the stagnant air which sometimes was so bad that the lights
would scarcely burn. Indeed, after a hundred feet had been completed,
we thought that it would be impossible to proceed, since two men died
of asphyxiation and the others, although they were good fellows enough,
refused to return into the tunnel. At length, however, Orme and Japhet
persuaded some of the best of them to do so, and shortly after this the
atmosphere improved very much, I suppose because we cut some cranny or
shaft which communicated with the open air.

There were other dangers also, notably of the collapse of the whole
roof where the rock was rotten, as we found it to be in places. Then
it proved very hard to deal with the water, for once or twice we
struck small springs impregnated with copper or some other mineral that
blistered the feet and skin, since every drop of this acid water had to
be carried out in wooden pails. That difficulty we overcame at last by
sinking a narrow well down to the level of the ancient tunnel of which I
have spoken as having been shaken in by the earthquake.

Thus we, or rather Oliver and Quick with the Mountaineers, toiled on.
Higgs did his best, but after a while proved quite unable to bear the
heat, which became too much for so stout a man. The end of it was that
he devoted himself to the superintendence of the removal of the rubbish
into the Tomb of Kings, the care of the stores and so forth. At least
that was supposed to be his business, but really he employed most of his
time in drawing and cataloguing the objects of antiquity and the groups
of bones that were buried there, and in exploring the remains of the
underground city. In truth, this task of destruction was most repellent
to the poor Professor.

"To think," he said to us, "to think that I, who all my life have
preached the iniquity of not conserving every relic of the past, should
now be employed in attempting to obliterate the most wonderful object
ever fashioned by the ancients! It is enough to make a Vandal weep, and
I pray heaven that you may not succeed in your infamous design. What
does it matter if the Abati are wiped out, as lots of better people have
been before them? What does it matter if we accompany them to oblivion
so long as that noble sphinx is preserved to be the wonder of future
generations? Well, thank goodness, at any rate I have seen it, which is
more, probably, than any of you will ever do. There, another brute is
dumping his rubb