"Stay here," said he, "and watch
the passage. I will see what is the matter over there." And then he and
Ralph jumped over and hurried to the lake. As they came out on the little
platform of rock, on which the evening light, coming through the great;
cleft, still rendered objects visible, they saw Mok crouching on his
heels, his eyes wide open as usual.
The captain was stupefied. That African not gone! If it were not he,
who had gone?
Then the captain felt a tight clutch upon his arm, and Ralph pulled
him around. Casting eyes outward, the captain saw that it was the lake
that had gone!
As he and Ralph stood there, stupefied and staring, they saw, by the dim
light which came through the opening on the other side of the cavern, a
great empty rocky basin. The bottom of this, some fifteen or twenty feet
below them, wet and shining, with pools of water here and there, was
plainly visible in the space between them and the open cleft, but farther
on all was dark. There was every reason to suppose, however, that all the
water had gone from the lake. Why or how this had happened, they did not
even ask themselves. They simply stood and stared.
In a few minutes they were joined by Edna, who had become so anxious at
their absence and silence that she had clambered over the wall, and came
running to them. By the time she reached them it was much darker than
when they had arrived, but she could see that the lake had gone.
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