Val hustled Ricky on,
taking his direction from one of the wine-casks he had bumped into. And
before he allowed her to hunt for her torch they stood in the first of
the chambers.
The light she produced was poor and it flickered warningly. But it was
good enough for them to see the dark opening which led to the outer
world. They ducked into this just as the first of the other party came
cursing into the open. At Val's orders, Ricky switched off the light and
they crept along by the wall, one hand on its guiding surface.
But the way seemed longer than it had upon their entering. Surely they
should have reached the garden entrance by now. And the surface
underfoot remained level instead of slanting upward. Suddenly Ricky gave
a little cry.
"We've taken the wrong passage! There's only a blank wall in front of
us!"
She was right. The torch showed a brick surface across their path, and
Val remembered too late the second passage out of the first chamber.
They must go back and hope to elude the others in the dark.
"They may have all gone out, thinking we were still ahead of them," he
mused aloud.
"Well, it's got to be done," Ricky observed, "so we might as well do
it."
Back they went along the unknown passage. This appeared to run straight
out from the first chamber. But why it had been fashioned and then
walled up they had no way of knowing. Ricky's torch picked out the
entrance at last.
Pages:
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202