. 



There is nothing left of them but relics of the chase, 

 a human skull here and there, rude carvings traced 

 with knives of flint on cave bear-tooth or mammoth- 

 tusk. They are a vanished race ; there is no people 

 that can call them kin. 



The barrows that crown the hill-crest up yonder 



