my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope back to my heart.


“I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the walls

were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw a thin line of

yellow light between two of the boards, which broadened and broadened as a

small panel was pushed backward. For an instant I could hardly believe that

here was indeed a door which led away from death. The next instant I threw

myself through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had closed

again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few moments afterwards the

clang of the two slabs of metal, told me how narrow had been my escape.


“I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and I found

myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, while a woman bent over

me and tugged at me with her left hand, while she held a candle in her right.

It was the same good friend whose warning I had so foolishly rejected.


“‘Come! come!’ she cried breathlessly. ‘They will

be here in a moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste the

so-precious time, but come!’


“This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to my feet

and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding stair. The latter led to

another broad passage, and just as we reached it we heard the sound of running

feet and the shouting of two voices, one answering the other from the floor on

which  we were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about her

like one  who is at her wit’s end. Then she threw open a door which led

into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon was shining brightly.


“‘It is your only chance,’ said she. ‘It is high,

but it may be that you can jump it.’


“As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the passage,

and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark rushing forward with a