ds. And with our stupid laws who may say when that
may be? Ah! I have the trick. His mind is now a blank, and these few
hours will be a void. I have charged him to forget. Now I must bid him
to remember, and furnish him with the incidents with which to account
for the lapse of time. I will take him near the truth. So near that
fluctuating recollection will be unable to disentangle fact from
fiction. Thus what he recalls will bear no menace to my safety, and
yet will so satisfy his will to know what has passed, that no great
effort will be made to delve deeper into the records of this day. But
first I must take him from this sacred place. It will be safer."

He opened the iron door, lifted the body of the sleeper in his arms
and bore it into the passage at the foot of the stairs. Immediately
opposite, there was another door, dimly shown by the light from the
swinging lamp. This he kicked open with his foot, without dropping his
burden. He walked straight across, through the darkness of this old
wine cellar, towards a dim ray of light which penetrated at the
opposite end, presently coming to a low arch through which he passed
with lowered head, emerging into a greater light. They were now in an
old cistern, and a circular opening above permitted the moonlight to
enter. Here the Doctor laid the sleeper gently down, and retraced his
steps. Re-entering the domed chamber, he extinguished the lamp, and
then again emerged, closing the door behind him. From a corner under
the stairway he procured a long-handled, heavy, iron hammer, such as
men use who break large rocks. He next went into the wine cellar,
closing the door behind him, and thence passed on through the archway
into the cistern. Taking one glance at the still sleeping form of Jack
Barnes, he threw off his coat, and attacked the brick-work of the
arch, raining upon it heavy blows, each of which demolished a part of
the thick wall. At the end of half an hour the opening was choked with
fallen debris, and the entrance into the wine vault thus effectually
concealed.

This task accomplished, the Doctor resumed his coat, and turned to
examine the sleeper. He raised him up, and stood him against that side
of the wall upon which the most light was shed. As the body was thus
supported, the head hanging, and the weird half-light making the face
more ghastly, one might readily have supposed that this was a corpse.
But the Doctor presently cried out:

"Awaken! Awaken! not ent