OFF AT LAST! On touching _terra firma_, and finding plenty of space around, they scrambled from off the pile of loose stones and stalks cast down by the Indians, and commenced groping their way about.

Again touching the firm surrounding of rock, they groped searchingly along it.
They were not long engaged in their game of blind-man's buff, when the necessity of trusting to the touch came abruptly to an end--as if the handkerchief had been suddenly jerked from their eyes.

The change was caused by a light streaming in through a side gallery into which they had strayed.

It was at first dim and distant, but soon shone upon them with the brilliance of a flambeau.
Following the passage through which it guided them, they reached an aperture of irregular roundish shape, about the size, of the cloister window of a convent.

They saw at once that it was big enough to allow the passage of their bodies.