In the midst of perplexity and doubt, the thought struck her with the vividness of a flash of intelligence, that the passage she was in might communicate with the outer world!  The very suggestion caused her to heave a sigh of relief.  What so probable as this supposition?  At any rate she had something to do, a definite object to call forth her energies; and this was no small matter, in the state of mind under which she was laboring at that hour.

Raising her lamp to a level with her face, she passed the light close to the wall, scrutinizing every spot, to see if there was no sign indicative of another spring-closed door.  But no brilliant fragment of stalactite appeared as a reward for her search, and she turned away with a feeling of disappointment, and heaviness at her heart.  As she did so, for the first time her eye fell upon a polished surface, much resembling the face of a mirror, upon the opposite wall.  Looking more attentively, she discovered, as it were, trees, shrubs, a running stream of water, and all the accompaniments of a finished landscape painting.  Fearful as was her situation, she could not help pausing to admire the beauty, the naturalness, the perfection of the scene.  She had never beheld any thing half so vivid, so truthful, from the pencil of the artist.  It actually seemed as if water was running over its gravelly bed, as if the bushes moved in the breeze; in a word, the whole looked far more like a reality than a cold painting.  As she was gazing in admiration upon this singular appearance, a bird actually flew over the scene!  She could hardly believe her senses; but soon another one followed, and she knew there was no deception in her eyes this time.

Philosophy was not universally taught in those days, as it is now, and Eveline did not know how to solve this mystery as well as many a school girl could do at the present day; but she had read of the tricks of the magicians of Egypt and India, and what seeming wonders they could show in their magic mirrors; and she came to the conclusion that the robbers of the cave had learned the same art, and that before her was one of the soothsayers’ glasses.

But what was the design had in view in placing it in that obscure and unfrequented place?  As this query suggested itself to her mind, a man passed along on the bank of the stream! and in a few minutes another in the opposite direction; and in the last one she recognized one of her captors!  She at once comprehended the design of the apparatus; it was to reveal what was passing without to the eye of the individual within, who had doubtless adopted this method of informing himself of passing external events, as a means of personal safety in case of need.  It was, she supposed, a device of the captain of the thieves, to save himself, either from the ministers of the law or from the violence of those under him, in case of revolt.