I looked back.

Here and there irregularly gleamed and spluttered my companions' torches.
Across each slanted the rain.

All else was of inky blackness except where, between them and me, a faint red reflection shone on the wet rocks.

Then I turned inside.
Now, to judge from the crumbling powder of the footing, that cave had been dry since Noah.

In fact, its roof was nearly a thousand feet thick.