The Golden Dream

CHAPTER ONE.

ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST.

THE CAUSE OF THE WHOLE AFFAIR.

Ned Sinton gazed at the scene before him with indescribable amazement!
He had often witnessed strange things in the course of his short though
chequered life, but he had never seen anything like this. Many a dream
of the most extravagant nature had surrounded his pillow with creatures
of curious form and scenes of magic beauty, but never before, either by
actual observation or in nightly vision, had Ned Sinton beheld a scene
so wonderful as that which now lay spread out before him.

Ned stood in the centre of a cavern of vast dimensions--so vast, and so
full of intense light, that instead of looking on it as a huge cave, he
felt disposed to regard it as a small world. The sides of this cavern
were made of pure gold, and the roof--far above his head--was spangled
all over with glittering points, like a starry sky. The ground, too,
and, in short, everything within the cave, was made of the same precious
metal. Thousands of stalactites hung from the roof like golden icicles.
Millions of delicate threads of the same material also depended from
the star-spangled vault, each thread having a golden ball at the end of
it, which, strange to say, was transparent, and permitted a bright
flame within to shine through, and shed a yellow lustre over
surrounding objects. All the edges, and angles, and points of the
irregularly-formed walls were of burnished gold, which reflected the
rays of these pendant lamps with dazzling brilliancy, while the broad
masses of the frosted walls shone with a subdued light. Magnificent
curtains of golden filigree fell in rich voluminous folds on the
pavement, half concealing several archways which led into smaller
caverns, similar to the large one. Altogether it was a scene of
luxurious richness and splendour that is utterly indescribable.