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lungs by a good wholesome

"I have counted the leopards' heads as we came along, and find that they are not laid on so thick as on the tomb above. There are twelve in all-three in each corner," said Ralph.

An investigation, quickened by the frantic eagerness of the captives to escape their prison, terminated satisfactorily. In less than five minutes a spring was discovered, the duplicate of that upon the tomb above, and as the stone grated harshly back, and the friends squeezed themselves through the narrow aperture, the muffled clang of the church clock was heard above, striking the hour of eight.

"Where in the world have we got to now ?" said Ralph.

"Into a gallery for moles, to judge by the bump my head has received; or have we lighted upon the corpse of the great seaserpent? This place is exactly like the interior of a snake's backbone."

And, as he spoke, Josceline raised the lantern and cast its faint ray on the contracted walls of the sub-way they had entered.

They found that they were in a circular tube, so narrow that they could not traverse it abreast, and so low that they were forced to crawl along on hands and knees. It had been lined within with a coating of bricks,

but the course of years had here and there made gaps between them, through which the damp mould could be seen and smelt. Large earth-worms dragged their fat, cold bodies along the broken floor, and the foul, close odour seemed to show that the passage depended for ventilation on such air as might struggle through the loose earth overhead. The atmosphere made both sick and giddy, and a horrible panic of suffocation assailed them, but impelled forward by intense curiosity, and by a natural eagerness to leave the hideous death-chamber far behind them, they struggled bravely on. More than once,

however, Ralph would have succumbed outright to the faintness which crept heavily over his brain and senses, had not a timely draught of brandy quickened once again the sluggish action of his heart.

"If one could but stand erect, or stretch oneself a moment," groaned Josceline," one would go on with twice the energy. I wonder how far we may be below the surface."

"The surface! The very thought of it brings new life, though hemmed in in this poisonous pit it is hard to believe that over our heads the stars are shining, the rabbits careering, and the night-wind blowing on the dewy grass. I should like to know whether any human being is walking at this moment over our heads, and whether the muffled echo of our voices could reach his ears. By the

I

way, I trust the infernal regions will not turn out to be in the bowels of the earth. really could not tolerate spending eternity in a hole like this. I would rather even be chained up on some island in a sea of fire, where one could get a breath of air now and then, although each gust should blow the flames in one's face."

"The atmosphere is getting worse, I declare," gasped Josceline. "My head is going round like a teetotum. Doesn't it remind you somehow of the peculiar odour in the vault? I only hope," he continued, in a tone tremulous with anxiety, "that we have not been going round in a circle all this while, back to the point from which we started. If so, it's all up with our busi

ness.

"And ourselves also," answered Ralph faintly. "I don't think I could face entering that vault again. This atmosphere brings the whole scene back to one, bathed in ghastly hues of green and yellow. More brandy; we must not lose consciousness !

Josceline, who had turned very pale, seized the flask and drank greedily.

"My goodness!" he muttered, "this is vile! My stars! this is first class!"

And, with a sudden change to eager excitement, he held up the lantern, and pointed out to Ralph that their way was blocked by what would have seemed an impenetrable barrier of stone and lead, had not the familiar

features of their tried friend the Leopard grinned encouragement from the forbidding apparatus.

With a cry of joy he raised himself to the full height permitted by the low roof of the tube, and, as he forced down the spring with muscles made powerful by revived hope, the door slowly opened, a huge cluster of spiders, dead and living, whose dusty webs were thus rudely torn into ruins, fell heavily upon his dark locks, and a rush of chill, prison-like air filled once more the quivering lungs of the two half-poisoned captives, who drank in the life-restoring draught with feverish eager

ness.

CHAPTER VI.

There was a silent chasm

Betwixt his upper jaw and under,
And yellow death lay on his face,
And a fixed smile, that was not human,
Told, as I understand the case,

That he was gone to the wrong place.

SHELLEY.

As soon as clear vision returned to his dim and smarting eyes, Ralph perceived that the place now open before them was familiar to him, and that they were indeed at last on the threshold of the Castle dungeons. Not the show dungeons familiar to Murray and his sightseers, but that secret crypt which still, as he hoped, held the precious all-important documents.

Frantic elation succeeded to the despondent exhaustion by which the two adventurers had been so nearly vanquished. But, though the air they now breathed was fresh, compared to the clogged and stifling atmosphere they had inhaled during the last hour, Ralph and Josceline soon found that it was infected even more strongly with the same horrible death-like odour that had pervaded the burial vault. And as, after stretching their bent and contracted limbs to the utmost limits of possibility, they walked on and approached the three small cells which Ralph

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