Matthew (courtreporter)

They peered out. Before them was a cavernous hall. It was loftier and far longer than the one in which they had slept. They were near its eastern end; west-ward it ran away into darkness. Down the center stalked a double line of towering pillars. They were carved like boles of mighty trees whose boughs upheld the roof with a branching tracery of stone. Their stems were smooth and black, but a red glow was darkly mirrored in their sides. Right across the floor, close to the feet of two huge pillars a great fissure had opened. Out of it a fierce red light came, and now and again flames licked at the brink and curled about the bases of the columns. Wisps of smoke wavered in the hot air.