“Tell me frankly what you saw in that chasm:  I am sure it was something strange and terrible.  Whatever it be, it has left your mind in a state of doubt.  In such a case two heads are better than one.  Confide in me.”

The engineer long endeavoured to evade my inquiries; but as, while he spoke, he helped himself unconsciously out of the brandy-flask to a degree to which he was wholly unaccustomed, for he was a very temperate man, his reserve gradually melted away.  He who would keep himself to himself should imitate the dumb animals, and drink water.  At last he said, “I will tell you all.  When the cage stopped, I found myself on a ridge of rock; and below me, the chasm, taking a slanting direction, shot down to a considerable depth, the darkness of which my lamp could not have penetrated.  But through it, to my infinite surprise, streamed upward a steady brilliant light.  Could it be any volcanic fire?  In that case, surely I should have felt the heat.  Still, if on this there was doubt, it was of the utmost importance to our common safety to clear it up.  I examined the sides of the descent, and found that I could venture to trust myself to the irregular projection of ledges, at least for some way.  I left the cage and clambered down.  As I drew nearer and nearer to the light, the chasm became wider, and at last I saw, to my unspeakable amaze, a broad level road at the bottom of the abyss, illumined as far as the eye could reach by what seemed artificial gas-lamps placed at regular intervals, as in the thoroughfare of a great city; and I heard confusedly at a distance a hum as of human voices.  I know, of course, that no rival miners are at work in this district.  Whose could be those voices?  What human hands could have levelled that road and marshalled those lamps?

“The superstitious belief, common to miners, that gnomes or fiends dwell within the bowels of the earth, began to seize me.  I shuddered at the thought of descending further and braving the inhabitants of this nether valley.  Nor indeed could I have done so without ropes, as from the spot I had reached to the bottom of the chasm the sides of the rock sank down abrupt, smooth, and sheer.  I retraced my steps with some difficulty.  Now I have told you all.”

“You will descend again?”

“I ought, yet I feel as if I durst not.”

“A trusty companion halves the journey and doubles the courage.  I will go with you.  We will provide ourselves with ropes of suitable length and strength—­and—­pardon me—­you must not drink more to-night, our hands and feet must be steady and firm tomorrow.”

Chapter II.

With the morning my friend’s nerves were rebraced, and he was not less excited by curiosity than myself.  Perhaps more; for he evidently believed in his own story, and I felt considerable doubt of it; not that he would have wilfully told an untruth, but that I thought he must have been under one of those hallucinations which seize on our fancy or our nerves in solitary, unaccustomed places, and in which we give shape to the formless and sound to the dumb.