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among the winding galleries of the cave,
as to make a continuous roll. After
that we heard a faint halloo. We held
our breath to listen as well as to look.
The top of the pole began to be agita
ted. There came from the pole a gra
ting sound like deep and heavy scratch
ing. Presently the panther appeared
with staring eyes and panting breath. It
leaned feebly forward, and endeavored
to crawl away. We could distinguish
two wounds, one in its forehead, the
other in its shoulder, both probably mor
tal. Our guns were levelled, ready to
fire, when my father called aloud.
“Hold! it may die without another
shot. But be ready all, until I give
the word.”
The sound of his voice instantly re
stored the creature’s strength. It looked
fiercely around, and seeing itself enclo
sed in a circle of enemies sprang nim
bly down the hill.
“ Let him have your rifle, Saloquah !
Your gun, Aleck! your’s Lorenzo!”
were orders following in quick succes
sion, at the close of which the panther
fell. We hastened towards it.
“ Not too close !” my father said in a
warning voice, “ the panther is a long
lived beast, and will fight when you
think he is dead.”
We stood at a safe distance, with ready
guns, watching its spasmed motions till
all was still, and by this time our friends
from within had joined us.
“Fat. Good meat. Only tough,”
said Scossit.y in Cherokee.
“ You are welcome to it all,” we an
swered.
1 ‘ My gun tumbled him. I wonder if
I might not have the skin,” timidly sug
gested Lorenzo.
“ No doubt by paying our red friends
for their share of the peltry,” answered
my father.
It was unanimously agreed that he
should have it, and our red friends, in
stead of demanding pay for the skin,
offered to take it off for him and help
him cure it.
This little adventure occupied more
than an hour of our time and brought
us up so near the middle of the day that
we agreed to take lunch before entering
the cave. There was no water nearer
than a mile, but our canteens had been
filled at a spring we passed, and our
kind friends, the young ladies, had ad
ded a quart or two of rich milk, put up
in a neatly prepared skin, besides which
there was a bottle of wine manufactured
by the hands of Miss Kumama the year
before, from some luscious wild grapes
gathered in the river bottom.
Thus fortified, we prepared to enter
“ that big hole in the ground,” as Sei
pio called it. Dividing among ourselves
the splinters intended for torches, we
passed carefully down a steep descent of
about one hundred short paces, when
we arrived at a level floor dimly lighted
from the entrance.
“Many Ingin dance on this floor.
BURKE’S WEEKLY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.
Scossit, too, in old times,” said Kanee
ka.
Pausing here until our eyes were ac
customed to twilight, we looked around.
Dim, dusky walls, rough enough for a
home of the Titans, were barely visi
ble in the distance, while the farther
extremity gloomed into darkness, and
the roof was wholly beyond sight.
This impressive first view occupied
us pleasantly for some minutes, when
the flint and steel were ealled into re
quisition. A bright spark buried itself
in the amadon, or German tinder; a
sulphur match brought into contact
gave us a blue light, then a white one ;
and soon the soft twilight of the moment
before was exchanged for the red glare
of half a dozen brilliant torches.
The increase of light did not however
greatly increase our satisfaction. We
could see only a little farther. The
vaulted roof was yet beyond sight, but
for a stone-throw high we could see
great jagged rocks projecting from the
walls, and among them a large dark hole,
as if it were the entrance to a series of
upper chambers.
That doorway beyond reach and a
very humble one on the level of our
floor were the only passways from this
grand ante-room, except that through
which we had entered. We bowed our
heads to pass the little door, bade fare
well for a time to the daylight and de
pending upon our torches during the re
mainder of our exploration, plung'ed in
to tbo Jarknees beyond.
Our narrow passage soon expanded
into an ample chamber, where we climb
ed a hill so high as to convince us that
we were on a level with our first en
trance from the open air, but we were
now in the hollow heart of the moun
tain with fifty or an hundred feet of rock
above us.
Not to speak of galleries to the right
and to the left, and of openings under
foot, leading to chambers below, I will
say that we came at last to a large hall
where stalactites of every size and length
hung like stony icicles from the ceiling,
and where many of them meeting with
equally large stalagmites on the floor,
formed themselves into various gro
tesque shapes, .sometimes of pillars and
arches and colonnades, sometimes of
an altar surrounded with the statues of
nymphs in waiting, sometimes of the
trunks of trees, in the midst of which
were elephants, and other clumsily
shaped beasts. This hall Cousin Aleck
named The Sylvan Temple. Near this,
nay in the midst of the stony forest, we
heard the tinkle of water It dripped
from the roof, forming stony concre
tions by constant deposit of its earthy
matter, then went purling along the
floor in a little rivulet that found its way
no doubt to the river, a mile distant.
