Page:Old ninety-nine's cave.djvu/67

 water that at one time must have flowed over it, but which now issued from under a slimy boulder some feet lower down at the opposite side. Sliding and falling alternately he at last landed on a sort of platform about ten feet wide and running along the brink of a pit which seemed bottomless. The dim light from his miner's candle cast weird shadows on the black rocks over whose sides snake-like streams crept stealthily down. Hernando shivered and turned to leave the spot, when his attention was attracted by an object at the further end of the platform. There lay what appeared to be an image of stone. He drew nearer, and kneeling down looked long and carefully down at it. Unmistakably it was the petrified body of an Indian. Those features could belong to no other race. The eyes and hair, one foot and three fingers were gone; but otherwise, the body seemed to be in a state of perfect preservation,—to have been literally turned into stone. Of course all remnants of clothing had disappeared, though even the remaining toe and finger-nails were perfect.