The fissure had probably been there from the beginning of time, or it
might be the result of numberless years of the slow wearing away of a
softer vein of rock, but some man at some time had lighted on it, and
followed it up, and with much labour had smoothed its natural asperities
and used it for his own purposes. And he was keen to learn what those
purposes were.
To any ordinary man, accustomed to the ordinary amplitudes of life, and
freedom to stretch his arms and legs and raise his head and fill his
lungs with fresh air, a passage such as this would have been impossible.
Here and there, indeed, the walls widened somewhat through some fault in
the rook, bur for the most part his elbows grazed the sides each time he
moved them.
Even he, used as he was to such conditions, began at last to feel them
oppressive. The whole mighty bulk of L'Etat seemed above and about him,
malignantly intent on crushing him out of existence.
He knew that was only fancy. He had experienced it many times before.
But the nightmare feeling was there, and it needed all his will at times
to keep him from a panic attempt at retreat, when the insensate
rock-walls seemed absolutely settling down on him, and breathing was
none too easy.
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