pectations. To begin with, the slab was only
cracked--not shattered, since the strength of the powder had been
expended upwards, not downwards, as would have happened in the case of
dynamite, of which they had none. Moreover, either the heavy stone
which they had placed upon it, striking the roof of the cave, or the
concussion of the air, had brought down many tons of rock, and caused
wide and dangerous-looking cracks. Also, though she said nothing of it,
it seemed to Benita that the great white statue on the cross was leaning
a little further forward than it used to do. So the net result of the
experiment was that they were obliged to drag away great fragments of
the fallen roof that lay upon the stone, which remained almost as solid
and obdurate as before.

So there was nothing for it but to go on working with the crowbar. At
length, towards the evening of the third day of their labour, when the
two men were utterly tired out, a hole was broken through, demonstrating
the fact that beneath this cover lay a hollow of some sort. Mr.
Clifford, to say nothing of Benita, who was heartily weary of the
business, wished to postpone proceedings till the morrow, but Jacob
Meyer would not. So they toiled on until about eleven o'clock at night,
when at length the aperture was of sufficient size to admit a man. Now,
as in the case of the well, they let down a stone tied to a string, to
find that the place beneath was not more than eight feet deep. Then, to
ascertain the condition of the air, a candle was lowered, which at first
went out, but presently burnt well enough. This point settled, they
brought their ladder, whereby Jacob descended with a lantern.

In another minute they heard the sound of guttural German oaths rising
through the hole. Mr. Clifford asked what was the matter, and received
the reply that the place was a tomb, with nothing in it but an accursed
dead monk, information at which Benita could not help bursting into
laughter.

The end of it was that both she and her father went down also, and
there, sure enough, lay the remains of the old missionary in his cowl,
with an ivory crucifix about his neck, and on his breast a scroll
stating that he, Marco, born at Lisbon in 1438, had died at Bambatse in
the year 1503, having laboured in the Empire of Monomotapa for seventeen
years, and suffered great hardships and brought many souls to Christ.
The scroll added that it was he, who before he entered into religion was
a