With a short farewell to his faithful follower Malchus took his
place on the raft, having lit a torch and fastened it upright upon
it. Then he paddled slowly away, keeping between the lines of heavy
columns. His rate of progress was slow, and for half an hour he
kept the torch in sight. By this time he felt sure that he must
be approaching the boundary of the reservoir. He therefore moored
his raft against a pillar and waved his torch backwards and forwards.
The signal was answered by a similar movement of the distant light,
which then disappeared. Malchus now extinguished his own torch,
placed the means of relighting it with which Nessus had furnished
him close to his hand, and then, wrapping himself in a rug, lay
down to sleep.

When he awoke it was day. The light was streaming down on to the
water from an opening two or three hundred yards away, while far
in the distance he could see a faint light which marked the place
of the steps at which he had embarked. In the neighbourhood of
the opening the columns stood up clear and gray against the dark
background. A little further off their outlines were dim and misty;
and wherever else he looked an inky darkness met his eye, save
one or two faint bands of misty light, which marked the position
of distant openings.

The stillness which reigned in this vast cavern was almost oppressive.
Sometimes a faint rustling whisper, the echo of some sound in the
citadel above, passed among the columns; and the plaintive squeak
of a bat was heard now and then, for numbers of these creatures
were flitting noiselessly in the darkness, their forms visible
for an instant as they passed and repassed between Malchus and the
light. He wondered vaguely what they could find to eat here, and