from whose ceiling depended a multitude of shining stalactites of the

length and circumference of a man's leg; they walked all about it,

wondering and admiring, and presently left it by one of the numerous

passages that opened into it. This shortly brought them to a bewitching

spring, whose basin was incrusted with a frostwork of glittering

crystals; it was in the midst of a cavern whose walls were supported by

many fantastic pillars which had been formed by the joining of great

stalactites and stalagmites together, the result of the ceaseless

water-drip of centuries. Under the roof vast knots of bats had packed

themselves together, thousands in a bunch; the lights disturbed the

creatures and they came flocking down by hundreds, squeaking and

darting furiously at the candles. Tom knew their ways and the danger of

this sort of conduct. He seized Becky's hand and hurried her into the

first corridor that offered; and none too soon, for a bat struck

Becky's light out with its wing while she was passing out of the

cavern. The bats chased the children a good distance; but the fugitives

plunged into every new passage that offered, and at last got rid of the

perilous things. Tom found a subterranean lake, shortly, which

stretched its dim length away until its shape was lost in the shadows.

He wanted to explore its borders, but concluded that it would be best

to sit down and rest awhile, first. Now, for the first time, the deep

stillness of the place laid a clammy hand upon the spirits of the

children. Becky said:

Why, I didn't notice, but it seems ever so long since I heard any of

the others."

295

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer