the musical chimes from that city
of clocks as Burger, wrapped in an Italian overcoat, with a lantern
hanging from his hand, walked up to the rendezvous. Kennedy stepped out
of the shadow to meet him.

"You are ardent in work as well as in love!" said the German, laughing.

"Yes; I have been waiting here for nearly half an hour."

"I hope you left no clue as to where we were going."

"Not such a fool! By Jove, I am chilled to the bone! Come on, Burger,
let us warm ourselves by a spurt of hard walking."

Their footsteps sounded loud and crisp upon the rough stone paving of
the disappointing road which is all that is left of the most famous
highway of the world. A peasant or two going home from the wine-shop,
and a few carts of country produce coming up to Rome, were the only
things which they met. They swung along, with the huge tombs looming
up through the darkness upon each side of them, until they had come as
far as the Catacombs of St. Calistus, and saw against a rising moon the
great circular bastion of Cecilia Metella in front of them. Then
Burger stopped with his hand to his side.

"Your legs are longer than mine, and you are more accustomed to
walking," said he, laughing. "I think that the place where we turn off
is somewhere here. Yes, this is it, round the corner of the trattoria.
Now, it is a very narrow path, so perhaps I had better go in front and
you can follow."

He had lit his lantern, and by its light they were enabled to follow a
narrow and devious track which wound across the marshes of the
Campagna. The great Aqueduct of old Rome lay like a monstrous
caterpillar across the moonlit landscape, and their road led them under
one of its huge arches, and past the circle of crumbling bricks which
marks the old arena. At last Burger stopped at a solitary wooden
cow-house, and he drew a key from his pocket. "Surely your catacomb is
not inside a house!" cried Kennedy.

"The entrance to it is. That is just the safeguard which we have
against anyone else discovering it."

"Does the proprietor know of it?"

"Not he. He had found one or two objects which made me almost certain
that his house was built on the entrance to such a place. So I rented
it from him, and did my excavations for myself. Come in, and shut the
door behind you."

It was a long, empty building, with the mangers of the cows along one
wall. Burger put his lantern down on the ground, and shaded its light
in all directions