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Page 103
"A strange greenish light prevailed here and directly before me I
saw a flight of stone steps leading upward through a tunnel in
the rock. By the light of a pocket torch with which I had
provided myself, I began to ascend the steps. These, as I have
said, were hewn out of the solid rock, and as they numbered
something like seven hundred, the labour expended upon the making
of this extraordinary staircase must have been stupendous.
"At first the character of the surrounding tunnel suggested that
it was, in part at least, a natural cavern. But as I mounted
higher and higher, solid masonry appeared in places, some of it
displaying unusual carvings, of a character with which I was
quite unfamiliar. I concluded that it was very ancient.
"I should explain, gentlemen, that this ascending tunnel
zigzagged in a peculiar fashion, which may have been due to the
natural formation of the volcanic rock, or may have been part of
the design of the original builder. I had ascended more than five
hundred steps, and felt that a rest would shortly be necessary,
when I reached a sort of cavern, or interior platform, from which
seven corridors branched out like the spokes of a wheel. The top
of this place was lost in shadows, which the ray of my torch
failed to penetrate; and here I paused, setting down my bundle
and wondering what my next move should be.
"To the damp coolness of the lower stairs an oppressive heat had
now succeeded, and I became aware of a continuous roaring sound,
which I found myself unable to explain.
"Attached to a belt beneath my native dress I carried a Colt
revolver; and therefore, leaving my rifle and bundle in a corner
of the cavern, I selected one of these corridors more or less at
random, and set out to explore. This corridor proved to slope
very gently upward from the platform, and I could not fail to
notice that at every step the heat grew greater and greater. A
suffocating, sulphurous smell became perceptible also, and the
roaring sound grew almost deafening. It became possible to
discern the walls of the corridor ahead because of a sort of
eerie bluish light which had now become visible.
"Gentlemen, I don't say that I hesitated in a physical sense: I
went right on walking ahead. But a voice somewhere deep down
inside me was whispering that this was the road to hell.
"At a point where the heat and the smell were almost unendurable
the corridor was blocked by massive iron bars beyond which the
reflection of some gigantic fire danced upon the walls of a vast
cavern.
"The heat was so great that my garments, saturated by the curtain
of water through which I had passed, were now bone dry, and I
stood peering through those bars at a spectacle which will remain
with me to the merciful day of my death.
"A hundred feet beneath me was a lake of fire! That is the only
way I can describe it: a seething, bubbling lake of fire. And
above, where the roof of the cavern formed a natural cone, was a
square section formed of massive stone blocks, and quite
obviously the handiwork of man. The bars were too hot to touch,
and the heat was like that of a furnace, but while I stood,
peering first upward and then downward, a thing happened which I
almost hesitate to describe, for it sounds like an incident from
a nightmare.
"Heralded by a rumbling sound which was perceptible above the
roar of the fire below, the centre block in the roof slid open. A
tremendous draught of air swept along the passage in which I was
standing, and doubtless along other passages which opened upon
this hell-pit.
"As if conjured up by magic, a monstrous column of blue flame
arose, swept up scorchingly, and licked like the tongue of a
hungry dragon upon the roof of the cavern. Instantly the trap was
closed again; the tongue of fire dropped back into the lake from
which it had arisen on the draught of air.
"And right past me where I stood, rigid with horror, looking
through those bars, fell a white-robed figure--whether man or
woman I could not determine! Down, down into the fiery pit, a
hundred feet below!
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