A new thrill of terror awaited me.
"While jumping about upon the top of the cone, my footing suddenly gave way--the baked clay broke with a dead crash, and I sank through the roof.

My feet shot down into the hollow dome--till I thought I must have crushed the great queen in her chamber--and I stood buried to the neck.
"I was surprised, and a little terrified, not by the shock I had experienced in the sudden descent.

That was natural enough, and a few moments would have restored my equanimity; but it was something else that frightened me.

It was something that moved under my feet as they touched bottom,--something that moved and heaved under them, and then passed quickly away, letting me still farther down! "What could it be?
Was it the great swarm of living ants that I pressed upon: I did not think it was.

It did not _feel like them_.