I
didn't know I was so thirsty!"
I was not ignorant of the fact that there was an excellent chance
of the water being unhealthful, possibly poisoned, what with the
tertiary deposits of copper ores in the rock-basins; but the
thought awakened hope rather than fear. There is a choice even in
death.
But when I had pulled Harry up and descended myself I soon found
that there was no danger--or chance. The water had a touch of
alkali, but nothing more.
Then we crept back up the wet ledge, and once more stood on dry
ground.
The surface was perfectly level, and we set off at a brisk pace,
hand in hand, directly away from the lake. But when, about a
hundred yards off, we suddenly bumped our heads against a solid
wall of rock, we decided to proceed with more caution.
The darkness was intensified, if anything. We turned to the
right and groped along the wall, which was smooth as glass and
higher than my best reach. It seemed to the touch to be slightly
convex, but that may have been delusion.
We had proceeded in this manner some hundred yards or more,
advancing cautiously, when we came to a break in the wall. A few
feet farther the wall began again.
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