And I saw that horror and fear again in her eyes. The cavern had come out high up on a broken, jagged wall, which went beetling up for hundreds of feet, up to the roof, which arched away over the landscape before us. We were fully half a thousand feet above the floor, which was a mass of luxuriant forest. Glimpses were caught of a stream down to the left, possibly the one which we had followed for so long. I judged the place to be over a mile wide; Rhodes, however, thought that it was perhaps not quite a mile in the widest part. Down this enormous cavern, the eye could range for three or four miles, at which distance the misty light drew its veil over the forest, the dark walls, and the roof arching across. At times the light quivered and shook and there were strange flickerings, and dartings of opalescent streaks through it--streaks ineffably beautiful and yet, strangely enough, terrible too, terrible as the blades of plunging swords in hands savage and murderous. Once more Drorathusa raised a hand, and this time she pointed into the misty distance. "_Le-prayl-ya!_" she said. Again her eyes were on Milton Rhodes, and, as she spoke that name, I saw in those wondrous orbs of hers one of the strangest looks that I have ever seen. I wondered if Rhodes too saw it. I found his eyes upon Drorathusa, but there was in them so abstracted an expression that I believed his thoughts were far away and that he had not noticed. When I turned to Drorathusa again, it was to find that that strange look was gone. What a fascinating and mysterious creature this woman was! "Lepraylya," she said again. "Lepraylya," Milton nodded. He looked at me. "I wonder who or what this Lepraylya can be, Bill." "King maybe." "Queen, I hope," said Milton Rhodes. He drew forth his notebook and pencil and handed them to Drorathusa, pronouncing as she took them that mysterious name: "Lepraylya?" A few strokes with the pencil, and Drorathusa had given us the answer. "You see, Bill?" said Rhodes, smiling. "A woman. In all likelihood, too, the queen." Drorathusa's Sibylline look was upon him once more--and _she_ did not smile. Chapter 33 FACE TO FACE We found the wall even more broken and difficult than it had appeared from the entrance. It was almost destitute of vegetation, a circumstance that contributed not a little to the slowness of the descent. Indeed, making our way down over those pitching naked rocks was a ticklish, an unpleasant business, I want to tell you; at times it was really precarious. We had halted to rest above one of these difficult spots, and every one was either seated or leaning against the rock, when of a sudden Milton, who was nearest the edge, arose and pointed, pointed down and off to the right. "Hello!" said he. "What's that?" All of us arose, moved over and looked. "Where?" I asked.