"What awful place is this, my uncle?" she asked.
"The cavern whence Solomon, the great king, drew stone for the building
of the Temple. Look, here are his mason's marks upon the wall. Here he
fashioned the blocks and thus it happened that no sound of saw or hammer
was heard within the building. Doubtless also other kings before and
since his day have used this quarry, as no man knows its age."
While he spoke thus he was leading her onwards over the rough,
stone-hewn floor, where the damp gathered in little pools. Following the
windings of the cave they turned once, then again and yet again, so that
soon Miriam was utterly bewildered and could not have found her way back
to the entrance for her life's sake. Moreover, the air had become so hot
and stifling that she could scarcely breathe.
"It will be better presently," said Ithiel, noticing her distress, as he
drew her limping after him into what seemed to be a natural crevice of
rock hardly large enough to allow the passage of his body. Along this
crevice they scrambled for eight or ten paces, to find themselves
suddenly in a tunnel lined with masonry, and so large that they could
stand upright.
"Once it was a watercourse," explained Ithiel, "that filled the great
tank, but now it has been dry for centuries.
Pages:
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248