The openings near his own entrance tunnel he had left till the last,
since they obviously led outwards.
Two of them shut down in the same way as all the others, and it was only
the dogged determination to leave no chance untried that drove him, with
a fresh supply of torches, down the last one of all, the one alongside
that out of which the dead man's legs projected.
It took a turn to the left within a dozen feet of the entrance, and,
like the rest, it presently narrowed down through a slope in the roof;
but just at its narrowest, when he feared he had come to the end, there
came a dip in the flooring corresponding to the slope up above, and he
found he could wriggle through. Once through, the passage widened and
continued to widen, and the going became very rough and broken, with
piles of ragged rock and deep black pitfalls in between.
Then, of a sudden, he saw the walls and roof of his passage fall away,
and his light flickered feebly in the darkness of a vast place, and he
crouched on the rock up which he had climbed, and sat in wonder.
Somewhere below him he could hear the slow rise and fall of water, dull
and heavy and without any splash, like the dumb breathing of a captive
monster.
Pages:
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301