The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-05-23
6cont1nuod.l


 hurried back along the way we had come. my torch in my hand. Here said I. pointing to some matches upon the ground, '.is where we lit up.''
 Exactly
 --Well, 1t is marked as forked cave, and in the darkness we passed the fork before the torches were lit. On the right side as we go out we should find the longer arm"
 It was as I had said. We had not gone thirty yards before a great black opening 1oomed in the wall. We turn ed into it to find that we were in much larger passage than before. Along it we hurried in breathless impatience for many hundreds of yards Then suddenly, in the black darkness of the arch in front of us, we saw gleam of dark red light. We stared in amaze, ment- A sheet of steady flame seemed to cross the passage and to bar our way. We hastened toward it. No sound, no heat, no movement came from 1t, but sttll the great luminous curtain glowed before us, silvering all the cave and turning the sand to pow derc1 jewels, until as we drew closer 1t discovered circular edge.
 t.The moon, by Georger' cried Lord John We are through, boysi We are throughg'
 It was indeed the full moon which shone straight down the aperture which opened upon the cliffs. It was a small rift, not larger than a window, but it was enough for all our purposes. As we scraned our necks through it we could see that the descent was not very difficult one and that the level ground was no very great way below us- It was no wonder that from below we had not observed the place, as the cltfs curved overhead and an ascent at the spot would have seemed so i'm possible as to discourage close inspec- ton. We satisfied ourselves that with the help of our rope we could find our way down, and then returned, retoic- ing, to our camp to make our prepara- tons for the next evening.
 What we did we had to do quickly and secretly, since even at this last hour the Indians might hold us back. Our stores we would leave behind us. save only our guns and cartridges. But C1aTlsnear had some unw1eldy stuff which he ardenely desired to take with him. and one particular package, of whiclrT may nct-speak, whichagave us more Mbor thanpany. Slowly the day passed. but whensthe -darEness fell we were Heady for eur departure. With much sl8a5or we got our things up the stspg-andeat1 booking back took one lastr long sszEVeye Of that strange land soon, Is1e7E, to be vuIgarized, the E5rey ef huzzR and prc9pectpx, but to each of us a. dFeam7and of g7auaor and TO- nance, q land where we had dared much, suffered much and learned nnncEa-0urqand,s sae-wesEaH ever fond ly call H. Along upon our left the ns1gRbur1ng cawes each threw out its ruddy, cheery freight into the gloom. From the slope below us rose the voices Of the Indians as they laughed andbsang. Beyond was the long sweep of the woods, and in the center, shim- mering vaguely through the gloom, was the great lake, the mother of strange monsters. Even as we looked a high whickering cry, the call of some weird animal rang clear out of the darkness. It was the very voice of Maple White Land bidding us goodby. We turned and plunged into the cave which led to home.
 Two hours later we, our packages and all we owned were at the foot of the cliff Save for ChaIIenger's lug gage we had never difficulty. Leav- ing it all where we descended, we started at once for Zambos camp. In the early morning we approached it, but onlyStO find, to our amazement, not one 6rer rbut a dozen upon the plain. The rescue. party had arrived. There were 4zenty Indians from the river, with stakes, ropes and all that could be useful for bridging the chasm. At least we shall have no difficulty now in car ryfng our packages when tomorrow we begin to make our way back to the Amazon.
 The excitement which had been calEcd through those parts of South America which we had to traverse was imagined by us to be purely local, and I can assure our friends in Eng land that we had no notion of the up- roar which the mere runnor of our ex- periences had caused through Europe. It was not until the Ivernia was within 800 miles of Southampton that the wireless messages from paper after pa per and agency after agency, offering huge prices for short return message as to our actual results, showed us how strained was the attention not only of the scientific world, but of the general public It was agreed among us, however, that no definite state ment should be given to the press un- til we had met the members of the Geological institute, since as delegates it was our clear duty to give our first report to the body from which we had received our commission of fnvestdga- ton. Thus, although we found South arnpton full oEWRess men, we absolute Iy refused to give any Information, which had the natural effect of focus ing public attention upon the meeting, which was advertised for the evening