Damon to the professor.
"He says he never was here before," translated
the savant, "but years ago, when he went into
the hidden city by the cave we left yesterday, he
saw doors like this which opened this way."
"Then we're on the right track!" cried Tom.
"If this is the same kind of door, it must lead
to the same place. Ho for Kurzon and the idol
of gold!"
As they passed through the stone door, Tom
and Professor Bumper tried to get some idea of
the mechanism by which it worked. But they
found this impossible, it being hidden within the
stone itself or in the adjoining walls. But, in
order that it might not close of itself and entomb
them, the portal was blocked open with stones
found in the passage.
"It's always well to have a line of retreat open,"
said Tom. "There's no telling what may lie beyond us."
For a time there seemed to be nothing more
than the same passage along which they had
come. Then the passage suddenly widened, like
the large end of a square funnel. Upward and
outward the stone walls swept, and they saw
dimly before them, in the light of their torches,
a vast cavern, seemingly formed by the falling
in of mountains, which, in toppling over, had met
overhead in a sort of rough arch, thus protecting,
in a great measure, that which lay beneath
them.
Goosal, who had brought with him some of
the fiber bark torches, set a bundle of them
aflame. As they flared up, a wondrous sight
was revealed to Tom Swift and his friends.
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