To describe the beauty of this marble chamber fashioned by nature would be impossible. Neal and Teddy had but just begun to realize its magnificence when they were startled by the whirring of wings and a clucking noise such as is made by a barn-yard fowl, and an instant later Poyor had knocked over with a piece of rock what looked very much like a chicken.
"It is a toh," Cummings said, as he took the prize from the Indian. "At the city from which we came so unceremoniously these birds are kept as hens, and their eggs are most delicious."
"But how did this one happen to be in here, I wonder?" Teddy muttered.
"The species are found nowhere else but in the caverns. Probably there are several hundred here."
Before the torch had burned out the boys had time to examine the odd chicken. It was about as large as a bantam, had soft, silky plumage, and a tail composed of two feathers which were nothing more than stems up to the very tips, where were tassel-like appendages.
"Now if the enemy does not track us here we can live pretty comfortably for a few days; but I hope we shan't be obliged to stay any longer. Poyor will destroy our trail as soon as it is light, and if they should come I fancy we can tire them out, for one man can hold this place against a hundred."
"I am going to drink my fill of that water," Jake said, as he groped his way toward the rear of the chamber. "It seems as if I hadn't had all I needed since we started on this trip."
"Be careful," Cummings shouted quickly. "Don't venture near the stream until I get another torch."
"Because in some of these caverns alligators are found, and it is never safe to drink from the running water without first making sure that there are no saurian guards about."
Cummings went to the entrance for more wood, and when he returned the Indian was with him.
"This will cure the wound on your face," the latter said to Jake as he held out a branch covered with small, glossy green leaves. "Take off the cloth that I may see it."
While Jake obeyed, Cummings was kindling a fresh torch, and as the light fell upon the engineer's cheek both the boys uttered exclamations of surprise.
It was certainly a terrible looking wound, the dried blood causing it to appear even larger than it really was; but Poyor set about dressing it with the utmost indifference, perhaps because he thought Jake deserved it for having been so stubborn and criminally foolish.