Page:Doughty--Mirrikh or A woman from Mars.djvu/215

 Such, briefly told, are the salient points connected with our arrival in this strange place; and now, before resuming  the thread of my narrative, let me speak a few words about  the cave itself.

It was of vast extent, reaching far back into the heart of the mountain, but no efforts at exploration had been made. Just how we could be on a mountain at all I could not understand, unless the country from Psam-dagong down  toward Lh’asa has a gradual descent; but on a mountain we  were, Padma assured us, surrounded by rocks on all sides  saye one, and this one, when I first beheld it, I almost wished  might be walled in too.

Here the cavern opened upon a roaring torrent, rushing down between perpendicular walls; foaming, boiling, tearing  its way past the entrance like mad, with the water setting  back into the cave for a distance of at least twenty feet.

Beyond we could see only a wall of gray granite, from which we were separated by the torrent.

“Our way lies there,” said the old lama, calmly, “but the flood is here before us. We shall have to wait for the water to fall.”

“But how are we to pass through that barrier?” I asked. “It is a pity that our bodies could not have been sent a little further on.”

“A pity indeed. This I did not anticipate; but it would have made no difference. We chose the only possible way of escaping from Psam-dagong.”

Let me mention that Padma made no allusion at any time to the octor’s mad action. With that quiet good sense he ever displayed, the old lama let the matter drop.

“Is there a way of passing through that wall?” asked the Doctor.

“Most certainly,” was the reply. “There is a passage directly through it leading down the mountain. From thence to Lh’asa the way is short and easy. Indeed the city might be discerned from the mountain tops beyond  the river, could we but transport ourselves there.”

“Ah! If we only could!” I cried; “but tell me, father, this passage: is it below the water level now?”

“It is, my son; we can only possess our souls in patience till the waters fall.”

“And that will be when?”

“Buddha alone can answer.”