Indeed Kaneeka told us that the story
was extant of an Indian, who, having
been bewildered in the cave, had final
ly emerged somewhere at the riverside,
but that all knowledge of the passage
that he followed and of the place where
he came out was lost. He informed us
also of the current belief of his people
that the cave had never been half ex
plored, but that its chambers and gal
leries probably extended for many
miles.
We followed various windings, enter
ed many chambers, and were beginning
to feel weary, when Kaneeka proposed
as a curiosity to show us the Bat-Cham
ber. It was the favorite winter resort,
he said, of all the bats of the Cherokee
country—at least it was so supposed, be
cause in the winter time there were none
to be found anywhere else, and they
were to be had here by the wagon load.
This was an apartment very difficult
of entrance, requiring us to crawl on
our hands and knees ; and I cannot say
that our labor was rewarded, for the
room was low, dark and dirty, and per
vaded with an odor that did not com
pare favorably with roses. Summer
though it was, a few dozen bats were to
be seen clinging to the roof by means
of their tiny hind claws, with folded
wing and pendant head. They raised
quite a squeak and chatter as we enter
ed, turning towards us their ugly little
heads and watching us with their shining
black eyes. In the winter time they
hang close as they can pack, each ser
ving as bed and blanket to its neighbor;
and having congregated here for gener
ations, and many of them dying of old
age and disease, they have created, di
rectly beneath their roosting place quite
a hillock, how many feet deep I know
not, of what may justly be termed bat
guano. We did not remain here long ;
indeed we were driven out by a dire and
dreadful necessity, to describe which
requires me to go back a little in my
story.
At the mouth of the cave, before en
tering, my father had divided into three
parcels his fire-making apparatus, con
sisting of sulphur matches, tinder, and
a flint, all wrapped together in a piece
of paper ; one of these parcels being
intended for himself, another for Cousin
Aleck, and the third for Kaneeka, who
was not at the moment present.
Now it might be supposed that, well
provided as we were with torch-wood
and the means of producing fire, there
was no danger of our being left in the
dark, and ordinarily there would not
be. But when people go into out-of-the
way places and engage in out-of-the-way
employments, it is well for them to be
even more than triply guarded against
danger.
My father’s matches were carried in
a little side pocket, which however safe
in his ordinary posture, was so loose as
to endanger their being lost when stoop
ing. He therefore frequently felt to
assure himself that they were in place.
Just before entering the Bat Chamber,
he discovered that they were missing.
This however gave him no uneasiness,
for he knew that we were visiting our
last chamber, and that the matches had
been divided for safety’s sake into three
parcels, to be taken in charge by three
different persons. Toward the close of
our short stay in that hole, Cousin
Aleck, with one of the two torches, was
stooping to examine a singular mass
upon the floor of what seemed to be a
new species of fungus, very spongy in
structure and very dry. While he was
bending over it in examination, a bat
disturbed from its place struck Scipio
in the face, who with an “Eh ! eh !” of
fear started and stumbled over him with
such force as to prostrate him upon the
fungus mass with the torch below him.
He sprang to his feet, but not until his
torch had been extinguished, and his
linen coat set on fire. He made several
attempts to brush out the fire, but fear
ing that it would extend to his other
clothing, he slipped off his coat, threw
it on the floor, and stamped upon it.
Before succeeding, however, there was
a slight Whir r ! followed by the smell
of burning sulphur.
“ There go my matches in that pock
et!” said he.
The flames were quenched, but the
coat was a ruin, unfit for further ser
vice. We all spent a moment sympa
thizing with him in his misfortune, as
was but natural and proper ; but the
delay came near being fatal, for wheth
er from the diffusion of the sulphurous
fumes, or from some other cause, every
bat in the room seemed to become at
the same moment frantic. They left
their places on the wall, flew simultane
ously at our only remaining light, and
in a moment we were in darkness. Sa
loquah, who carried the torch, gave it a
long and rapid sweep through the air,
by which means it was rekindled, only
to be as quickly extinguished. He gave
it another wave, but the torch refused
to blaze.
“ Quick!” said he, “ a match, before
the sparks are dead.”
But the answer came from each one
in turn, “No match. None.”
“What! Kaneeka,” exclaimed my
father, “ have you none ?”
“None,” he answered. “ I did not
bring matches.”
“ Where is the parcel I laid for you
at the Cave’s mouth?” my father anx
iously inquired.
“ Never heard of it before,” Kaneeka
answered.
They had been laid aside for him, but
in the excitement about the panther
had been overlooked.
Here now was a predicament, direful
indeed, with which to close our other
wise pleasant visit to the cave. A grunt
from Scossit-equah, whose quick mind
comprehended the danger of our posi
tion, was so expressive of concern as to
bring from Lorenzo a scream of terror.
It was plain that if we could not com
mand a light, we should be compelled
to the almost impossible task of groping
our way through the darkness, or to the
necessity of remaining there without
food until someone came to relieve us.