The Last of the Plainsmen 



&quot; It s a long, hard climb,&quot; said Wallace to the 

 Colonel, as we dismounted. 



&quot; Boys, I m with you,&quot; came the reply. And he 

 was with us all the way, as we clambered over the 

 immense blocks and threaded a passage between them 

 and pulled weary legs up, one after the other. So 

 steep lay the jumble of cliff fragments that we lost 

 sight of the cave long before we got near it. Sud 

 denly we rounded a stone, to halt and gasp at the 

 thing looming before us. 



The dark portal of death or hell might have 

 yawned there. A gloomy hole, large enough to 

 admit a church, had been hollowed in the cliff by 

 ages of nature s chiseling. 



Vast sepulcher of Time s past, give up thy 

 dead ! &quot; cried Wallace, solemnly. 



&quot;Oh! dark Stygian cave forlorn!&quot; quoted I, as 

 feelingly as my friend. 



Jones hauled us down from the clouds. 



&quot; Now, I wonder what kind of a prehistoric animal 

 holed in here,&quot; said he. 



Forever the one absorbing interest ! If he realized 

 the sublimity of this place, he did not show it. 



The floor of the cave ascended from the very 

 threshold. Stony ridges circled from wall to wall. 

 We climbed till we were two hundred feet from the 

 opening, yet we were not half-way to the dome. 



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