Chapter 12

CHAPTER IV - THE PASSAGE

The passage in which Dick and Joanna now found themselves was
narrow, dirty, and short. At the other end of it, a door stood
partly open; the same door, without doubt, that they had heard the
man unlocking. Heavy cobwebs hung from the roof; and the paved
flooring echoed hollow under the lightest tread.

Beyond the door there were two branches, at right angles. Dick
chose one of them at random, and the pair hurried, with echoing
footsteps, along the hollow of the chapel roof. The top of the
arched ceiling rose like a whale's back in the dim glimmer of the
lamp. Here and there were spyholes, concealed, on the other side,
by the carving of the cornice; and looking down through one of
these, Dick saw the paved floor of the chapel - the altar, with its
burning tapers - and stretched before it on the steps, the figure
of Sir Oliver praying with uplifted hands.

At the other end, they descended a few steps. The passage grew
narrower; the wall upon one hand was now of wood; the noise of
people talking, and a faint flickering of lights, came through the
interstices; and presently they came to a round hole about the size
of a man's eye, and Dick, looking down through it, beheld the
interior of the hall, and some half a dozen men sitting, in their
jacks, about the table, drinking deep and demolishing a venison
pie. These were certainly some of the late arrivals.

"Here is no help," said Dick. "Let us try back."

"Nay," said Joanna; "maybe the passage goeth farther."

And she pushed on. But a few yards farther the passage ended at
the top of a short flight of steps; and it became plain that, as
long as the soldiers occupied the hall, escape was impossible upon
that side.

They retraced their steps with all imaginable speed, and set
forward to explore the other branch. It was exceedingly narrow,
scarce wide enough for a large man; and it led them continually up
and down by little break-neck stairs, until even Dick had lost all
notion of his whereabouts.

At length it grew both narrower and lower; the stairs continued to
descend; the walls on either hand became damp and slimy to the
touch; and far in front of them they heard the squeaking and
scuttling of the rats.

"We must be in the dungeons," Dick remarked.

"And still there is no outlet," added Joanna.

"Nay, but an outlet there must be!" Dick answered. Presently, sure
enough, they came to a sharp angle, and then the passage ended in a
flight of steps. On the top of that there was a solid flag of
stone by way of trap, and to this they both set their backs. It
was immovable. "Some one holdeth it," suggested Joanna.

"Not so," said Dick; "for were a man strong as ten,