The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-05-24

and earth with silver light. We wait
ed till she had risen some distance in
the heaven, and both our attendants
had gone to sleep before we stared,
At last all was ready, and we set out.
Neither Crawford nor 1 seemed dis
posed for conversation as we proceeded
on our adventure. There was some
thing strangely mysterious in the busl-
ness, which, in spite of myself, op-
pressed me with a sense of foreboding,
and the effect was heightened and
made more intense by the solemn still
ness and beauty of the scene. Moon
liGht-the marvellous moonlight of the
innermcst tropics-steeped the scene in
a ghostN splendor. 1t lay on the sill
ent lake, FURNISHED shield of silver; 1t
rested on the soaring masses of the
mountain range that lowered up into
the violet blue of the sky; it brooded,
soft and misty over the silent ruins
of the dead city into which we were
making our way. There was some
thing startling in the silence A sound
of any kind-the rustling Of a leaf, the
note of bird, even the cry of a beast
of prey, would have seemed a relief in
that impressive stiffness. We followed
the line of the great avenue which had
been so plainly marked out by the
heaps of crumbling ruin on either hand,
leading, as we knew it did, directly to
the great central mass of rock which
now rose gray and ghostly before us.
The distance from our camping place
could hardly have exceeded two miles,
and we met no obstacle in the path.
Our silent tread on the messy turf
disturbed no echoes among the shape
less mounds of what had once been
stone, and only the soft, weird whisper
of the night breeze reached us as 1t
stole through the ruins and barely
stirred the leaves of the great trees
that rose SO mysteriously from I'M
seen depths among the crumbling
heaps. We made our way steadily
| onwards till at last the mass of rock
| rose frowning and perpendicular over
head. 1t looked black and forbidding.
Seen close at hand, even the moonlight
| failed to brighten it as 1t stood out,
black, bare and threatening, against
| the sky. There were no ruins close to
! the rock, and in most places the level
| ground reached to it's very base. Here
and there We came upon a piece of
shattered rock which seemed to have
fallen from the cliff and sunk deeply
into the earth, and once or twice these
| splintered rocks appeared to have
brought with them masses of what
looked like crumbling masonry.
| we searched in vain on the side we
had reached for some sign of an en-
trance or passage into the rock and It
was not till We had traced 1t round that
side and more than half of the other
that Crawford. who had taken the lead,
came TO halt in the dark shadow that
stretched westward from the citadel.
! When Joined him l found that he was
standing at the foot of a sloping mass
of rubbish and shattered masonry
larger than any We had yet met with.
This seemed piled up against the face
Of the cliff as though it had slid from
the top.
II think there is something here.
Crawford said, straining his eyes 10
look upwards through the deep shadow.
L followed his example, and IL did
seem to me, too, that just above the
heap, at whose foot We We're standing.
there was something that looked like a
darker hollow in the black face of the
beetling rock.
You've got the lantern" he added.
In half whisper, as If he were afraid
OF waking an echo in the intense ST.
lence.
I produced the lantern and we light
ed 1t. 1t was small. and, although
easily carried, threw but a feeble light
on our surroundings. By it's light,
however, we contrived TO scramble up
the rugged heap Of masonry and rocks
| till we reached the top. Our impress
sion had been correct; there was-or
at any rate there had been--a doorway,
AT first 1 thought 1t was effectually
barred by the fallen stone. but on ex-
aiming the place more carefully by the