“At last we started to further explore this wonderland.  On going to the farther end of the room we found a passage leading on.  This we followed for a hundred feet and found the whole cavern lined with onyx and crystals clear as glass.  After loading up with specimens we retraced our steps and on reaching the large room we had first entered we heard a roaring, rumbling noise.  An awful noise truly, which filled us with an unknown dread.

“On approaching the entrance we saw a stream of water pouring down, completely filling the hole.

“For a moment we felt like rats caught in a trap, our only way of egress occupied by a stream of water falling straight down seventy feet, and then we wondered how long it would take to fill up the room.

“Suddenly the thought that there might be an outlet for the water gave us new hope, so we went to see and sure enough we found a natural water-course down through an opening we had overlooked.  We gathered up courage once more, and thought the best thing would be something to occupy our time.  So we set to work getting out more specimens and in a couple of hours the water stopped running and we were ourselves once more.

“Ray grasped the rope, which was soaking wet, and went up the seventy feet, hand over hand, like a cat.  I, being heavier, found it quite different from going down.  The rope played whip-cracker with me for some time and before reaching the top I was covered with bruises.  But daylight never appeared so beautiful before.

“Here we found the cause of so much water.  A cloud-burst had occurred on the Divide and a large portion of it had poured down the passage way to the cave.

“We found our horses patiently waiting for us and night closing in.  Mounting we rode rapidly home, resolved never to venture into this cave again without leaving some one at the entrance to give warning in case of danger.

“John F. Sidey.”

The first specimen taken out was given to us on our first visit to the ranch, and is pure white with a stripe of brilliant golden yellow.  Having been invited to give a name to this new find it seems quite proper after reading the description of the deluge and seeing the bright bands of color, and considering the hopeful promise of future possibilities, to call it The Rainbow Cave.

FOOTNOTES: 

[5] Colored driver.

CHAPTER XIV.

Crystal cave.

South Dakota can boast of yet another cave in the Black Hills that was formed by volcanic disturbance of the rocks and afterwards decorated in a manner peculiar to itself.  This is Crystal Cave.  It is nine miles from Piedmont in the eastern edge of the Hills, and easily visited from that point by way of the narrow-gauge road, which winds along the natural curves of the beautiful Elk Creek canon, whose walls are said to expose a depth of almost a mile of geological strata, although the exposure at any one point does not exceed three hundred feet.