assage--which was, before, well-nigh filled up with stones.

"It may be that the time may come when you, too, will need to save
yourself by flight. Now, if you will come with me, I will show you
the way. See, I have mixed here a pot of charcoal and water, with
which we can mark the turnings and the passages; so that you will
afterwards be able to find your way for, without such aid, you
would never be able to follow the path, through its many windings,
after only once going through it."

John thanked the woman warmly for her offer, and they at once
prepared to descend into the pit. This was situated in a cellar
beneath the house; and was boarded over so that plunderers,
entering to search for provisions, would not discover it. Upon
entering the cellar, the woman lit two lamps.

"They are full of oil," she said, "and I have often been sorely
tempted to drink it; but I have kept it untouched, knowing that my
life might some day depend upon it."

Rough steps were cut in the side of the pit and, after descending
some thirty feet, John found himself in a long passage. The woman
led the way. As they went on, John was surprised at the number and
extent of these passages, which crossed each other in all
directions--sometimes opening into great chambers, from which large
quantities of stone had been taken--while he passed many shafts,
like that by which they had descended, to the surface above. The
woman led the way with an unfaltering step, which showed how
thorough was her acquaintance with the ground; pausing, when they
turned down a fresh passage, to make a smear at the corner of the
wall with the black liquid.

Presently, the passages began to descend rapidly.

"We are now under the Palace of King Agrippa," she said, "and are
descending by the side of the Tyropoeon Valley."

Presently, turning down a small side passage, they found their way
arrested by a pile of stones and rubbish. They clambered up this,
removed some of the upper stones, and crawled along underneath the
roof. The rubbish heap soon slanted down again, and they continued
their way, as before. Another turn, and they were in a wider
passage than those they had latterly traversed.

"This is the wall of the conduit," the woman said, touching the
massive masonry on her right hand. "The opening is a little further
on."

Presently they arrived at a great stone, lying across a passage,
corresponding in size to a gap in the wall on the right. They made
t