"Suppose that it is some sea-monster," said Anna with eyes on fire; for
the unwonted darkness had changed her, so that she took readily enough
her orders from the less imaginative boy--whereas, under the broad light
of day, she never dreamed of doing other than giving them.

Once they had a narrow escape. It happened that Simeon was leading and
holding Anna by the hand, for they had been steadily climbing upwards
for some time. The footing of the cave was of smooth sand, very restful
and pleasing to the feet. Simeon was holding up the candle and looking
before him, when suddenly his foot went down into nothing. He would have
fallen forward, but that Anna, putting all her force into the pull, drew
him back. The candle, however, fell from his hand and rolled unharmed
to the edge of a well, where it lay still burning.

Simeon seized it, and the two children, kneeling upon the rocky side,
looked over into a deep hole, which seemed, so far as the taper would
throw its feeble rays downwards, to be quite fathomless.

But at the bottom something rose and fell with a deep roaring sound, as
regular as a beast breathing. It had a most terrifying effect to hear
that measured roaring deep in the bowels of the earth, and at each
respiration to see the suck of the air blow the candle-flame about.

Anna would willingly have gone back, but stout Simeon was resolved and
not to be spoken to.

They circled cautiously about the well, and immediately began to
descend. The way now lay over rock, fine and regular to the feet as
though it had been built and polished by the pyramid-builders of Egypt.