That
was enough.
"What do you suppose it means?" she said presently. "Are we over
some awful subterranean cavern in which things sink out of sight in
an instant?"
"It is absolutely unaccountable," said the captain. "But we must go back
to Mrs. Cliff. I hear her calling. And if Maka has come to his senses,
perhaps he can tell us something."
But Maka had very little to tell. To the captain's questions he could
only say that a little while before, Mok had come running to him, and
told him that, being thirsty, he had gone down to the edge of the lake to
get a drink, and found that there was no water, only a great hole, and
then he had run to tell Maka, and when Maka had gone back with him, so
greatly surprised that he had deserted his post without thinking about
it, he found that what Mok had said was true, and that there was nothing
there but a great black hole. Mok must have been asleep when the water
went away, but it was gone, and that was all he knew about it.
There was something so weird and mysterious about this absolute and
sudden disappearance of this great body of water that Mrs. Cliff became
very nervous and frightened.
"This is a temple of the devil," she said, "and that is his face outside.
You do not know what may happen next. This rocky floor on which we stand
may give way, and we may all go down into unknown depths. I can't think
of staying here another minute.
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